Is it fair to compare different F1 eras? (Part 2 of 7: The 70’s)
- cgonzalezmi6
- 31 dic 2020
- 6 Min. de lectura
Actualizado: 21 ene 2021
Is it fair to compare different F1 eras? (Part 2: The 70’s)
By C. Gonzalez
Per the blog last week, the 60’s was an era where ingenuity and creativity was prevalent, the team resources were extremely limited and far different from the Multi-million budgets handled by the teams today. The teams needed to be resourceful and rework/reuse several components to have a running car for the race on Sunday. If they had a transmission failure, for example, the mechanic would drain the oil from the transmission, store the oil on a bucket, fix the transmission and then reuse the oil from the bucket. Can you imagine doing this on Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari or Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes Benz?
The 1970’s was an era of change where some of the most radical cars were developed. One key factor was engine reliability, this was achieved at the end of the 60’s when the FIA changed the rules and increased the displacement from 1.5 to 3 Liters in 1966 to normally aspirated engines, due to sports cars like the Ferrari 330 P3 or the Ford GT40 were faster than F1 cars.
Based on that a car manufacturer developed what is arguably one of the best, if not the greatest, Formula 1 engine ever created: The Ford Cosworth DFV. This engine was so revolutionary that was used practically unchanged for many years in F1 and was also used in other racing categories like CART, Formula 3000 and Sports car racing, but that is the subject of another blog.
The engine was so powerful, reliable and, most of all, affordable it allowed several small manufacturers to join Formula 1, like Williams or Ligier. Practically every team in the 1970’s used it at one point or another except for Ferrari, having a reliable engine meant that the teams could focus on other areas of the car to get the most advantage like aerodynamics.
The 1970’s is an era probably of the most radical designs in F1 history like the Tyrell P34 or 6-wheeler, the Brabham BT46B or Fan car and the famous Lotus 79 with its ground effect body and now classic black and gold John Player Special livery, that will also help define this era. This was a decade were 13 team won races, mostly dominated by Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren and Tyrell, but every team really had a shot of F1 glory, when you compare that to the last decade dominated by Red Bull (2010-13) and Mercedes Benz (2014 -2020).
As I mentioned on the previous blog, in 1967 Colin Chapman reached a deal with the Imperial tobacco company to fully sponsor his team for 1968 and for the first time, the Lotus cars were painted red and white with gold stripes, abandoning the traditional national color: British green. In motorsports, racing teams used established colors to identify their vehicles so, as an example, French cars were painted blue with white numbers, British cars were painted green with white numbers, Italian cars were painted red, Japanese cars where painted white and red, American cars were painted white with blue stripes or blue with white stripes, like the Cunningham or the Shelby Daytona. One curious story; the German colors were originally white with red numbers. During inspection day at the 1934 Nurburgring GP the car was too heavy, per the regulation the maximum weight limit was 750 Kg (1,650 lbs.) On the scales it allegedly recorded 751 Kg (1,651 lbs. ) so Mercedes Benz team manager Alfred Neubauer ordered the team to strip the color of the car leaving the bare metal exposed. It was then they were able to meet the weight requirement and that is how the legend of famous “Silver arrows” was born.
That agreement allowed Colin Chapman to have additional resources to experiment with aerodynamics having the financial backup from Ford and Imperial Tobacco allowed him to try new materials and designs to push the limits.
The key for this partnership was a new medium that was gaining popularity. Prior to the late
60's, races were covered locally or nationally by Newspapers, specialized magazines or Radio, however the only sponsors on the car were the tire suppliers, maybe an oil company or the engine manufacturer, but the sponsorship was very discreet and usually located on the side of the cars. When TV started broadcasting races it was very difficult to identify the cars on the track since the majority of the TV sets were black and white, so when Gold Leaf sponsored Lotus the bold GOLD LEAF lettering was very easy to spot on the side of the car. Interestingly Lotus needed to paint the car with an almost “orange” red, since Ferrari was running with the national Italian color also known as “Rosso Ferrari” or “Ferrari red”, to avoid controversy with Enzo Ferrari
The garages did not improve too much in the beginning, however with the extra money available the teams were able to improve their equipment, transportation vehicles, etc. including the salaries of their drivers. By the middle of the decade, F1 drivers were almost devoted 100% of their time to their teams, with the occasional race outside the F1 bubble, but that was the exception, not the rule.
This was also the decade where the Very Important People (VIP) Paddock was created. In 1973 a flamboyant British aristocrat named Lord Hesketh entered the Formula One scene famous for running an unconventional and very patriotic team, Hesketh Racing, famously refusing any sponsorship and funding the team himself, due to his background he normally had a VIP section for his friends, having champagne, caviar, lobster and other food delicacies available breaking the previous "family style" fraternity from the 60's, he also had a very talented lineup of drivers with James Hunt and Alan Jones. The team scored one victory in 1975 and a total of nine podiums.
Shortly after Imperial Tobacco entered in the picture more companies saw the potential of the F1 exposure to the new TV market: Phillip Morris (Marlboro), Parmalat (Dairy Products), Martini (Alcoholic Beverages), FIAT (automobiles), AGIP (Oil/Chemicals), Yardley (Personal Care), Elf (Oil/Chemicals) and Shell (Gasoline/Oil), to name a few, entered the scene and provided the teams the financial stability to focus on their racing efforts.
It was at this time when slick tires were first introduced by Firestone on the 1971 Spanish Grand Prix., these are tires with no thread on them. During the 1960’s, the tires of an F1 car were not much different of the ones used on a passenger car, slick tires do not deform too much under load and allows the tire to be built with softer compounds without excessive blistering and overheating. Since there are no grooves, there is more traction due to the greater contact area, greater traction equals greater control of the vehicle at high speeds and during cornering.
As you can see, external financing through sponsorships and having a reliable engine allowed the car manufacturers to develop the most radical designs. This of course increased the top speed and the cars were always pushed to the limit, which sadly led to numerous deaths throughout the decade. There were 12 in total, including one famous accident that thankfully did not end in tragedy, the one of Niki Lauda in Germany in 1976. These accidents led the teams, drivers and organizers to start thinking seriously about driver safety. The final race of the year at Suzuka was delayed due to heavy rain and the drivers refused to drive under those conditions, however due to the Television contract, the drivers agreed to race, Niki Lauda was coming back to race still with a chance to win the Championship after his terrible accident a few weeks back. After starting the race under rain he retired after a number of laps because the conditions were, according to him “Awful and unsafe”. The Ferrari mechanics asked him to blame the car, but Niki refused, eventually James Hunt finished 3rd, enough to win the Championship by 1 point. This decade is also sadly remembered as the one that awarded the only posthumous Formula One Drivers’ Championship trophy to Jochen Rindt, who died on September 5, 1970 at Monza driving for Lotus.
By the end of the decade, some manufactures decided to explore the engine limits once again. The rule book allowed manufacturers to use turbo or supercharging to increase power, however the displacement needed to be reduced to 1.5 liters. In 1977 Renault decided to use a turbocharged engine derived from their sports car program, however the systems were very unreliable at the time since electronics were also not fully developed. The car achieved one pole position and a 4th place in 1978 showing its potential, which opened the door to other manufacturers to begin research and lead F1 to the famous Turbo Era of the 1980’s…
But that is the subject of next week’s blog, Happy new year to all my readers!! As always let me know your opinion and share your comments. If you are enjoying what you are reading make sure to to hit like and share with your friends and other enthusiasts.
Hey, great way of summarizing the crazy 70's! Without a doubt, a very interesting decade with lots of developments (like the intial aerodynamics), that shaped the years to come. Unfortunately many of these early developmental stages left ya without too many brilliant drivers. To remember is certainly to live again!