Peter Robinson's Blog

The Rally of New Zealand has just finished and the winning margin was .3 second - Gronholm beating Loeb by this, the slenderest of margins. It was not that long ago that the WRC started timing stages to a tenth of a second and this result shows how important that decision was. Competition in the top echelon of world rallying is currently that close. Was it always that way? I don’t think so. For example here are some results from UK International rallies in the period covered within Photohistoric.com:
1965 RAC Rally 1st Aaltonen/Ambrose [57]
2nd Makinen/Easter +188s
1966 Scottish Rally 1st Fall/Wood [64]
2nd Larsson/Lundblad +321s
1968 RAC Rally 1st Lampinen/Davenport [87]
2nd Orrenius/Schroderheim +330s
1969 RAC Rally 1st Kallstrom/Haggborn
2nd Eriksson/Johansson +148s
1968 Scottish Rally 1st Clark/Porter [64]
2nd Ytterbring/Persson +627s
1969 Scottish Rally 1st Lampinen/Hertz [70]
2nd Cowan/Coyle +583s
1970 Scottish Rally 1st Culcheth/Syer
2nd Hopkirk/Nash +412s
1970 RAC Rally 1st Kallstrom/Haggbom [82]
2nd Orrenius/Stone +255s
1972 RAC Rally 1st Clark/Mason
2nd Blomquist/Hertz +205s [72]


(Incidentally, the figures in brackets represent the number of stages on each of the listed rallies. The 2007 Rally of New Zealand had just 18!)


In their time these events were just as hard fought and competitive as those of today and this was most particularly the case, if one compared individual stage times throughout an event. Mechanical problems from the stresses of driving long distances, in some cases over 1500 miles per rally with multiple stages, probably now make the results seem less close than they actually were. Remember, these events were not of the type we now see in the WRC where practising and note taking is taken for granted, where rallying rarely takes place in the dark, where stages are often repeated and where central service points are organised to keep cars in the rally. Never was their a rule that allowed crews to retire on one day of a rally and rejoin on the next…… and still score points!
So a competitiveness comparison between the 70s and this year’s WRC stacks up pretty well. Certainly the Escorts and Healeys of the past were great to watch, but then, so are the current crop of WRC cars. One can recall the prophets of doom for spectating when the dominance of the four wheel drive Audi Quattro, led people to believe that rallying would become boring. Were these the same people who said the same thing after the demise of the Group B cars?

Rallying continues to provide great entertainment and close, competitive rallies even if their formats have changed for the worst.

This year F1 has come up with a situation where any one of four drivers are in with a chance of victory at each race and ultimately the Championship itself. For the general media this has made it really interesting in that one of these is a rookie, one an ex-champion, and the other two are Ferrari drivers. Add to this "hissy-fits" between the drivers of the British team and allegations of spying towards this same team from the Italians and it is not difficult to see why F1 has been grabbing the headlines within the British media. To a degree this has hidden the fact that, like its counterpart in world motorsport, rallying, this year’s F1 season has been having one of the closest fought and competitive for ages. As this is written there have been 12 Grand Prix completed in 2007 and the average winning time over the second placed man is less than five seconds.

Have things improved over the years? If one removes one’s rose tinted spectacles and look back at the golden era involving Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill, Bruce McLaren, Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt and the like (typified by some of the photographs in Photohistoric.com) you will see that whatever one’s perception of this period, GP finishes were rarely close. For example:
1968 12 Grand Prix Average winning time +66 seconds
1969 11 Grand Prix Average winning time +40 seconds
1970 13 Grand Prix Average winning time +28 seconds
1971 11 Grand Prix Average winning time +21 seconds
1972 12 Grand Prix Average winning time +25 seconds

Five year average +36 seconds



(There were several victories over this period when the victor was over a lap ahead of the second placed car and for the above only the time of fastest lap has been included).

A major exception in the above period was the Italian Grand Prix in 1971 that saw the closest GP finish ever:
1st Peter Gethin 1h 18m 12.60s
2nd Ronnie Peterson 1h 18m 12.61s
3rd Francois Cevert 1h 18m 12.69s
4th Mike Hailwood 1h 18m 12.78s
5th Howden Ganley 1h 18m 13.21s

So, statistics……. these don’t prove anything really, but they possibly make interesting reading!

A date with history

Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen will drive a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 car at this year's Brooklands Motoring Festival at the weekend. The events will take place on the circuits at Mercedes-Benz World inside the old Brooklands race track at Weybridge, Surrey.

"We are both looking forward to driving at Brooklands, the birthplace of motor-racing," says Kovalainen. "It is the opportunity of a lifetime to follow in the footsteps of many racing legends where so many records were made and broken."

Sir Stirling Moss will also be in attendance.

The two-day festival is organised by Mercedes-Benz World and Brooklands Museum and aim to establish "The Double Twelve" as a unique Concours d'Elegance. Competitors will perform a series of driving tests and have their vehicles judged against the exacting criteria of a Concours d'Elegance by a select panel of experts. The tests will take place in thrilling and evocative environments such as the Members' Banking and the notorious Test Hill of the original circuit, as well as on the modern circuits at Mercedes-Benz World.

There will also be displays from the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows Display Team and a helicopter show by the Blue Eagles, the display team of Britain's Army Air Corps which this year has expanded to include not only the traditional Lynx and Gazelle helicopters, but also the new Apache Attack helicopter, plus two heritage helicopters: the Scout and Alouette.

Brooklands is the world's first permanent racing circuit, built on 700-acres of private land and opened in 1907. For the next 32 years it was the centre not only of British motor racing but also the aviation business and was the venue for Alliot Verdon-Roe's first flight in a British-built aeroplane. His company Avro went on to become an important aviation firm, notably as the manufacturer of the Lancaster bomber. Vickers, Sopwith and Bleriot all had production facilities at Brooklands. Sadly, the link with aviation would be Brooklands's unddoing as during World War II it was requisitioned by the government and part of the banking was demolished in an attempt to camouflage the facility. The track was sold to Vickers in 1946 and later became part of British Aerospace, which continued to operate a number of winddtunnels there until 1990.

History of Ferrari

1929–1946

Enzo Anselmo Ferrari never intended to produce road cars when he formed Scuderia Ferrari (literally "Ferrari Stable", usually used to mean "Team Ferrari", it is correctly pronounced "skoo deh REE ah") in 1929 as a sponsor for amateur drivers headquartered in Modena. Ferrari prepared and successfully raced various drivers in Alfa Romeo cars until 1938, when he was officially hired by Alfa to head their racing department.

In 1940, Alfa Romeo was absorbed by the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini as part of the Axis Powers' war effort. Enzo Ferrari's division was small enough to be unaffected by this. Because he was prohibited by contract from racing for four years, the Scuderia briefly became Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari, which ostensibly produced machine tools and aircraft accessories. Also known as SEFAC (Scuderia Enzo Ferrari Auto Corse), Ferrari did in fact produce one race car, the Tipo 815, in the non-competition period. It was the first actual Ferrari car (it debuted at the 1940 Mille Miglia), but due to World War II it saw little competition. In 1943 the Ferrari factory moved to Maranello, where it has remained ever since. The factory was bombed by the Allies in 1944 and rebuilt in 1946 when the war ended, and included a works for road car production. Until Il Commendatore's death, this would remain little more than a source of funding for his first love, racing.

1947–present
1952 Ferrari Barchetta 212/225
1962 Ferrari 250 GTO

The first Ferrari road car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine; Enzo Ferrari reluctantly built and sold his automobiles to fund the Scuderia. While his beautiful and fast cars quickly gained a reputation for excellence, Enzo maintained a famous distaste for his customers, most of whom he felt were buying his cars for the prestige and not the performance.
A1 Grand Prix

On October 11 2007, it was announced that Ferrari will power all A1 Grand Prix cars from the 2008-09 season.[2]

Sports car racing
A Ferrari 312PB during the team's final year in the World Sportscar Championship.

In 1949, Luigi Chinetti drove a 166M to Ferrari's first win in motorsports, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ferrari went on to dominate the early years of the World Sportscar Championship which was created in 1953, winning the Manufacturers Championship seven out of its first nine years. When the championship changed formats in 1962, Ferrari earned championships in at least one class until 1966, then again in 1968. Ferrari would win one final championship in 1972 before Enzo decided to leave sports car racing and concentrate Scuderia Ferrari solely on Formula One.

During Ferrari's seasons of the World Sportscar Championship, they also gained more wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the factory team earning their first in 1954. Another win would come in 1958 before they began a streak of five straight wins from 1960 to 1964. Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team (NART) would take Ferrari's final victory at Le Mans in 1965.

Although Scuderia Ferrari no longer participated in sports cars after 1973, they have occasionally built various successful sports cars for privateers. These include the 512BB/LM in the 1970s, the 333 SP which won the IMSA GT Championship in the 1990s, and currently the F430 GT2 and GT3 which are currently winning championships in their respective classes.

Formula One

The Scuderia joined the Formula One World Championship in the first year of its existence, 1950. José Froilán González gave the team its first victory at the 1951 British Grand Prix.

Alberto Ascari gave Ferrari its first Drivers Championship a year later. Ferrari is the oldest team left in the championship, not to mention the most successful: the team holds nearly every Formula One record. As of 2007, the team's records include 15 World Drivers Championship titles (1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007) 15 World Constructors Championship titles (1961, 1964, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007), 201 Grand Prix victories, 4753.27 points, 603 podium finishes, 195 pole positions, 12,489 laps led, and 205 fastest laps in 758 Grands Prix contested.

Notable Ferrari drivers include Tazio Nuvolari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Chinetti, Alberto Ascari, Wolfgang von Trips, Phil Hill, Olivier Gendebien, Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins, John Surtees, Lorenzo Bandini, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Jacky Ickx, Mario Andretti, Niki Lauda, Carlos Reutemann, Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve, Didier Pironi, Michele Alboreto, Gerhard Berger, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Jean Alesi, Eddie Irvine, Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen, and Felipe Massa.

The Scuderia Ferrari drivers for the 2006 F1 season were Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa. At the end of the 2006 season the team courted controversy by continuing to allow Marlboro to sponsor them after they, along with the other F1 teams, made a promise to end sponsorship deals with tobacco manufacturers. A five year deal worth a reported $500 million was agreed.[citation needed]

The drivers competing in 2007 were Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen. Räikkönen went on to win the drivers championship, with Massa finishing 4th

A1 Grand Prix

On October 11 2007, it was announced that Ferrari will power all A1 Grand Prix cars from the 2008-09 season.[2]

The "Cavallino Rampante"

The famous symbol of the Ferrari race team is a black prancing stallion on a yellow shield, usually with the letters S F (for Scuderia Ferrari), with three stripes of green, white and red (the Italian national colors) at the top. The road cars have a rectangular badge on the hood (see picture above) and this race logo on the side.

On June 17, 1923, Enzo Ferrari won a race at the Savio track in Ravenna where he met the Countess Paolina, mother of Count Francesco Baracca, an ace of the Italian air force and national hero of World War I, who used to paint a horse on the side of his planes. The Countess asked Enzo to use this horse on his cars, suggesting that it would bring him good luck. The original "prancing horse" on Baracca's airplane was painted in red on a white cloud-like shape, but Ferrari chose to have the horse in black (as it had been painted as a sign of grief on Baracca's squadron planes after the pilot was killed in action) and he added a canary yellow background as this is the color of the city of Modena, his birthplace. The Ferrari horse was, from the very beginning, markedly different from the Baracca horse in most details, the most noticeable being the tail that in the original Baracca version was pointing downward.
Count Francesco Baracca

Ferrari has used the cavallino rampante on official company stationery since 1929. Since the Spa 24 Hours of July 9, 1932, the cavallino rampante has been used on Alfa Romeos raced by Scuderia Ferrari.

A similar black horse on a yellow shield is the Coat of Arms of the German city of Stuttgart. This horse motif comes from the origins of the city's name: it comes from Stutengarten, an ancient form of the modern German word Gestüt, which translates into English as stud farm and into Italian as scuderia. Stuttgart is the home of Porsche, which also uses the Stuttgart sign in its corporate logo, centred in the emblem of the state of Württemberg.
Coat of arms of Stuttgart, Germany

Fabio Taglioni used the cavallino rampante on his Ducati motorbikes, as Taglioni was born at Lugo di Romagna like Baracca, and his father too was a military pilot during WWI (even if not part of Baracca's squadron, as is mistakenly reported). As Ferrari's fame grew, Ducati abandoned the horse- perhaps the result of a private agreement between the two companies.
Austrian Fuel Stations

The cavallino rampante is now a trademark of Ferrari. However, other companies use similar logos: Avanti, an Austrian company operating over 100 filling stations, uses a prancing horse logo which is nearly identical to Ferrari's.

Many aspects of the cover design of the third Jamiroquai album, Travelling Without Moving, as well as the single Virtual Insanity and some single promos pay homage to the Ferrari logo.

Rosso Corsa

Since the 1920s, Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati and later Ferrari and Abarth were (and often still are) painted in "race red" (Rosso Corsa). This was the customary national racing color of Italy, as recommended between the World Wars by the organizations that later would become the FIA. In that scheme, French cars like Bugatti were blue, German like Audi, BMW, and Porsche white (since 1934 also Silver Arrows), and British such as BRM green, for instance.

Curiously, Ferrari won the 1964 World championship with John Surtees by competing the last two races in cars painted white and blue, as these were not entered by the Italian factory themselves, but the U.S.-based NART team. This was done as a protest concerning arguments between Ferrari and the Italian Racing Authorities regarding the homologation of a new mid-engined Ferrari race car.