BY MICHELINA ANDREUCCI
After the withdrawal of Mercedes, Maserati and Ferrari resumed their rivalry, with Ferrari dominating in 1956. Difficult financial conditions in Italy led Maserati to withdraw from F1 in 1957.
The predominant design philosophy during this period was to position the engine in front of the driver, primarily due to the problem of locating a large 4.5 litre engine. The leading designers of the time were engineers such as Alberto Massimino (Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Maserati), Giaocchino Colombo (Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo), Carlo Chiti (Ferrari, Alfa Romeo), Vittorio Jano (Lancia, Ferrari).
All were skilled engineers; their background and primary expertise was in engine design. This underlined the Italian philosophy that performance was based around the power of the engine.
Throughout the 1950s, following the end of the WW II, a number of British motoring clubs emerged racing hand-built cars assembled from various components of standard cars and motorcycles on the many disused airfields in the UK.
These included locations such as Silverstone in Northamptonshire, which was an RAF Operational Training Unit, and Snetterton in Norfolk, the wartime base of the 96th USAF bomber group. Many of the cars used by these clubs were manufactured by the Cooper Car Company run by father and son Charles and John Cooper.
They used suspension components from the Fiat Topolino car to construct a chassis, along with a range of scrap materials from air-raid shelters, aircraft and boat engines; for this reason they were described as ‘cunning blacksmiths’.
Cooper used a single cylinder Japanese motorbike engine to provide the power, the short chain drive to the rear wheels required that the engine was located in a ‘mid’ position, directly behind the driver. These cars were hugely successful and by the end of 1951
Cooper were producing a car a week, an unprecedented volume for a racing car manufacturer. From these early beginnings Cooper progressed to F2. In F2 a 2.0 litre engine was used, but often the cars raced alongside the larger, more powerful 4.5 litre F1 cars.
The Argentine GP in 1958, the first race of the year, was won by Stirling Moss in a Cooper Climax, beating the works Ferraris. It was the first time a mid-engine F2 car won an F1 Grand Prix.
That same year a new British constructor made its debut at Monaco. It was an inauspicious beginning for Lotus. They started at the back of the grid, one car retired and the other finished last, 13 laps behind the leader.
Despite the fact that the British built, mid-engine Coopers were beating the competition, Lotus founder Colin Chapman persevered with front engine layout. It was not until he replicated the Cooper concept to create the mid-engine Lotus 18 in 1960 that their fortunes changed.
The Lotus 18 has been described as a ‘scientific’ Cooper. Its designer, Chapman had used calculus to create a well-designed space-frame. He explained the design of a racing car needed to start with the chassis rather than the engine. According to Chapman: “If the starting point is the car rather than the engine, the point at which all “grip” is lost can be deferred by design that is aimed at keeping as much rubber on the road as possible.
The limit of adhesion is extended by independent suspension to all four wheels, which helps to distribute the weight equally and by designing a car that is not only light, and structurally efficient, but also “wind cheating”.
Chapman’s philosophy put him in direct contradiction with the Italian F1 teams such as Ferrari. Driver Nigel Mansell, who had worked for both organisations observed: “Enzo Ferrari believed that the engine was the most important part of the racing car; Colin [Chapman] believed it was the chassis”. Enzo Ferrari initially resisted the trend being pioneered by the British constructors
During this period a number of factors can be discerned regarding the characteristics of technological development and the distinctive trajectories followed by different firms. First is the dominant design of the Italian cluster based on powerful, well designed, proprietary engines, an approach that was also followed by Mercedes-Benz prior to its withdrawal from F1 racing in 1955. During this period an alternative design philosophy emerged from the British constructors and, while it did not achieve competitive superiority during this period, it established its race winning potential.
Many of the firms which were evident in 1950-1960 such as Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Vanwall and, to some extent Cooper, were unable to successfully continue beyond this period. Of the firms that survived, Ferrari and Lotus went on to become two of the most successful Grand Prix teams of the 57-year period. It was in this formative period that both established the managerial and design philosophies that were to sustain them.
The period 1961-1965 witnessed a move away from the dominant design of engine based development to one which emphasized the construction of the chassis. New regulations introduced in 1961 focused on smaller power units which encouraged the technological shift to mid, as opposed to front, engine cars. This was partly in response to the need to encourage new entrants into F1 as it allowed cars based on the smaller F2 regulations to compete in F1.
The established engine manufacturers such as Ferrari, BRM and Coventry Climax all developed new engines to deal with the change in regulations. The change also encouraged the introduction of two major new entrants, Honda and Porsche; both developed F1 cars around new 1.5 litre power units.
Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher and a published author in her field. For Comments E-mail: linamanucci@gmail.com
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