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.