In 1988, the small team Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS), founded by Julien Henri, was preparing for its second full season in Formula 1, excluding the two Grands Prix it entered in 1986 at Monza and Estoril. The single point scored by Roberto Moreno in the final race of the 1987 season in Adelaide gave a morale boost to the French team, which developed the new AGS JH23 for the upcoming season.
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| AGS JH23, Philippe Streiff Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1988 |
Despite not scoring any points in the 1988 standings, it can be said that the JH23 was the best AGS car ever seen on a Formula One track, thanks in part to the talent of French driver Philippe Streiff, former Formula 2 driver for Julien, who was brought in as the team’s main driver for the 1988 season. The JH23 was designed by the usual duo of Christian Vanderpleyn and Michel Costa, and powered by a naturally aspirated Ford-Cosworth DFZ V8 3494cc engine. This setup allowed the engineers to create an entirely new chassis without having to comply with the rule mandating that the pedals be placed behind the front wheel axis, a requirement that applied only to turbo-powered cars.
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| AGS JH23, Philippe Streiff Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1988 |
With the arrival of new sponsor Bouygues, a French conglomerate, AGS abandoned the Renault RE40 chassis from 1983, previously used for the past two cars, and built a new carbon-fiber monocoque similar to Benetton’s, featuring bulges on the sides of the cockpit to house side fuel tanks for better weight distribution.
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| AGS JH23, Philippe Streiff Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1988 |
Significant improvements were also made to the gearbox, built in-house by AGS, as well as the suspension system and, most notably, the car’s aerodynamics. Costa gave the car a more elegant and streamlined design, with a pronounced tapering at the rear and a low beltline, although the nose remained rather bulky. These changes translated into overall decent performance, with Streiff often coming close to finishing in the points, though never quite making it.
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| AGS JH23, Philippe Streiff Hockenheimring, German GP 1988 |
Reliability, however, remained the JH23’s Achilles’ heel. A notable example occurred at the Canadian Grand Prix, where after a strong qualifying performance that saw the JH23 start from tenth on the grid, Streiff was holding a solid fourth place, battling Nelson Piquet for a podium spot, when a mechanical failure after 41 laps forced him to retire. As mentioned earlier, the season ended with zero points in the constructors’ standings, but Julien Henri could take pride in finally producing a car capable of competing with mid-field teams.
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