Life (Formula One team)
 |
|
| Full name | Life Racing Engines |
|---|---|
| Base | Formigine, Italy |
| Founder(s) | Ernesto Vita |
| Noted staff | Oliver Piazzi |
| Noted drivers |
 Gary Brabham Bruno Giacomelli
|
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| First entry | 1990 United States Grand Prix |
| Races entered | 14 (0 starts) |
| Constructors' Championships |
0 |
| Drivers' Championships |
0 |
| Race victories | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Final entry | 1990 Spanish Grand Prix |
Life was a Formula One constructor from Modena, Italy. The company was named for its founder, Ernesto Vita ("Vita" is Italian for "Life"). Life first emerged on the Formula One scene in 1990, trying to market their unconventional W12 3.5-litre engine.
The team had a disastrous single season, and failed to make the grid in all 14 attempted starts during the 1990 season, often clocking in laps many seconds slower than their next competitor.
Life's W12 machine had been designed by the former Ferrari engineer Franco Rocchi, who had been responsible for, among others, Ferrari's famous 3-litre V8 for the 1970s 308 GTB and GTS. Rocchi's W12 plans dated back to a 1967 single-module W3 of 500cc as a prototype for a 3-litre W18 Ferrari engine of a planned 480 hp. After his dismissal in 1980, Rocchi worked privately on an engine in a W12 configuration.
According to his concept, the engine had three banks of four cylinders; hence it was short like a V8 but taller than a regular V-banked engine. In France, Guy Nègre from Moteurs Guy Nègre worked on a similar machine that saw the light of day in 1989 before being tested privately in an out-dated AGS JH22, chassis. Apart from the W12 configuration, both engines bore no other similarities, nor were there any links between their designers.
Franco Rocchi's W12 was ready in the first half of the 1989 Formula One season. It was the time when turbocharged engines were no longer legal in Formula One and the rules required a normally aspirated motor. New engine manufacturers entered Formula One (such as Ilmor, Judd and Yamaha), and new ideas broke through. Carlo Chiti's Motori Moderni unsuccessfully tried to revive flat-12 engines, badged as Subarus and used by the Coloni team, whilst Renault and Honda developed V10 engines, used successfully by Williams and McLaren.
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