30/11/2013
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
The Brazilian GP may have been the last we will see of Cosworth in Formula One. It went out not with a bang, but a whimper, powering two rookies driving for Marussia. One of them, Max Chilton, became the first rookie ever to finish every race of a season.
Thus ends a 45 year spell in Formula One. So long, Cosworth, and thank you for everything.
The Cosworth DFV (double four-valve) raced between 1967 and 1985 ad took 155 World Championship wins. (To be correct, the DFV won 154 races, the short-stroke DFY took the 155th victory.) This was in addition to countless other wins, including two at Le Mans. When the DFV retired from Formula One it was used to launch F3000 which, in 1985, replaced Formula Two.
DFVs had 'Ford' on their camcovers except when Frank Williams had Saudi sponsorship, when he fitted 'Cosworth' camcovers. Ford was on an Arab blacklist for its dealings with Israel.
A DFV was adapted as an outboard motor for speed boats and won so comprehensively on its debut that it was promptly banned. Taking that lesson to heart, when Cosworth built the turbocharged DFX for Indycar racing in 1977, it began conservatively, on a par with the then-favoured Offenhauser engine. Once Cosworth had its feet under the table, it turned up the wick and won virtually every race until the end of 1986.
The Ford V6 turbo F1 engine in the Beatrice FORCE Lolas of 1986/7 was a Cosworth design and when normally aspirated engine reappeared in 1988, Cosworth was there again. Michael Schumacher's first World Championship in 1994 was secured with a Benetton powered by a Cosworth HB engine.
Various people bought Cosworth, including Ford and VW. There are two separate Cosworth companies, Cosworth Racing speaks for itself and its work includes advanced electronics. Cosworth Technology, the larger of the two, works with the mainstream motor industry. Both are based in St James Mill Road, Northampton.
In the late 1960s, St James Mill Road was the target of F1 truckers who raced to get their engines there for rebuilds since Cosworth operated a 'First come, first served' policy. Then Cosworth licensed selected engine builders to undertake rebuilds.
It has seemed to many that Cosworth had recently lost the plot, but the current edition of Race Engine Technology tells a different story. The journal has an extensive examination of the Cosworth CA engine (used by Marussia.) In 2006, this remarkable unit achieved 20,000 rpm, a record for an F1 engine. Cosworth's advantage was nullified by engines being restricted to 18,000 rpm.
It would not be for me to suggest that the rev restriction was in any way political or that it might have been to the advantage of the big manufacturers.
It cannot be a matter of cost since Cosworth is a relatively small outfit making engines commercially without a major manufacturer subsidising it. It cannot be a reliability issue, the Cosworth CA had to be reliable because it was for sale and operated in the same market as everyone else.
The Cosworth CA holds the record for crankshaft speed and it was hobbled.
Is placing such a restriction in the spirit of Grand Prix racing? How can one define such a nebulous thing? Fortunately, help is at hand on the official F1 website. 'Formula 1 racing is the ultimate test of man and machine - pushing car and driver to their absolute limits in pursuit of one simple goal. Speed.'
Note the use of 'ultimate' and 'absolute'. I am sorry, but you cannot use these words while artificially restricting progress in design.
BMW, Honda and Toyota had F1 engine programmes, but when they withdrew their teams, they did not think it worthwhile to maintain an engine department. There was no point since specifications had been frozen.
Honda continued to develop the 2.4-litre V8 engine, but Honda has always used competition to hone young engineers. Developing the engine was a useful in-house training exercise.
Time was when a team might have been able to do a deal with an engine supplier and actually be paid for using their products. By freezing engine specifications, the FIA drove out three major manufacturers. The economic downturn of 2008 made it politically inexpedient for some manufacturers to continue to support a Formula One team, but there are excellent reasons for continuing engine development.
By freezing specifications, the FIA took away those reasons and then has the gall to wring its hands at escalating costs and the fact that some teams are forced to take pay drivers. The fact is that the tighter the regulations, the more expensive it is to gain the odd tenth.
In 2014 there will be only three engine suppliers. Even when Cosworth supplied more than half the field, there were always more types of engine than that in Formula One.
Enzo Ferrari was justly proud of the fact that the Scuderia made the complete car, most of the time. Ferrari's first monocoque was made by John Thompson in England and John took his family for a holiday in Italy, with the Ferrari monocoque strapped to his roof-rack.
I can see Ferrari's point when he called British teams 'garagistes'. Previously, Coventry Climax engines had filled the grid. In 1967, Lotus had exclusive use of the DFV, but Colin Chapman, ever up for a challenge, waived exclusivity. Pretty soon, to go Formula One you only needed a Cosworth engine, a Hewland gearbox, and a set of Goodyears. Peter Connew and two mates built an F1 car in a lock-up garage and it ran in the 1972 Austrian GP.
Since the DFV engine provided reliable power teams had to look elsewhere for advantages and so we had mighty progress in both chassis design and aerodynamics.
The FISA/FOCA 'war' of thirty years ago was essentially between the garagistes and the major manufacturers. The garagistes made up most of the grid (and did most of the winning) and they were on the grid because their business was racing whereas major manufacturers come in, and go out, like a fiddler's elbow, as it suits their main business.
Bernie was able to organise the garagistes. He negotiated with race organisers, chartered aircraft to take teams to races and did so for an eight per cent cut, which was less than the commission of any literary or theatrical agent. The position has become considerably more complicated since then, but the Cosworth DFV founded modern F1,
The 2014 regulations have restricted choice and the more complicated powertrains will add an additional 10-12 million pounds a year per team for the engine bill alone. The cost of developing entirely new chassis and aero packages push the bill up even further.
The new rules also make Formula One vulnerable, of the three 2014 engine suppliers, only Ferrari has a dyed-in-the-wool commitment to motor racing. Renault and Mercedes-Benz have long histories, but they have been intermittent. The same is true for Honda which will return, with McLaren, in 2015.
Cosworth has done more than any other outfit to shape modern motor racing and in so many ways which are not immediately apparent. It was not the first postwar engine maker to make dohc 4-valve engines, that was Borgward, a German manufacturer, in the 1950s. Coventry Climax made a handful of V8 4-valve engines in the early 1960s, but it was Cosworth that proved the concept.
When it made the DFV, it made sure that all parts were interchangeable and it introduced to motor racing computer controlled machining; It used a Japanese punch-card system. It was like early word processing, which now seems crude, but it beat a typewriter and Tipp-EX.
By the mid-1980s, people were driving cars with badges on the back which told the following driver how many valves-per-cylinder were under the bonnet. This was then considered important information.
Cosworth designed, or had a hand in, a good few of those engines. Ford was a regular customer, and paid extra for the kudos of being able add 'Cosworth' to the name of some models. For a long time Ford resisted the urge to buy Cosworth because it feared that becoming part of a major corporation might spoil the culture Ford so valued.
The image of Vauxhall/Opel was transformed in the 1980s with anonymous Cosworth-designed engines. Mercedes-Benz turned to Cosworth for the engine in the 190E 2.5-16. On a visit in 1983, I saw Saab engines and was asked not to blab.
McLaren established itself in Formula One in 1968 when it was able to buy Cosworth DFV engines at 7,500 quid each. Bruce McLaren won a Grand Prix, Denny Hulme won two and McLaren was second in the Constructors' Championship. McLaren's entire F1 engine bill in 1968, allowing for inflation, would not buy you a McLaren P1 today.
Many historians are wide of the mark when they talk of 'in today's value' because the money that matters is disposable income. In 1968, a DFV cost ten Mini Coopers, do the math.
Grids were sparsely filled in the early days of the 3-litre, the FIA had not considered details like engine supply. With the backing of Ford, Cosworth saved Formula One and drove it forward. The achievement is considerably greater than the statistics and they are in a class of their own.
Cosworth Racing, I hope it is 'au revoir' and not 'adieu'. In the meantime, thank you for everything.
Learn more about Mike and check out his previous features, here.