Ferrari 125 F1

Ferrari 125 F1

Constructor:	Scuderia Ferrari
Designer:	Gioacchino Colombo Valerio Colotti Aurelio Lampredi
Predecessor:	Ferrari 125GP
Successor:	Ferrari 275F1
Technical specifications
Chassis:	conventional lead frame
Engine:	1.5 V12 supercharged engine, 3.3 l V12 naturally aspirated engine
Length:	3685 mm
Width:	1400 mm
Height:	1025 mm
Wheelbase:	2160 mm (GP) 2320 mm (F1)
Weight:	710 kg
Tires:	Pirelli
Petrol:	Shell
statistics
Driver:	Raymond Sommer Luigi Villoresi Alberto Ascari Peter Whitehead (private)
First start:	1948 Italian Grand Prix
Starts Victories Poles SR 3 (F1) - - -
World Cup points:	-
Podiums:	-
Leadership laps:	k. A. / tba

The Ferrari 125 F1 was the first racing car designed only for use in the automobile and Formula 1 world championships as a "single-seater" ( monoposto ), which was built by Scuderia Ferrari . It was a further development of the Ferrari 125 S and was developed by Enzo Ferrari together with the designers Valerio Colotti and Gioacchino Colombo . The car originally had the designation 125 GPC for "Gran Premio Città" or "Grand Prix Compressore".

Development: design

The first sketches for a Formula 1 Ferrari (then “Formula Grand Prix”) were made in the early post-war years of the Second World War and came from Giuseppe Busso . When Gioacchino Colombo switched from Alfa Romeo to Ferrari, he discarded Busso's designs and developed his own concept. There were differences between the two designers, especially with regard to the design of the rear axle: Busso's design provided for a De-Dion axle , while Colombo favored the installation of a swing axle . Ferrari opted for the Colombo variant, although Tazio Nuvolari , who was often in Maranello , spoke several times of the “great properties” of the De Dion axles, which he knew from the pre-war Auto Union Type C. These differences of opinion led Busso to leave Ferrari to join Alfa.

The 125 F1 had worm and sector steering as well as drum brakes on all wheels, corresponding to the state of the art at the time. The original wheelbase of 2160 mm was increased to 2320 mm during the redesign from 1949. The chassis was a tubular space frame construction with cross members and sheet metal planking. Like the design of the gearbox, it came from Valerio Colotti.

The original chassis has been lost (it was used on a Ferrari 275F1 ) but an exact replica of the original Colombo engine is currently in the Museo Ferrari in Maranello.

Development: engine

The first version of the Ferrari 125 F1 engine. The photo was taken during testing of the 1948 Turin GP.

The first version of the 125 F1 was powered by a 1.5 liter V12 engine (1497 cm³) designed by Colombo with a cylinder bank angle of 60 °. The engine had two valves per cylinder, a single overhead camshaft in each bank of cylinders and a Weber 40DOC3 or 50WCF carburetor. With a compression ratio of only 6.5: 1, the engine, charged by a single-stage Roots compressor , developed 230 hp (169; 227 hp) at 7000 rpm.

However, this concept was unable to produce the power required to compete with the powerful eight-cylinder Alfa Romeo 158 and the four-cylinder Maserati 4CLT . However, strong driving skills and an agile chassis made it possible for Ferrari to take third place with Raymond Sommer in its first appearance at the Italian Grand Prix in Parco del Valentino in Turin on September 5, 1948 .

For 1949, the engine was further modified with two overhead camshafts (but still two valves per cylinder) and a two-stage supercharger. This combination gave the car a better peak performance and the resulting 260–280 PS (191–206 kW; 256–276 PS) enabled five Grand Prix victories.

Development continued the following year, the problematic compressors were dropped in favor of a larger displacement and the "275" engine from Aurelio Lampredi (3.3 liters) replaced the original Colombo engine (1.5 liters).

rating

The development of the twelve-cylinder engine that Enzo Ferrari himself wanted was extremely complicated from the start. Especially in the charged version, it turned out to be cumbersome, heavy, handicapped due to excessive fuel consumption and a regular loss of power at high speeds due to "pulling" the compressor. Theoretically, the V12 could have reached a maximum of 10,000 rpm, but in practice it was never more than 7500 rpm because there was insufficient ignition. About a year after it was first introduced, an updated version of the 125 F1 appeared with two Roots compressors and two camshafts per cylinder bank driven by gears. That was an attempt to oppose Alfa Romeo and Maserati, which had significantly more powerful engines. The wheelbase has also been lengthened and the fuel tank enlarged to make it more competitive.

For the 1950 season, the new chief engineer made further modifications: Aurelio Lampredi rejected the use of the swing axle in favor of the De Dion rear axle. The four-speed gearbox now used was installed in a block with the differential, and the engine output could be increased to 280 hp. There were also some external changes that resulted in the car being similar to the future 375F1 .

gallery

• 

  Ferrari 125 S: The two-seater in "Barchetta" design was the direct predecessor of the Fromel-1 Monoposto

• 

  The naturally aspirated engine (3300 cm³) of the 125 S, which was replaced in the 125 F1 by a supercharged engine (1500 cm³)

• 

  A 125 F1 at the 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed .

• 

  Side view sketch

statistics

Racing history

The 125 F1 debuted at the Italian Grand Prix in Turin on September 5, 1948 . Three cars were used which were driven by Prince Bira , Nino Farina and Raymond Sommer . Sommer qualified for the front row (then consisting of four vehicles) and was able to take third place in the race. Bira retired with a gearbox failure, Farina had an accident.

The 125 F1 achieved several victories in various racing series both with the Scuderia works drivers and in the hands of private drivers:

year	date	series	run	Place / route	driver
1948	October 24th	Grand Prix	Circuito del Garda	Salò	Giuseppe Farina
1949	3rd of July	Grande Épreuve	Swiss Grand Prix	Bremgarten	Alberto Ascari
	July 31	Grand Prix	Zandvoort Grand Prix	Zandvoort	Luigi Villoresi
	20th of August	Grand Prix	Daily Express International Trophy	Silverstone	Alberto Ascari
	September 11	Grande Épreuve	Italian Grand Prix	Monza	Alberto Ascari
	25th of September	Grand Prix	Czechoslovakian Grand Prix	Brno	Peter Whitehead
1950	July 13th		Jersey Road Race	Saint Helier	Peter Whitehead
	12. August		Ulster Trophy	Dundrod	Peter Whitehead
	October 1	Formula Libre	Interstate Race	Interlagos	Chico Landi
1951	January 27th	Formula Libre	São Paulo Grand Prix	Interlagos	Chico Landi
	May 20th		Governador Noguera Garcez Race	Interlagos	Chico Landi
	June 28th		Bõa Vista Grand Prix	Rio de Janeiro	Chico Landi

Complete results in the automobile world championship

year	engine	tires	driver	run
1950	Ferrari 125 F1 1.5 V12	D.	Peter Whitehead		DNS				3	7th
		P	Luigi Villoresi		DNF		DNF	6th
			Alberto Ascari		2		DNF
			Raymond Summers		4th
1951	Ferrari 125 F1 1.5 V12	D.	Peter Whitehead	DNF			DNF
		P								DNF
1952	Ferrari 166 F2 2.0 V12	D.	Peter Whitehead					10			DNQ

Source: Steve Small: The Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who (1994) . Guinness, 1994, ISBN 0-85112-702-9 , pp. 37, 357, 388 and 400.

Post-war Grandes-Épreuves results

year	team	engine	driver	run
1948	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 125 F1 1.5 V12	Raymond Summers				3	DNA
			Prince Bira				NC
			Giuseppe Farina				DNF	DNA
1949	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 125 F1 1.5 V12	Alberto Ascari		3	1	WD	1
			Luigi Villoresi		2	2	DNF	DNF
			Felice Bonetto					DNF
			Raymond Summers					5
			Dudley Folland	8th*
	Private driver	Ferrari 125 F1 1.5 V12	Peter Whitehead	8th*		9
					4th		3	DNF

* Points are shared by changing drivers on the same vehicle. (English: "Shared drive")

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

• Antoine Prunet: Ferrari sports and racing car prototypes . Motorbuch Verlag, 1987, ISBN 3-87943-930-3 .

Web links

Commons : Ferrari 125 F1  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• FERRARI 125 F1: INTO THE LEGEND Pictures and information, accessed on April 30, 2020 (en)
• statsf1.com Information on use in the F1 (from 1950), accessed on April 30, 2020 (de)
• The Sound of Legendary Ferrari 125/166 Ferrari 125/166 (naturally aspirated version) at the 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed, on YouTube , accessed April 30, 2020
• Informative “Seethru” illustration of the Ferrari 125 (here with supercharging).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ gilcodesign.com: Ferrari125GPC. In: gilcodesign.com. Retrieved April 26, 2020 (Italian, English). 
2. ^ Leonardo Acerbi: Ferrari: All The Cars . Ed .: Haynes Publishing. Haynes Publishing, 2012, p. 9 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} alfa-romeo-club.ch: Alfa-Romeo Personality Giuseppe Busso. (PDF) In: Kleeblatt 1/2012 (club magazine). Alfa Romeo Club Switzerland, 2012, accessed April 30, 2020 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} mitorosso.com: 125 Single Stage F1. In: mitorosso.com. Retrieved April 26, 2020 (English). 
5. ↑ The Jersey Road Race 1950 was a Formula 1 race without world championship status , which was held on July 9, 1950 on the Saint Helier Circuit in Saint Helier, Jersey. It was the twelfth race of the 1950 Formula 1 season.
6. ↑ The Ulster Trophy 1950 was a Formula 1 race without world championship status, which was held on August 12, 1950 on the Dundrod Circuit in Northern Ireland.
7. ↑ Interlagos (Formula Libre) (English)
8. ↑ Interlagos - List of Races (English)
9. ^ South American Formula Libre / Temporada Races 1946-1952. Retrieved May 1, 2020 . 
10. ↑ Leonardo Acerbi: Ferrari: A Complete Guide to All Models . MBI Publishing Company LLC, 2006, ISBN 978-0-7603-2550-6 ( google.de [accessed May 1, 2020]).
11. ^ Ferrari 125 F1 - Encyclopedia - Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 1, 2020 (American English).