Despite the apparent lack of interest from “the Americans” in Formula 1 during the 1980s, possibly due to the stark differences between oval racing and the more traditional European circuits, some notable figures in American motorsports always kept an eye on the top-tier open-wheel series. Going back only to the mid-1970s, teams like Parnelli, Penske, and especially Shadow began to appear, some even achieving good results or managing to enlist prominent drivers, most notably Mario Andretti. Italian by birth but American by citizenship, Andretti even became World Champion with Lotus in 1978.
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| LOLA-HAAS THL1, Alan Jones Brands Hatch, European GP 1985 |
American racing series had a huge following in the U.S. but struggled to gain traction outside of North America. The greater global visibility of Formula 1 drew yet another American team owner to try entering the sport in the mid-1980s. This time, it was Carl Haas, not to be confused with Gene Haas, owner of the current F1 team launched in 2016. Carl Haas had been a professional driver in American racing in the 1960s before becoming the exclusive U.S. distributor for the British Lola Racing Cars.
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| LOLA-HAAS THL1, Alan Jones Brands Hatch, European GP 1985 |
In 1983, alongside racing enthusiast and actor Paul Newman, he founded the CART team Newman-Haas. In the following years, drivers such as Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Cristiano da Matta, Michael Andretti, and Sébastien Bourdais would win the American title with the team. In 1984, backed by funding from American food giant Beatrice Foods, Haas convinced Lola to build a carbon monocoque chassis with aluminum honeycomb panels, around which a Formula 1 car would be assembled by the American company FORCE (Formula One Race Car Engineering) to compete in the 1985 season.
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| LOLA-HAAS THL1, Alan Jones Brands Hatch, European GP 1985 |
The car was designed by Neil Oatley, formerly with Williams until 1984, and John Baldwin, who had worked with Ensign, Shadow, and Theodore. The two engineers created a car with very clean lines, a conical nose, long sidepods housing forward-mounted radiators to allow for a tapered rear, and a very low, streamlined engine cover reminiscent of the successful Brabham BT49. The car was named the THL1 (Team Haas Lola 1), and since the Ford turbo engine was still under development, the team opted for the Hart 415T turbo engine for the 1985 season. However, it only produced 750 hp, about 100 less than rival engines. Paired with the British engine was a gearbox derived from Hewland but developed by FORCE, which also built the rest of the car.
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| LOLA-HAAS THL1, Alan Jones Adelaide, Australian GP 1985 |
To drive the THL1, the American team persuaded veteran Alan Jones to return to Formula 1 and take the wheel of the new car, which made its track debut only at the twelfth round of the season, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. There, it posted a lap time a full 10 seconds slower than Senna’s pole position. In the race, Jones retired after just six laps due to engine failure. The same outcome occurred at the next race, the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. However, in the season finale, held in Jones’s home country, the THL1 showed unexpected potential, climbing to sixth place before suffering yet another mechanical failure. Due to delays in the development of the new Ford engine for the THL2, the THL1 was also used in the early races of the 1986 season.
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