The organisation began life as Onyx Race Engineering in late 1978, founded by Mike Earle and Greg Field. Earle had previously run the successful Church Farm Racing team in Formula 3, Formula 2, and Formula 5000, and had also worked with Field and driver David Purley in the LEC racing team. Their early years were spent in Formula 2 and Formula 3000; a 1979 attempt at building their own F2 chassis proved unsuccessful, but the team found steadier footing running semi-works March machinery.
Onyx's path to Formula One was marked by gradual progress through the junior categories. Running the works March effort in Formula 3000, the team finished third with Emanuele Pirro in 1985, then saw Pirro as runner-up in 1986, before Stefano Modena took the Formula 3000 championship for Onyx in 1987. Buoyed by that success, Mike Earle set about building a Formula One entry.
Prior to the 1989 season, Belgian businessman Jean-Pierre Van Rossem — owner of Moneytron, a controversial investment company — purchased a majority shareholding in the team, providing the financial backing needed to make the step up. Engineer Alan Jenkins, formerly of McLaren, designed the team's first Formula One car, the Onyx ORE-1, powered by a Ford Cosworth V8 on Goodyear tyres. Stefan Johansson and Belgian rookie Bertrand Gachot were signed as drivers.
The team's debut was fraught. Cars were completed only on the morning of the 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix launch event, and with no testing completed neither car passed pre-qualifying in the first three rounds. A testing accident destroyed one chassis before Imola, and brake failure caused another car to be written off during that race.
Progress came gradually. Johansson first made the grid in Mexico, qualifying 21st. The team's breakthrough arrived at the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, where both cars pre-qualified and qualified comfortably — Gachot 11th and Johansson 13th. Johansson finished fifth to score the team's first championship points.
The season's high point came at Portugal. Johansson elected not to make a pit stop for tyres, and after Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna collided he inherited third place and held it to the chequered flag, running out of fuel just as he crossed the line. It was Onyx's only podium finish and gave the team a total of six championship points, enough to secure tenth place in the Constructors' Championship and exemption from pre-qualifying for 1990.
Throughout the season Van Rossem's erratic behaviour caused mounting problems. He was banned from attending Grands Prix by Bernie Ecclestone after making inflammatory comments about Ecclestone and FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre. Gachot was sacked mid-season after complaining about the team's lack of testing, replaced by JJ Lehto.
The 1990 campaign was disastrous. Van Rossem withdrew his Moneytron sponsorship, leaving the team in severe financial difficulty. Ownership changed hands multiple times: Swiss car collector Peter Monteverdi purchased 50 percent, Karl Foitek 25 percent, and Brune Frei the remaining 25 percent. Founding figures Mike Earle, Greg Field, and Jo Chamberlain departed and returned repeatedly amid the chaos. Alan Jenkins was fired after refusing to work with the reinstated Earle.
Lehto and Gregor Foitek — son of part-owner Karl — drove the team's ORE-1 and updated ORE-1B chassis at the start of the year. Neither car qualified for the first two races, with Johansson, retained for the opening rounds, destroying two chassis in the process. Foitek's seventh place at Monaco proved to be the team's best result of the season. Reports of poor car preparation, including broken suspension components being welded rather than replaced and spare parts being cannibalised from Monteverdi's private sports car collection, reflected the team's desperate state.
Karl Foitek withdrew his investment and banned his son from driving what he considered a dangerous car. The team did not complete the season, withdrawing after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Onyx Grand Prix's brief Formula One existence illustrated both the difficulty of entering the sport as a private constructor and the destructive potential of dysfunctional ownership. The team's 1989 season showed genuine competitiveness — the Portuguese podium was a legitimate result on merit, not fortune alone. Mike Earle later reformed the team to contest touring car racing but without the Formula One success that had seemed possible in 1989.