Footwork FA17

{{Infobox racing car

| Car_name = Footwork FA17

| Image = Grand Prix Monaco96 131954710.jpg

| Caption = Formation lap of the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. Fifth in the line is the Footwork FA17 of Jos Verstappen.

| Category = Formula One

| Constructor = Footwork

| Designer = Alan Jenkins (Technical Director)
Dave Amey (Chief Designer)

| Predecessor = FA16

| Successor = Arrows A18

| Team = Footwork Hart

| Drivers = 16. {{flagicon|BRA}} Ricardo Rosset
17. {{flagicon|NED}} Jos Verstappen

| Chassis = carbon-fibre and honeycomb composite structure

| Front suspension = pushrod, wishbones

| Rear suspension = pushrod, wishbones

| Engine name = Hart 830 72-degree V8

| Power = 680 hp @ 13,100 rpm{{Cite web|url=https://www.statsf1.com/en/moteur-hart.aspx|title = Engine Hart • STATS F1}}

| Gearbox name = Arrows six-speed longitudinal semi-automatic

| Fuel = Castrol

| Tyres = Goodyear

| Debut = 1996 Australian Grand Prix

| Last_event = 1996 Japanese Grand Prix

| Races = 16

| Wins = 0

| Cons_champ = 0

| Drivers_champ = 0

| Poles = 0

| Fastest_laps = 0

}}

The Footwork FA17 was the car with which the Footwork team competed in the 1996 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by Dutchman Jos Verstappen, who moved from Simtek, and Brazilian Ricardo Rosset, who graduated from Formula 3000.

Development

Footwork was bought by Tom Walkinshaw from one of the Arrows team's original founders, Jackie Oliver, early in the season. {{F1|1996}} thus became a write-off as the team's focus switched to {{F1|1997}}. This was something of a disappointment, since the FA17 was competitive at the start of the year in the hands of Jos Verstappen. Technical director Alan Jenkins left early on in the season bound for Stewart.{{Cite web|url=https://www.grandprix.com/people/alan-jenkins.html|title=Alan Jenkins|website=www.grandprix.com|access-date=19 January 2020}} Walkinshaw replaced him with Frank Dernie, who moved from Ligier along with Walkinshaw.{{Cite web|url=http://atlasf1.autosport.com/96/arg/rushworth.html|title=Jos and the New Hart at Arrows|website=atlasf1.autosport.com|access-date=19 January 2020}} The lack of development and the lack of power from the Hart V8 engine saw the team slip to the back of the grid by season's end. Hart had planned to build a V10 unit but did not have sufficient funds.{{Cite web|url=http://www.grandprix.com//news/the-arrows-hart-fa17-joins-the-party.html|title=The Arrows-Hart FA17 joins the party|website=www.grandprix.com|access-date=14 January 2020}} Progress was further hampered by the team's testing contract with Bridgestone; the Japanese tyre supplier preparing for entry into F1 in 1997. The FA17 was the first Arrows driven by Damon Hill upon his signing for the team ahead of the 1997 season.{{Cite web|url=https://www.unracedf1.com/unraced-projects-of-the-1996-season/|title=Unraced Projects of the 1996 season|website=www.unracedf1.com|date=30 November 2018|access-date=14 January 2020}}

Race history

Throughout the season, Verstappen proved to be very much the faster Footwork driver, but his reliability record was poor, only finishing a single race in the first half of the season (at Buenos Aires, where he finished sixth).{{Cite web|url=https://wtf1.com/post/6-races-show-jos-verstappen-pretty-awesome/|title=6 Races Which Show Jos Verstappen Was Pretty Awesome Too|first=Dan|last=Thorn|date=7 February 2017|website=WTF1|access-date=19 January 2020|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727233906/https://wtf1.com/post/6-races-show-jos-verstappen-pretty-awesome/|url-status=dead}} He suffered numerous mechanical failures, including a sticking throttle which caused a huge accident at Spa which left him with permanent neck injuries. He also caused a major scare at Imola when he left a pit stop early and ripped the fuel hose from its tank, covering the garage with flammable fuel.{{Cite web|url=http://8w.forix.com/verstappen.html|title=8W - Who? - Jos Verstappen|website=8w.forix.com|access-date=19 January 2020}} By contrast, Rosset was surprisingly steady for a rookie driver, finishing half the races, but was noticeably slower than his teammate.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sniffermedia.com/blog/2015/02/17/ricardo-rosset-better-than-you-thought/|title=Ricardo Rosset: Better than you thought! |website=Sniffer Media|access-date=19 January 2020}} Ultimately, neither driver was retained for 1997; World Champion Damon Hill made the surprising decision to join the team after being dumped by Williams, and Pedro Diniz with his sponsorship money was chosen to be his number two.

The team eventually finished ninth in the Constructors' Championship, with one point.

After Formula One

The Austrian racing driver Fritz Glatz used a Footwork FA17 in the 2002 EuroBOSS series. At the race in Most after a collision he became airborne and rolled the car. Glatz, driving under the pseudonym “Frederico Careca”, died from internal bleeding and major vertebral injuries.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:95%"

! Year

! Entrant

! Engine

! Tyres

! Drivers

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! 14

! 15

! 16

! Points

! WCC

rowspan="3"| {{F1|1996}}

| rowspan="3"| Footwork Hart

| rowspan="3"| Hart V8

| rowspan="3"| {{Goodyear}}

|rowspan="3"|1

|rowspan="3"|9th

Ricardo Rosset

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 9