Load the motorsport-hungry brain with the most amazing firsts of F1 here
You guys don’t think we’re at the height of F1 cars? I mean, if you really think about it, we’ve got the most advanced vehicles in the world right now. The world of F1 cars has changed a lot, and I’m going to take a look at the F1 cars that were the game changers in this article and series.
First Champion Constructor: Vanwall VW55
F1 documents are strange. The first sanctioned event that took place only a year after the havoc of the Second World War (the Turin GP in 1946), manufacturers and teams, and drivers themselves, did not officially have a championship until 1958. Thanks to three winners, each by Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, British brand Vanwall captured the first-ever constructors’ championship, while Moss lost the drivers’ crown to Mike Hawthorn by a single point.
Winner of the first race: Alfa Romeo 1588
If you were paying careful attention to the last page, you must have recalled that the 1946 Turin Grand Prix was the first known F1 racing history occurrence. Well done for you.
Maybe that’s not true. Uh, sorry. See, there are many arguments about when F1 technically began precisely. Pre-war Formula One cars, a given series of post-war regulations, were there, but in 1950, the FIA only implemented an official drivers’ championship. In that year, all six rounds of the season were won by Alfa Romeo’s 158, produced initially before WWII but slowly improved with more power. And you thought it was boringly overwhelming for Mercedes…
First champion for mid-engine: Cooper T43
Like the Alfa 158, numerous Silver Arrow Mercedes, and the legendary Maserati 250F, the early F1 greats were all trapped, so to speak, with the tried-and-tested concept of putting the horse before the cart. A hideously vulnerable petrol tank, an engine in front, the driver behind, and somewhere sloshing around nearby. Tally-ho. Ho-ho.
Currently, it was not until 1958 that the rotund Cooper T43 became the first F1 machine with an engine behind the cockpit to first cross the tested flag, demonstrating that in the ultimate driving formula, lightweight and stable handling could overpower brute power.
First-ever wings: Lotus 49
Without weapons-grade aerodynamics, it’s challenging to envision modern F1. “Back in 2011, then-Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo legendarily complained that “Formula One by aerodynamics is too much. When protesting that the laws should change to emphasize horsepower than wind tunnel genius, we construct more airplanes than vehicles.
The car that kick-started F1’s thirst for grip-happy aerodynamic results was Colin Chapman’s Lotus 49, which first bore winglets at the 1968 Monaco GP, surprisingly one of the most downforce-relevant tracks on the calendar, while there were sleek low-drag racers from either side of the Second World War.
The concept of using the engine as its stressed component of the frame was also adopted by the Lotus 49, preserving weight and adding power all at once.
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First gearbox with paddle-shift: Ferrari 640
CHAMPION? Hah!-Hah! Ferrari’s F1 car in 1989 was hopeless. And perfect. The shrieking V12-powered 640 was so inefficient that both Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger never ended the same race during the entire season. After ten consecutive retirements, Berger took three podiums to finish a miserable season, including a win, followed by two more DNFs.
Ferrari was, however, studying. And what it found was that it was quick when its smart new semi-automatic flappy-paddle gearbox didn’t run out of energy. Manual gearboxes were soon caught on and dropped by the other F1 team. While Ferrari wasn’t the first builder to win the paddle championship, it sure started the ball rolling.
Very first carbon chassis: McLaren MP4/1
Though the McLaren MP4/1 never earned a world championship (it settled for runner-up in 1982), its military-grade carbon fiber unibody frame, designed by Hercules Aerospace, pioneered F1 car production. Stiffer, lighter, and safer than its competitors, the MP4/1 was roundly copied by most of the paddock.
The turbocharged engine first: Renault RS01
As teams were using either a 3.0-liter twin-turbo engine or a half-size engine if they fantasized bolting on a turbo, the F1 rules said, everyone stuck with the healthy choice of more significant displacement. That’s it, except for Renault, which in 1977 brought the world the first F1 turbo car. It was quickly referred to as the yellow teapot, an account of its bright livery of sunlight and its tendency of boiling itself clumsily.
Renault eventually troubleshot the teething issues, switching to twin turbos to cut the colossal turbo lag, and by 1979, at the South African GP, the car earned its first-ever pole position. This nightmarishly fickle anomaly changed the course of F1, which went turbo mad in the Eighties, while the RS01s withdrew from the race (and several others).
First Livery Sponsor: Team Gunston
Nope, Lotus, not. The Gold Leaf isn’t. Although the Lotus 49 and its paint-job cigarette sponsor is the most famous early venture to daub an F1 car in greater demand than national racing colors, it was not the first car to carry a dedicated livery of sponsorship.
Join Team Gunston’s private outfit, operated by the rich Rhodesian John Love, who at the 1968 South African Grand Prix had a sponsor-themed livery on a privateer Brabham. The rest is an excellent story.
The very first active suspension: Lotus 92
The 92 was a bit tricky that only earned a single point in its eight-race history, the last F1 Lotus built in the lifetime of creator Colin Chapman. And yet, the 92 was supremely innovative and pointed to the future of F1, with its primitive active suspension, which used computer-controlled hydraulics rather than springs to keep the car level in corners.
It is not shocking that the device was hopeless considering the computing resources available in the early 1980s, but just a decade later, active riding was so successful that it had to be banned from the sport. Lotus was ahead of the time, once again.
