Willi Kauhsen Racing Team

Henri Pescarolo and team principal Willi Kauhsen (right) in the summer of 1975

The Willi Kauhsen Racing Team was a German motorsport team that competed with its own vehicles between 1972 and 1979 in the Interseries , the Sports Car World Championship , Formula 2 and, for a short time, even Formula 1 .

The beginnings

The founder of the racing team was the German freight forwarder Willibert "Willi" Kauhsen from Eschweiler near Aachen . Willi Kauhsen, born on May 19, 1939, took part regularly as a driver in touring and sports car races between 1963 and 1974 and achieved some successes.

In 1967 Willi Kauhsen won the European Touring Car Championship in Division 1 on an Abarth 1000 TC. He later switched to the sports car class, where he mainly drove Porsche cars .

In the late 1960s, Willi Kauhsen was a fixture in long-distance races . As one of his best achievements, he later described his involvement in the Marathon de La Route , which took place from August 21 to 24, 1968 on the Nürburgring . In this 84-hour race, which covered a distance of 10,000 kilometers, Willi Kauhsen competed as a works driver for Porsche . Together with Herbert Linge and Dieter Glemser , he drove a 170 hp Porsche 911 S. The Kauhsen / Linge / Glemser trio took overall victory. In the same year won Kauhsen together with Erwin Kremer and Helmut Kelleners the Spa 24 Hours . In 1970, Willi Kauhsen and Gérard Larrousse took part in a Porsche 917 long tail for the Martini Racing Team in the Le Mans 24-hour race . Kauhsen and Larrousse came second overall behind Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood , who drove the short-tail version of the Porsche 917.

In 1972 Kauhsen began to build up his own racing team. The Willi Kauhsen Racing Team first competed in the Interseries in 1972 . Willi Kauhsen himself was the driver; at that time the team was using a 1000 hp Porsche 917 Turbo. In the first year Willi Kauhsen won the run in Imola and achieved four second places. In 1973 he won the first two races of the Interseries at the Nürburgring and in Imola, and in 1974 he won at Silverstone .

In the 1975 season Willi Kauhsen fielded at least three Alfa Romeo Tipo 33s in the World Prototype Championship. In a sense, the team had factory status. The drivers were Jacky Ickx , Arturo Merzario , Derek Bell , Henri Pescarolo and Jacques Laffite . Kauhsen's team won the championship title after several successful appearances.

Kauhsen in Formula 2

In 1976 Willi Kauhsen decided to switch to formula racing. Here Formula 2 should be tackled first; a few years later there was a promotion to Formula 1 .

1976

The team's first assignment in Formula 2 took place in the 1976 season. Kauhsen used two current 762s as a March customer team . Regular drivers were Ingo Hoffmann and Klaus Ludwig ; Other drivers were also reported for individual events. At the Rhein-Pokal at the Hockenheimring Jochen Mass drove in the place of Klaus Ludwig, at the Gran Premio del Mediterraneo in Enna, however, Arturo Merzario and Klaus Ludwig were registered. Neither driver started there, however.

The team had no experience in formula racing, so that in the first year a lot of energy had to be spent on learning the relevant specialties. Accordingly, results were only achievable in the midfield; There were no podium finishes or victories.

1977

Willi Kauhsen essentially blamed March's vehicles for their mediocre performance. So he was looking for better equipment for the second Formula 2 season. Here he fell into the car of the Elf Switzerland team , a racing team led by Jean Sage and supported by the Swiss subsidiary of the mineral oil company Elf Aquitaine . The team called Ecurie Elf at the time had used its own cars in the Formula 2 European Championship from 1974, which had been designed by Jean-Pierre Jabouille , the team's driver, with the assistance of Renault Alpine . In 1976, Jean-Pierre Jabouille won the European Formula 2 Championship with this car, which was now called Jabouille J2. Since Jabouille switched to Formula 1 in 1977, his Formula 2 cars were up for sale. Willi Kauhsen then took over the vehicles for his own Formula 2 team and gave them the name "Kauhsen" or "Kauhsen-Renault".

The first driver to register was Michel Leclère , who had known the car from previous years. Next to him was Klaus Ludwig, who did not drive the entire season, but had to hand over his cockpit to Vittorio Brambilla , José Dolhem , Mario da Silva and Alain Prost at times .

Although most of the drivers had great talent, Willi Kauhsen's expectations were disappointed. Although Michel Leclère reached pole position in the first race of the season at Silverstone , he retired in the race with engine failure. After that, no more countable results could be achieved. The only exception was a third place Brambillas in Misano. Alain Prost, who already had the reputation of the boy prodigy at that time, did not achieve any top positions in his two missions for the team. In Nogaro he was tenth, in Estoril he was eliminated. The other drivers weren't more successful either.

In the course of the season the cars got visibly worse. Observers unanimously attributed this to the fact that the technicians in Kauhsen's workshop made a lot of changes to the cars without having sufficiently checked the effectiveness of the modifications beforehand. At the end of the 1977 season, Willi Kauhsen decided to withdraw from Formula 2. A further use of the French cars, which had changed significantly in the meantime, did not seem sensible. Instead, the promotion to Formula 1 was prepared.

Kauhsen started one of the Jabouille cars in the final race of the Japanese Formula 2 championship in 1977 with Keke Rosberg . Rosberg achieved nothing; he retired on the second lap after an engine failure. Kauhsen sold the car to the Japanese-based German racing driver Nico Nicole , whose team Nicole Racing reported it to three rounds of the Japanese Formula 2 championship in 1978. Once Gianfranco Brancatelli drove the car, twice Nicole himself. Only Brancatelli reached the finish line. 1979 Nico Nicole registered a car with the type designation Niki NK2; there is evidence that it was another makeover of the Jabouille car.

Kauhsen in Formula 1

The takeover of the Kojima car

At first, Kauhsen considered joining Formula 1 as early as 1978 . Since he did not have to develop his own chassis in the remaining time, he planned to take over someone else's car. The choice fell on the Japanese Kojima KE009, a car that had been entered for the 1977 Japanese Grand Prix by Kojima Engineering for Noritake Takahara and by Kojima's customer team Heros Racing for Kazuyoshi Hoshino . Both cars caused a sensation in this race. Hoshino had qualified for a surprising eleventh place on the grid and Takahara started the race in 19th place. Takahara dropped out of the race after a collision with Hans Binder in Surtees , while Hoshino managed to save his 11th place at the finish.

These results were the reason for Kauhsen to decide to take over the Kojima cars and to use them regularly by the Willi Kauhsen Racing Team. In the spring of 1978 the negotiations were well advanced and advertising photos were even taken with Willi Kauhsen, who had taken a seat in a Kojima cockpit. The driver choice was unclear. Some sources say that Kauhsen already had close contacts with Gianfranco Brancatelli at this time ; the Italian is said to have been to Japan at least once with Willi Kauhsen. According to other information, Willi Kauhsen took the then young Keke Rosberg to Japan, who is said to have carried out a functional test on the Fuji Speedway .

Finally, negotiations with Kojima failed. The reason for this is usually given that Kauhsen did not have the necessary financial resources to transport the wagons and materials from Japan to Europe.

Your own car

Thereupon Kauhsen decided to develop his own car for the 1979 Formula 1 season.

In the absence of its own infrastructure, Kauhsen had to rely largely on external help. At the end of 1977 he commissioned professors Hans Gerhard, Carl Cramer and Eduard Jäger from the Aachen University of Applied Sciences to carry out aerodynamics studies for their own Formula 1 car. The studies were completed in the spring of 1978, around the time that the takeover of the Kojima project failed. The team was complemented by the aerodynamicist Klaus Kapitzka, who had previously worked at Ford in Cologne, and the chassis designer Kurt Chabek, who worked directly for the Willi Kauhsen Racing Team. Chabek was the only one of them who had his own experience of designing formula racing cars: he had worked for the German racing car manufacturer TOJ in 1977 .

In the summer of 1978, Chabek developed the concept for Kauhsen's Formula 1 car. The model was the Lotus 78 , the most sophisticated wing car and the most successful car of the 1978 Formula 1 season. Chabek determined the dimensions of the Kauhsen by measuring the current Formula 1 cars on photographs. From the data found in this way, he formed an average value that was to become the basis for the Kauhsen.

The Cosworth DFV eight-cylinder engine was specified at an early stage . In view of their shared past, Willi Kauhsen initially tried to get twelve-cylinder cylinders from Alfa Romeo , as they were already being used at Brabham. In 1978, however, Alfa Romeo had already decided on its own Formula 1 project, so that there was no free capacity in Italy to equip another team.

In the autumn of 1978 three mechanics and the engineers Chabek and Kapitzka were working in Kauhsen's factory. In September 1978 they succeeded in completing the first prototype, the WK-001, an extremely compact car with an extraordinary aerodynamic solution: the rear wing sat in front of the rear axle and was connected to the side skirts by wide pillars. In the side skirts were also the coolers and some additional tanks that could not be accommodated in other places. This adversely affected the ground effect. Niki Lauda commented on the unusual car with the words: “Your solution cannot work. If she went, then all the other idiots would be. "

From November 1978 the WK001 was tested several times. Gianfranco Brancatelli undertook the first private test drives , a little later the Austrian Harald Ertl got into the Kauhsen and damaged the car considerably in an accident. Kauhsen then took part in the official FOCA test drives in Le Castellet , which took place in early December 1978. They were carried out by Patrick Nève , a Belgian racing driver who had driven a used March in 1977 for Frank Williams' newly formed team and had good connections with Belgian sponsors such as Marlboro Belgium, the Belle-Vue brewery and the Kinley company. Neve got bad times with the white lacquered Kauhsen; At best, it was six seconds behind the fastest cars, the Ligier cars .

In the course of the first half of the year, four more vehicles were built, some of which differed considerably from one another:

• The cars WK002 and WK003, which were produced in January and February 1979, corresponded roughly to the WK001, but contained various modifications in detail.

• The WK004 model was completed in March 1979. The car was the first to have a front wing. The unusual construction of the rear wing was omitted; instead, the rear wing was now positioned behind the rear axle, as is usual with other cars. However, it remained that the ground effect was disturbed by the coolers, exhaust manifolds and tanks housed in the side pods.

• The WK005 built in April 1979 was again considerably different. The car was significantly longer. The changed overall length finally made it possible to remove the disturbing components from the side boxes. The WK005 was now a real wing car.

The 1979 season

Willi Kauhsen had planned to contest the entire 1979 season with his Formula 1 team. However , the team did not participate in the first race in Argentina , which was to take place in January 1979. There was a substantial lack of financial resources. So Willi Kauhsen did not manage to pay the registration fee required by FISA on time. In addition, the team was unable to get the existing car ready for use. With this in mind, Neve terminated his contract with Kauhsen.

In January 1979, Kauhsen was able to secure the support of some German sponsors. With the funds of the prefabricated house company Kaiser and the car rental company Schors, he was able to pay the registration fee, whereupon his team with the start of the European season, i. H. the fifth race of the world championship.

The first use

After a few test drives in Le Castellet in February 1979 with Gianfranco Brancatelli, the first practical use followed in early April 1979. However, it was not a race that was held as part of the Formula 1 World Championship. Rather, the Willi Kauhsen Racing Team registered for the Aurora series race in April 1979 on the Belgian Circuit Zolder . This race was part of a British championship in which a number of disused Formula 1 cars were driven by young drivers. Basically, the Aurora series was aimed at promoting young talent in motorsport. For Kauhsen it was an attempt at a dress rehearsal without being exposed to the seriousness of the Formula 1 World Championship.

Kauhsen appeared with the model WK004. Gianfranco Brancatelli was registered as the driver. He qualified for eighth place on the grid, but retired on the second lap of the race so that the expected gain in experience could not be achieved.

Two appearances in the Formula 1 World Championship

The Willi Kauhsen Racing Team made its debut in the world championship at the Spanish Grand Prix at the end of April 1979. The vehicle used was the WK004, which was again modified compared to the Aurora race; the brand new WK005 was intended as a replacement car. The training did not go according to plan: The WK004 could not be started, so the untested WK005 had to be prepared for use. In the second round of the training, the fire extinguisher of the WK005 was triggered without cause, the car had to be parked and a marshal also added extinguishing foam. Brancatelli was last in the qualification and was 8.7 seconds behind the later pole time of Jacques Laffite on Ligier . After these events, the designer Kurt Chabek separated from the Kauhsen team.

Kauhsen reported his team again for the following race, the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit Zolder . The car was the WK005. The clutch broke in the first training session. The mechanics repaired the defective part in the nearby local workshop. After the repaired clutch was reinstalled, another part in its vicinity was defective. Since Kauhsen did not have a replacement car on the racetrack, the team had to end the training early.

Willi Kauhsen ended his Formula 1 adventure. There were no other races. Willi Kauhsen later described his Formula 1 days as "the greatest disappointment of my life".

The Kauhsen cars continued to exist

In the early summer of 1979, Kauhsen sold his cars and infrastructure to Arturo Merzario , who had his own racing team in Italy . Merzario rebuilt the WK005 and named the car Merzario A4. This meant that his team competed in a few Formula 1 races until the end of the season without being able to qualify even once. The driver of the car was Arturo Merzario himself. Gianfranco Brancatelli was also supposed to drive for Merzario's team at short notice, but he didn't use the converted Kauhsen.

The unusual rear wing of the first Kauhsen models was copied in 1979 by the Italian engineer "Dydo" Monguzzi, who built a Dywa Formula 1 car on his own in his home workshop .

Results

Victories in the sports car world championship

year	run	vehicle	Driver 1	Driver 2
1975	800 km race from Dijon	Alfa Romeo 33TT12	Arturo Merzario	Jacques Laffite
	1000 km race from Monza	Alfa Romeo 33TT12	Arturo Merzario	Jacques Laffite
	1000 km race from Spa-Francorchamps	Alfa Romeo 33TT12	Henri Pescarolo	Derek Bell
	1000 km race from Pergusa	Alfa Romeo 33TT12	Arturo Merzario	Jochen Mass
	1000 km race on the Nürburgring	Alfa Romeo 33TT12	Arturo Merzario	Jacques Laffite
	1000 km race from Zeltweg	Alfa Romeo 33TT12	Henri Pescarolo	Derek Bell
	Watkins Glen 6 hour race	Alfa Romeo 33TT12	Henri Pescarolo	Derek Bell

literature

• David Hodges: Racing Cars from A to Z after 1945 . 1st edition, Stuttgart 1993.
• Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing, 1st edition, Stuttgart 1997.
• The 1000 hp man, article about Willi Kauhsen. In: Motorsport aktuell . Issue 26/2000.
• Steffen Schulz: Formula 1 teams: Kauhsen Ford . Detailed documentation of the technology of the Kauhsen cars at www.research-racing.de.
• Jochen von Osterroth: The mayfly . Report on the 25th anniversary of the Kauhsen Formula 1 project. In: Motorsport aktuell . Issue 26/2003, p. 14.
• Yörn Pugmeister: Willi World Champion or the ascents and transfers of Willi Kauhsen . In: Automobilsport , issue # 20, April 2019, pp. 96–111.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Behrndt, Jörg-Thomas Födisch, Matthias Behrndt: German racing drivers . Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2008, ISBN 978-3-86852-042-2 , p. 93.
2. ^ Honor roll in the program booklet for the 1979 Grand Touring Car Prize at the Nürburgring, p. 4.
3. ↑ Successes in the sports car world championship 1975 ( Memento from December 19, 2003 in the web archive archive.today )