Formula 2

INTRODUCTION BY IAN PHILLIPS

Reflecting on 18 years of the European Formula 2 Championship evokes many memories, but still to this day the most prominent name of all is Jochen Rindt. The Austrian was never a European Champion because when the series began in 1967 he was a graded driver (a points-scoring Grand Prix driver) and therefore only allowed to race for fun, and organisers’ start money. With a string of victories to his name, Rindt was known as the ‘King of F2’, and statistically he remains so. His 12 wins in points-scoring events will remain a record for all time.

Formula 2 actually began in 1948, and in 1953–54 the FIA World Championship was run to F2 regulations, but it was not until 1967 that an official FIA European Championship was instigated. That, of course, was before commercial sponsorship was allowed on cars and when drivers competed largely for the enjoyment of racing. Graded drivers were attractive to organisers, who could promote their events around their ‘names’ and paid them handsomely enough, prompting them sometimes to commute between events on the same weekend.

For the actual championship contestants, the presence of graded drivers was a tremendous spur. In the early days the likes of Jacky Ickx, Derek Bell, Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Piers Courage and other not only found themselves racing against each other for championship points, but also against Jochen Rindt, Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and John Surtees. To compete directly against them, and on many occasions beat them, was where the glory came. It was the loss of this element in the mid-1970s that took away some of F2’s attraction.

Brabham chassis dominated the entry lists in those days, but the championship went to Matra in the first three seasons and then to Tecno in 1970. Clay Regazzoni lost his wild-man image that year and earned himself a Ferrari Grand Prix drive, but Britain’s Derek Bell set a record that will stand for all time. He scored in every championship round with the Tom Wheatcroft-sponsored Church Farm Racing Brabham, something that nobody else achieved. There were fewer championship rounds in earlier days, between eight and ten, but probably between 15 and 20 events all told around Europe.

March Engineering came on to the scene in a big way in 1971. One of the founder members of the company was Alan Rees, a formidable driver in his own right as Rindt’s team-mate in Roy Winkelmann’s team, but now team manager for the works March outfit, which at any one time was running a minimum of five cars for, among others, Ronnie Peterson and Niki Lauda. Starting at Rouen, Peterson won five of the final six races that year and claimed what was to be the first of six European Championship titles for March. That race at Rouen caused a sensation at the time and will always be remembered for the three laps in which Lauda actually led Peterson.

That 1971 season, the last for the 1,600cc F2, was dominated by the four-cylinder Cosworth FVA engine. Peterson’s engine was tuned by Brian Hart, who was then winding down his driving career, having been an F2 regular since the outset of the championship. Hart will always be remembered as the permanent driver, alongside Pedro Rodríguez and others, of the Frank Costin-designed, Ron Harris-run Protos, to this day one of the most distinctive if not successful cars of the formula.

The 1971 championship was to be the first of three titles for Hart as an engine builder. That same year saw a new team in F2, Rondel Racing, marked the arrival of Ron Dennis as a team owner. From the start he set new standards in presentation and nearly always numbered the top names within his ranks of drivers. One Graham Hill scored Rondel’s first win (and his last in a single-seater) at Thruxton that year. Others who virtually began their team management careers in F2 were Ken Tyrrell, Frank Williams and Bernie Ecclestone (as manager of Jochen Rindt Racing in 1970), while Rondel (Motul), Renault (Elf), Toleman, Spirit and Osella became constructors in their own right in F2 before taking the F1 plunge.

In 1972 the engine regulations changed, specifying 2,000cc units based on homologated production blocks — but there wasn’t much choice. The first race to the new rules was won by Dave Morgan in a private Brabham with a Ford BDA engine after managing to hold off a stern challenge from Carlos Reutemann in a Rondel Brabham. The Argentine driver had arrived in F2 in 1970 and made an immediate name for himself by knocking off Rindt at Hockenheim. Then an accident at Thruxton that put Reutemann in hospital with a broken ankle soured his F1 boss, Ecclestone, against F2.

John Surtees finally made his mark as a constructor in F2 with his TS10 chassis powered by a Hart-developed BDA of only 1,850cc. Various people tried to produce a full 2-litre engine, but Hart’s caution paid dividends. His engine was the most reliable of all and gave Mike Hailwood his only four-wheel championship in a never-to-be-forgotten year. Cosworth produced a special BDG unit that year in very limited numbers, Emerson Fittipaldi using it to particularly good effect in his semi-works Lotus 69.

BMW had been involved in F2 from the outset. Initially the manufacturer supplied engines to the Surtees-run Lola team for ‘Big John’ himself and David Hobbs. But latterly in the 1,600cc days BMW commissioned the Dornier aircraft company to build its own chassis to accept, initially, the M10 four-cylinder with its curious ‘Apfelbeck’ and diametral-valve heads. Kurt Ahrens, Jacky Ickx, Jo Siffert and Dieter Quester were the regular drivers and in 1970 the team scored three wins.

BMW officially pulled out for the next two years, although Paul Rosche kept Quester going with a back-door supply of development engines to run in his private March. Then came the announcement in late 1972 that March had done an exclusive deal with BMW for the use of the German company’s newly homologated 2-litre engine for F2. The M12/6 unit gave March a virtual whitewash of the 17-round 1973 championship with Jean-Pierre Jarier winning by a comprehensive margin of 36 points. Everybody wanted a BMW engine but to get one you had to buy a March chassis. Until the end of 1983 BMW continued to supply works engines to the March team and between them they broke every record in the book. March-BMWs won no fewer than 70 of the 150 races held during their period of partnership. In production as the M12/7, of which over 500 were built, the BMW engine was supplied to all and sundry from 1974 and won an astonishing 93 races.

The French had always taken an interest in F2. In the early days of the championship, Matra led the way and brought on the likes of Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo. Then in stepped Elf to sponsor François Cevert and Patrick Depailler. Then came the Elf chassis itself, built by Alpine initially, and engineered and driven by Jean-Pierre Jabouille. While Jabouille continued to develop his own chassis, shortly to be joined by former rally star Gérard Larrousse on the driving strength, Elf took over the works March team as the nursery for its proposed squad of F1 drivers. Patrick Depailler and Patrick Tambay were the outstanding pupils. Then came the Renault V6 engine for Jabouille’s team and the works Martini. Patrick Depailler, Jacques Laffite, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux won successive championships for Elf or Renault, or both, before they moved lock stock and barrel into F1.

Another change of regulations for 1976 permitted pure racing engines rather than production-based units but still Paul Rosche’s BMW engines and Robin Herd’s March chassis provided the mainstay of F2. The works March-BMW team steamed back into contention with Bruno Giacomelli scoring a record eight wins in the 1978 season. Marc Surer took the championship for the same chassis/engine combination in 1979, but that man Hart was back in contention again. He had developed his own alloy-block four-cylinder engine but had never been able to get his hands on a top-notch works team. He had success with Keke Rosberg in Fred Opert’s Chevrons, Brian Henton in the Brian Lewis Boxer, Alex Ribeiro in the Alan Docking-run March, but no opportunity of a March-BMW style package deal. In 1979 he teamed up with Toleman Group, which was sponsoring and running the works Ralt team. Brian Henton threw the championship away with a spin in the final race at Donington that year but in 1980, using Toleman’s first Rory Byrne chassis, they made no mistake, Henton and Derek Warwick taking first and second in the championship.

Midway through 1980, Honda, which had dominated the final year of the 1,000cc F2 in 1966 with the works Brabhams, reappeared with a V6 engine supplied exclusively to the Japanese company’s old friend Ron Tauranac. Mike Thackwell gave the Ralt-Honda its first win at Silverstone in 1981 and his team-mate Geoff Lees went on to win the championship. It wasn’t a particularly convincing display, though, and BMW marshalled the forces of March and Michelin for a thorough effort to recapture the crown in 1981 against Honda, which now also supported the new Spirit team. The result was a thrilling 10-3 win to BMW but with Honda in with a shout until the very last race. The trusty March-BMW combination won four of the five races at the start of 1983, but with Honda on the verge of pulling out mid-season it all finally clicked into place for Tauranac, and his Ralts went on to win 15 of the final 17 European F2 Championship races.

But nobody could begrudge BMW the honour of winning the last-ever F2 race. It may have been BMW’s official withdrawal at the end of 1983 that effectively spelled F2’s demise, with the new Formula 3000 taking over, but the German manufacturer’s immense contribution over the previous 11 years that had given a large section of the industry and many, many drivers a raison d’être.

It was entirely appropriate that the British Automobile Racing Club (BARC) should have organised the very last European F2 Championship race, at Brands Hatch, because its Easter Monday meeting at Thruxton — where bravery was needed to take the back section flat out — was one of the most stable fixtures throughout F2’s history. Jochen Rindt won all three Thruxton races in which he competed, including the unforgettable occasion in 19?? When he spun into a ditch at the chicane, drove out, and carried on to win. Another fine Thruxton moment came in 1969 when motorcyclist Bill Ivy turned up for his first race with his private Brabham and qualified second fastest to Rindt and ahead of Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill, then asked the organisers to move him to the back of the grid because he had never started a motor race before.

Not to be forgotten are some of the other terrific venues that F2 visited over the years: Crystal Palace, always a favourite (a highlight was Jody Scheckter’s 1972 win in the evil-handling McLaren M21): Rouen, a super road circuit with added gastronomic delights; Pau, as demanding and challenging a street circuit as there ever was; racing at the old Nürburgring until it was closed, with Keke Rosberg and Thierry Boutsen as maestros of the place; Hockenheim in the old days when 120,000 German spectators would erupt as Jochen Mass or Hans-Joachim Stuck led into the stadium; Enna for its pizzeria and sunshine; Mugello for epitomising everything that is best about Italy.

On a personal note, having reported over 100 F2 races for Autosport from 1971 onwards, F2 provided me with an intriguing insight into people on their way up in motorsport, including drivers, teams, engineers and chassis and engine manufacturers. Ninety per cent of the entire Grand Prix circus of that era began their lives, or formulated their reputations, in F2, and yet I feel it was sad how quickly they forgot. Let this book be a reminder.