Honda in Formula One
Honda has participated in Formula One, as an entrant and engine supplier, for various periods since 1964. Honda's involvement in Formula One began with the 1964 season, they returned in 1983 as an engine supplier, a role that ended in 1992. They returned again in 2000. By the end of 2005 they had bought out the BAR team, based at Brackley, United Kingdom, renamed their new subsidiary Honda Racing, it was announced on 5 December 2008 that Honda would be exiting Formula One with immediate effect due to the global financial crisis and were looking to sell their team. On 27 February 2009 it was announced that team principal Ross Brawn had led a management buyout of the Brackley team; the team raced as Brawn GP in 2009. On 17 May 2013, Honda announced their intention to return to the sport in the 2015 season under a works agreement with McLaren to supply V6 engines and kinetic energy recovery system units; the Honda engines proved to be unreliable, fuel thirsty, underpowered, with Honda head calling the engine's reliability problems a "disaster".
McLaren split with Honda after three years, with Toro Rosso agreeing to use Honda engines in 2018. Following a successful season with Toro Rosso, the parent team Red Bull Racing agreed to take on Honda engines for the 2019 season. Honda entered Formula One Grand Prix racing in 1964 just four years after producing their first road car, they began development of the RA271 in 1962 and startled the European-dominated Formula One garages with their all-Japanese factory team. More startling was the fact that Honda built their own engine and chassis, something only Ferrari and BRM – of the other teams still running in 1962 – had done. In only their second year of competition, Honda reached the coveted top step of the podium with Ginther's win in the RA272 at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. For the new 3.0L rules from 1966, Honda introduced the Honda RA273. Although the RA273's engine was a well-designed, ~360 bhp V12, the car was let down by a heavy and unwieldy in-house chassis. Honda returned to the winner's circle in 1967 with the new Honda RA300, driven by John Surtees.
This won the 1967 Italian Grand Prix in only its first Formula One race. The RA300 chassis was designed by Lola in the UK, this resulted in the car being nicknamed the Hondola by the motoring press; this was the last competitive car. The following year's Honda RA301 only reached the podium twice; the team's new Honda RA302 appeared in only a single race at Rouen-Les-Essarts, lasting only a few laps before its fiery crash resulted in the death of driver Jo Schlesser. The death prompted Honda to withdraw from Formula One at the end of the 1968 season. From 1993 to 1998, Honda's only presence in Formula One was as an engine supplier through its related but independent partner, Mugen Motorsports, who supplied engines to Footwork, Ligier and Jordan. Mugen-powered cars had won 4 Grands Prix by the end of the 1999 season. In 1998, Honda was considering entry in Formula One as a constructor, going as far as producing an engine and hiring Harvey Postlethwaite as technical director and designer. In addition, Honda pulled engineer Kyle Petryshen from HRC to help with the design and management of the new engine in the new chassis.
A test car, RA099, designed by Postlethwaite and built by Dallara, was made and tested during 1999, driven by Jos Verstappen. The team impressed at test sessions, beating some more experienced and better financed teams if they were in the midfield. At a test of this car, Postlethwaite suffered a fatal heart attack, the project was shelved and Honda decided to recommit as a full works engine supplier to BAR, starting in 2000. In September 2005 Honda purchased the remaining 55% share of BAR to become the sole owner. BAT continued as title sponsor with the Lucky Strike brand in 2006, but withdrew from Formula 1 for 2007, it was decided that the team would race under the name Honda Racing F1 Team from 2006. Despite showing promise pre-season, Honda demonstrated mediocre performance at the start of the 2006 season despite a pole position at Australia. Prior to their win at Hungary, they had only accumulated a single podium finish, a third place from Jenson Button at Malaysia; the main reason for lack of form was down to reliability, with the team dropping out of contention for race victories many times.
Pit-stop problems hampered the team early on, in one case ruining Jenson Button's chances for a good result and possible podium at Imola. Rubens Barrichello did not have a good season for the team, down to the fact that he had to get used to the new brakes and traction control, after moving from a successful six-year stint at Ferrari. Rubens had out-qualified his teammate in two of the final four races. Honda had a poor showing at the British Grand Prix in 2006. In particular, Jenson Button was eliminated after the first portion of qualifying after the team failed to get him out for a second run; this resulted in his qualifying 19th. He retired with an oil leak. In light of this poor form, it was announced that Geoff Willis would be adopting a factory-based role to concentrate on aerodynamics. Following the appointment of Senior Technical Director Shuhei Nakamoto over Willis' head and Mariano Alperin-Bruvera as Chief Aerodynamicist Willis' positi
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company, best known for stock-car racing. Its three largest or National series are the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the Xfinity Series, the Gander Outdoors Truck Series. Regional series include the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West, the Whelen Modified Tour, NASCAR Pinty's Series, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series. NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states as well as in Canada and Europe. NASCAR has presented races at the Suzuka and Motegi circuits in Japan, the Calder Park Thunderdome in Australia. NASCAR ventures into eSports via the PEAK Antifreeze NASCAR iRacing Series and a sanctioned ladder system on that title; the owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, Jim France has been CEO since August 6, 2018. The company's headquarters is in Florida. Internationally, its races are broadcast on television in over 150 countries. In the 1920s and 30s, Daytona Beach became known as the place to set world land speed records, supplanting France and Belgium as the preferred location for land speed records, with 8 consecutive world records set between 1927 and 1935.
After a historic race between Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton in 1903, the beach became a mecca for racing enthusiasts and 15 records were set on what became the Daytona Beach Road Course between 1905 and 1935. By the time the Bonneville Salt Flats became the premier location for pursuit of land speed records, Daytona Beach had become synonymous with fast cars in 1936. Drivers raced on a 4.1-mile course, consisting of a 1.5–2.0-mile stretch of beach as one straightaway, a narrow blacktop beachfront highway, State Road A1A, as the other. The two straights were connected by two tight rutted and sand covered turns at each end. Stock car racing in the United States has its origins in bootlegging during Prohibition, when drivers ran bootleg whiskey made in the Appalachian region of the United States. Bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit products, they used small, fast vehicles to better evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify their cars for speed and handling, as well as increased cargo capacity, some of them came to love the fast-paced driving down twisty mountain roads.
The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 dried up some of their business, but by Southerners had developed a taste for moonshine, a number of the drivers continued "runnin' shine", this time evading the "revenuers" who were attempting to tax their operations. The cars continued to improve, by the late 1940s, races featuring these cars were being run for pride and profit; these races were popular entertainment in the rural Southern United States, they are most associated with the Wilkes County region of North Carolina. Most races in those days were of modified cars. Street vehicles were lightened and reinforced. Mechanic William France Sr. moved to Daytona Beach, from Washington, D. C. in 1935 to escape the Great Depression. He was familiar with the history of the area from the land speed record attempts. France entered the 1936 Daytona event, he took over running the course in 1938. He promoted a few races before World War II. France had the notion. Drivers were victimized by unscrupulous promoters who would leave events with all the money before drivers were paid.
In 1947, he decided this racing would not grow without a formal sanctioning organization, standardized rules, regular schedule, an organized championship. On December 14, 1947, France began talks with other influential racers and promoters at the Ebony Bar at the Streamline Hotel at Daytona Beach, that ended with the formation of NASCAR on February 21, 1948; the first Commissioner of NASCAR was Erwin "Cannonball" Baker. A former stock car and open-wheel racer who competed in the Indianapolis 500 and set over one hundred land speed records. Baker earned most of his fame for his transcontinental speed runs and would prove a car's worth by driving it from New York to Los Angeles. After his death, the famous transcontinental race the'Cannonball Run' and the film, inspired by it were both named in his honor. Baker is enshrined in the Automotive Hall of Fame, the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame; this level of honor and success in each diverse racing association earned Baker the title of "King of the Road".
In the early 1950s, the United States Navy stationed Bill France Jr. at the Moffett Federal Airfield in northern California. His father asked him to look up Bob Barkhimer in California. Barkhimer was a star of midget car racing from the World War II era, ran about 22 different speedways as the head of the California Stock Car Racing Association. Young Bill developed a relationship with his partner, Margo Burke, he went to events with them, stayed weekends with them and became familiar with racing on the west coast. "Barky", as he was called by his friends, met with Bill France Sr.. In the spring of 1954, NASCAR became a stock car sanctioning body on the Pacific Coast under Barky. Wendell Scott was the first African-American to win a race in the Grand National Series, NASCAR's highest level, he was posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N. C. January 30, 2015. On March 8, 1936, a collection of drivers gathered at Florida; the drivers brought coupes, hardtops and sports cars to compete in an event to determine the fastest cars, best dr
Brabham
Brabham is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd. a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by two Australians, driver Jack Brabham and designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four Drivers' and two Constructors' World Championships in its 30-year Formula One history. Jack Brabham's 1966 FIA Drivers' Championship remains the only such achievement using a car bearing the driver's own name. In the 1960s, Brabham was the world's largest manufacturer of open-wheel racing cars for sale to customer teams. During this period, teams using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Three. Brabham cars competed in the Indianapolis 500 and in Formula 5000 racing. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brabham introduced such innovations as in-race refuelling, carbon brakes, hydropneumatic suspension, its unique Gordon Murray-designed "fan car" won its only race before being withdrawn. The team won two more Formula One Drivers' Championships in the 1980s with Brazilian Nelson Piquet.
He won his first championship in 1981 in the ground effect BT49-Ford, became the first to win a Drivers' Championship with a turbocharged car, in 1983. In 1983 the Brabham BT52, driven by Piquet and Italian Riccardo Patrese, was powered by the BMW M12 straight-4 engine, powered Brabham to four of the team's 35 Grand Prix victories. British businessman Bernie Ecclestone owned Brabham during most of the 1970s and 1980s, became responsible for administering the commercial aspects of Formula One. Ecclestone sold the team in 1988, its last owner was the a Japanese engineering firm. Midway through the 1992 season, the team collapsed financially as Middlebridge was unable to make repayments against loans provided by Landhurst Leasing; the case was investigated by the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office. In 2009, an unsuccessful attempt was made by a German organisation to enter the 2010 Formula One season using the Brabham name; the Brabham team was founded by Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac, who met in 1951 while both were building and racing cars in their native Australia.
Brabham was the more successful driver and went to the United Kingdom in 1955 to further his racing career. There he started driving for the Cooper Car Company works team and by 1958 had progressed with them to Formula One, the highest category of open-wheel racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, motor sport's world governing body. In 1959 and 1960, Brabham won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in Cooper's revolutionary mid-engined cars. Despite their innovation of putting the engine behind the driver, the Coopers and their chief designer, Owen Maddock, were resistant to developing their cars. Brabham pushed for further advances, played a significant role in developing Cooper's successful 1960 T53 "lowline" car, with input from his friend Tauranac. Brabham was confident he could do better than Cooper, in late 1959 he asked Tauranac to come to the UK and work with him producing upgrade kits for Sunbeam Rapier and Triumph Herald road cars at his car dealership, Jack Brabham Motors, but with the long-term aim of designing racing cars.
Brabham describes Tauranac as "absolutely the only bloke I'd have gone into partnership with". Brabham offered a Coventry-Climax FWE-engined version of the Herald, with 83 hp and uprated suspension to match the extra power. To meet that aim and Tauranac set up Motor Racing Developments Ltd. deliberately avoiding the use of either man's name. The new company would compete with Cooper in the market for customer racing cars; as Brabham was still employed by Cooper, Tauranac produced the first MRD car, for the entry level Formula Junior class, in secrecy. Unveiled in the summer of 1961, the "MRD" was soon renamed. Motoring journalist Jabby Crombac pointed out that " way a Frenchman pronounces those initials—written phonetically,'em air day'—sounded perilously like the French word... merde." Gavin Youl achieved a second-place finish at another at Mallory Park in the MRD-Ford. The cars were subsequently known as Brabhams, with type numbers starting with BT for "Brabham Tauranac". By the 1961 Formula One season, the Lotus and Ferrari teams had developed the mid-engined approach further than Cooper.
Brabham had a poor season, scoring only four points, and—having run his own private Coopers in non-championship events during 1961—left the company in 1962 to drive for his own team: the Brabham Racing Organisation, using cars built by Motor Racing Developments. The team was based at Chessington and held the British licence. Motor Racing Developments concentrated on making money by building cars for sale to customers in lower formulae, so the new car for the Formula One team was not ready until partway through the 1962 Formula One season; the Brabham Racing Organisation started the year fielding a customer Lotus chassis, delivered at 3:00 am in order to keep it a secret. Brabham took two points finishes in Lotuses, before the turquoise-liveried Brabham BT3 car made its debut at the 1962 German Grand Prix, it retired with a throttle problem after 9 of the 15 laps, but went on to take a pair of fourth places at the end of the season. From the 1963 season, Brabham was partnered by American driver Dan Gurney, the pair now running in Australia's racing colours of green and gold.
Brabham took the team's first win at the non-championship Solitude Grand Prix in 1963. Gurney took the marque's first two wins in the world championship, at the 1964 French and Mexican Grands Prix. Brabham works and customer cars took another three non-championship wins during the 1964 season; the 1965 season was less successful, with no championship wins. Brabham finis
Cosworth
Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines and electronics. Cosworth is based in Northampton, with American facilities in Indianapolis, Shelby Charter Township and Mooresville, North Carolina. Cosworth has collected 176 wins in Formula One as engine supplier, ranking second with most wins behind Ferrari; the company was founded as a British racing internal combustion engine maker in 1958 by Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth. Its company name:'Cosworth', was derived as a portmanteau of the surnames of its two founders. Both of the co-founders were former employees of Lotus Engineering Ltd. and Cosworth maintained a strong relationship with Colin Chapman. When the company was founded in 1958, Duckworth left Lotus, leaving Costin at the company; until 1962, Costin worked on Cosworth projects in his private time, while being active as a key Lotus engineer on the development of Lotus 15 through 26, as well as leading the Team Lotus contingent at foreign races, as evidenced by the 1962 Le Mans Lotus scandal.
Initial series production engines were sold to Lotus and many of the other racing engines up to Mk. XII were delivered to Team Lotus; the success of Formula Junior engines started bringing in non-Lotus revenues, the establishment of Formula B by the Sports Car Club of America allowed the financial foundation of Cosworth to be secured by the increased sales of Mk. XIII, a pure racing engine based on Lotus TwinCam, through its domination of the class; this newly found security enabled the company to distance itself from the Lotus Mk. VII and Elan optional road engine assembly business, allowed its resources to be concentrated on racing engine development; the first Cosworth-designed cylinder head was for SCA series. A real success was achieved with the next gear-driven double overhead camshaft four-valve FVA in 1966, when Cosworth, with a help from Chapman, convinced Ford to purchase the rights to the design, sign a development contract – including an eight-cylinder version; this resulted in the DFV, which dominated Formula One for many years.
From this time on, Cosworth was supported by Ford for many years, many of the Cosworth designs were owned by Ford and named as Ford engines under similar contracts. Another success by the BD series in the 1970s put Cosworth on a growing track. Cosworth went through a number of ownership changes. After Duckworth decided he didn't want to be involved with the day-to-day business of running a growing company, he sold out the ownership to United Engineering Industries in 1980, retaining his life presidency and day-to-day technical involvement with Cosworth, becoming a UEI board director. In 1998, Vickers sold Cosworth and Pi Research to Ford. In September, 2004 Ford announced that it was selling Cosworth and Pi Research, along with Cosworth Racing Ltd, its Jaguar Formula One team. On 15 November 2004, the sale of Cosworth was completed, to Champ Car World Series owners Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven, the current Cosworth Group; the road car engine aspect of the business was split from the racing division, following the sale of the engineering division of Cosworth to Volkswagen / Audi Group in September 1998, renamed Cosworth Technology, before being subsequently acquired by Mahle GmbH in 2005.
Cosworth Technology was renamed as MAHLE Powertrain on 1 July 2005. Since 2006, Cosworth has diversified to provide engineering consultancy, high performance electronics, component manufacture services outside of its classic motorsport customer base. Current publicised projects range from an 80 cubic centimetres diesel engine for unmanned aerial vehicles, through to an engineering partnership on some of the world's most powerful aspirated road car engines, including upcoming Aston Martin Valkyrie 1000+bhp V12. Cosworth supplied its last premier class racing engines to one F1 team in 2013, the Marussia F1 Team; the following is the list of initial products, with cylinder heads modified, but not designed by Cosworth, on Ford Kent engine cylinder blocks. The exceptions were Mk. XVII and MAE, which had intake port sleeves for downdraft carburetors brazed into the stock cast iron cylinder head, in place of the normal side draft ports, thus could be considered Cosworth designs. In addition to the above, Cosworth designed and provided the assembly work for Lotus Elan Special Equipment optional road engines with special camshafts and high compression pistons.
The final model of the above initial series was the MAE in 1965, when new rules were introduced in Formula 3 allowing up to 1,000 cubic centimetres engines with 36mm intake restrictor plate. MAE used one barrel of a two barrel Weber IDA downdraft carburetor with the other barrel blanked off; the domination of this engine was absolute as long as these regulations lasted until 1968. As Cosworth had a serious difficulty
1968 Formula One season
The 1968 Formula One season was the 22nd season of the FIA's Formula One motor racing. If featured the 19th FIA World Championship, which commenced on 1 January 1968, ended on 3 November after twelve races, numerous non-championship races. Although they had failed to win the title in 1967, by the end of the season the Lotus 49 and the DFV engine were mature enough to make the Lotus team dominant again. For 1968 Lotus lost its exclusive right to use the DFV. McLaren built a new DFV-powered car and a new force appeared on the scene when Ken Tyrrell entered his own team using a Cosworth-powered car built by French aeronautics company Matra and driven by ex-BRM driver Jackie Stewart. Unsurprisingly the season-opening 1968 South African Grand Prix confirmed Lotus' superiority, with Jim Clark and Graham Hill finishing 1–2, it would be Clark's last win. On 7 April 1968 Clark, one of the most successful and popular drivers of all time, was killed at Hockenheim in a non-championship Formula Two event.
The Scotsman had gone off the track caused by. And because there was no protection from the solid trees lining the circuit on both sides, Clark's Lotus smashed into a wall of trees, breaking the hapless Scotsman's neck and killing him instantly; the season saw three significant innovations. The first was the arrival of unrestricted sponsorship, which the FIA decided to permit that year after the withdrawal of support from automobile related firms like BP, Shell and Firestone. Team Gunston, a South African privateer team, was the first Formula One team to paint their cars in the livery of their sponsors when they entered a private Brabham for John Love, painted in the colours of Gunston cigarettes, in the 1968 South African Grand Prix. In the next round at the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix Lotus became the first works team to follow this example, with Graham Hill's Lotus 49B entered in the Red and White colors of Imperial Tobacco's Gold Leaf brand; the second innovation was the introduction of wings as seen on various cars including the Chaparral 2F sports car.
Colin Chapman introduced modest front wings and a spoiler on Graham Hill's Lotus 49B at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix. Brabham and Ferrari went one better at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix with full width wings mounted on struts high above the driver. Lotus replied with a full width wing directly connected to the rear suspension that required a redesign of suspension wishbones and transmission shafts. Matra produced a high mounted front wing connected to the front suspension; this last innovation was used during practice as it required a lot of effort from the driver. By the end of the season most teams were using sophisticated wings. Lastly, the third innovation was the introduction of a full face helmet for drivers, with Dan Gurney becoming the first driver to wear such helmet at the 1968 German Grand Prix. Despite the death of Jim Clark, Lotus won both titles in 1968 with Graham Hill, but Stewart was a serious contender, winning several Grands Prix in the Tyrrell-run Matra MS10. Stewart's winning drive during the rain and fog of the 1968 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, where he won by a margin of four minutes, is considered as one of the finest even though his rain tires were better than those of the competition.
The car's most innovative feature was the use of aviation-inspired structural fuel tanks. These allowed the chassis to be around 15 kg lighter, while still being stronger than its competitors; the FIA considered the technology to be unsafe and decided to ban it for 1970, insisting on rubber bag-tanks. Safety became a major issue in Formula One. McLaren fielded a pair of Cosworth powered M7s for reigning Formula One World Champion Denny Hulme and team founder Bruce McLaren. McLaren won the non-championship Brands Hatch Race of Champions the Belgian Grand Prix was the scene of the team's first Championship win. In doing so, McLaren became only the third driver to win a race in a car manufactured by his own team – Jack Brabham having done it in 1966 and Dan Gurney in 1967 at Spa Francorchamps. Hulme won the Italian Grand Prix and Canadian Grand Prix in the year. Repco produced a more powerful version of their V8 to maintain competitiveness against Ford's new Cosworth DFV, but it proved unreliable.
The Brabhams were fast — Rindt set pole position twice during the season — but Brabham and Rindt finished only three races between them, ended the year having scored just ten points.1968 turned out to be a turning point in the history of Formula One, in terms of technicalities and safety. Wings were used on Formula One cars and aerodynamics played a part in terms of the cars' performance, 5 Grand Prix drivers were killed in this year – including Jim Clark, Mike Spence, Jo Schlesser and Ludovico Scarfiotti – Clark at a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim in a Lotus in April, Spence during practice for the Indianapolis 500 in a Lotus in May, Scarfiotti during a hillclimb event in Germany driving a Porsche sportscar in June, Schlesser during the French Grand Prix driving a Honda in July, it was the last year where all the races were run on tracks with no safety modifications. The rather dubious events of the season included Schlesser's recklessly caused fatal accident at Rouen Les Essarts and the German Grand Prix run in atrocious rain and thick fog at the dangerous and long Nürburgring, a race, questioned at the start to be run in the intolerable conditions.
Dan Gurney introduced the first full face helmet at Briti
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but competes in the Indianapolis 500 and has won the Canadian-American Challenge Cup; the team is the second oldest active Formula One team after Ferrari, where they compete as McLaren F1 Team. They are the second most successful team in Formula One history after Ferrari, having won 182 races, 12 Drivers' Championships and eight Constructors' Championships; the team is a wholly owned subsidiary of the McLaren Group. Founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, the team won its first Grand Prix at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, but their greatest initial success was in Can-Am, which they dominated from 1967 to 1971. Further American triumph followed, with Indianapolis 500 wins in McLaren cars for Mark Donohue in 1972 and Johnny Rutherford in 1974 and 1976. After Bruce McLaren died in a testing accident in 1970, Teddy Mayer took over and led the team to their first Formula One Constructors' Championship in 1974, with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt winning the Drivers' Championship in 1974 and 1976 respectively.
The year 1974 marked the start of a long-standing sponsorship by Phillip Morris' Marlboro cigarette brand. In 1981, McLaren merged with Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing; this began the team's most successful era: with Porsche and Honda engines, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna took between them seven Drivers' Championships and the team took six Constructors' Championships. The combination of Prost and Senna was dominant—together they won all but one race in 1988—but their rivalry soured and Prost left for Ferrari. Fellow English team Williams offered the most consistent challenge during this period, the two winning every constructors' title between 1984 and 1994. However, by the mid-1990s, Honda had withdrawn from Formula One, Senna had moved to Williams, the team went three seasons without a win. With Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship, former Williams designer Adrian Newey, further championships came in 1998 and 1999 with driver Mika Häkkinen, during the 2000s the team were consistent front-runners, driver Lewis Hamilton taking their latest title in 2008.
Ron Dennis retired as McLaren team principal in 2009, handing over to long time McLaren employee Martin Whitmarsh. However, at the end of 2013, after the team's worst season since 2004, Whitmarsh was ousted. McLaren announced in 2013 that they would be using Honda engines from 2015 onwards, replacing Mercedes-Benz; the team raced as McLaren-Honda for the first time since 1992 at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix. In September 2017, McLaren announced they had agreed on an engine supply with Renault from 2018 to 2020. Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren. Bruce was a works driver for the British Formula One team Cooper with whom he had won three Grands Prix and come second in the 1960 World Championship. Wanting to compete in the Australasian Tasman Series, Bruce approached his employers, but when team owner Charles Cooper insisted on using 1.5-litre Formula One-specification engines instead of the 2.5-litre motors permitted by the Tasman rules, Bruce decided to set up his own team to run him and his prospective Formula One teammate Timmy Mayer with custom-built Cooper cars.
Bruce won the 1964 series, but Mayer was killed in practice for the final race at the Longford Circuit in Tasmania. When Bruce McLaren approached Teddy Mayer to help him with the purchase of the Zerex sports car from Roger Penske, Teddy Mayer and Bruce McLaren began discussing a business partnership resulting in Teddy Mayer buying in to Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Limited becoming its largest shareholder; the team was based in Feltham in 1963–1964, from 1965 until 1981 in Colnbrook, England. The team held the British licence. Despite this, Bruce never used the traditional British racing green on his cars. Instead, he used colour schemes. During this period, Bruce drove for his team in sports car races in the United Kingdom and North America and entered the 1965 Tasman Series with Phil Hill, but did not win it, he continued to drive in Grands Prix for Cooper, but judging that team's form to be waning, decided to race his own cars in 1966. Bruce made the team's Grand Prix debut at the 1966 Monaco race.
His race ended after nine laps due to a terminal oil leak. The 1966 car was the M2B designed by Robin Herd, but the programme was hampered by a poor choice of engines: a 3.0-litre version of Ford's Indianapolis 500 engine and a Serenissima V8 were used, the latter scoring the team's first point in Britain, but both were underpowered and unreliable. For 1967 Bruce decided to use a British Racing Motors V12 engine, but due to delays with the engine, was forced to use a modified Formula Two car called the M4B powered by a 2.1-litre BRM V8 building a similar but larger car called the M5A for the V12. Neither car brought the best result being a fourth at Monaco. For 1968, after driving McLaren's sole entry for the previous two years, Bruce was joined by 1967 champion and fellow New Zealander Denny Hulme, racing for McLaren in Can-Am; that year's new M7A car, Herd's final design for the team, was powered by Cosworth's new and soon to be ubiquitous DFV engine and with
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix race track built in 1984, a much longer Nordschleife "North loop" track, built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains; the north loop is 20.8 km long and has more than 300 metres of elevation change from its lowest to highest points. Jackie Stewart nicknamed the old track "The Green Hell"; the track featured four configurations: the 28.265 km -long Gesamtstrecke, which in turn consisted of the 22.810 km Nordschleife, the 7.747 km Südschleife. There was a 2.281 km warm-up loop called Zielschleife or Betonschleife, around the pit area. Between 1982 and 1983 the start/finish area was demolished to create a new GP-Strecke, this is used for all major and international racing events. However, the shortened Nordschleife is still in use for racing and public access. In the early 1920s, ADAC Eifelrennen races were held on public roads in the Eifel mountains.
This was soon recognised as dangerous. The construction of a dedicated race track was proposed, following the examples of Italy's Monza and Targa Florio courses, Berlin's AVUS, yet with a different character; the layout of the circuit in the mountains was similar to the Targa Florio event, one of the most important motor races at that time. The original Nürburgring was to be a showcase for racing talent. Construction of the track, designed by the Eichler Architekturbüro from Ravensburg, began in September 1925; the track was completed in spring of 1927, the ADAC Eifelrennen races were continued there. The first races to take place on 18 June 1927 showed sidecars; the first motorcycle race was won by Toni Ulmen on an English 350 cc Velocette. The cars followed a day and Rudolf Caracciola was the winner of the over 5000 cc class in a Mercedes-Benz Compressor. In addition, the track was opened to the public in the evenings and on weekends, as a one-way toll road; the whole track consisted of 174 bends, averaged 8 to 9 metres in width.
The fastest time around the full Gesamtstrecke was by Louis Chiron, at an average speed of 112.31 km/h in his Bugatti. In 1929 the full Nürburgring was used for the last time in major racing events, as future Grands Prix would be held only on the Nordschleife. Motorcycles and minor races used the shorter and safer Südschleife. Memorable pre-war races at the circuit featured the talents of early Ringmeister such as Rudolf Caracciola, Tazio Nuvolari and Bernd Rosemeyer. After World War II, racing resumed in 1947 and in 1951, the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring again became the main venue for the German Grand Prix as part of the Formula One World Championship. A new group of Ringmeister arose to dominate the race – Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart and Jacky Ickx. On 5 August 1961, during practice for the 1961 German Grand Prix, Phil Hill became the first person to complete a lap of the Nordschleife in under 9 minutes, with a lap of 8 minutes 55.2 seconds in the Ferrari 156 "Sharknose" Formula One car.
Over half a century even the highest performing road cars still have difficulty breaking 8 minutes without a professional race driver or one familiar with the track. Several rounds of the German motorcycle Grand Prix were held on the 7.7 km Südschleife, but the Hockenheimring and the Solitudering were the main sites for Grand Prix motorcycle racing. In 1953, the ADAC 1000 km Nürburgring race was introduced, an Endurance race and Sports car racing event that counted towards the World Sportscar Championship for decades; the 24 Hours Nürburgring for touring car racing was added in 1970. By the late 1960s, the Nordschleife and many other tracks were becoming dangerous for the latest generation of F1 cars. In 1967, a chicane was added before the start/finish straight, called Hohenrain, in order to reduce speeds at the pit lane entry; this made the track 25 m longer. This change, was not enough to keep Stewart from nicknaming it "The Green Hell" following his victory in the 1968 German Grand Prix amid a driving rainstorm and thick fog.
In 1970, after the fatal crash of Piers Courage at Zandvoort, the F1 drivers decided at the French Grand Prix to boycott the Nürburgring unless major changes were made, as they did at Spa the year before. The changes were not possible on short notice, the German GP was moved to the Hockenheimring, modified. In accordance with the demands of the F1 drivers, the Nordschleife was reconstructed by taking out some bumps, smoothing out some sudden jumps, installing Armco safety barriers; the track was made straighter, following the race line. The German GP could be hosted at the Nürburgring again, was for another six years from 1971 to 1976. In 1973 the entrance into the dangerous and bumpy Kallenhard corner was made slower by adding another left-hand corner after the fast Metzgesfeld sweeping corner. Safety was improved again on, e.g. by removing the jumps on the long main straight and widening it, taking away the bushes right next to the track at the main straight, which had made that section of the Nürburgring dangerously narrow.
A second series of three more F1 races was held until 1976. Howe
French
North American Racing Team
David Brown Racing Dept.
