The late 1980s and the early 1990s is filled with stories about investment groups and individuals with money who were keen to appear on the grid with their own team. Some even managed to appear on the grid like Eddie Jordan. Many, obviously, never made it to the grid in these years. Some appeared on the grid via a different story. Patrizio Cantù is one of them who appeared on the grid eventually. While the original plans were to setup a new team, he eventually became one of major shareholders of the French AGS team together with Gabriele Rafanelli in April 1991.
Patrizio Cantùis a well-known person in the paddock in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After a short career in the rally sport, he became a motorsport journalist covering mostly about the Formula One in those days. Due to his work, he met Giuseppe Lucchini. Lucchini was a known person in the autosport as well. He established his own BMS (Brixia Motor Sport) Scuderia Italia SpA team in 1983.
The team appeared from 1983 until 1987 in the Italian Rally Championship. However, in 1987 the team appeared in the World Touring Car Championship with the Alfa Romeo 75. Only to appear a year later in the Formula One where it would stay for seven seasons. Their last season was a disaster with the Lola T93/30.
In 1987, Cantù worked for the team in the World Touring Car Championship. Sadly, Alfa Romeo decided to withdraw half-way into the season from the championship. It meant for Lucchini to move to the Formula One with his own team. In December 1987, Patrizio was hired as team manager. Entering the Formula One in 1988 with BMS he would stay there until 1989. At that point, he made the decision to start his own Formula 3000 team with designer Christian Vanderpleyn who already worked for the AGS team since 1986. Crypton Engineering was born. The team would debut in the 1990 International Formula 3000 series with Fabrizio Barbazza who showed some good results.
It’s the same year that Cantù made it public he was looking to enter the Formula One with his own Formula One team in 1992. More or less the same road Giuseppe Lucchini took. With Christian Vanderpleyn he already had a designed in-house. While the negotiations were started with Judd for their EV engines. At that time, he was also the manager of Alex Caffi, which could mean that he would become one, or the only, drive for the team if they would appear on the grid. The story went a bit different from this point.
In 1988 and 1989, things didn’t go well for Henri Juliens AGS team in the Formula One. The team was lacking the needed money after sponsor Bouygues withdrew as one of the main sponsors when the team just started working on their new factory. Sadly, for Henri, his only option to keep AGS afloat was to sell his team this happened in late February 1990. A French businessman called Cyril de Rouvre purchased the majority stake in the team. Henri would stay connected with the team as a technical consultant. The same time the team managed to strike a new sponsor with Faure. It was the beginning of the end for the AGS team. As many team members, including Christian Vanderpleyn moved to Coloni already in 1989.
For 1991, the situation became worst. Cyril understood that he could not bring up the needed money to build the new car for 1991 and decided to sell his stocks in the team. This is where Patrizio Cantù come in the picture. Only months after stating he was ready to work on his own Formula One team the opportunity came to buy a Formula One team. Together with Gabriele Raffanelli they purchased AGS in April 1991. Gabriele Tarquini was already with the team as was Stefan Johansson. However, Johansson got ditched as was replaced with Fabrizio Barbazza who shown some good results while racing for Cantù in the Formula 3000 previously. Christian Vanderpleyn returned to AGS as well.
It really was a horrible season. During the first two races of the season in Brazil and America, the mechanics had to pay for their hotel rooms as the team lacked any money. There was hope better times were coming with the new owners. However, this was not the case. The team was really struggling financially and wouldn’t qualify for any race after the 1991 Monaco Grand Prix. Although the new JH27 was ready in the autumn there were no hopes left for the team to keep afloat in the sport.
For Cantù it was the sign to dismantle the team, which they did. AGS would not return to the grid in 1992. However, what Cantù and Rafanelli did with their equipment was a masterpiece. Their factory was laying at the Le Luc circuit. Their plan was to make a Formula One driving school, where people could experience the feel of a Formula One car. Therefore, they used the AGS cars and some others. Julien Henri returned and become the president of the driving school.
Cantù returned in 1992 back to the Formula 3000 to his Crypton Engineering team and managed to win the championship that season with Luca Badoer. Who would move on his term in 1993 to the Formula One racing for the BMS team. Sadly, Christian Vanderpleyn lost his life later in 1992 due to a road accident. It more or less meant the decline of the team who closed the doors permanently in 1994.
