McLaren M19 – Ford

A little history

Nineteen seventy was a terrible year for McLaren. True, the team renewed its traditional success in the CanAm championship, but not only it ended the F1 season without a single win, which had never happened since the team’s burgeoning, it above all lost its founder Bruce McLaren, killed in a practice crash in June. Thereafter Teddy Mayer led the team, while the faithful Denny Hulme remained as number one driver.

The first task for 1971 was to replace the disappointing M14 by a brand new design. McLaren’s chief designer Gordon Coppuck electing to concentrate on Indycars, the work entirely rested upon his assistant Ralph Bellamy, who produced the M19A, a rather conventional single-seater powered by the ubiquitous Ford-Cosworth V8 engine. Its only original trait resided in its advanced suspension system. Structure was monocoque, built in aluminium, and hidden under a fibreglass body. Fully stressed, the exposed engine was an integral part of this structure.

The 1971 season seemed to start well for the M19A. At Kyalami for the South African opener, the car was indeed fast. With four laps to go, Denny Hulme was ahead of the field – then disaster struck as his exhausted machine refused to do more than coast to the finishing line. Though this could have looked promising, the car had already shown its limits as the behaviour of its “revolutionary” suspension had proved rather unpredictable during the whole event. The entire season would reflect this dual character: the M19A was swift, but fragile. Continuously tuning the suspension or adding a new nose or airbox didn’t help. Much blame was put on the team’s number two driver, Peter Gethin, who got the boot after the German Grand Prix. Two races later, the Brit won an epic Italian Grand Prix at the wheel of a second fiddle, the BRM – the first McLaren was seventh during the very same event, a clear demonstration that, after all, the M19A alone was the cause of McLaren’s misfortunes… Best result of the season finally came from a privately-entered M19A, when Mark Donohue placed third at the Canadian GP with a Roger Penske / Kirk F. White car. No more than ten points were earned during the year, the worst result since the team participated to the full F1 season.

In 1972, the M19A rapidly gave way to the M19C. The troublesome suspension arrangement was a thing of the past, and the car was now conventional all-around, but what had been lost in originality was largely compensated by increased reliability. Gone too were the last remnants of the southern hemisphere origins of the team, as the traditional orange livery and team logo were replaced by the colours of its new sponsor, Yardley. Now seconded by Peter Revson, Denny Hulme took a great start, finishing second in the new Argentinean GP, then taking his revenge in South Africa, the team’s first victory since 1969. This remained a lone success, but McLaren was regularly on the podium that year. Finally, the M19C opened the 1973 season before retiring in favour of the new M23, which was to become one of the most important Formula One cars McLaren ever built. Refitted with a Chevrolet V8, the M19 ended its career as a F5000 racer.

About the model

Model: McLaren M19A – Ford Cosworth

Event: 1971 Canadian Grand Prix, driven by Mark Donohue (finished 3rd overall)

Maker: Minichamps, “McLaren Collection” ref. 48

Scale: 1/43

Distributed by: Minichamps, limited edition

Acquired: brand new, in May 2006, in Manila, Philippines

A nice Minichamps model. The works cars look nice, but I instead settled for the great Sunoco livery of Donohue’s M19. My rating is 15/20.

Arrows A2 – Ford

A little history

A quarter of a century and close to four hundred Grand Prix entered without a single win: this is the sad assessment that can sum up Arrows’ Formula One career. The team has often been closer to success than, let’s say, Osella has ever been, but for most of its existence remained a mid-grid outfit. At least it brought colours to the pack, from the elegant brown and cream, Barclay-sponsored cars of the mid-Eighties for which I have a special fondness, to the black and orange machines from their later years, or the early gold-painted Arrows of the wing-car era.

The birth of Arrows was rather improvised. A group of dissident people at Shadow – former-pilots-turned-managers Jackie Oliver and Alan Rees, alongside engineers Tony Southgate and Dave Wass, and accompanied by budding star Riccardo Patrese – decided to quit the American team and join forces to create their own car with the support of a dubious Italian businessman (these last three words often seem to link together perfectly), Franco Ambrosio. Within months Ambrosio was in prison, leaving the coffers of the splinter group rather empty. In the meantime Arrows had encountered other problems – all this made for a rather inauspicious start.

The very first Arrows, the FA/1 was a very conventional machine designed in less than two months… so conventional actually that Shadow successfully had the car banned from Formula One, seized and destroyed following a decision of the British justice, on the ground that it was nothing more than a copy of its own DN9. Anticipating this ban, Tony Southgate had already started to draw the blueprints of the disputed car’s makeshift replacement. This new A1 was created in only fifty-two days, in time to succeed the FA/1 without disrupting Arrows’ already chaotic season. Furthermore the year ended with a drama, first pilot Patrese being involved in Ronny Peterson’s fatal crash in Italy and being banned for one race by his peers – some had suggested a harsher punishment.

Having already used twice the word “ban” at this point of the story, the question that comes to mind is: was there really a place for Arrows in Formula One? Well, despite all this, the team’s first year in Formula One had been promising enough. Riccardo Patrese scored all eleven points the team collected, including a superb second place in Sweden. His team-mate Rolf Stommelen, who was attempting a comeback, was less successful and struggled all year long just to qualify. Comparatively, rival Shadow had only six points – after an extraordinary 1977 season, during which the team had won its first Formula One race, the break-up had marked the beginning of the end for the American outfit.

Would Arrows progress even further in 1979 to become a front-line Formula One team? After starting the season with a simple evolution of its car, the A1B, Arrows revealed its new A2. Lotus had shown the way by dominating the 1978 championship with a ground-effect car; all teams followed suit and, in this respect, the A2 certainly was one of the most evolved “wing-cars” of its time. Unfortunately, this bold approach to advanced aerodynamics didn’t pay off. Riccardo Patrese and Jochen Mass weren’t able to score more than five points, announcing a twenty-five-year-long struggle to remain competitive.

About the model

Model: Arrows A2 – Ford Cosworth

Year: 1979

Event: 1979 Formula One World Championship, driven by Riccardo Patrese (classified as 20th with 2 points)

Maker: Minichamps

Scale: 1/43

Distributed by: Minichamps, limited edition

Acquired: brand new, in May 2006, in Manila, Philippines

It is sometimes difficult to remain impartial. I like the car, its paintjob and the era it comes from, therefore it would have been hard to dislike the model. Minichamps did a wonderful job, providing this model with all the tiny details and parts we collectors like so much for they have the despicable habit of so easily breaking when handled clumsily. Though tiny in this scale, the visible Ford Cosworth engine is very nicely detailed. My rating is 15/20.

A last minute addition: I just noticed on the close shot of the engine below the mention “PATENT PLENDING”, which I never paid attention of until now. A Minichamps blunder or the faithful reproduction of a mistake on the original Arrows?

Tyrrell 012 – Ford

A little history

Designed by Maurice Philippe as most of its predecessors had been, the Tyrrell 012 was introduced for the 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix, replacing the conventional 011 model. Though it followed the trend of the times by using carbon fibre as its chassis’ material of choice, the 012 still relied on the time-tried Ford Cosworth DFV engine when most of Tyrrell’s rivals were switching to turbocharged blocks. In the seats of his two cars, Ken Tyrrell placed American newcomer Danny Sullivan alongside the rising star he was nurturing since 1981, Michele Alboreto. Deficient in power, the 012 suffered during the season, though on the twisty Detroit track, Alboreto bagged an unexpected victory which, as it turned out, would be the last ever for the famed DFV.

Carried over for 1984, the Tyrrell 012 would record fair and consistent results during the year, despite the fact that both the team’s cars were now driven by newcomers, German Stefan Bellof and Britton Martin Brundle – Sullivan having returned home to run in the CART championship after an undistinguished season and Alboreto being signed by Ferrari. By that year, Tyrrell alone was relying on the venerable DFV, capitalizing on the fuel restrictions that would penalize turbocharged cars. Indeed, Bellof finished a promising 3rd during the memorable Monaco Grand Prix which was held in appalling weather conditions, opening a string of good results for Tyrrell. Though the cars sometimes struggled to qualify, they just seemed to fly on race days. A rational explanation was found after the Detroit Grand Prix.

Tyrrell had never hidden using an inboard water tank, which content was injected into the cylinders, increasing power. Being progressively emptied during the races it allowed the cars to run underweight until it was topped off again before the chequered flag. There was nothing either secret or illegal in this, the Tyrrell people simply exploiting a loophole in the FIA’s rules as many other teams had done before them since 1982 – except for one detail: it was proven that the water used to refill the tanks was mixed with lead pellets, so the cars were actually very light during the races… For the rest of the season was staged a Tyrrell vs. FIA struggle – a sad off-the-track circus of the kind today’s Formula One is now accustomed. Tyrrell desperately tried to prove that this extra ballast wasn’t illegal, but the team’s reasoning, though arguably valid, proved too far-fetched this time. All previous results were cancelled, and the team was excluded for the last races of the season.

For Tyrrell, which had never fully recovered its early competitiveness after Jacky Stewart’s retirement eleven years before, this was the final blow. A modest outfit with limited budget, Tyrrell was now in dire straights, for the FIA’s rules of the time stipulated that the international body would finance all of a team’s travel expenses for a season providing this team had scored at least one point during the previous year. With an outright disqualification in 1984, Tyrrell would roam the planet at its own costs during the next year, a very heavy burden.

Tyrrell soon gave up its fight against the march of times. Though the 012 fitted with the now hopeless DFV was again fielded at the beginning of 1985, during which the team relied on the very same pilots it had employed previously, it was superseded by a new turbocharged 014 powered by Renault in the midst of the season. For most of the remainder of its existence Tyrrell was condemned to back rows and semi-obscurity. In 1997, aged 73 and increasingly weakening, Ken Tyrrell sold its outfit to a tobacco company which was just too eager to circumvent toughening advertisement rules. Thus, at a time when F1 teams has been reduced to nothing more than sport franchises, Tyrrell first became BAR, then Honda, then Brawn GP. What’ll be next? Frankly, I don’t really bother anymore.

About the model

Model: Tyrrell 012 – Ford Cosworth
Year: 1984
Event: 1984 Formula One championship, driven by Stefan Bellof (disqualified and excluded from competition)
Maker: Minichamps
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Minichamps ref. 400-840004, limited edition – 3,024 pieces
Acquired: second hand, gift from a friend, in October 2008, in Manila, Philippines

It’s a Minichamps, the reference in industrial-type, factory-built 1/43 Formula Ones – that sums it all. My rating is 15/20.