Ivan Franco Capelli participated in 98 Grand Prix. Driving for Tyrrell, AGS, March-Leyton House, Ferrari and Jordan. 3 podiums, and a total of 31 points, sum up his career.
Capelli was F3000 champion in 1986 but otherwise had an unspectacular rise into F1. Never in the right place at the right time Capelli’s best F1 championship points hall got him 7th in the drivers championship in 1988, driving for March. The next few years brought much disappointment so that joining Ferrari for 1992 should have been a dream ticket. The F92A wasn’t a great car though, Capelli finished only 4 races with 5th being the highest position of those. Sacked before the end of the season and his confidence took a huge knock. He signed for Jordan for 1993 but lasted only one race, from which he retired. Capelli failed to qualify for the second race of the season, he just couldn’t overcome the disappointments of the previous year and left the team immediately.
The 644 was designed during a time of great upheaval and political infighting at Ferrari. Following the acrimonious departure of Alain Prost before the end of the previous season Ferrari desperately needed a performance boost. Head aerodynamicist Jean-Claude Migeot gained the political high ground, and, marginalising the supposed head designer Steve Nichol, pushed his design theory on the rest of the team.
It was a completely new car featuring a bold concept, a fully separate "floor" suspended beneath the chassis proper. The idea was to create ground effects without breaking the flat bottom regulations. Full length air channels running inboard of the radiator sidepods, above the floor but below the body, gave airflow that was intended to improve rear end grip.
Like many ideas, it looked better on the drawing board than it performed on the track, the team simply unable to translate the wind tunnel figures into on-track performance. The unique "double bottom" floor made a difficult car to drive. With poor handling, and beset by problems from the under powered engine, the car really needed a committed development program. Sadly in-fighting amongst the staff sabotaged this and left the drivers completely demoralized.
The F92A ran in the first 11 races of the season before an updated car became available. Along side front wing and suspension changes a transverse 7 speed gearbox was introduced in the updated F92 AT. A package that turned the car into a reasonable, but not front-running vehicle.
Capelli was replaced by test driver Nicola Larini and he was given a car carrying the team’s first attempt at an active ride suspension. A 30kg weight disadvantage was too much for Larini to overcome and his finishing positions were worse than Capelli’s had been!
Two 3rd places were the best results of the season. Ferrari struggled to 4th in the Constructors’, 70 points behind third-placed Benetton.
1/43rd scale kit.
Built by Ian.
This model was another quick build for Ian, the kit comes pre-painted so it is a simple task to add the decals and put the few parts together.Of course Ian tweaked it a little to make it less like a toy. Ian Purchased this kit at the 1994 IPMS "Nationals" at Donnington. At the time no other kit of the F92A was available and the price of £2 was very attractive. But Ian was wrong and found that a member of the 'Scale Formula Club' had purchased a Modellers kit in 1/20th scale. Of course this created mixed feelings for Ian; and it would be three more years before Ian could lay his hands on one of these kit. The same kit has also more recently (2012) been re-released by Fujimi, so there are more around these days.
Kyosho's kit is quite simple but the prepainted body shell is nice and the overall appearence is accurate. The detail painting of the model has been done with Humbrol enamels and Citadel acrylic paints.
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