Quote:
Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks
Really? Surely that was only because Coventry-Climax engines were available to all of the garagistes?
There was nothing to stop a Mercedes or Ferrari dominating if they were competent enough to do so, as Mercedes did in the early 50's and both Mercedes and Auto Union teams did with their Nazi funding in the 1930's, unless I'm mistaken.
Could part of the lack of mega-Franc/Lira/Deutschmark dominance efforts in the 1.5L era be due to a lack of clear advantage in prestige over sportscar racing at the time? I.e., Formula One was comparatively small fry at the time and not where the big dollar efforts were focussed (compared to say Le Mans perhaps)?
So Formula One or Grand Prix racing in the late 50's and early 60's pre-downforce era wasn't attracting those kinds of big budget efforts to win at any cost with the intention to dominate -- unlike the 750kg era of Grand Prix racing where the German Government set aside the budget to ensure Grand Prix racing would be a definitive demonstration of German engineering superiority in a very much dominant manner?
Edit -- If you are including pre-ground effects as "not dominated by aero" as well (so up to '78 rather than up to '68), then there is similarly the availability of Cosworth DFV engines to all garagistes as a crucial factor. Plus the comparatively modest prestige, meaning that Ferrari or Renault or Matra etc were not prepared to spend unlimited amounts of money to win the Formula One world championship in the 1970's, with their efforts split over many championships including sportscar racing...?
Besides, neither Red Bull Racing (which now operates in a *budget cap* era no less, where the power units are relatively equal too!) or Scuderia Ferrari dominated only due to being prepared to spend unlimited amounts of money. Rival teams like Toyota F1 Team and McLaren-Mercedes were also prepared to spend unlimited amounts of money, yet did not manage to dominate.
^ "Unlimited" refers to $500m in 2005 dollars and being happy to employ 1000 employees for the Formula One effort.  Of course in the 1970's, many of the Formula One engineering drawing offices would be lucky to have 5 (five!!!) people in them (some with only two or three), a far cry from the 500-600 engineers typical of a modern elite Grand Prix team. Of course credit must go to the garagistes for doing so well and innovating with such modest resources, but realistically did Scuderia Ferrari or Renault Gordini really write a blank cheque and lose (or be unable to dominate) regardless of that, or did they have a relatively modest budget in the 1970's too? |
My comment had nothing to do with DFV's, budget caps, resources, or money.
It was a reflection on the quality of racing at that time compared with the things that later generations of F1 followers note just as earlier generations do.
Many cite reliability and say much of the racing was boring, or uninteresting, or not entertaining.
But as someone who grew up in that generation it was none of those things, certainly not to the extent that it is now.
F1 regulators have, over the last thirty years in particular, been preoccupied with restrictions and rule making as a means of limiting designers and constructors as a means of limiting costs and speeds for the purpose of safety, closeness and making races more entertaining.
Whilst we could never decry the safety improvements much of the rest has failed and continues to fail.
In the last twenty years we have had periods where one constructor has dominated for a significant period of time, meaning multiple years of domination. There was Ferrari, later Red Bull, then Mercedes, now Red Bull again.
Renault had two years but that is nothing, and McLaren bagged a championship along with Brawn, which was a respite, but since then it has been a series of Red Bull and Mercedes domination of the championships.
No one can blame the teams for maximizing the opportunities available through the regulations, but the various attempts at leveling the playing field have not succeeded, and there may be some very clear reasons for that.