Backing from Beatrice and Ford In autumn 1984,
Carl Haas had successfully negotiated a sponsorship deal with
Beatrice Foods for Haas's entry into the Formula One World Championship. At the urging of Beatrice Foods' CEO, Jim Dutt, Haas dropped sponsor Budweiser and took on Beatrice as title sponsor of their
Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) IndyCar team. With the aid of Beatrice, later that year Haas announced an engine supplier for the program. Ford was in the process of developing a
turbocharged V6 engine (known as the TEC) as a replacement for their aged
naturally aspirated Cosworth DFV V8 which was no longer able to successfully compete with its turbocharged competitors. The deal was announced to last for three seasons, with Haas being the exclusive receiver of the new engines. The development of the GBA engine at Cosworth was documented for
Channel 4's
Equinox series and broadcast on TV in 1986. With cash flow and engines, Carl Haas began creating the team as well as organising a design team to develop a new car. Former
McLaren owner
Teddy Mayer was recruited to the project and aided the team in setting up their base, purchasing a disused factory in
Colnbrook,
England, and establishing the company Formula One Race Car Engineering (FORCE). The final race of the season was in
Australia, and after home favourite Jones had the honour of being the first to drive his car onto the new
Adelaide Street Circuit, he qualified 19th, and then showed that he had lost none of his skill by recovering from a
stall on the grid which dropped him to last place and charging through the field into 6th place before retiring with electrical problems after 20 laps.
1986 season After the team's experimental 1985 season, FORCE concentrated on developing the team's second car, the
THL2, this time with the help of another promising designer,
Adrian Newey (who had already worked at
Fittipaldi in
1980); a car designed specifically for their contracted Ford engines. Frenchman
Patrick Tambay, who had previously driven for Haas's
Can-Am team in North America, was added as the team's second entry alongside Jones. Tambay had formerly won 2 Grands Prix for
Ferrari in and , and had also driven for the factory Renault team in and 1985 Problems arose however before the season began, as
Cosworth's efforts to build the new Ford engines had been delayed, forcing the team to start the season with the previous year's car and the Hart engine. Even with the old machinery, Tambay was able to qualify 13th on the grid of the
Brazilian Grand Prix, although he and Jones both retired. Tambay improved for the next round, the
Spanish Grand Prix, as he finished the first race for the team, the last of eight cars to cross the finish line. By the
San Marino Grand Prix, the first THL2-Ford was completed for Jones, but was only able to qualify 21st in comparison to Tambay's eleventh in the THL1-Hart. Jones commented during qualifying that the THL2 was a great handling car, all that was needed was more horsepower from the new engine. Tambay received his first THL2 at
Monaco and quickly qualified eighth with it, only to crash out of the race in the final eleven laps. Tambay was lucky when he crashed at Monaco that it was on one of the circuits many slow turns. His car rode the wheel of
Martin Brundle's
Tyrrell at Mirabeau and flipped over, hit the barrier and landed back down on its wheels. Another couple of feet higher and he would have cleared the barrier. Although still out qualified by Tambay, Jones was in position to finish his first race with the team in
Belgium before his car ran out of fuel in the closing laps. Jones managed to see the finish of the
Canadian Grand Prix, but his team mate was injured in a heavy crash during the warm-up. American driver
Eddie Cheever, who had previously driven for
Ligier, Renault and
Alfa Romeo, was driving for
Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar in the
World Sportscar Championship, was signed by Haas as Tambay's temporary replacement for the
Detroit Grand Prix after Carl Haas had difficulty in obtaining a
superlicence for
Michael Andretti (Andretti's father, World Champion
Mario Andretti, at that time drove for Carl Haas in American
Champ Car racing. Haas had originally wanted ex-World Champion Mario to drive in Detroit, but Mario declined and recommended his son instead). Cheever qualified tenth and ran high enough to possibly earn points, but retired with a broken wheel peg, four laps after Jones had also retired with steering problems. Tambay, recovered from his injuries, returned to the team at the
1986 French Grand Prix. Over the next two Grands Prix Tambay was in a position to finish before mechanical problems forced him to retire within the final fifteen laps of both races. The
German Grand Prix became another first for the team as both cars finished the race. Tambay, a lap down, was classified eighth while Jones was ninth and two laps down from the race winner. Tambay improved this performance with a seventh-place finish at the first
Hungarian Grand Prix after having qualified the car in a season best of sixth on the grid. The tight and twisty
Hungaroring, used for the first time in 1986, gave both Jones and Tambay a greater chance than at any time during the season with its emphasis on handling and acceleration. The improvements finally paid off at
Austria as mechanical problems for many top teams allowed the two Haas entries to earn points towards the World Championship, even though both cars were two laps behind the winner. Jones finished in fourth, earning three points, just ahead of Tambay in fifth, who was awarded two points. At the team's first anniversary of their entry into Formula One, Jones earned a further point for a sixth-place finish at the
Italian Grand Prix at
Monza. Problems began within the team however as a change in management in the autumn of 1985 at Beatrice led to them to decrease their sponsorship of Haas during the 1986 season. The team began to struggle for results as the money supply dwindled. Tambay finished the
Portuguese Grand Prix, but did not complete enough laps to be classified in the results. Both drivers retired in
Mexico, while the team ended the year in
Australia with Alan Jones's Ford motor failing after 16 laps, and Tambay finishing the race 12 laps behind and once again not classified. During the
Australian Grand Prix, Tambay's car was one of two in the race carrying an onboard camera, the other being the
Lotus-Renault of
Johnny Dumfries. With a total of four points, Alan Jones was 12th in the Drivers Championship, while Tambay was 15th with two points. As the team's designated constructor, Lola received a total of six points, earning them eighth in the Constructors Championship.
1987 plans and demise Shortly after the end of the 1986 season, Carl Haas was continuing to try to find funding to continue into the season after Beatrice had opted to not return. The team still had a deal for Ford engines, but after being unable to find the sponsorship necessary, Carl Haas closed the team by the end of October, and the FORCE base was sold to
Bernie Ecclestone, then owner of
Brabham. The team was dismantled, with Haas and Mayer returning to the United States and Oatley moving on to design for
McLaren. Jones and Tambay both left Formula One after their contracts ended, moving onto other categories of motorsport. The turbocharged Ford engines were used by
Benetton in the 1987 season and that team continued as Ford's de facto factory team until the end of . The former FORCE factory was retained by Ecclestone for use by
Alfa Romeo in building several racing cars before it was sold to
March Engineering in 1989, where it built
Ralts and March IndyCars. Lola meanwhile had their own plans for 1987, building a Formula One car (the
V8 Ford-
Cosworth powered
Lola LC87) for the new
Larrousse & Calmels team. Unlike the Haas Lolas, these cars were designed and built by Lola themselves at their factory, making them the first Lolas in Formula One since the company built chassis for
Embassy Hill in . ==Complete Formula One results==