The small F1 team appreciation thread

[dalz]

Mario Andretti said Carlo Chiti would not allow him to do any development. The breakdown between Andretti and Chiti was so complete that there was no chance Andretti would end up remaining with Autodelta. Frustrated by the autocratic Chiti, his jealousies and the chaos and disorganization he wrought, Andretti said in the summer of 1981 he was ready to walk out on the team there and then. Andretti, who suffered terrible injuries during his stint with Alfa that left him in pain for years, called accepting the ride a career mistake that drove him out of F1.

Gerard Ducarouge termed Alfa's F1 effort an example of how not to go motor racing.

The Alfa's aerodynamics were the result of work done by SERA.

Thanks again editor.

When did Mario get hurt in the Alfa?

Was Chiti out of the picture by 1982? He is not in the development credits for the 182 chassis. I remember DeCrasheris leading Long Beach and thinking, Mario can't catch a break, the new car looks good. Until of course, Andrea sliced the side of the car off down to the tub....

The 182's tunnel exits at the back of the car were very low and wide, even missing the halfshafts, unusual at the time. Almost Ike a modern diffuser.

[editor]

Thanks again editor.

You're welcome.

When did Mario get hurt in the Alfa?

At Zandvoort.

Was Chiti out of the picture by 1982? ...

No.

[adi(os)]

Osella is a good shout. Basically a team that employed Piercarlo Ghinzani and a.n other as drivers every year

Osella at the 1982 South African GP

[Paddy]

B S fabrications, Bob Sparshoff, ex- Lotus engineer, was a supplier to several F1 teams and BS ran American Brett Lunger in F1 and F2 for in the late 1970's.. They used McLarens ands Surtees cars. Also ran some British F1 if I recall correctly.

[Paddy]

My all time favorite private GP team has to be David Purley's LEC Cosworth of the late 1970's. I met Purley at his GP debut in a factory March in Monaco 1973. He was in our tour group and had dinner at our table every night. He never mentioned racing! The story of his life is epic, youngest private pilot, decorated paratrooper, hero of the 1973 Dutch GP, and survivor of the worst racing crash ever in his own LEC car. Raced again, killed in a stunt plane, bravest of the brave.

[Pelican Joe]

B S fabrications, Bob Sparshoff, ex- Lotus engineer, was a supplier to several F1 teams and BS ran American Brett Lunger in F1 and F2 for in the late 1970's.. They used McLarens ands Surtees cars. Also ran some British F1 if I recall correctly.

They gave Nelson Piquet some of his first F1 starts in 1978 driving their M23. I think his debut was with Ensign, but then he went over to B S.

[editor]

They gave Nelson Piquet some of his first F1 starts in 1978 driving their M23. I think his debut was with Ensign, but then he went over to B S.

Bobby Rahal said Nelson Piquet got the BS Fabrications' F1 drive because he turned it down.

Piquet made his F1 debut with Ensign in 1978, competing in one GP before moving to BS Fabrications to drive its McLaren M23 in three events. Bob Sparshott (not Sparshoff) intended to keep the Brazilian but lost him to Bernie Ecclestone. There is a disagreement over how Piquet came to decline Sparshott's offer to join the team full-time in order to become an underpaid Brabham driver.

Sparshott, not an engineer for Lotus but rather a mechanic, also twirled wrenches for the likes of Andy Granatelli. Sparshott was one of the mechanics hired to assemble and to prepare the customer March 701 Granatelli obtained for Mario Andretti to race part-time in F1. That car was run from a shop in Illinois.

BS Fabrications, also known as B&S Fabrications in order to avoid problems with an abbreviation for a vulgarity, should not be confused with another British motorsports company of the same name. Sparshott's company built and ran works BMW M1s in the Procar series. It manufactured an M23 driven by Brett Lunger. John Barnard said he insisted that Sparshott's firm manufacture the few Chaparral 2Ks made. Sparshott also built the works Toleman TG280s F2 cars, setting a high standard for quality.

Sparshott fielded cars in numerous championships overs the years under a variety of company names, including BS Fabrications.

Lunger, who drove a March and McLarens for BS Fabs in F1, said he originally intended to join the circus with a works Eagle. Lunger was scheduled to be teamed with Peter Revson had Revson accepted Dan Gurney's offer to lead the F1 effort. Revson also rejected an offer from Hill and from a satellite McLaren team. Brenda Vernor said Revson's Ferrari offer was a political ploy.

[Openracer]

Very interesting info editor. Any insight into the sponsorship? It was Philip Morris International like McLaren, but they would be 'Chesterfield' most of the time, but occasionally Marlboro or L&M. The Chesterfield and L&M brands were licensed to Philip Morris outside of the US, despite being competitors in the US.

Was this the 'B' team for McLaren run by B&S or John Hogan coordinated?

[flatlander_48]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the little team that made it really big........

the-story-of-ken-tyrrell-the-dinosaur-of-f1_big.jpg

Ken's Tyrrell Racing Organisation.

af2a8fb7680e1cb6165f0f1ef120fa7c.jpg...................... aff90cb5c86b158406b317ed6348d649.jpg
"Ken Tyrrell and Derek Gardner, the car?s designer,
in front of the workshop at the Tyrell factory, August 1971."

I met Ken Terrell at a Society of Manufacturing Engineers trade show called AutoFACT. It was put on in Detroit. This was in the mid-80’s when they were sponsored by Data General and ran Renault turbos. I mentioned that I had been at Detroit for Alboreto’s win and we talked about that for a bit. He said that when they did the post race tear down, they were always amazed about how little brake wear there was. As he put it: “I don’t know how he ever got the thing stopped!”.

[flatlander_48]

Subaru had Carlo Chiti build theirs. Big mistake, the Subaru boxer-12 was basically two lots of the Motori Moderni POS that had been a scarcely-mobile barbecue half a decade earlier.

Chiti is one of those figures who seems to have had an inexplicably long career. Seemingly entirely based on being part of the 1961 Ferrari WC outfit that was solely because the British teams were having a hissy fit. Everything he came up with for the next three decades was utter crap; OK, he led Alfa to a world sportscar title, but only after literally everyone else had withdrawn, so they were up against domestic racing Osellas and so on.

Don’t forget that Chiti lived through that ATS debacle. That could have killed anyones career, but he eventually bounced back. In spite of the F1 car, their road going sports car was absolutely beautiful.

One thing to note is something Phil Hill told me. Remember that the Ferrari 156 ran a fair amount of camber at the rear. Hill said that it was necessary to get the car to handle and that Chiti was never able to fully address the problem.

[editor]

Very interesting info editor. Any insight into the sponsorship? ...

Sponsorship ended up being the Achilles heel of the project owing to the poor global economic climate of the time.

... Was this the 'B' team for McLaren run by B&S or John Hogan coordinated?

No. The team within a team came into being as a result of a contract settlement between Yardley and McLaren. The operation was staffed and managed by McLaren personnel.

Yardley accused McLaren of breach of contract when it took Emerson Fittipaldi's Texaco-Marlboro bucks, denouncing the team in a press release. McLaren responded with threats of legal action against Yardley and anyone who used the release. Mike Hailwood was signed to be the driver of the underfunded YardleyMac. Hailwood drove until his car racing career was ended by a crash at the old Nurburgring.

(Yardley's backing reportedly was insufficient to run one car; McLaren had spread it over two. The extension was said to be for that same sum.)

When Peter Revson and Teddy Mayer fell out for the final time, McLaren offered Revson two opportunities: A combination USAC-American F5000 schedule or secondment to the F1 satellite team. Mayer informed Revson that he was out of the main F1 team in July of '73, weeks after the American had won the British GP.

Revson, determined to remain in F1, thought the partly-sponsored third M23 would be treated as little more than the black sheep of the McLaren family. Arguably, that feeling led to Revson's death. Fittipaldi reportedly didn't want Revson as a teammate in the main team and the Brazilian held the purse strings for McLaren's new sponsorship. Revson was not liked or trusted by some members of McLaren. They said they thought his ego had grown bigger than his britches. Even during the best of times, McLaren didn't consider Revson to be a top-rank GP driver.

Revson said he believed a person's intrinsic value was measured by the amount of wealth owned or controlled by that person and by the levers of power within a monied individual's grasp. By his reasoning, an industrialist was more valuable than an ironworker, a philanthropist more valuable more than a house painter. This belief was said to be the root of the problem that affected a number of his relationships, perhaps most notably the Revson-Mark Donohue relationship. Revson's enmity toward Donohue dated back to when each was competing in SCCA amateur races and it boiled over when they were teammates at Penske Racing in 1970. Donohue's blood wasn't blue enough to allow him to beat Revson, or so the privileged Revson thought. Mayer's blood was bluer than Revson's.

[ensign14]

Even during the best of times, McLaren didn't consider Revson to be a top-rank GP driver.

To be fair, they had a point. The M23 was good enough to win a world title three years after Revson drove it to one genuine win.

[Paddy]

Revson sounds like a fortune teller, foreseeing todays F1 where only wealthy or connected drivers need apply.

[Pelican Joe]

To be fair, they had a point. The M23 was good enough to win a world title three years after Revson drove it to one genuine win.

It won the world title a year after Revson's victorie(s) in 1973. To be fair, the M23 didn't come alive until Fittipaldi - with his knowledge of the Lotus 72 - came on board in 1974. I'm not disagreeing, however, that Revson probably wasn't the one to put them over the top.

[Paddy]

I always thought the natural choice for a drive in the McLaren M23 for 1973-1974 would be original McLaren protege Chris Amon. If not the main team then for sure the Yardley car over Hailwood. Chris showed he was still on top of his game at Matra but had to drive the awful Tecno for 1973. Did Chris **** off Bruce or Teddy?