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Larrousse, Scuderia Finotto, Belgian GP 1974


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#1 Dan Axelsson

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Posted 12 June 2008 - 09:31

Dear friends!

About Gerard Larrousse, the Scuderia Finotto team, and Firestone / GoodYear tyres at the Belgian GP 1974.

Seems there were two chassis for him there, Brabham BT42-5 & BT42-6.

On this photo a Firestone sticker on the nose and a wet track:
http://site.voila.fr...belgium_003.jpg
From: http://racing-photos...nivelles_74.htm

On this photo a GoodYear sticker and a dry track:
http://www.sutton-im...ame=74bel35.jpg

Friday practice was wet and BT42-5 were used. Then dry conditions on Saturday and in the race, and BT42-6 were used.

But Firestone and GoodYear for Finotto at the same GP meeting? Is it possible that BT42-5 were on Firestones and BT42-6 on GoodYears? Or even a possible change of supplier during the meeting?

Then there were of course the two days of testing during the week before the actual GP meeting, but were Larrousse/Finotto present there?

Anyone who could shed some light over this tyre mystery?

Many thanks!

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#2 bschenker

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Posted 12 June 2008 - 10:08

I think you have to contact Jürg Dubler, hi was the Teamdirector from the Bretscher/Finotto Team.

Finotto was owner of 2 cars.

#3 Twin Window

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Posted 12 June 2008 - 10:32

Slightly off-tangent, but the VDS F5000 team ran with both Firestone AND Goodyear tyres simultaneously on their Chevrons during, IIRC, the 1973 season finalé at Brands. The rear wing endplates bore the legends 'Fireyear' and 'Goodstone' made up from butchered decals...

#4 fines

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Posted 12 June 2008 - 11:52

You sure those are two cars? These stickers are swopped at least as fast as the car is set up for a new brand of tyres, but one of the cars would have to have had #43T, no?

OT also, I have once seen a picture of a Sprint Car with three different brands of tyres on!

#5 Rob G

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Posted 13 June 2008 - 03:57

Originally posted by fines
You sure those are two cars? These stickers are swopped at least as fast as the car is set up for a new brand of tyres, but one of the cars would have to have had #43T, no?

It's possible that the Friday T-car was the one not used in the wet photo; it's possible that the car in the dry photo either does have a T next to the 3 but hidden in this shot, or it's a photo taken during the race on Sunday. But I think we're probably looking at the same car in both photos, judging by how precisely alike the positions of all the decals are (except for the tire logos and the dizzying addition on the side of course). That sort of attention to detail was probably not on the minds of a struggling privateer team at the time.

Incidentally, I have a poor-quality photo of Larrousse in a BT42 with bodywork that's radically different compared to the two photos supplied here. The airbox is as tall and thin as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the supplementary nose wing is missing, and the rear wing endplate is painted white. I think it was taken at Dijon, but I'm not sure, and my uncertainty makes me wonder if the second chassis at Nivelles looked just like the first.

#6 Jorge Felix

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Posted 25 April 2009 - 22:49

Originally posted by fines
You sure those are two cars? These stickers are swopped at least as fast as the car is set up for a new brand of tyres, but one of the cars would have to have had #43T, no?

I can confirm that they were two cars. I saw both in a picture. And also saw the one with the "T"
as well. No doubt about that.

#7 f1steveuk

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Posted 26 April 2009 - 08:23

Originally posted by Twin Window
Slightly off-tangent, but the VDS F5000 team ran with both Firestone AND Goodyear tyres simultaneously on their Chevrons during, IIRC, the 1973 season finalé at Brands. The rear wing endplates bore the legends 'Fireyear' and 'Goodstone' made up from butchered decals...


There you go Stuart

Posted Image

I think Teddy said that the compounds worked better from different makers to which end of the car they went. Firestones working much better on the front, and Goodyears the rear. As VDS had no tyre contract, they just brought what worked best!

#8 ensign14

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Posted 26 April 2009 - 09:46

The FireYear thing was done in jacket form for the Unser family when Al and Bobby were on different tyre makes at Indy in the 1970s.

#9 fines

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Posted 26 April 2009 - 10:30

Hah, enny :up:, but the clincher is: who wore the Goodstone jacket, and who the Fireyear?;)