7 replies to this topic

[sopa]

Well in Hunt's era the entire team was what, 20 people? Now most teams have 200+.

 

 

This quote in one thread caught my attention and wanted to create a discussion about it. Thought about Nostalgia Forum.

 

How were F1 teams managed back in the day with 20 people? I mean they were still designing and building cars in the factory. The same people, who did that, were also doing tasks at race tracks then? Unlike perhaps now, when there are people simultaneously both on race track and in the factory to do development work.

 

TBH, I don't have much insight about it, so I'd like to get some more. How have F1 teams structurally and operationally changed over times. The amount of people in the early days in teams and what were they all doing, how did teams logistically operate, etc. And how did they improve it over time.

 

Due to technology and innovation I guess nowadays there are also more so-called specialist jobs in several fields, which were missing back in the day.

[AJB]

20? The height of luxury!

 

I think Bob Anderson had 2 mechanics and carried his Brabham around on a VW pickup.

And he still managed 3rd place in the 1964 Austrian GP.

[sopa]

20? The height of luxury!

 

I think Bob Anderson had 2 mechanics and carried his Brabham around on a VW pickup.

And he still managed 3rd place in the 1964 Austrian GP.

 

I think he was a private driver, so bought the car instead of designing it. My question was more about teams, who do everything, including car design and building.

[Allan Lupton]

I think he was a private driver, so bought the car instead of designing it. My question was more about teams, who do everything, including car design and building.

For those of us of a certain age a "team" was the operator of racing cars bought from a manufacturer, so Bob Anderson and his staff were a team as were Equipe Nationale Belge, British Racing Partnership and Rob Walker.

What you describe above we would have called a manufacturer (such as Alfa Romeo, Lotus and Mercedes-Benz) until the advent of those which designed, built and raced the cars they made but did nothing else - such as BRM and Vanwall.

[jeffbee]

20? The height of luxury!

 

I think Bob Anderson had 2 mechanics and carried his Brabham around on a VW pickup.

And he still managed 3rd place in the 1964 Austrian GP.

 

And 1st place at the 1963 Rome GP.

[brakedisc]

I hitch hiked from Glasgow to Dijon in 1977 to see my race instructor try to qualify a dodgy March, run by 4 guys out of the back of an old Ford truck, for the French GP.

 

He was Patrick Neve, they were Williams Grand Prix Engineering, and in two years they became constructors and had won the British GP.

 

Who was more important? Frank, Patrick or Mr Aitken?

[Terry Walker]

I think we know how enormous and lavishly funded the  Connew Grand Prix team was. 

[D-Type]

In answer to the original question, don't forget that in 1975 McLaren were a typical "garagiste" team buying in a lot of expertise

Engines came from Cosworth and were maitained and rebuilt either by Cosworth or one of their licensees.

Gearboxes came from Hewland and although the teamwould maintain them, any replacement parts would be made by Hewland and not McLaren

Chassis were aluminium not carbon fibre so McLaren didn't need an autoclave.  They probably bought them from someone like B&S Fabrications

Bodywork was largely fibreglass and supplied by someone like Specialised mouldings.

Aerodynamics were in their infancy and any wind tunnel testing would have been hired by the hour in someone else's wind tunnel: a university, aircraft company or research institute.

Catering was provided by a couple with a secondhand campervan (Read I Just Made the Tea by Di Spires for her story of how this evolved to modern motor homes)And so on.

 

Many of these functions are now carried out in-house needing a larger team.  And, as you say, modern technology demands more specialists.  The othe rfactor is that with the greater funding that is available today the top teams can afford to fully investigate areas where previously they had to compromise on a'close enough' solution, as lower budget back-of-the-grid teams still do.

 

These changes have evolved gradually over time so it is very difficult to pinpoint when any particular change was made, apart from McLaren using a (bought in) carbon fibre tub in 1981.

 

You will also find some anecdotal information in Jo Ramirez's Memories of a Racing Man, Steve Matchett's The Mechanic's Tale, and other biographies and autobiographies.