Cosworth GBA

Ford TEC-F1 (Cosworth GBA)

The Cosworth GBA was a turbo engine for Formula 1 that the British engine manufacturer Cosworth had developed with financial support from the American Ford company. In the entry lists he appeared under the names Ford TEC or Ford TEC-Turbo . The GBA was the only turbocharged Formula 1 engine that Cosworth and Ford had in their range in the so-called turbo era, and at the same time the last new development to be used before turbo engines were banned in 1989. The Cosworth GBA was only available to selected Formula 1 teams in 1986 and 1987 . He did not achieve a victory in a Formula 1 world championship run.

Development history

The engine manufacturer Cosworth, founded in 1958 by Keith Duckworth and Mike Costin , was represented in the Formula 1 World Championship from 1967 with the 3.0 liter naturally aspirated DFV engine . The DFV, the development of which Ford had financed, was freely accessible to all teams and dominated Formula 1 in the 1970s. With 155 world championship races won, 12 drivers 'titles and 10 constructors' titles between 1967 and 1983, it is the most successful engine in the history of Formula 1. No other manufacturer has succeeded in designing a similarly competitive naturally aspirated engine. Only with the advent of turbo engines from 1977 did the DFV gradually fall behind. From 1981 onwards, the turbo engines were so powerful and reliable that they achieved regular victories and a little later they were also able to compete in the world championship. Therefore, in the early 1980s, the top and then midfield teams switched to turbo engines. From 1984 onwards, all drivers' world championships went to pilots with turbo engines.

Cosworth reacted waitily to the emerging turbo wave. Keith Duckworth considered the turbo engines in Formula 1 to be non-compliant and until 1982 did not even deal with a supercharged Formula 1 engine. A charged version of the DFV was created at Cosworth; this engine, called DFX, with a displacement of 2.65 liters, was intended only for US racing series ( CART ). In Formula 1, however, the company stuck to the naturally aspirated engine concept for a long time. The DFV was further developed to the DFY, which won again in 1983 ( Michele Alboreto for Tyrrell at the Grand Prix of the USA East 1983 ). He could not prevent the loss of importance of the naturally aspirated engine concept. In 1985, only Minardi and Tyrrell started with DFV engines, which in the meantime had at least 300 hp less than the supercharged engines.

Financier: Ford

The Ford Group, which financed the DFV and had benefited from the advertising effectiveness of its racing successes, had been pushing for the development of a turbo engine for Formula 1 since 1981. Because of Duckworth's hesitant attitude, Ford temporarily considered cooperating with the German racing team Zakspeed in this area , who had more than ten years of experience with turbo engines. When Duckworth finally agreed to develop a turbo engine in the summer of 1983, Ford decided to continue working with Cosworth. Development work for the Cosworth turbo began in the fall of 1983, when Williams was already starting with Honda and McLaren with Porsche turbos. The process wasn't straightforward. In a first phase Cosworth designed an inline four-cylinder engine that was derived from the Cosworth BDA and based on an engine block from the Ford Escort . The four-cylinder concept was based on the engines from BMW ( M12 ) and Hart ( 415T ) already in use . Over the course of the year, unsolvable problems arose with the load-bearing capacity of the crankshaft, so that Duckworth abandoned the four-cylinder project after about a year of development. In September 1984 the decision was made for a second concept, which meant a completely new design. Cosworth opted for a six-cylinder V-engine, which was named GBA in-house.

Geoff Goddard directed the development of the GBA. The first drawings were made in December 1984, and the first prototype was put to the test on August 1, 1985. The first test drives took place in Boreham in February 1986, and the engine made its debut in a Formula 1 race two months later.

The engine was only used in 1986 and 1987. A total of 25 blocks were created, which Cosworth took care of, unlike in the case of DFV itself. In 1987 Cosworth employed around 100 people for the GBA alone. When the FIA imposed strict regulations on turbo engines for the 1988 season and, among other things, reduced the permissible boost pressure to 2.5 bar, Ford discontinued the GBA program: The new rules would have required a comprehensive adaptation of the engine, which in view of the fact that from 1989 turbo engines were banned completely, was considered uneconomical. In the future, Cosworth concentrated again on naturally aspirated engines: the HB series was created for the preferred customer Benetton , and the DFZ and DFR series for the smaller customer teams .

nomenclature

Internally, the turbo engine is called Cosworth GBA. The letter combination “GB” was supposed to follow up on the Cosworth GA , Cosworth's first six-cylinder V-engine from 1973, and express that the new engine was the second Cosworth unit with this design. Apart from that, there was no relationship between the GA and the GB. The 3.4 liter GA was based on the Ford Essex block and was intended for use in touring car racing ( Group 2 ).

In public the Cosworth GBA was marketed as Ford TEC, TEC-Turbo or TEC-F1; so he also appeared in the entry lists for Formula 1 races. The letter combination TEC stood for T urbo E ngine C osworth.

technology

120 degree cylinder bank angle: Cosworth GBA

The Cosworth GBA was a compact six cylinder V engine that was 450 mm long and 510 mm high. With regard to the number of cylinders, Cosworth was based on the successful TAG engine from Porsche . At 120 degrees, the cylinder bank angle was significantly larger than that of the Porsche (80 degrees), which was designed to be particularly narrow with a view to the profiled underbody . Since smooth sub-floors were required from 1983 onwards, Cosworth no longer had to take such aspects into account. The engine block and cylinder heads were made of an aluminum alloy. Unlike the British Hart 415T, the cylinder heads were removable. The displacement was 1497 cm³. Cosworth did not disclose the dimensions of the bore and stroke. External engineers estimate values ​​of 78 mm (bore) × 52.18 mm (stroke). The cylinder surfaces were coated with Nikasil . Each cylinder had two intake and two exhaust valves. The valves were at an angle of 40 degrees to each other. There were two overhead camshafts for each cylinder bank, which - for the first time since the Repco engines of the late 1960s - were driven by chains. The GBA had two Garrett turbochargers that worked in one stage. The ignition system was supplied by Magneti Marelli , the pistons came from Mahle . The engine electronics was a Ford development (EEC-IV).

The first engines were compressed in a ratio of 6.5: 1. In the course of the season Cosworth increased the compression ratio gradually to 7.5: 1 and finally to 8.0: 1. After the performance for the qualification had initially been 700 hp, the engines came to around 1000 hp towards the end of the 1986 season. In the second half of the 1987 season, this performance was finally achieved in the race. Thus the performance of the Cosworth engines was slightly above the performance of the engines from Honda.

Races

Unlike the DFV, the GBA was not a generally available engine. The decision as to which teams were allowed to use the TEC Turbo was entirely up to Ford. For the years 1986 to 1988 Ford awarded the engine exclusively to Team Haas (USA) based in Colnbrook , UK . Cosworth was critical of the decision because Haas was a newly formed team that had only made its motorsport debut in 1985. According to Ford, Haas was initially supported by the prospect of financial support from the Beatrice group, which ultimately came about only to a very limited extent. Haas actually only used the engine in 1986. After that season, the team stopped racing.

At the end of the year, team founder Carl Haas sold his team's material to Bernie Ecclestone , the owner of the Brabham team, who wanted to pass the GBA engines on to Brabham in this detour for 1987 and 1988. However, Ford canceled the engine contract with Haas, so that ultimately neither Haas nor Ecclestone had access to the turbos. The Cosworth GBA went to the Benetton team instead in 1987, which fielded it in two cars that season. In 1988 the TEC-F1 was no longer used.

Team Haas

Lola THL2 with TEC-F1 engine (1986)

The TEC made its debut in 1986 in the San Marino Grand Prix in Team Haas (USA), which was also referred to in the media as Haas-Lola , Beatrice , Beatrice-Lola or FORCE-Lola . Haas had been active in Formula 1 since 1985. The team had contested its first season with British Hart turbo engines . Haas also started the second season with Hart engines. Drivers were Alan Jones and Patrick Tambay . The Cosworth GBA was ready for use at the third race of the season in Imola , but the team only had one engine at first. The previous THL1 chassis was converted into a THL2 for him . The new car with the new engine went to Alan Jones, while Tambay started in Imola with the THL1-Hart. Here the new THL2 with Ford engine was clearly inferior to the old THL1. In qualifying, Jones was almost three seconds slower than Tambay. In the race, Jones retired after 28 laps with an overheated engine. From Monaco both Haas cars started with the Cosworth turbo. During the 1986 season, the THL2 suffered from a lack of reliability. Jones retired ten times early in 14 races, Tambay just as often in 13 races. However, there were also three finishings in the points: Jones finished fourth in the Austrian Grand Prix and sixth in the subsequent race in Italy . Tambay took fifth place in Austria . In the warm-up for the Canadian Grand Prix , Tambay had an accident after a driving error. He suffered injuries to his feet that prevented him from participating in the race in Montréal or in Detroit a week later . In the USA, Eddie Cheever took over the second car from Haas instead . In total, Haas achieved six world championship points in 1986 and finished eighth in the constructors' championship. Already in the early summer of 1986 the end of the racing team became apparent. The reasons for this were on the one hand the sporting results, which fell short of the - unrealistically high - expectations, and on the other hand the team's economic difficulties. A new sponsor would have been required for the 1987 season, but Haas couldn't find one. In October 1986, Haas closed the racing stable.

Benetton

Last GBA user: Benetton Formula

The British racing team Benetton Formula emerged from the Toleman team in 1986 . While Toleman had used Hart engines for six years, Benetton started its first season with BMW customer engines that Mader looked after and scored a win with them. For the 1987 season, Benetton received the Cosworth GBA engines exclusively. The emergency vehicle was the Benetton Benetton B187 designed by Rory Byrne , a further development of last year's B186 . The drivers were Teo Fabi and Thierry Boutsen throughout the season . In Cosworth's opinion, Benetton was structurally better positioned than Haas, so that an efficient further development of the turbo engine was possible.

Boutsen and Fabi almost always qualified for the first five rows with the Cosworth GBA. The best qualifying result was Boutsen's third place on the grid in the penultimate race in Japan , plus several fourth places on the grid. Boutsen finished nine times, Fabi seven times. After numerous technical failures at the start of the season, most of the drivers reached the finish line in the second half of the year. Boutsen finished nine races, Fabi seven races with a finish. The Benetton Fords scored regularly. Both drivers came third once each (Fabi in Austria , Boutsen after a disqualification of Ayrton Senna in Japan). There were also three fourth and five fifth places. At the end of the year, Benetton finished fifth in the constructors' championship with 28 points.

statistics

season	team	chassis	No.	driver	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
1986
	Team Haas (USA)	Lola THL2	15th	A. Jones			DNF	DNF	11	10	DNF	DNF	DNF	9	DNF	4th	6th	DNF	DNF	DNF	6th	8th
			16	P. Tambay				DNF	DNF	DNS		DNF	DNF	8th	7th	5	DNF	NC	DNF	NC
				E. Cheever							DNF
1987
	Benetton Formula	Benetton B187	19th	T. Fabi	DNF	DNF	DNF	8th	DNF	5	6th	DNF	DNF	3	7th	4th	DNF	5	DNF	DNF	28	5
			20th	T. Boutsen	5	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	7th	DNF	4th	4th	5	14th	16	DNF	5	3

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

literature

• Ian Bamsey: The 1000 bhp Grand Prix Cars , 1988 (GT Foulis & Co. Ltd), ISBN 978-0-85429-617-0
• Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing . Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
• David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906-2001 . 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2
• David Hodges: Racing cars from AZ after 1993 . 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
• Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6

Web links

Commons : Cosworth GBA (Ford TEC)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , motor book publisher Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 320, 327th
2. ↑ 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. 18.
3. ^ Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6 , p. 194.
4. ↑ Documentation on the Cosworth DFV on the website www.research-racing.de (accessed on December 6, 2018)
5. ^ NN: Keith Duckworth. www.telegraph.co.uk, December 22, 2005, accessed December 11, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Ian Bamsey: The 1000 bhp Grand Prix Cars , 1988 (GT Foulis & Co. Ltd.), ISBN 978-0-85429-617-0 , p 74th
7. ^ Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6 , pp. 200 f.
8. ^ ^{A b} Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6 , p. 204.
9. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing . Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , p. 360.
10. ^ Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6 , p. 207.
11. ^ Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6 , p. 211.
12. ^ Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6 , p. 209.
13. ^ ^{A b} Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6 , p. 203.
14. ^ Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6 , p. 274.
15. ↑ Ian Bamsey: The 1000 bhp Grand Prix Cars , 1988 (GT Foulis & Co. Ltd), ISBN 978-0-85429-617-0 , pp. 74-76-
16. ^ Graham Robson: Cosworth: The Search for Power , JH Haynes & Co Ltd, 2017, ISBN 1-84425-015-6 , p. 206.
17. ↑ ^{a b} Ian Bamsey: The 1000 bhp Grand Prix Cars , 1988 (GT Foulis & Co. Ltd.), ISBN 978-0-85429-617-0 , p 78th
18. ^ ^{A b} Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 . 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 , p. 601.
19. ^ ^{A b} David Hodges: David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 . 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 32.
20. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing . Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , p. 357.
21. ↑ Ian Bamsey: The 1000 bhp Grand Prix Cars , 1988 (GT Foulis & Co. Ltd.), ISBN 978-0-85429-617-0 , page 77