British Racing Motors
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| Surname | British Racing Motors |
|---|---|
| Companies | British Racing Motors Ltd. |
| Company headquarters | Bourne , Lincolnshire ( GB ) |
| Team boss | |
| statistics | |
| First Grand Prix | Great Britain 1951 |
| Last Grand Prix | Italy 1977 |
| Race driven | 203 |
| Constructors' championship | 1 |
| Drivers World Championship | 1 |
| Race wins | 17th |
| Pole positions | 11 |
| Fastest laps | 13 |
| Points | 517 |
British Racing Motors ( BRM for short ) was a British manufacturer of racing cars to which a works team for use in Formula 1 was affiliated. The team took part in the Formula 1 World Championship between 1951 and 1977 under the name Owen Racing Organization and also supplied independent customer teams with engines and other components. The greatest success in the team's history was the win of the drivers' world championship in 1962 by Graham Hill and the constructor title in the same year. After the economic decline, it was briefly run as Stanley-BRM in 1977 .
Company history
British Racing Motors was founded in 1947 by British racing driver Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon. The idea behind the establishment was to unite various British companies into a national motorsport project. In the prewar period, Mays had raced for the British manufacturer ERA, among others . At that time, the English designs were inferior to the French, Italian and German manufacturers, who had received state support for their cars and who had acted as representatives of their nations. During the war, Mays developed the idea of setting up a suitable British national team. The company initially operated as Automobile Developments Ltd. and was based in Bourne , Lincolnshire ; it used the former workshops of the racing car manufacturer ERA. Mays propagated his idea nationwide after the end of the war and received support from British industry as well as the government. Ultimately, around 100 British suppliers took part in the project, which the British Racing Motor Research Trust was set up to finance . Supporting companies included Rolls-Royce and Lucas ; the Trust also collected donations. The development was accompanied by broad national coverage in the press.
The prototype of a BRM racing car was presented with great public participation in the summer of 1949. Numerous technical problems, but also financial bottlenecks, however, delayed the debut, which was enthusiastically awaited by the British population and which ultimately took place in 1950 in a Formula 1 race that was not part of the world championship . BRM organized a works team that initially only started sporadically in the 1950s and was consistently disappointing.
Economic difficulties meant that BRM was taken over by the Rubery Owen company in 1952 . Since then, the works team has been formally known as the Owen Racing Organization. Mays and Berton initially stayed with the company. Under the leadership of Alfred Owen , the company consolidated in the second half of the 1950s. Over the years, BRM, which continued to manufacture all the components of the racing cars itself, became a "British counterpart to Ferrari ." From 1958 onwards , there were regular factory participation in the Formula 1 World Championship, and BRM also sold engines and other technical components independent competitors like Lotus or Cooper . As an engine supplier, BRM competed primarily with Coventry Climax for a decade . Complete racing cars were also given to customer teams. The most successful period of the Formula 1 works team was the 1.5-liter era at the beginning of the 1960s: in 1962 , BRM and Graham Hill won the drivers 'and constructors' championships, followed by three runners-up championships. With the start of the 3.0-liter era in 1966 , the success of the works team waned; BRM slipped into midfield. Team boss Louis Stanley , a brother-in-law of Alfred Owens, repeatedly overtaxed the company's capabilities by initiating costly projects such as a sixteen-cylinder H engine (1966) or a works team consisting of six cars (1972). With the death of Alfred Owens in 1975, the financing of the company that had been secured until then was no longer available. In 1976 there was a crisis. BRM withdrew after only one race from the ongoing Formula 1 World Championship.
The company was liquidated in 1976. The previous team boss Louis Stanley took over part of the inventory and on this basis built a team called Stanley-BRM as a successor. The attempt to restart in 1977, however, failed. Without sponsors and with changing pay drivers , BRM was a "flop".
The BRM works team in Formula 1
1951 to 1957 - The first appearances
The first BRM construction was the P15 , a technically ambitious project with a sixteen-cylinder V-engine installed in the front, the development of which the small company was unable to cope with financially and organizationally. The car was rarely used. It lacked the necessary reliability and the performance that BRM promised was actually not achieved. Numerous established pilots drove the P15 in the early 1950s, including Juan Manuel Fangio and José Froilán González . None of them could successfully finish a race. In retrospect, Stirling Moss described the BRM P15 as "the worst racing car he has ever driven."
In 1950 it made its debut in a race at Silverstone that was not part of the World Championship , but Raymond Sommer retired with the BRM P15 at the start. Reg Parnell won a poorly manned race at Goodwood in the fall , but they withdrew to further develop the car. BRM celebrated its first World Championship appearance at the Grand Prix of Great Britain in 1951 : Reg Parnell at least achieved fifth place, albeit five laps behind. In 1952 and 1953 , the drivers' world championship was held according to the Formula 2 regulations, BRM refrained from developing such a vehicle and only competed in a few non-world championship races. It wasn't until 1955 that the new P25 returned to the racetracks. In the Formula 1 seasons 1956 and 1957 , Mike Hawthorn , Tony Brooks and Ron Flockhart , among others, competed in isolated races, but not enough to score championship points.
1958 to 1961 - first successes
In the Formula 1 season in 1958 the first successes, get Harry Schell and Jean Behra occupied at the Grand Prix of the Netherlands in Zandvoort behind Stirling Moss , the second and third place; further regular arrivals in the points resulted in fourth place in the constructors' championship. In the 1959 season , Jo Bonnier celebrated the British’s first victory in a World Championship at the Dutch Grand Prix . At the beginning of the 1960 season, Graham Hill, the most successful BRM driver, joined the team, but the new P48 was still too prone to defects, and apart from a few points, the team had little success. The year 1961 was even worse , and team owner Alfred Owen demanded success and threatened the end of the racing team.
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1962 - The triumph
In the 1962 season came Richie Ginther to the team, and together with regular driver Graham Hill they could on the BRM P57 by winning the constructors' title celebrating the biggest success in the history of the team. With victories in the Netherlands , Germany , Italy and South Africa , Hill also became world driver champion.
1963 to 1965 - Subscription in 2nd place
After the victories, BRM became a sought-after engine supplier and several teams drove with BRM engines. In 1963 , however, they had to admit defeat to the outstanding Jim Clark in the Lotus , as did John Surtees in the Ferrari in 1964 . Graham Hill's victories each time resulted in second place in the Constructors' Championship. In the 1965 season , the later three-time world champion Jackie Stewart was able to deliver a first talent test of his skills on BRM. Hill's victories in Monaco and the USA and Stewart's triumph in Italy again resulted in second place in the drivers (Hill) and constructors' championships.
1966 to 1969 - The beginning decline
The 1966 Formula 1 season brought new engine regulations and the new P83 with the newly developed BRM 75 H-16 engine was immature - Stewart still won the season opener in Monaco with the old P261 with V8 engine , but otherwise there was little reason to To cheer. Hill left the team at the end of the season and was replaced by Mike Spence , but 1967 only brought Stewart two podiums in Belgium and France . The 1968 season was restless. Stewart left the team to compete in Ken Tyrrell's racing team with a Matra chassis. Spence died before the first European race after an accident in Indianapolis . He was initially to be replaced by Chris Irwin , who, however, had a serious accident a week after Spence and then gave up motorsport. BRM ultimately gave the cockpit to Richard Attwood , who however showed poor performance and was replaced by Bobby Unser for the North American races at the end of the season . Piers Courage, who drove for the BRM Junior Team Reg Parnell Racing , had also hoped for a cockpit in the works team, but could not prevail with the BRM management. The only constant was Pedro Rodríguez , who contested all races for the team. The results were poor. Two second and two third places resulted in fifth place in the constructors' championship. 1969 was even worse when John Surtees and Jackie Oliver could only record a third place and two more finishings.
1970 to 1974 - The last rearing up
In 1970 Alfred Owen handed over the management of the team to his sister Jean Stanley, Tony Southgate was brought in as head of development and Pedro Rodríguez was able to celebrate his first BRM victory in four years at the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix . In the 1971 season , with Jo Siffert's victory in Austria and Peter Gethin's success in Italy , two more victories were achieved, but the Swiss Siffert had a fatal accident at Brands Hatch at the end of the year . He remained the only pilot to find death behind the wheel of a BRM. In 1972 , Jean-Pierre Beltoise joined the team and won in Monaco - it should have been the last BRM victory. The young Austrian Niki Lauda competed alongside Beltoise and Clay Regazzoni in the 1973 season at the wheel of the British and was at least able to attract Enzo Ferrari's attention - he was later twice world champion for the Italians. In 1974 , BRM took seventh place in the constructors' championship, and with second place in South Africa , Beltoise was able to secure the British’s last sense of achievement.
1975 to 1977 - the end
After the death of Alfred Owens in 1975, who had always generously supported the team financially, BRM went bankrupt. A new start was attempted in 1975 under the name Stanley-BRM, but the pilots Mike Wilds and Bob Evans did not get a single point in 1975. After a break in 1976, the return was announced for 1977 . However, the newly developed P207 flopped , and after most of the time they failed to qualify for the race, the team disappeared from the motorsport stage at the end of 1977.
Conclusion
With 17 victories in World Championship races, BRM is eighth on the all-time best list and with Graham Hill also has a driver's and a constructor's title to book. The first internationally active British racing team after the Second World War also opened the door to later teams such as Lotus and Cooper and has the merit of paving the way for future world champions Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda .
literature
- 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 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
- Mike Lawrence: Grand Prix Cars 1945-1965 , Motor Racing Publications 1998, ISBN 1899870393 (English)
- Hartmut Lehbrink, Rainer W. Schlegelmilch: McLaren Formula 1 . Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft Köln 1999. ISBN 3-8290-0945-3
- Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 , 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7
- Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Publishing house Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X .
- British sixteen cylinder racing engine. In: Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift (ATZ) 56 (1954), No. 8, pp. 224–225
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mike Lawrence: Grand Prix Cars 1945-1965 , Motor Racing Publications 1998, ISBN 1899870393 , p. 35.
- ↑ a b David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 45.
- ↑ Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Verlagsgesellschaft Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 173.
- ↑ Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Verlagsgesellschaft Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 175.
- ↑ Heinz Prüller: Bang and Fall . auto Motor und Sport, issue 6/1987, p. 266.
- ↑ a b Mike Lawrence: Grand Prix Cars 1945-1965 , Motor Racing Publications 1998, ISBN 1899870393 , p. 36.
- ^ Adam Cooper: Piers Courage. Last of the gentleman racers . Haines Publishing, Sparkford 2010, ISBN 978-1-84425-863-5 , p. 155.