Glossary of Terms . This is just so you can look up what a term means if you're not familiar with F1
-The third decade of F1 came around in the 1970s. This decade also saw an increase in aerodynamics on the cars. The F1 world introduced "wings" on the cars to pin the car to the track, thus for greater speed around corners and traction. The high rear wings had a bad habit of falling off, causing issues on the track. Wings were banned for Monaco and the rest of the racing year in 1969 when Jackie Oliver had a practice crash at the July 1968 race in Rouen and accidents following for Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt during the 1969 Spanish GP at Montjuich Park.
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| Jochen Rindt's Lotus |
-The best win for Jackie Stewart came at the 1968 German GP at Nurburgring. From then on, Lotus was unbeatable. The 1970 season saw the introduction of the first "winged car". The driver of this car was Austrian driver Jochen Rindt. Unfortunately, this driver had died in a practice crash at the Italian GP at Monza, in the famous Parabolica corner. The driver refused to wear the three-point harness for his safety and requested that the Lotus 72's wings be removed. This resulted in Rindt's decapitation during the car's split-second deceleration after something in his car had broken off and the nose of his car went under the Armco barrier. The 1970s also seen the introduction of the "shovel nose" design.
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| Jackie Stewart |
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| 1968 German GP at Nurburgring |
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| Jochen Rindt |
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| Jochen Rindt's Lotus |
-Team McLaren won their first GP in 1974 with Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi. 1971 seen Niki Lauda winning for the Stewart racing team at the Austrian GP. His career simply took off from there up the F1 ladder. 1975 seen the rapid rise of Ferrari in F1 driving, with drivers Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni. There was a massive wave of concern about driver safety, because of incidents like the Spanish GP at Montjuich Park when a car went off into the crowd, killing four spectators.
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| Clay Regazzoni |
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| Niki Lauda |
-As an interesting sidenote, Vittorio Brambilla became the first driver to win the checkered flag backwards, as he had been spinning out of control as he went over the line at Osterreichring. 1976 seen the introduction of yet another effect that would help F1: ground effects. The engineers, now known as "designers" have been tinkering with ground effects for more than ten years. These "ground effects" turned the whole car into a giant wing, using side skirts and underbody designs to almost literally and figuratively, glue the car to the track. This would prevent it from flying off at high speeds. The first car to receive this was the Lotus 78/79. Mario Andretti was one of the first drivers in 1978 to try out these new "effects". He felt like the car was "painted to the road". This would drastically increase safety for the drivers.
-Lotus won the 1978 World Championship for the last time, prior to Colin Chapman's death. Unfortunately, with these new ground effects in their infancy still, there was room for miscalculations. Namely, that the set up would render high instability for the drivers and the cars. The requirements for low ground clearance to almost rock hard, rigid cars with no ride height tolerance made it impossible to handle bumps and curves and would be even catastrophic if airflow were to wedge its way underneath. By the 1981-1982 seasons, ground effects, like the skirts in 1981 and underbody venturi tunnels in 1983, were banned from Formula 1.
-The world of F1 driving was changing at a frightening pace. Driver Bernie Ecclestone became the president of FOCA in 1978, convincing the drivers and the teams of their value and worth and to negotiate as a whole. Prior to that, circuit owners and race promoters controlled everything. 1979 seen the birth of FISA (Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile). They immediately butted heads with FOCA over regulations and revenues. It got so bad that FOCA boycotted the 1980 Spanish GP. Resulting from this, FISA removed the sanction from the GP races. In 1981, the Concorde Agreement was made. This was an incredibly secretive government contract allocating revenues from F1 racing. By that point, the races were being televised worldwide and even introduced fees for race promoters exceeding $25 million per year per GP races
-The 1977 season saw the introduction of turbocharging. This, along with ground effects, were banned for a time. With Lotus reinventing ground effects, Renault was re-entering the F1 world with turbo charged engines. They were quick, but suffered from "turbo lag" under fast speeds and were even unreliable. The 1977 season was the first year to introduce radial tires, first by Michelin, then others following. Renault finally won a GP in 1979 at the French GP. With the Ferrari racing team known for success, the Williams team was on the rise as well
-The major turning point for turbo charged engines came in 1980, the year Australian driver Alan Jones won in a Williams racing team car. Other race teams like Scuderia and Renault had their own turbo charged engines, which won in races. Renault won at Interlagos, Kyalami and Osterreichring while Scuderia won at Imola. From the 1981-1982 seasons and on, turbo charged engines were leading the pack in the cars. 1981 seen the first composite, carbon fiber car from McLaren. The car was a lot safer, but more expensive for the people building it. The turbo era simply exploded in 1983, when driver Nelson Piquet captured his second World Championship win by two points. He was driving a turbo charged BMW powerplant engine. McLaren also introduced the TAG-Porsche engine. Driver Alain Prost drove the Renault to three wins and a runner up position as World Champion. Spa-Francordchamps returned to the races after a 13 year hiatus; it was rebuilt and made much safer and quickly became a favorite for F1 racing
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| Alan Jones |
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| His Williams race car |
-1987 was the year of Williams racing. British driver Nigel Mansell was the winner of the British GP at Silverstone. While in 1987, Nelson Piquet won the World Championship after an accident put Mansell on the sidelines in Japan. Ayrton Senna joined McLaren racing in 1988 and won the F1 race in Suzuka, Japan.
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| Nelson Piquet |
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| Nigel Mansell |
-The 1987 race season saw the unveiling of the first "active suspension" system for Formula 1. Team Lotus would be the first to try it. Active suspension, would make cars a lot faster, in addition to semi-automatic gearboxes, traction control, "black box" controlled starting programs, fly-by-wire controls, anti-lock brakes. These additions would also make cars safer. After the turbo era ended, Team McLaren was still the reining kings of this world. But two of the princes of Team McLaren - Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost - would go into a personal fight that never ended. Both drivers came to their senses that, with the technical prowess of their cars, it made little or no sense to fight in 1988. That peace accord was broken at the 1989 San Marino GP, when Senna came out ahead of Prost during the restart before taking the racing line from behind. Prost was on fire, he found Senna's tactic impossible to handle and he no longer wished to continue racing with him
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| Ayrton Senna |
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| Alain Prost |
-With the 1989 Japanese GP at Suzuka on the line, Prost was 1.7 seconds ahead, but Senna was coming up fast, alongside one of the chicanes (S turns designed to slow down a driver before a high speed turn) before two wheels went onto the grass. Both cars collided. Prost got out of his car in anger and Senna insisted on getting a push start from the track marshals. He stopped in the pits for a new nose and managed to pass Alessandro Nannini to win the Japanese GP. But, Nannini was declared the winner by FISA and Senna was disqualified and the championship awarded to Prost.
-The two drivers would reach a head in their fight once more, this time in 1990. It would be the same result, just a different corner. Prost had, by this time, moved onto Ferrari racing. He had complained that Senna had been given preferential treatment. Senna was the leading World Champion in 1990 when the same accident, different corner occurred. A lot of the spectators there and ones watching all over the world via television felt that it was deliberate. A lot of the watchers felt that Senna deliberately drove Prost off the road as a measure of payback for the previous year. Senna even admitted it in 1991, with no signs of remorse. 1990 was the year in which Belgian driver Thierry Boutsen won the only pole position of his career at Hungaroring. He and his race team, Williams, won the checkered flag from Senna's McLaren. The 1990 season also seen the introduction of driver Harvey Postlethwaite's high-nosed Tyrrell 019 and GP debut of Jean Alesi.
-The 1991 season is where Formula One really began its journey forward. Williams Racing introduced the FW14, designed by Patrick Head. It was the first F1 car to have a semi-automatic gearbox with traction control. It seems as time went on, more things were changing. For win points going from 9 to 10, Senna had managed to gain 40 points in addition to four pole positions and four wins in his McLaren Honda MP4/6. His nearest changer was 11 points and Nigel Mansell on the Williams team six points. Things were looking up for Williams Racing. They improved at Monaco, where Mansell won second place to Senna. At the 1992 Canadian GP, Williams' success looked all but assured when Mansell qualified for second, took a lead in the first corner on the track and dominated the majority of the race. As he came to the final hairpin turn, his engine stopped working abruptly, coasting to a dead stop.
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| Williams race team's FW14 |
-Williams racing finally worked out all the kinks in their engines and designs and finally went on a winning streak over the 1992-1993 seasons. Nigel Mansell won in 1992, becoming a World Champion. He won the 1992 British GP at Silverstone. This made him the first British F1 World Champion in over 15 years. Mansell retired from Williams Racing after he heard that team owner Frank Williams had hired Alain Prost. When the 1993 season ended, it marked the end of two eras. Worrying about the perceived lack of driver skill as a measure of success and concerns about the long term impact of long stretches of runway seasons on worldwide viewership and sponsor money. FIA banned "driver's aids". They banned active suspension, traction control and all other automatic car adjustments for 1994.
-Despite the bans, driver talent still matters. Ayrton Senna managed to win the European GP at Donington Park in 1993. Senna even logged his sixth win at Monaco. He had even won the last race of the 1993 season at Adelaide at the Australian GP.
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