The evolution of formula 1 cars post 2

Welcome to my second instalment of the evolution of formula 1 cars and this time im looking at the 1960's.

 

1960’s

By the end of the 1950’s teams had been and gone such as Mercedes, maserati and Alfa Romeo all teams that had their moments and were dominant in the sport. Teams coming out of the late 50’s with success were Ferrari, Copper and the emerging lotus, who led by one of F1’s greatest designers Colin Chapman were set to take the F1 world by storm and evolve formula 1 cars forever.

Cooper took off where they had let off by winning the 1960 world championship once again with Jack Brabham and the t51. However with teams such as Ferrari and lotus coming up with new and better cars coopers dominance wouldn’t be long lasting in fact Brabham finished the 61 season with only 4 points. Ferrari had developed the best car in the 156 which helped take Phil Hill to the 1961 title. One change in f1 cars that had naturally evolved was the tyres. The early thin tyres had grown wider with the rear tyres growing slightly larger than the fronts for the first time.

The biggest evolution from the early 60’s however came from the British team lotus and Colin Chapman in 1962. This big evolution came from the lotus 25 and in particular its chassis design. Colin Chapman had developed an alternative to the common tubular space frame and had created a new monocoque chassis, the first in Formula 1. This design revolutionised both performance and safety in formula 1 at that era and for many years. The design was something that had been used before in aeroplanes but Chapman used it in his Lotus 25. The design was effectively a “tub” that the driver sat in, the driver was reclined which was new to formula 1 and the fuel was stored in rubber bags in a section of the monocoque. The design was alot stronger improving the drivers safety and  was also more rigid and stiff which meant lotus could develop a more supple suspension which gave the car huge advantages in the slower corners. The chassis was estimated 3 times more rigid than lotus 21 chassis and only weighed half as much giving it a huge advantage over its competitors.  Although the 25 was very fast it was very unreliable and even in the hands of the flying Scotsman Jim Clark and lotus missed out on the 62 title to the BRM team whose P57 was driven by Graham Hill. The 25 was very evolutionary however and will always be one of Formula 1’s greatest innovations.

 

It didn’t take long for the 25 to be a championship winner, by 1963 Clark was champion after finishing 7 races in first. By 64 BRM and Ferrari had caught up and had their own monocoque designs, in a great battle between the three brits, Surtees, Hill and Clark, it was john Surtees driving the Ferrari 158 who took the title from Hill for 1964. By 65 Lotus were back on top, with Clark still driving the 25.

 

The H16

By 1966 there was a new team making headlines and it was Brabham led by Jack Brabham the two times copper title winner from the early 60’s and in an F1 first he took the title in his own car, a feat no other driver would achieve. In terms of new innovations there wasn’t really any, for 66 the new “3 litre formula” was introduced which saw engine capacities double from 65. With Climax who had previously driven BRM and lotus dropping out some teams had to find new engine suppliers, Ferrari seemed set with their own engine before Surtees, their star driver left. This gave Brabham-repco a big chance with a powerful engine, a chance they took to take both the 66 and 67 titles with Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme respectively. An innovation in the 66 season did come from lotus and BRM both with the unusual H16 engine, despite the bulky engine not giving the BRM or Lotus teams great performance it did lead to a clever design solution in formula 1 were by the bulky engine was accommodated by making it a part of the chassis this allowed for a lighter rear end.  

The dfv engine seen as apart of the 49's chassis

 

The 67 season saw an engine unveiled that would revolutionise formula 1. The Ford-Cosworth DFV was supplied to Lotus driven once again by Clark and now Hill also, it was used between rounds 3-11 and was a V8 engine that supplied the lotus with 400bhp and when strapped to the lotus 49 it made quite a name for itself. The 49 didn’t win the championship in its first season due to various mechanical failures, not relating to the engine. It did however take 11 straight pole positions and helped Clark to pole in Germany by a scarcely believable 10 seconds. But in 1968 driven by Graham Hill after the untimely death of Jim Clark it became unstoppable with Hill taking the title by 12 points from the new Scottish upstart Jackie Stewart. In design terms like most lotuses the 49 was simple which is why it was so successful. Just as with its predecessor the engine was mounted as a part of the chassis. The image below shows the 1968 lotus 49 which won the championship that year and shows some new changes to F1 cars, this car was the first too have sponsorship decals on and more importantly in design terms, the first to have front and rear wings, these wings were put on the car in an attempt to improve the cars down force by “pushing it into the ground” these first wings weren’t too effective but at least were the first step towards the large wings on cars today.  It also shows how the tyre width has increased and how the tyres are far smaller at the front than the back.  The 1969 season saw the banning of the large tower wings due to danger and the world drivers’ championship go to the young scot Jackie Stewart driving a matra MS80 after achieving a record 63 points to Jacky Ickx’ 37. At lotus they had had a frustrating season where Hill only finished 7^th in the championship, but Colin Chapman was already designing the Lotus 72 for next year’s championship.

  Thanks for reading and stay tuned for updates to this series, I look forward to writing about the 70's.

 

Drive of the decade 1980s

1985 Portuguese grand prix

View the highlights of this race here, with commentary from Ayrton
So here we go, my first drive of the decade post. I've waited for a long time to watch this full Grand Prix, I've seen the highlights in full many times, but never the full 2 hours and 30 minutes of it.

the older title sequence not like todays

The titles roll into the familiar voice of Murray walker as he interviews Niki lauda and I try to transport myself to 1985 and imagine watching this live, putting what I know about the outcome to the back of my mind.

The conditions are awful and the pictures from the helicopter show this as the cars line up on their grid spots with the familiar yellow helmet in p1 for the first time. I wait to hear Murray walkers voice when a very 80's tune hits me as well as some very random video footage of golfing, before the roar of v6's ring and a slide show of the cars and drivers of 1985 come on. The camera returns to estoril and to Ayrton sennas cockpit where the Brazilian looks focused and ready for what lies ahead for him. Prost chats with his race engineer as Rosbergs car gets a final look over. Elio de Angelis in the number 11 lotus looks on through his helmet as does alboreto in the scarlet Ferrari, still with no commentary this grid walk is far different to that of Martin brundles today. Then out of nowhere Murray walker with no introduction talks tyres and explains with little detail wet weather tyres as he fights against the loudspeaker trackside.

The quite frankly awesome (no sarcasm here) 1985 graphics shows the championship table as James hunt starts talking and gives good insight to the conditions. The grid is so packed, I'm actually a bit shocked as teams decide on tyre compound to run with. Murray starts to chat sennas qualifying time as engines start revving up on the grid. Thus far, senna has been fastest in all four practice sessions and hunt makes the good point that the lotus' have a better chance in the wet as it lowers fuel consumption which lotus have struggled with. Nigel Mansell will start from the pit lane after a spin on the warm up lap. The parade lap begins. Senna leads Prost, rosberg and de Angelis into the first corner. The spray looks very bad even at slow speeds. Senna takes the warm up lap cautiously and the track looks, "quite wet" as hunt puts it. The cars form up on the grid.

The lights show red, now green , a good start from senna, Elio up to p2, rosberg stalls. All but senna start cautiously  as he gets away from his team mate. Mansell spins already. Senna finishes the first lap and I'm going to sit back and watch the Brazilians opening laps. The "masterful" senna, driving for the first time in his 97t in the wet, dances with his car with de Angelis in tow they get away from Prost who is being chased by alboreto. A good battle shapes up between piquet and Johansson for p9 and then patrese joins in. Piquet starts a train of five on lap 4 as three wide go into t1 as Johansson's Ferrari is hit by patrese who is out of the race, the Ferrari re-joins.

A crash with Bellof involved, and the drivers are really struggling. Piquet is sliding around with a 1000hp turbo charged engine behind him. These powerful cars are really hard to handle in the wet by the look of things. A battle begins between alboreto and Prost for p3, lauda watches on in fifth. We reach 1/10th distance. As walker puts it the calm collected and slightly aloof senna is still driving away as the conditions don't improve. The camera turns to senna who looks as if he is driving in the dry. Senna narrowly misses a spinning baldi as he continues to pull away from his team mate through the traffic. Prost starts to hassle de Angelis after trouble with Backmarkers, three cars in a fight for p2. A beautiful bit of car control from alboreto as he fights Prost who is still hassling de Angelis who is holding them up.

Prost verses de Angelis

Alliot walks back to the pits in the rain as senna has a 13 second lead. Martinis car is removed from the racing line by a truck as de Angelis avoids it narrowly. Prost getting a face full of spray fights against Elio, hunt compares prosts scenario to driving behind a lorry in heavy rain on the motorway. The field up to piquet has now been lapped. Lap 13 and senna still has a healthy lead as the fight for p2 increases. Oh and thank god the commentary is interrupted as the bbc tell us about the show jumping to be shown at 4 o'clock safe to say I wouldn't have been tuning into that. More battles shaping up as Derek Warwick surges past piquet as he slides his Renault. Prost continues to struggle behind de Angelis as senna has a 15 second lead, alboreto has dropped back to 7 seconds behind Prost. On lap 15 senna sets the fastest lap as he continues to drive away he is showing the class we all know he had. I've never seen conditions so bad as Prost gets out of the cloud of spray he was surrounded in to attempt another failed effort to pass the no 11 lotus. Brundle flies past boutson in his under powered Tyrrell.

Rosbergs car surrounded

The power differential between the turbos and the normally aspirated cars is shown as de Angelis breezes past bellof who has re-joined the race and is now 2 laps down. A Ferrari mechanic kicks at Johansson's right front to get it off. More spins from rosberg and baldi, as marshals run to the stranded Williams avoiding the cars still battling for second place who are driving at 100 mph, I've never seen anything like this! The conditions get worse as Prost continues to get frustrated in third. Alboreto closes on Prost once more. We haven't seen senna for a while, testament to his incredible driving, he now has a 30 second lead on lap 20. Rosbergs smashed up car remains on the track as Murray finds it laughable, he is sure British marshals would have sorted that in "the twinkling of an eye" got to love his commentary. Senna returns to the screen. After admiring two laps of sennas awesome driving in these terrible conditions, we see the three way battle for second once more, what a great battle this is.

On lap 25 we are just over 1/3 through the Grand Prix. We hear the lovely sound of the Renault v6 turbo as the commentary stalls. Senna holds his advantage at 30 seconds as Johansson starts to shape up a move on Prost who has dropped back form de Angelis. The commentary resumes as the engine sounds die down. As hunt points out, Prost is going to have to "shut his eyes and have a go" soon, he has been held up long enough now. We enter lap 27/70. Hunt points out the race may have to be stopped before the 70 laps due to a time limit of 2 hours as the rain is getting harder Murray compares the conditions to Monaco 1984.

Big accident for you may have guessed... Baldi. The concentration required in these conditions must be so demanding as pointed out by John Watson. A big spin from Prost who does two 360 degree spins into the wall, he is out. The commentators and drivers including senna want the race stopped. We return to senna, his car looks so much more steady than anyone else's on lap 32. Murray talks about whether the race will reach 3/4 distance at which point they will receive full points. 1 hour completed and the conditions are not improving. We see Nigel Mansell for the first time this race as he pursues lauda. Flames shoot from the back of the fw10 as Mansell is lapped by de Angelis. Senna has lapped up to fourth and has a 48 second advantage over his teammate as the commentary has once again gone. The only battle really shaping up is alboreto, who is right on the limit, chasing de Angelis. An oversteer moment for the scarlet Ferrari as he edges closer to the lotus the gap is four seconds. The sodden spectators look on as de Angelis' lotus twitches, alboreto is now 2 seconds behind. Alboreto now submerged in the spray is under a second behind. Murray and James are still unheard. I can't be unhappy with the quality of this footage, actually looks decent on my 42" TV screen as alboreto falls back. Murray and James return and remind us of the 52 second lead senna has. Tambay is driving well in fourth. Alboreto into second as he catches Elio napping. A few corners later de Angelis slides off will he be caught by tambay? I actually can't remember. Senna "miles clear" returns to the screen calm as ever. Senna holding his 58 second lead over alboreto. The 10th place car is 4 laps down now. Walker demonstrates a good knowledge of sennas career up to this point as we watch sennas car dancing in the rain, an amazing sight.

Murray is desperate to see the battle between Mansell and lauda, as we catch the backend of the battle Mansell has gone through. 35 minutes remain, and I don't want this to end. The rain is effecting the electronics in the commentary box as I watch senna in awe, he has just lapped fourth place tambay as he speeds up opening the gap over second place to 1 minute as hunt comments, he is "totally at home in these conditions". Bellof has fought up to 6th in his under powered Tyrrell and after the contact at the start, a great drive from him. Lauda retires in the rain after he dropped out of the points. Even though the cars have been driving for over 1 and a half hours there is still no real sign of a dry line on the track. Alboreto has amazingly pulled out 35 seconds on de Angelis as senna comes up to lap his team mate who is oddly not allowing Mansell to un lap himself the number 11 is looking very frustrated. 54 laps gone as the end draws in senna is careful in lapping de Angelis and Mansell. Senna has lapped everyone but second place alboreto. With the commentary dropping out again thankfully we get to see and hear in all it's glory sennas final few laps of this amazing race. The yellow helmet piercing through the spray left behind from the car that senna is about to lap, the jps coloured number 12 driven by the 25 year old Brazilian looks in total control. Tambay is now 8 seconds behind Elio I don't think he will catch him but you never know, as bellof closes to within 5 seconds of Mansell who is in 5th. With 15 minutes left of the two hour race and tambay gets ahead of de Angelis who must have been off to take third position. Senna looks set to take the hat rick of pole, fastest lap and race win as his red gloves grip onto his lotus steering wheel as he looks in total control.

Senna celebrates

Now I have watched the 1993 donington gp in full and it was always my opinion that that was sennas greatest drive, but watching him here in a car minus traction control with a 1000hp turbo engine strapped to the back of his car in the worst conditions I have ever seen I have defiantly changed my mind. I've never seen a car look so stable in conditions like this as he drives into his last lap and I'm going to sit back and watch him finish what has been an awesome drive. The flag drops team lotus led by peter warr stand on the finish line, senna undoes his shoulder straps and is absolutely beside himself with joy as he waves to the crowd , I've never seen a driver so happy to win a brilliant sight.

Now for the podium where senna stands proud beneath his national flag. Senna comments on his reaction by saying, "it means that all the effort and the years that I have put behind motor racing since four years old are giving me something good back not just for me but for team lotus and JPS and to all the Brazilians that cheer me up a lot."

Here's how they finished up then:-

Pos	Num	Driver	Car	Laps	Difference
1	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	67	2hrs 00’28.006
2	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	67	1’02.978
3	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	66	1 Lap
4	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	66	1 Lap
5	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	65	2 Laps
6	4	Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Cosworth	65	2 Laps
7	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	65	2 Laps
8	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	62	5 Laps
9	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	61	6 Laps

 

Well what an enjoyable couple of hours watching a great grand prix, seeing what has to be one of the greatest drives ever and certainly in my opinion the best of the 1980's. Last month I was actually lucky enough to see the exact lotus senna drove in this race (a few pictures are below), and watching this race makes seeing that car mean even more. On a display board behind the car was the quote "my greatest victory" from Ayrton himself and after seeing this race in full, I have to agree with him.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed watching and please comment with feedback or suggestions for my next post on drive of the decade.

Thanks for viewing, once more please follow on twitter @f1rob100 and see my youtube channel of the same name f1rob100 and keep looking on my blog for my next post !

 

 

 

The evolution of formula 1 cars post 1

Another part of formula  I enjoy is the technical side and seeing how the cars have evolved since 1950 to the present day and why they have so with this in mind, I wanted to blog about the evolution of formula 1 cars.


The 1950’s

The first formula 1 cars rolled out the garages at Silverstone in the UK in 1950. The concept of racing automobiles was certainly not new, but this was the first time that cars had raced in a championship since the pre war era and it was under a new name of formula 1. The cars that raced were in a sense the same design of the pre war era racing cars, with the chassis being a tubular frame with the tank behind the driver’s seat and the engine front mounted.  This historical design was however changing as some teams were developing mid mounted engines. The team that dominated early on in the sport were Alfa Romeo the Italian outfit that had a lot of racing pedigree in the pre war era. Nino Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio battled it out on track in the 158 shown to the right.

The car boasted a 1.5 litre engine and eight cylinders which gave it 350 bhp at 8,500 rpm. It was truely the dominant car of the era and was first beaten in 1951 at Silverstone by Ferrari’s Gonzalez. Identical to all cars of the era its tyres were very low profile and thin leaving not much contact between the road and the rubber meaning these cars slid around and were very had to handle. The alfas dominated the opening two seasons wining both the 1950 and 1951 drivers championships with Farina and Fangio respectively before the Italian outfit were overthrown by another Italian manufacturer in 1952, Ferrari.

 

The 1952 season was contested in 2000cc formula 2 racing cars with the pick of the field being the Ferrari 500 after alfa pulled out of the sport.  Driven by Italian Alberto Ascari the 500 was not visibly to dissimilar to the Alfa Romeo 158 apart from in the engine department were the 500 has a straight 4 compared to the straight 8. It had the tubular frame chassis and the same Pirelli tyres. For 52 and 53 the FIA decided to run races to Formula 2 specifications rather than Formula 1 as there were more cars to compete. This meant the performance was overall slower than the earlier specifications. The main reason for the lower performance was the lower power supplied from  the smaller engines, the cars were actually smaller in all dimensions and were a lot lighter.

The 1954 season saw the return of formula 1 regulations and the introduction of Mercedes to the sport the first time they had competed since the pre war era. They came equipped with new innovations that were hugely instrumental in the evolution of F1 cars. The Mercedes w196 shown in 1.2 came to the 1954 grid driven by world champion Juan Manuel Fangio and its revolutionary M196 Engine. This engine was set to evolve formula 1 engines forever with the first use of desmodromic valves and fuel injection developed by Mercedes engineers from their experience with aero plane engines. The Desmodroimic system was an engine valve that was closed by a cam and leverage system rather than the conventional spring system. This system reduced engine wear , the fuel injection system is a system that is common throughout all f1 engines in the present day and is a direct fuel delivery system and spelled the end for the carburettor engine, this was first introduced in the w196's engine.

The w196 in the picture to the right has an extremely different shape to the earlier Formula 1 cars its low bonnet was a result of aerodynamic tests in one of the first uses of a wind tunnel in f1. This “Type monza” body work gave the car a huge advantage at the opening race at Reims and later in monza but was not appropriate for the cornering tracks so Mercedes developed an open wheel version that was equally successful wining all but the Monaco Grand prix in the shortened 1955 season. Despite the streamlined design being scrapped it did show that cars were starting to be designed with aerodynamics in mind. Mercedes pulled out of Formula one at the end of the 1955 season having contributed hugely to the evolution of the Formula 1 car.

fuel injection

Another innovation of the 1954 season was Vanwalls VW2 brake discs. Up until then drum brake systems were still in place on all formula 1 cars. Tony Brooks won the first race with the new brake discs in 1955 in a non championship event but by 1958 all f1 cars had brake disks equipped. The next major innovation in F1 car design came from cooper in 1957 when for the first time they used a rear mounted engine. These designs soon became unbeatable and by 1959 front mounted engines were no more.

 For the rest of the 1950’s there were not too many technical evolutions, the main car to beat when Mercedes left was the maserati 250f which Fangio drove to win the 1957 title. The car didn’t have any technical innovations it was just extremely well built to the specifications of the era and equip with a v12 naturally aspirated engine it did prove a formidable force helping Fangio beat Vanwall’s Stirling Moss by 21 points to the title after taking 4 wins and 2 podiums in the 8 race season. With maserati withdrawing for the 1958 season and Fangio only competing in two events, Ferrari became front runners once more with the Ferrari 246 F1 powered by a Ferrari V6 engine. Stirling Moss once again driving for Vanwall was once again up there and ended the season just a point behind Ferraris Mike Hawthorn. But in the final year of the 50’s it was cooper who took the title with Australian Jack Braham driving the T51 powered by the rear mounted, compact Coventry-Climax 2.5 litre engine. This was a revolutionary championship victory as it was the first from a mid engine formula 1 car.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog about the evolution of formula 1 cars, I will be posting more in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading and please  follow me on twitter @f1rob100

 

My first blog

Well, here it goes my first blog attempt. I am writing this at 11 o'clock and if I were a sim my sleep level would probably be on red right now but I'll give it a go so excuse the odd mistake.

I plan to run my first few blog posts from next week when each day I'm going to watch a classic f1 race and write my post whilst watching I'm going to call the blog, drives of the decade as I'm going to try and watch the best race from each decade, here is my current list.

50's:- Germany 1957
Obviously the famous race from fangio, probably the maestros greatest drive braking his own lap record multiple times to regain the lead.

60's:- Italy 1967
A sensational drive from Jim Clark, a lap down to first unfortunate fuel pump issue costing him victory.

70's:- unsure, perhaps Japan 1976
Really unsure on this era not too many jumping out but the epic 1976 showdown must be up there.

80's:- Portugal 1985
Ayrton Sennas first and probably best win in torential rain in his second season and only second race for lotus.

90's:- Spain 1996
I would say schumis best drive and a victory I would love to watch again so this may just edge out donington 93, a hard choice.

00's:- brazil 2003?
Once again unsureon this era but there was alot of drama in this race so why not, although suggestions would be welcome

Well that's my list so far, it may not be in that order that I watch them but that's my thoughts so far, feel free to share your opinion. As I've said, I may not do them in that order and I may not get round to doing them all next week but this is the series of posts I am going to do so, stay tuned and please comment or something. I hope you continue to view my blog and any suggestions are appreciated.
Oh and also if you would view my YouTube channel f1rob100 I post some race reviews and other stuff on there and follow me on twitter @f1rob100

Thanks for viewing my first post and I hope you'll be reading again!

Rob