Alfa Romeo 177

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Alfa Romeo 177

Alfa Romeo 177
Constructor: ItalyItaly Autodelta
Designer: Carlo Chiti
Successor: Alfa Romeo 179
Technical specifications
Chassis: aluminum
Wheelbase: 2740 mm
Weight: 610 kg
Tires: Goodyear
statistics
Driver: ItalyItaly Bruno Giacomelli Vittorio Brambilla
ItalyItaly 
First start: Belgian Grand Prix 1979
Last start: 1979 Italian Grand Prix
Starts Victories Poles SR
3 - - -
World Cup points: -
Podiums: -
Leadership laps: -
Template: Infobox racing car / maintenance / old parameters
Template: Infobox Formula 1 racing car / maintenance / front suspension
Template: Infobox Formula 1 racing car / maintenance / rear suspension

The Alfa Romeo 177 was a race car with which the Italian state-owned Alfa Romeo after nearly thirty-year break in 1979 at the factory in the Formula 1 returned. The designer was Alfa Romeo's Autodelta sports department . The car, also known as the "Alfa-Alfa", appeared in 1979 for three world championship races after it had been privately tested for twelve months. It was already technically out of date when it was first used and did not achieve any world championship points.

background

Alfa Romeo was one of the strongest competitors in motorsport before World War II . After the war, Alfa Romeo took part in the newly established Formula 1 in 1950 and 1951. In both years Alfa Romeo dominated the championships with the Tipo 158 ; Alfa factory drivers Giuseppe Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio became the first Formula 1 drivers' champions in 1950 and 1951, respectively.

After Alfa Romeo had focused on sports car racing in the years that followed, the company began supplying engines to various British Formula 1 teams in the late 1960s. 1968 was Cooper as Alfa-customer in conversation, 1970 was McLaren and the following year the factory team from March Italian eight-cylinder engines from the engines of the racing car Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 were derived. The project was considered "moderately ambitious"; The British teams were primarily supplied “to keep in touch with Formula 1”. World championship points could not be achieved in these connections. In 1976 Autodelta developed a new engine that was exclusively tailored to Formula 1. The 115-12 engine , often referred to as the boxer engine , was given to Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham team exclusively for three years. In the years of the emerging ground effect , the flat engine, protruding far into the side pods, proved to be a hindrance. A narrow twelve-cylinder V-engine with a bank angle reduced to 60 degrees (type 1260), which was available from 1979, was therefore developed for Brabham.

In 1977 Carlo Chiti, the head of Autodelta, developed the idea of ​​starting his own car with an Alfa Romeo engine in Formula 1. Some observers see this as a reaction to the lack of sporting success of the Brabham Alfa team: It is an attempt by Chiti to prove the competitiveness of his engine with a combination of his own engine and his own car - an "Alfa-Alfa". The 177, Alfa’s first own Formula 1 car in more than 20 years, which was still equipped with the flat engine, was primarily intended to serve as a test vehicle and, after a hasty decision by the corporate management, ended up being used in world championship races by chance, because of it Designed in 1979, the successor equipped with the narrow 1260 engine, the Alfa Romeo 179 , could not be completed in time.

technology

The Alfa Romeo had a full aluminum monocoque . The body was made of plastic. It appeared to be "rather massive than elegant". The front wheels were suspended from double wishbones , the unit of springs and dampers was mounted on the inside; the spring-damper unit was on the outside of the rear wheels. The drive unit was the 3.0-liter twelve-cylinder type 115-12, which supposedly developed 520 hp and was thus nominally about 30 hp more powerful than the DFV eight-cylinder engine from Cosworth used by most of the teams . The higher performance, however, was offset by the higher weight of the car. With a weight of 610 kg, the Alfa Romeo 177 was about 35 kg above the required minimum weight. After Mo Nunn's Ensign N179 , it was the second heaviest car of 1979 based on the factory specifications.

The 177 was a one-off.

Test drives

When the Alfa Romeo 177 contested its first Grand Prix, it had "a year of hard development behind it". Since May 1978 Vittorio Brambilla , the "Gorilla of Monza", carried out extensive test drives with the Alfa 177, most of which took place on Alfa Romeo's own test track in Balocco , northern Italy . In August 1978, Niki Lauda , who knew Alfa Romeo's boxer engine from the Brabham models, also did some test laps. He was negative about the vehicle's competitiveness. As a result, the Alfa management postponed the start of the car for another six months. It was not until the beginning of 1979 that the decision was made to participate in world championship races.

Races

The Alfa Romeo 177 appeared in four Formula 1 races. The first three of them had world championship status; the last race of the car, on the other hand, was not part of the world championship .

The Alfa Romeo 177 made its debut at the Belgian Grand Prix in Zolder in 1979 . The report was made - unlike in later years when the brand name Alfa Romeo was used - under the name Autodelta. Driver was Bruno Giacomelli, who in 1978 with the March factory team Formula 2 European Championship had won. The team headed by Carlo Chiti was viewed with skepticism on arrival and laughed at because of their partly outdated equipment. On his debut in the Alfa Romeo 177, Giacomelli qualified for 14th on the grid in front of the two Renault turbo-powered cars . During the race, Giacomelli stayed in midfield before colliding with Shadow driver Elio de Angelis on lap 22 . Both drivers dropped out as a result of the collision.

Autodelta skipped the subsequent race in Monaco . Chiti feared that his team would not qualify in the prestigious race, which only allowed 20 vehicles.

The second World Championship run for the Alfa Romeo 177 was the French Grand Prix . Giacomelli started the race from 17th on the grid. He finished the world championship run five laps behind in 17th place.

The following races in Great Britain, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands were again left out by Autodelta. The team didn't appear again until two months later at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza . Giacomelli started here with the newly designed Alfa Romeo 179, which was equipped with the narrow 1260 engine. The old 177 was driven by Vittorio Brambilla in Monza . He was half a second slower than Giacomelli in qualifying and reached 22nd starting position, four places behind his team-mate. While Giacomelli retired on lap 29 due to a driving error, Brambilla finished the race. He crossed the finish line in 12th place, one lap behind the winner ( Jody Scheckter in the Ferrari ).

After that, Autodelta did not take part in any other world championship races in 1979. One week after the Italian Grand Prix, the Gran Premio Dino Ferrari took place in Imola , a race without world championship status in which a total of eight Formula 1 teams competed. Autodelta reported the Alfa Romeo 177 again for Brambilla and the new 179 for Giacomelli. Brambilla qualified for sixth place on the grid; Giacomelli was 3.5 seconds slower and started from position 12. Brambilla was ninth, one lap behind the winner (Lauda in the Brabham-Alfa).

Whereabouts of the car

The Alfa Romeo 179 is now in the Alfa factory museum in Milan .

Race results at world championship races

driver No. 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th 15th Points rank
Automobile World Championship 1979 Flag of Argentina.svg Flag of Brazil (1968–1992) .svg Flag of South Africa (1928–1994) .svg Flag of the United States.svg Flag of Spain (1977–1981) .svg Flag of Belgium (civil) .svg Flag of Monaco.svg Flag of France.svg Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Flag of Germany.svg Flag of Austria.svg Flag of the Netherlands.svg Flag of Italy.svg Flag of Canada.svg Flag of the United States.svg 0 -
ItalyItaly B. Giacomelli 35 DNF 17th
ItalyItaly V. Brambilla 36 12

literature

  • Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing . 1st edition. Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
  • David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English)
  • David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
  • Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 , 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French)
  • Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars . The three-liter formula from 1966. Rudolf Müller publishing company, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X .

Web links

Commons : Alfa Romeo 177  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alfa Romeo belonged from 1933 to the group IRI (Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale), which was owned by the Italian state.
  2. ↑ David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 12.
  3. ↑ McLaren and March ran two cars with Cosworth engines each year. In addition, they reported a third car for individual world championship races, which was equipped with the Alfa Romeo engine.
  4. ↑ a b David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 14.
  5. ↑ a b c Doug Nye: The big book of Formula 1 racing cars . The three-liter formula from 1966. Rudolf Müller publishing company, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 163.
  6. ↑ a b c Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 , 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 , p. 111.
  7. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , 1st Edition, Motorsport Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 297th
  8. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , 1st Edition, Motorsport Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 276th
  9. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , 1st Edition, Motorsport Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 299th
  10. ^ History of the Alfa Romeo 177 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on June 10, 2014).
  11. ^ David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 13.
  12. ↑ Statistics of the Gran Premio Dino Ferrari 1979 on the website www.silhouet.com (accessed on June 10, 2014).