Formula 1
July 7th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The legendary Formula 1 alliance of Williams and Renault Sport is set to reform for the 2012 and 2013 seasons while the rules still stipulate the use of V8 engines. The two companies may also continue their partnership when the new turbocharged V6s are introduced.
Renault Sport F1 will supply the AT&T Williams team with the V8 engines for the next two seasons. This association was highly successful between 1989 and 1997 with four Drivers titles, five Constructors’ titles and a total of 63 race wins. The results were four driver’s titles in 1992 (Nigel Mansell), 1993 (Alain Prost), 1996 (Damon Hill) and 1997 (Jacques Villeneuve), as well as five constructors titles, in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997.
“Renault remains in Formula One to achieve success in a cost efficient way and the partnership with Williams has great potential to add to the results we have notched up over recent years with our other partner teams,” said Bernard Rey, the president of Renault Sport F1. “From 2012 onwards the fact that we will have four partners in F1 puts us ahead of other engine manufacturers in terms of market share, but off track it will also enable us to further use Formula One as a marketing platform for our parent company, Renault, to try to bring this association to our fans and our customers worldwide. Read the rest of this entry »
May 21st, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
Chris Amon drove for Ferrari in 27 Grand Prix in the late 1960s. He started from the front row of the grid seven times, led 601.4 kilometres, and scored 34 points including six podium finishes. In Amon’s first Grand Prix for Ferrari, at Monaco in 1967 (Denny Hulme’s debut win), his team-mate – Lorenzo Bandini – was killed, and thereafter the Kiwi was No1 for the rest of his time at Maranello. His final Grand Prix for the Prancing Horse took place at Silverstone 40 years ago this month – but neither party knew it at the time.
It had all started so well. After Bandini was killed, Amon rose to the challenge and scored points in all but two races to finish fourth in the 1967 world championship. In 1968, had points been awarded for qualifying positions, he would have won the title with a race to spare, but finished with little in the way of hard results. Although he managed to boost his income after he discovered the deal his new team-mate, Jacky Ickx, was on – “When I found out he was on a retainer of $30,000 I was livid. I stewed on it for days, trying to figure out how I was going to confront ‘the Old Man’. He (Enzo Ferrari) was always very approachable and available, so one day I got up a head of steam and went in and asked why Ickx was on a retainer of 30 grand when I was only getting a share of the purse. He looked at me and said ‘But you never asked.’ So I did right then, and he agreed on the spot. It was the quickest 30 grand I ever made.”
After the frustrations of 1968, Amon hoped to have a Ferrari that combined the speed of the ’68 car with the reliability of the ’67 car. Sadly he got neither. Winning the Tasman Championship proved to be a false hope. “We basically had a sports-car engine for the first Grand Prix of the 1969 season, at Kyalami. We used to rev it to 11-and-a-bit. Ferrari had decided that the Cosworth had more torque than we did, so they’d rev it less and fatten up the torque curve, but the thing was just bloody hopeless. When I got back to Italy I had a meeting with the Old Man and told him we had to rev the thing more, not bloody less, and I asked him for an engine for Barcelona that revved to 12,000rpm. I said I didn’t care if it was cammy.” Read the rest of this entry »
May 7th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The vast windswept landmass near Northampton – an RAF bomber base during World War II – has been known to the motor racing fraternity across the world for over six decades as Silverstone.
The perimeter roads comprised the 4.7km track that hosted the first post-war British Grand Prix in 1948. That was one of the few major events of the year not won by the dominant Alfa Romeo Alfetta 158s – because they didn’t show up. Alfa 
announced it would give 1949 a miss and tragically, during the course of that year, all its drivers lost their lives – Jean-Pierre Wimille, Achille Varzi and Carlo-Felice Trossi.
When the inaugural world championship was announced, Alfa dusted off the Alfettas and returned with a new line-up – Italians Giuseppe Farina, Luigi Fagioli, and an Argentinean of Italian descent who’d arrived in Europe two years earlier, Juan-Manuel Fangio.
Blown or Unblown
The first Formula One provided two choices – either a 4.5-litre normally aspirated option, or 1.5-litre supercharged. Alfa’s 158 hinted at its take – a 1.5-litre straight-eight, under-square engine uprated from 261kW (350bhp) at 8500 rpm through a four-speed gearbox in 1948, to 276kW (370bhp) at 9300rpm in 1950.
Maserati’s 4CLT/48 was a great customer car, but the 1.5-litre four-cylinder produced a modest, albeit reliable, 194kW (260bhp) so wasn’t a contender in the major events, while the French answer was the 4.5-litre straight-six Lago-Talbot producing 209kW (280bhp) at a mere 5000rpm. Read the rest of this entry »
April 4th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
After quite literally hanging around for decades, this historic F1 car was reunited with Chris Amon – who raced the car in 1970 – at the recent NZ Festival of Motor Racing.
During the Schumacher/ Ferrari era of total F1 dominance, I was always surprised to realise many Kiwis – while hero-worshipping Schumacher – didn’t seem to know that a Kiwi driver had once held down the team-leader’s seat at 
Scuderia Ferrari; namely Chris Amon.
Of course, Schumacher had a double advantage – his Ferrari was invariably the fastest and most reliable car on the F1 grid, and he raced in an era when F1 received massive doses of international TV coverage. By comparison, during Amon’s time at Maranello F1 TV coverage was minimal – especially so far away from the action in New Zealand – and Ferrari was going through a very lean period.
Also – judged against the other two Kiwi drivers who made up New Zealand’s famous ‘trio at the top’ – Amon, unlike Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren, would never win a points-scoring Grand Prix, so he would never challenge Denny Hulme’s position as the only Kiwi to win the World Championship crown. As well, when Amon decided to found his own F1 equipe it would prove to be far less successful than Bruce McLaren’s racing team. Read the rest of this entry »
February 22nd, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
Politics and car racing never mix well and with serious political unrest spreading through the Middle East Formula 1 has been given the short shift. While in most Arab nations this wouldn’t affect motorsport’s top tier in Bahrain it’s a different story. Travel warnings have been issued on Bahrain from various governments around the world, citing violence in the streets and a threat of terrorism. Yesterday, Formula 1 was left with little choice but to cancel its season opening Grand Prix.
According to the Bahrain International Circuit, which hosts the Bahrain GP, “The Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) today announced that the Kingdom of Bahrain would withdraw from hosting this year’s F1 Grand Prix race so that the country can focus on its process of national dialogue.”
Organisers had already cancelled the GP2 Asia Series race scheduled for this coming weekend, and are being forced to do the same with the F1 pre-season test that was due to follow. This cancellation means that the 2011 Formula 1 season will now start on March 27 in Australia which will give teams a few more weeks for testing and development.
February 9th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The latest model in a long line of Formula 1 cars that began with Bruce McLaren’s designs has just been revealed. The McLaren F1 team has pulled the covers off its new MP4-26 car, ready for the upcoming 2011 Formula 1 season. The new machine comes with a number of innovative and radical new design elements.
In an act of showmanship the McLaren team rolled out the car in pieces and put it together in front of the gathered crowd in Berlin. To avoid giving away secrets the McLaren team used a plastic engine and exhaust system when showing the car off. What is known is that the MP4-26 F1 car features a longer-than-usual wheelbase, an even higher nosecone than its rivals, and unique U-shaped sidepods. These new sidepods are apparently designed to channel cleaner air to the new rear wing in an effort to regain downforce lost with the new regulations which have banned the use of a double diffuser.
Interestingly, the MP4-26 is also the first McLaren Formula 1 car designed to accomodate Jenson Button’s taller body shape, since last year’s car was almost finished before his release from Brawn GP.
McLaren is staying tight-lipped about the rest of the design, releasing only the handful of images you can view in the gallery below. Read the rest of this entry »
December 13th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
Last week we reported on a possible change to four-cylinder power for the world’s top tier racing series – Formula 1. Now it’s official, F1 will be trading in its high-revving V8 engines for a new turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine design by 2013. The new rules will, naturally, affect all teams and in addition to the new motors the maximum engine speed will be reduced from the current 18,000 rpm to a maximum of 12,000 rpm.
So why exactly? Well the changes are expected to allow the vehicles to use around 35 percent less fuel than the outgoing eight-pots, while still producing very similar power numbers. While neither the FIA nor F1 organisers have released official numbers, apparently the engines will use high-pressure gasoline injectors that can dump fuel into the combustion chamber at up to 7,251 psi.
As well as smaller engines teams will be allowed fewer of them, because F1 is also moving to limit the number of engines that a team can use during a season. Right now, the rules allow for a group of eight engines used in a season but by 2013, that number will drop to five before falling to four soon after. That in addition to achieving much better fuel economy and still producing high power, the new engines will need to be hardy enough to take the abuse of multiple races without blowing up.
December 7th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
In less than a week, the big wigs at F1′s governing body, the FIA may vote in a new engine for the 2013 Formula One season. This could see the end of the 2.4-litre V8s currently in use and the adoption of a turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder unit.
According to reports the smaller engine is an attempt to keep F1 aligned with the types of motors found in modern passenger vehicles and increase consumer awareness of fuel conservation.
The FIA wants to see a 50% increase in fuel efficiency, a stonking 10,000 RPM limit and will allow a combination of compound turbos and KERS to keep power output somewhere between 600 and 750 horsepower (447kW- 559kW).
It’s no surprise that some teams, owners and organisers are against the move, including full-time whingers Ferrari. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone appears to be one of the moves staunchest critics, coming out and stating, “We have a very good engine formula. Why should we change it to something that is going to cost millions of pounds and that nobody wants and that could end up with one manufacturer getting a big advantage?”
Ecclestone may be right but F1 needs to evolve to survive. The FIA is expected to vote on the engines and other changes for the 2013 season this Friday.
