Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / The Day Alfa Romeo "Almost" Changed Formula One Forever

Transcript

The Day Alfa Romeo "Almost" Changed Formula One Forever · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  Breakfix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
• 0:04
  by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
• 0:07
  Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
• 0:11
  Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
• 0:16
  Remembering Giacomelli and Alfa Romeo almost winning the last United States
• 0:21
  Grand Prix at Watkins Glen by Dr.
• 0:23
  Mario Tecce.
• 0:25
  Mario Felice Tecce has been a Formula One and motorsports enthusiast since 1971.
• 0:30
  With his strong interest and deep passion in car racing, he explored Formula One
• 0:33
  seasons for the last 50 years as a major example of pursuing the best life choices.
• 0:39
  This is because following motorsport may not be only pleasant and interesting,
• 0:43
  but also a way to recognize drivers high level competition as a shared effort to
• 0:47
  pursue together the best possible results.
• 0:49
  He is a molecular biomedical researcher and teaches biochemistry at the
• 0:53
  University of Salerno in Italy.
• 0:56
  October 5th, 1980 was a very important day at Watkins Glen International Circuit.
• 1:00
  Historical research, including that of motor racing, cannot
• 1:03
  be done with hypothesis or with what ifs, but only with facts.
• 1:08
  However, it can indeed be conceived that the facts of the
• 1:10
  day affected many future things.
• 1:13
  This was going to be the last Formula One Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
• 1:17
  The starting grid had an unexpected pole sitter, the Alfa Romeo of Giacomelli.
• 1:21
  Those were the years of Ferrari, winner of the 1979 championship,
• 1:25
  of Lotus winning in 1978, while the age of Williams was just beginning.
• 1:30
  Alfa Romeo, although possessing ancient racing victories, was back
• 1:33
  in racing for less than two years.
• 1:35
  Giacomelli, an Italian driving a fully Italian car, started on the pole,
• 1:40
  maintaining firmly his lead position.
• 1:42
  He kept the lead and seemed close to an extraordinary win.
• 1:45
  But suddenly, a minor electrical problem stopped him on track, and
• 1:48
  the Williams of Jones won the race.
• 1:51
  One wonders what would have happened if Giacomelli had won.
• 1:54
  Perhaps Alfa Romeo's racing efforts would not have been discontinued,
• 1:57
  and a second major Italian team would have stayed in Formula One.
• 2:00
  Possibly a prestigious F1 win in the US, the major car market world, and eventual
• 2:06
  further successes could have improved the prospects of Alfa Romeo to remain
• 2:09
  an Italian state property and continue the progress as an independent firm.
• 2:14
  I'm very, very happy to be part of this symposium.
• 2:18
  I'm recording from Naples, Italy.
• 2:22
  Now coming to my discussion, to my talk, the point I want to discuss
• 2:26
  is this occasion of the last Watkins Glen Formula One Grand Prix of 1980,
• 2:34
  where Bruno Giacometti, the driver of Alfa Romeo, almost won the race.
• 2:39
  Here you see the start of the race and you see the red and white alpha
• 2:44
  of Bruno ome leading just after having started from the pool position.
• 2:49
  You see big champions after him, Nelson que Carlos soman, andries and
• 2:56
  actually exiting the the first time.
• 2:59
  Alan Jones, which was going to win the race later, Bruno Giacomelli
• 3:04
  leaded almost half of the race, but for a minor electrical problem, had to
• 3:09
  stop on the track and lost the race.
• 3:12
  I think that this missed victory could and should have heavily affect later Formula
• 3:19
  1 racing, and I want to discuss it more.
• 3:22
  Obviously, talking about hypothesis, and history should
• 3:26
  not be done with hypothesis.
• 3:28
  But just remembering important facts which affected history,
• 3:32
  I think, is also important.
• 3:34
  So I have to remember what is so important about this race.
• 3:39
  And this day, it was the 5th of October, 1980.
• 3:44
  This was going to be the last Formula One race at Watkins Glen.
• 3:48
  Actually, going to be the race in which Alan Jones was winning
• 3:52
  his first and unique world title.
• 3:55
  But starting from the pole position, the Salfa Romeo was
• 3:59
  something quite sensational.
• 4:01
  Why?
• 4:02
  It was an Italian driver, it was not so common, actually even today it's
• 4:06
  not so common to see an Italian driver leading a Formula One race with a full
• 4:11
  Italian car, fully in, both thinking about the engine and the chassis.
• 4:16
  Remember the facts.
• 4:18
  which make this important.
• 4:19
  I mean, I don't think it's a matter of, uh, remembering things which I know an
• 4:24
  old guy like me can make them important.
• 4:27
  I think that for several reasons this was an important occasion.
• 4:30
  Remembering facts of Formula One in the 70s, we have to remember at
• 4:35
  that time most cars were using only the one engine, the very good, very
• 4:40
  powerful Cosworth weight engine and there was only another important
• 4:45
  engine which was the one from Ferrari.
• 4:48
  Ferrari was at that time for a long time the only team building both the
• 4:53
  engine and the car and the chassis.
• 4:56
  Then at the end of the 70s Alfa Romeo started to make a Formula One engine
• 5:01
  giving it to Brabham and then deciding making the chassis and the engine.
• 5:08
  And also, we have to remember that in this years, also, uh, Renault started to
• 5:13
  make a turbo engine and actually, turbo engines were going to affect heavily
• 5:17
  Formula 1 and in the following years, all cars were going to have a turbo engine.
• 5:23
  Also, another thing we have to remember in those days, Formula 1 was changing a
• 5:29
  lot because of the so called round effect.
• 5:32
  Cars were like this Lotus 79, the big champion, Mario Andretti, which is
• 5:38
  obviously very well known even in the United States, like in Europe, because
• 5:43
  he has accomplished things, many, many things, both in Formula 1, American races.
• 5:49
  In those days, cars like this were having this ground effect in the side,
• 5:54
  having wings sealed with the skirts, with the so called skirts, lateral skirts.
• 6:00
  Alfa Romeo, in those days, decided to come back in Formula One.
• 6:05
  Alfa Romeo was a very, very important racing team in the
• 6:10
  past, actually, from the 20s.
• 6:13
  We can just show here the very big wing of Nobel Harry.
• 6:16
  in the 1935 German Grand Prix before the Second World War.
• 6:22
  But when Formula One started in the 50s, the first world Formula One
• 6:27
  championship was taken from Alfa Romeo with Giuseppe Farina, and the second,
• 6:33
  the 1951 Formula One championship was also taken from Alfa Romeo, in
• 6:38
  this case with John Manuel Fangio.
• 6:41
  In the following years, Alfa Romeo left Formula One, but about 30 years
• 6:46
  later, Alfa Romeo decided to be back in Formula One with this car.
• 6:51
  And here you see, in 1979, Zolder Grand Prix, this small team, with
• 6:58
  this driver Bruno Giacomelli, returning in Formula One in 1979.
• 7:04
  And the very interesting thing is that they returned in the middle of the year,
• 7:08
  but at the end of the year, in the Monza Grand Prix, but in a few months, they
• 7:15
  also prepared the second car, the South Formula 179, which was using a different
• 7:22
  engine, not the 12 flat engine, but the VU engine, the 12 VU engine, which was Made
• 7:31
  thinking about the fact that the car had to be also a wing car and needed lateral
• 7:36
  space to seal big wings and to have this ground effort in the same year, they
• 7:42
  realized that two different cars with two different engine and actually, this was
• 7:47
  the car, which was usually in the season in the following season, 1980 with this
• 7:53
  car, they had a constant improvement.
• 7:55
  Which brought them to the pole position of the last Grand Prix, Watkins Klein.
• 8:01
  A pole position which was absolutely not a combination of occasional
• 8:06
  results due to special events.
• 8:08
  But the conclusion of a year was still unproven.
• 8:11
  And next we see more details.
• 8:14
  Here is the cover of the major Italian magazine about car racing, which
• 8:18
  was saying after the race, Alfa.
• 8:21
  Thank you anyway.
• 8:22
  And these are the numbers.
• 8:24
  The numbers are interesting.
• 8:25
  You see this pole position, this is the starting grid.
• 8:29
  You see almost one second of difference between the first Alfa Romeo Bruno
• 8:35
  Giacomelli and Nelson Piquet, Brabham, Carlos Reutemann, very important
• 8:41
  champions with very important cars.
• 8:43
  So the point is new team was developed in less than two years.
• 8:49
  and was able to be on the talk.
• 8:51
  How was this possible?
• 8:53
  Bruno Giacomelli was the Formula Two champion the year before, a
• 8:58
  Formula Two champion, and was, even if he was very young, was able to
• 9:04
  make a relevant contribution to car development, showing that he was able
• 9:09
  to take full advantage of a top car.
• 9:12
  So his contribution was very important.
• 9:15
  At the same time, engineer Carlo Chitti was a special engineer, able not
• 9:21
  only to make engines, but also making a full car, original with Ferrari,
• 9:27
  and then always with Alfa Romeo.
• 9:29
  Also designing the car winning the 1975 World Sport Car Championship.
• 9:36
  Here you see him still working in a Ferrari at the end of the
• 9:40
  50s or the beginning of the 60s.
• 9:42
  And you see here an image of Carlo Chitti after qualifying for the
• 9:47
  Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1980.
• 9:50
  Very happy for the result.
• 9:52
  It was an important result.
• 9:54
  Actually, Giacomelli and his car were not able to finish the race,
• 9:57
  but showed a very big performance, and everybody considered that we're
• 10:03
  going to be very relevant perspective wise for Romeo for the next years.
• 10:08
  We can also conclude this, uh, considering that Mario Andretti decided to drive for
• 10:14
  Alfa Romeo for the next season in 1981.
• 10:18
  And Jackie Stewart, in that occasion, showed a lot of consideration
• 10:22
  for Alfa Romeo Formula One.
• 10:25
  There were a lot of, uh, perspectives which actually Alfa
• 10:28
  Romeo was not able to meet in the next years for several reasons.
• 10:33
  One reason was that in the next year, lateral scarce for ground
• 10:38
  effort were not allowed anymore.
• 10:40
  Actually, the following year had to be changed.
• 10:43
  Still, it was possible to have a ground effort, but this scarce were not allowed.
• 10:49
  There were also, we have to say, some teams which found a way to have a ceiling
• 10:55
  of a lateral wing and Alfa Romeo didn't do anything to have this performance,
• 11:00
  so Alfa Romeo started to lose.
• 11:02
  Then in the following years there was this switch to turbocharged engines.
• 11:06
  And also there was a decrease in interest of Romeo management.
• 11:10
  So this big day, the end of 1980, Watkins Glen, which was also going to be the
• 11:16
  last Formula One race in Watkins Glen, didn't have a very important development.
• 11:22
  However, we have this question.
• 11:24
  What would have been of Alfa Romeo team if winning this race?
• 11:28
  Probably things would have been even different.
• 11:31
  The consideration for the team would have been much higher.
• 11:35
  Probably the Alfa Romeo management would have considered more
• 11:39
  money to be put in this program.
• 11:42
  We don't have an answer for this question.
• 11:45
  But I think the other point is that in that occasion, there was a team, there was
• 11:50
  a special driver like Bruno Giacomelli, an engineer like Carlo Quitti, which were
• 11:55
  able to show that they were able to make big performance, but big, uh, big job.
• 12:01
  And this has to be recognized.
• 12:03
  I hope there was some interest in this.
• 12:05
  Okay.
• 12:06
  I want to thank very much the organization and especially Bob
• 12:10
  bar and you got your singer.
• 12:12
  There will be a link to contact me.
• 12:15
  If anybody's interested to ask question, I will be glad to answer.
• 12:21
  Thank you for your attention.
• 12:22
  Everybody.
• 12:23
  Thanks a lot.
• 12:24
  This episode is brought to you in part by the International
• 12:26
  Motor Racing Research Center.
• 12:28
  Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history
• 12:31
  of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series.
• 12:34
  The center's collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie
• 12:38
  of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world.
• 12:41
  The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of
• 12:45
  race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and
• 12:50
  brought to life through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events.
• 12:54
  To learn more about the Center, visit www.
• 12:57
  racingarchives.
• 12:58
  org.
• 12:59
  This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians.
• 13:03
  They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history.
• 13:06
  The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers.
• 13:11
  Organizational records, print ephemera and images to safeguard, as well as to broaden
• 13:15
  and deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through
• 13:19
  the modern age and into the future.
• 13:21
  For more information about the SAH, visit www.
• 13:25
  autohistory.
• 13:26
  org.
• 13:31
  We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought
• 13:35
  to you by Grand Touring Motorsports.
• 13:37
  If you'd like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure
• 13:40
  to follow us on all social media platforms at GrandTouringMotorsports.
• 13:44
  And if you'd like to learn more about the content of this episode,
• 13:48
  be sure to check out the follow on article at GTMotorsports.
• 13:51
  org.
• 13:53
  We remain a commercial free and no annual fees organization through
• 13:56
  our sponsors, but also through the generous support of our fans,
• 14:00
  families, and friends through Patreon.
• 14:03
  For as little as 2.
• 14:05
  50 a month, you can get access to more behind the scenes action, additional
• 14:09
  Pit Stop minisodes, and other VIP goodies, as well as keeping our team
• 14:14
  of creators Fed on their strict diet of fig Newtons, gummy bears, and monster.
• 14:19
  So consider signing up for Patreon today at www.
• 14:23
  patreon.
• 14:23
  com forward slash GT motorsports, and remember without you, none
• 14:28
  of this would be possible.