Alfa Romeo F1 Car

[rhysenna]

Having watched the 1979 Belgium GP on the BBC website, I noticed this Alfa Romeo F1 car. Never seen it before.

[andy97]

Yes, powered by a Flat 12, not overly succesful, particularly as Lotus had moved aerodynamics on a fair bit by then with ground effect.

Edited by andy97 on Wednesday 25th August 21:26

[FourWheelDrift]

That is the Alfa Romeo 177, their first complete car (previously engine supplier to Brabham). That car wad only used in 3 races of 1979 before being replaced by the 179 model.

[rhysenna]

The BBC coverage starts with a Brabham Alfa firing up. Awesome sound!

[FourWheelDrift]

Ps just in case any pedant pipes up I of course mean first car of the modern period as they did of course build their own GP cars pre-war the later ones were rescued and raced post war and in the 50/51 World Championships.

[Captain Flashman]

I'm still surprised that ferrari don't badge their customer engines Alfa and maserati.

[Eric Mc]

I watched the 1979 race as well. That was the first time I'd seen it since it was broadcast. Good stuff.

Didn't the cars look mighty squirrelly at times?

[CTR Arachnid]

Does anyone have a link to the footage? Cheers

[rhysenna]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

[CTR Arachnid]

cheers

[FourWheelDrift]

And with hindsight who ever thought chicken wire and wooden stake catch fencing was a good idea. Get that wrapped around the cockpit preventing the driver getting out and he'd have no chance in a fire.

[Mazda Baiter]

FourWheelDrift said:

And with hindsight who ever thought chicken wire and wooden stake catch fencing was a good idea. Get that wrapped around the cockpit preventing the driver getting out and he'd have no chance in a fire.

That would have been John Hugenholtz. The guy who designed Suzuka and Zandvoort (and maybe had something to do with Estoril).

Catch fencing was certainly a bad idea.

[FourWheelDrift]

Bit like a composer of fine piano music, who can't play the piano. I suppose, or Gilly Goolden providing a fine wine, but don't let her cook the food.

[rhysenna]

Does anybody know of any incidents where the catch fencing resulted in injury or hindered a rescue from the car?

[Mazda Baiter]

rhysenna said:

Does anybody know of any incidents where the catch fencing resulted in injury or hindered a rescue from the car?

1975 British GP.

It ended with cars caught in the catch fencing blocking each other and emergency vehicles. iirc a german driver was unconcious for a while but survived. Harold Ertl maybe?

There will be many more examples of this though. It was like metal shrink wrap for F1 cars.

[FourWheelDrift]

Wasn't Mark Donahue killed by a catch fencing post hitting him on the head during practice for the 1975 Austrain GP.

[rhysenna]

Mazda Baiter said:

rhysenna said:

Does anybody know of any incidents where the catch fencing resulted in injury or hindered a rescue from the car?

1975 British GP.

It ended with cars caught in the catch fencing blocking each other and emergency vehicles. iirc a german driver was unconcious for a while but survived. Harold Ertl maybe?

There will be many more examples of this though. It was like metal shrink wrap for F1 cars.

Wow. Just watched a clip from that race showing the pile up. Incredible to think they thought that fencing was a good idea.

[FourWheelDrift]

Edited to add - beaten to it. Missed the post with connection time outs and bloody Oops pages on mobile site.

And the other thing about catch fencing is once it's used it's useless, there was a wet race at Silverstone, can't remember the year but everyone was going off at Club (or might have been Woodcote) and once the first car had removed the fencing the next cars had nothing else to hit but the other crashed cars. The Marshalls unable to move the crashed cars because of the catch fencing wrapped around wheels.

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Thursday 26th August 11:51

[The Hypno-Toad]

Mazda Baiter said:

rhysenna said:

Does anybody know of any incidents where the catch fencing resulted in injury or hindered a rescue from the car?

1975 British GP.

It ended with cars caught in the catch fencing blocking each other and emergency vehicles. iirc a german driver was unconcious for a while but survived. Harold Ertl maybe?

There will be many more examples of this though. It was like metal shrink wrap for F1 cars.

Although funnily enough Nigel Roebuck blames the lack of catch fencing at Hockenheim for Patrick Depaillers death.

Didn't it get banned after Bertrand Fabis death?

But back on topic I think in that first picture of the F1 car it looks like one of those pretend F1 go-karts they let you drive at Pontins.

Edited by The Hypno-Toad on Thursday 26th August 11:54

[FourWheelDrift]

Depaiiler crashed into Armco at the Ost Kurve at Hockenheim. At a time when they had no chicane before it and it was a very fast corner after the long run out into the forest from the first corner. Catch fencing might have lessened the impact but seeing the wreckage of the car I don't think it would have helped much.