After founding his own team and competing throughout the 1978 season with a Lotus 78, in 1979, Héctor Alonso Rebaque decided to take another step forward by commissioning the American company Penske to build a Formula One chassis. The agreement with the American firm was sealed in late spring, and the season began for the Mexican driver-constructor's team by purchasing a Lotus 79, continuing the path started the previous year with Colin Chapman's cars.
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| REBAQUE HR100, Héctor Rebaque Monza, Italian GP 1979 |
Meanwhile, at the Leamington Spa facilities in England, a team consisting of Geoff Ferris, Peter Reinhardt, and Manuel Medina, with the assistance of young British engineer John Barnard, worked on assembling the new Rebaque HR100 single-seater, largely inspired by the best wing cars of the current season.
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| REBAQUE HR100, Héctor Rebaque Monza, Italian GP 1979 |
Around the aluminum monocoque Penske chassis, a classic ground-effect car was built, powered by the traditional Ford-Cosworth DFV V8 engine paired with a Hewland FGA 400 gearbox. The radiator layout, with two per side, replicated the solution tested on the Lotus 78 used by the Mexican driver in 1978. The suspension setup was also derived from this model, while the aerodynamic design closely resembled that of the Williams FW07 and the Lotus 79.
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| REBAQUE HR100, Héctor Rebaque Montréal, Canadian GP 1979 |
Despite all efforts by the Rebaque team to complete it as quickly as possible, the new HR100 was only ready for the track in the summer of 1979, making its debut at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, where it failed to qualify, clocking a lap time a full 8 seconds slower than Jabouille’s pole position. The HR100 was aesthetically pleasing, with sleek and refined lines, but it suffered from a lack of proper on-track testing and, most importantly, from insufficient chassis rigidity, which failed to support the high downforce generated by the ground effect.
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| REBAQUE HR100, Héctor Rebaque Monza, Italian GP 1979 |
In the following race, Rebaque managed to qualify, but his race lasted only 26 laps. In the season’s final event, the Mexican driver failed to qualify again, leading him to end his experience in Formula 1 as a constructor. Instead, he decided to continue in the following season as a paying driver, a role that, due to the ever-growing financial needs of small teams, would become increasingly common in 1980s Formula One.
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