History of Benetton

The Benetton Group entered in Formula One as a sponsor company for Tyrrell in 1983, then Alfa Romeo in 1984 and 1985 and finally Toleman in 1985. Benetton Formula was formed at the end of 1985 when the Toleman team was sold to the Benetton family. The team began with BMW engines and then later switched to Ford.
The team was managed by Flavio Briatore from 1990 until 1997. Rocco Benetton, the youngest son of Luciano Benetton joined the team as aerodynamics engineer in 1998 and fired Briatore. He replaced him with Prodrive boss David Richards, who lasted only for a year when he too was fired, due to a disagreement with the Benetton family about future strategy. Following Richards' departure, Rocco Benetton managed the team for three years until its sale to Renault.
The Benetton team is best known for its success with Michael Schumacher, who accounts for 19 of the team's 27 career victories and their 2 drivers' championships. After switching to Renault engines, they also won the constructor's championship in 1995 with Schumacher and Johnny Herbert. After 1995, Schumacher moved to Ferrari along with Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and 11 other key figures from his two championship winning seasons with Benetton
On March 16, 2000, the team was sold to Renault for $120 million US. As part of their restructuring, Renault brought back Flavio Briatore as team manager. The team still used the Playlife engines (although descended from Renault motors) they had been using for the last two years. The drivers were Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz. The team scored 20 points, as well as 2 podium finishes in Monaco and Canada.
During their final season in 2001 the drivers, Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella, were often on the back two rows of the grid. This was in part attributed to the new 111-degree wide angle engine. But continued development allowed Benetton to leave Formula 1 on something of a high, and the cars' performance lifted. Button and Fisichella scored 10 points for the team, including a podium finish for Fisichella in Belgium.
Benetton launched today at Taormina in Sicily - the town in which Jean Alesi's family lived before they emigrated to France. The prototype will run next week at Estoril, although it was probably shaken down quietly at a European track during its 1500 mile journey south to Sicily.
The B196 is the work of Rory Byrne and his team of designers at Enstone, and is believed to be fairly conventional, following the design philosophy of the recent models with which Michael Schumacher has enjoyed such success.
There will be some changes in the sponsorship package: Mild Seven and Elf will remain but German backers Bitburger and RTL - which were attracted by Schumacher - are not likely to be seen again. There have been rumors for some months that there will be an Indian company involved with the team, and there were lengthy negotiations last autumn between Benetton and Anglo-Indian businessman, Veejay Malik, owner of the Kingfisher beer brand, which is a big seller on the Indian sub-continent.
Benetton wants access to Malik's distribution network in India, where the company is planning to open several hundred shops.
The team is expected to nominate a new test driver, and all the indications are that this will be Frenchman Franck Lagorce, who has backing from Elf as did last year's Benetton tester Emmanuel Collard.
Benetton is now officially an Italian team - the regulations have been changed so that it can nominate Silverstone as its preferred testing facility.
Now, you know the history of Benetton and how it is derive. I choose this because I want to be a professional car racer and I love cars,