Evolution of formula 1 cars

 
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