 1968 312F |
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1969 Ferrari 312 F1 news, pictures, and information | ||
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 |  |  | Monoposto Chassis Num: 017 Engine Num: 017 |
This car competed at the 1969 BRDC International Trophy race at Silverstone where it was driven by Chris Amon. Other races by Amon during the 1969 season include the Spanish Grand Prix, and Dutch Grand Prix. From there the reigns were handed over to Pedro Rodriguez who drove it at the 1969 Canadian Grand Prix, US Grand Prix, and the Mexican Grand Prix. It is now owned and driven by Brad Hoyt.
For 1969, Scuderia Ferrari enlisted two drivers, Pedro Rodrigues and Chris Amon, to pilot their 312 Formula One cars. Twenty-nine year old Pedro Rodrigues was a well-known international racing veteran who had been racing Ferraris professionally since 1957. He had much experience in Formula One Competition driving for Scuderia Ferrari, Team Lotus, BRM and Cooper. He was a versatile driver and his talents were not solely reserved for Formula One. His career included nearly every other major racing series including motorcycles, sports cars, rally cars, ice racing, Can Am and NASCAR.
Many believe Chris Amon was one of the greatest drivers to have never won a Formula One championship. His Grand Prix career spanned 13 years and was one of the most capable drivers of the era.
The inaugural race for 0017 was on March 1st of 1969 at the Grand Prix of South Africa at Kyalami with Amon behind the wheel. The car failed to finish, however their next outing proved more successful. At the BRDC Daily Express international Trophy in Silverstone, they finished 10th. In May, the car appeared at the Grand Prix of Spain where it was plagued by engine troubles and was forced to retire prematurely.
Formula One in the '70s
As spectators, fans and constructors contemplate the steady NASCAR-ization of Formula One - spec tires, spec electronic engine-control units, long-life engines and transmissions, restricted in-season aerodynamic development, engine rev limits, contrived wing specifications and other regulations, including 'cost-reduction' limitation on design and testing - there was unbridled creativity and diversity in Formula One in the '70s. The brilliant - and sometimes erratic - talents who created and drove these cars further recalls a dynamic era that seems to have been lost forever.The F1 cars from this period had six wheels, shrouded tires, sliding skirts, proliferating wings, and even vacuum fans. Engines had six, eight and twelve cylinders. Most were naturally aspirated, but the sorcerer, Amedee Gordini, brought the first 1.5-liter turbo as an alternative. Entrants didn't need to post $48 million to pass through the FIA's portal to a Formula One gravy train, they just needed audacity. Which many be why there were characters on the pit wall like Lord Hesketh, Parnelli Jones, Mo Nunn, Teddy Yip, Roger Pensky, Walter Wolf, Guy Ligier and even, lest his origins be overlooked, one Bernie Ecclestone.
Then there were the drivers. They had arms and elbows, all fully employed in glorious abundance to slide, steer and even pass. Remarkably, at least by present-day standards, they were old enough to drink legally. And many of them did. They also partied, caroused and spoke their minds. Few of them had managers; almost all of them had talent and style. In fact, they had personalities, without being 'personalities.' They loved life, particularly in fast cars.
The end of the era came in 1980 when Alan Jones, Rene Arnoux, Didier Pironi, Carlos Reutemann, Jacques Laffite, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Nelson Piquet were winners. That's eight separate drivers in 14 points-scoring races, driving for four different teams. Ferrari wasn't among the 1980 winners, but during the '70s the dominant team was Ferrari, winning four Constructors' Championships and three Drivers' titles wîth the 312 T series.The 312
The 312 was Mauro Forghieri's creation. Turned loose by Enzo Ferrari wîth a 'clean sheet of paper,' Forghieri created the flat-12 3-liter engine to implement his goal of lowering Ferrari's GP cars' center of gravity and concentrating its masses within the wheelbase for the quickest possible directional response. Forghieri noted later that the 312 was a flat-12, not a 'boxer.' The distinction was important to Forghieri because he'd considered a boxer layout in conceiving the 312 engine.
The first 312 took to the track in 1970, designated the 312 B. Forghieri's flat-12 was easily the most powerful engine, and subsequent developments focused on building chassis and developing aerodynamics that would harness the 312's nearly 500 horsepower. In 1974, the 312 B3 brought Clay Regazzoni second in drivers' points - only three behind Emerson Fittipaldi - and Ferrari just eight points behind McLaren in the Constructors' Championship.
Forghieri made another dramatic change in 1975 wîth the 312 T, or transversal. The 312 T employed a transversally mounted gearbox between the engine and the rear wheels' centerline, along wîth center-mounted coolant and oil radiators to further consolidate the important masses within the 312's wheelbase. Tapered sidepods effectively acted as downforce-generation airfoils which the flat-12 engine's low profile complemented perfectly. With it, Niki Lauda captured the Drivers' title and Ferrari once again won the Constructors' Championship wîth Lauda and Regazzoni taking six wins in 14 races. The next-generation 312 T2 narrowly missed the 1976 Drivers' Championship after Lauda's fiery accident at the Nurburgring, but Ferrari captured the Constructors' title. Both Ferrari and Lauda recovered to take both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships in 1977.The handwriting appeared on the wall in 1978, however, when Lotus introduced the ground-effects Lotus 79 and put it in the hands of Mario Andretti and Ronnie Petersen. Not even the addition of a young, French-Canadian talent named Gilles Villeneuve to Ferrari's driver team could overcome the advantages of Colin Chapman's innovative employment of under-car airflow to suck his cars to the track.
Ground effects posed another challenge to drivers. When, through mechanical failure of the side skirts or disruption of the seal over curbs, the side seal to the racing surface was disrupted and the inflow of air into the under-car low-pressure area robbed downforce and destroyed the tires' lateral traction. It took immense talent and blindingly quick reaction compensate. Gilles Villeneuve had them.
Ferrari responded wîth the 312 T4 in 1979. The 312 flat-twelve was still the most powerful engine on the Formula One Grid, but the advantages which had contributed to its success early in the decade - a low, wide section that reduced aerodynamics - impinged upon the developing science of ground-effects aerodynamics. Only the 312 engine's power advantage, flexibility and a concerted effort by Ferrari to test and develop new aerodynamic packages - wîth help from Fiat and the Pininfarina wind tunnel - allowed Forghieri's team to create another champion.And, to be sure, that bright talent from Canada, Gilles Villeneuve, who displayed brilliance during the season. At the Frend GP at Dijon-Prenois, he challenged Rene Arnoux's Renautl - clearly the dominant car of the race - in a wheel-to-wheel duel during the closing laps. Their contest let Jabouille, in the other Renault, escape to the win, but the battle between Villeneuve and Arnoux was pass and re-pass for laps where, as Adriano Cimarosti describes it, 'they Polished the sides of each other's car wîth their wheels in the middle of corners.' At the flag it was Villeneuve in front by 14-hundreths of a second. At the end of the season Jody Scheckter earned the Drivers' Championship for Ferrari wîth Villeneuve only four points behind and Ferrari again earned the Constructors' title.Source - Gooding & Company
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 1969
Ferrari
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| Ferrari 312 P |
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| Aston Martin | Bentley |
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| GTA | Koenigsegg |
| Lamborghini | Lotus |
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| Rolls-Royce | Spyker |
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Related Drivers
Christopher Arthur Amon
Ernesto 'Tino' Brambilla
Pedro RodríguezRelated Teams
Scuderia Ferrari 1969 Formula One Season
| Race | Circuit | Date | Winning Driver | Constructor |
 South African Grand Prix | Kyalami | Mar 1969 |  Sir John Young Stewart | Matra |
 Spanish Grand Prix | Montjuïc | May 1969 | Sir John Young Stewart | Matra |
 Monaco Grand Prix | Monaco | May 1969 | Norman Graham Hill | Lotus |
 Dutch Grand Prix | Zandvoort | Jun 1969 | Sir John Young Stewart | Matra |
 French Grand Prix | Charade | Jul 1969 | Sir John Young Stewart | Matra |
| British Grand Prix | Silverstone | Jul 1969 | Sir John Young Stewart | Matra |
 German Grand Prix | Nürburgring | Aug 1969 |  Jacques Bernard 'Jacky' Ickx | Brabham |
| Italian Grand Prix | Monza | Sep 1969 | Sir John Young Stewart | Matra |
 Canadian Grand Prix | Mosport | Sep 1969 | Jacques Bernard 'Jacky' Ickx | Brabham |
 United States Grand Prix  | Watkins Glen | Oct 1969 |  Karl Jochen Rindt | Lotus |
| Mexican Grand Prix | Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez | Oct 1969 | Denis Clive 'Denny' Hulme | McLaren |
| 1968 312F |
