March 821

March 821

March 821
Constructor:	RAM Racing
Designer:	Adrian Reynard
Predecessor:	March 811
Successor:	RAM 01
Technical specifications
Chassis:	aluminum
Wheelbase:	2781 mm
Weight:	585 kg
Tires:	Pirelli , Avon
statistics
Driver:	17. Jochen Mass 17. Rupert Keegan 18. Raul Boesel 19. Emilio de Villota
First start:	1982 South African Grand Prix
Last start:	1982 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Starts Victories Poles SR 22nd - - -
World Cup points:	-
Podiums:	-
Leadership laps:	-

The March 821 was a British Formula 1 racing car that was used by RAM Racing in the Formula 1 World Championship in the 1982 season . Regardless of its model name, the car had no relationship with the traditional racing car manufacturer March Engineering . The car did not score any world championship points. Five copies were made of him.

background

The March 821 was designed for RAM Racing.

RAM Racing was a British racing team that has been involved in various motorsport classes since 1975. In the second half of the 1970s, the focus of the team was on the Aurora AFX Formula 1 series , a purely British championship that was held based on the Formula 1 regulations. RAM won the championship title of this series in the 1980 season . In the Formula 1 World Championship, however, RAM initially only appeared sporadically. In 1976 , 1977 and 1980 , it used purchased or rented racing cars from other manufacturers such as Brabham , March and Williams at selected Grand Prices as a pure customer team . After RAM and racing driver Emilio de Villota won the Aurora series in 1980, the team rose to the Formula 1 World Championship in the 1981 season . Unlike in the Aurora series, the teams here had to design their own racing cars. Since RAM did not have the necessary resources, the team allied themselves with the British racing car designer Robin Herd , who had been one of the founders of March Engineering in 1969 and was still one of the owners of the established racing car manufacturer. Herd and RAM founded the March Grand Prix company in the fall of 1980 , which was legally and organizationally independent and had nothing to do with March Engineering. A technology transfer with March Engineering, where Formula 2 cars were still manufactured, did not take place. Herd designed the emergency vehicle for the 1981 season, which was given the model designation March 811 for reasons of publicity . The car turned out to be uncompetitive; RAM boss John Macdonald publicly referred to it as "a pile of shit". At the end of the 1981 season, Robin Herd withdrew. RAM took over the equipment and materials from March Grand Prix and continued racing under its own supervision in the 1982 season. Regardless of the separation from Herd, the racing team also competed in 1982 under the name March. This name was also adopted by the March 821, the emergency vehicle for 1982. Nevertheless, the 821 is not seen as a member of the traditional March family.

Mediated by the former racing driver Guy Edwards , RAM had a sponsor, Rothmans, at the beginning of the season who invested “a lot of money” in the team. However, Rothmans left the team again in the summer of 1982 after, contrary to expectations, there was no increase in performance.

Construction and technical development

Vehicle nose in the style of the Williams FW07: March 821

March 821

The designer responsible for the March 821 was Adrian Reynard . Reynard and his companies Saber Automotive and Reynard Motorsport had been involved in racing car construction since 1973. He joined RAM Racing in 1981, initially as a technical consultant, to support Robin Herd. When Herd left at the end of 1981, Reynard took his position as technical manager. The 821 was the first Formula 1 car that Reynard designed.

The March 821 was a further development of last year's 811. Observers believed that the 821 was "the car that the 811 should have been in the spring of 1981". Conceptually, the 821 still followed the lines of the Williams FW07 , which had been very successful in 1979 and 1980. The 821 was lighter than its predecessor. At 585 kg, its weight was in the range of the minimum permissible weight, but - unlike many vehicles in the competing teams - it did not undercut this, so that RAM was unable to influence the balance of the car over the course of the season with appropriately distributed ballast.

With regard to the drive system, RAM continued to use naturally aspirated engines, contrary to the general trend towards turbo engines. As in the previous model, RAM used a 3.0-liter eight-cylinder Cosworth DFV engine in the 821 . As a result, the team was increasingly falling behind in terms of performance: while the DFV engines had between 490 and 530 hp, depending on the tuner, the turbo engines already reached 560 hp ( hard ) or 600 hp ( Ferrari , Renault ) during the 1982 season .

Adrian Reynard tried in the spring of 1982 with a view to the sponsorship money from Rothmans to set up a systematic development program that should include wind tunnel tests, among other things. The program had to be abandoned, however, after Rothmans stopped supporting the team in June 1982. The reasons for this are different approaches: In retrospect, team boss John Macdonald was of the opinion that the Rothmans managers wanted to see good results too quickly: "They gave us money and expected that we would be at the top of the field within a few weeks - 'money pays it' ”. RAM pilot Jochen Mass, on the other hand, saw the mistake elsewhere: Macdonald and "his boys took the money from Rothmans and only paid off their debts from previous years". Rothmans' withdrawal meant that from early summer 1982 the development of the car “practically came to a standstill”.

Another problem was the supply of tires. RAM started the season with Pirelli tires that were given to the team free of charge. After private tests in the spring of 1982 showed that the 821 ran better with Avon tires , RAM switched to paid Avon tires before the Monaco Grand Prix . Observers see this as a panic decision by Macdonald, who hoped to be able to offer better services to his impatient sponsors. A few days after the agreement was signed, Avon announced that the British company would withdraw from Formula 1 at short notice. Macdonald then bought the entire remaining stock of Avon tires, which the team used until the fall of 1982. The tires proved to be non-competitive: they were at the level of development from January 1982, while Pirelli continued to develop and improve the performance of its own tires over the course of the year. RAM eventually returned to Pirelli for the final race of the year.

Scope of production

In the course of the year five copies of the March 821 were made. The numbering of the individual chassis continued the system that RAM had started the year before with the 811, which was produced in six copies. The first chassis of the 821 was then the RM07.

The individual chassis

The chassis RM08, RM09, RM10 and RM11 remained without exception in the RAM factory team. The RM07 chassis, on the other hand, was loaned to the Spanish driver Emilio de Villota in the spring of 1982 , who reported it to his private racing team called LBT Team March in five world championship races. After de Villota had given up his Formula 1 project, RAM took over the RM07 for one of his regular drivers.

Use of the chassis in the 1982 Formula 1 World Championship

Grand Prix	821 RM07	821 RM08	821 RM09	821 RM10	821 RM11
South Africa	Raul Boesel	Jochen Mass
Brazil		Jochen Mass	Raul Boesel
USA West		Jochen Mass	Raul Boesel
San Marino
Belgium	Emilio de Villota	Jochen Mass	Raul Boesel
Monaco	Emilio de Villota	Jochen Mass	Raul Boesel
USA East	Emilio de Villota	Jochen Mass	Raul Boesel
Canada	Emilio de Villota	Jochen Mass	Raul Boesel	Raul Boesel
Netherlands	Emilio de Villota			Raul Boesel	Jochen Mass
United Kingdom				Raul Boesel	Jochen Mass
France				Raul Boesel Jochen Mass	Jochen Mass
Germany	Raul Boesel				Jochen Mass Rupert Keegan
Austria	Raul Boesel				Rupert Keegan
Switzerland	Raul Boesel				Rupert Keegan
Italy	Raul Boesel				Rupert Keegan
Las Vegas				Rupert Keegan	Raul Boesel

Races

The March 821 was used in 1982 by John Macdonald's works team and the customer team LBT Team March. None of the drivers reached a world championship point with the car.

formula 1

March Grand Prix Team

Driven his last Formula 1 races in an 821: Jochen Mass

RAM started in 1982 as the Rothmans March Grand Prix Team. Initially, Jochen Mass and Raul Boesel were planned as regular drivers. Adrian Reynard considered the decision retrospectively to be a mistake: Mass was too old to drive risky, while the Brazilian debutante Boesel lacked experience.

Mass played his final Formula 1 season with John Macdonald's team. With the exception of the Monaco Grand Prix, for which the team competed with Avon tires for the first time, he was able to qualify regularly, but repeatedly achieved worse times than his team-mate Boesel in qualifying training. Mass' best qualifying result was starting position 18 in the US East Grand Prix on the Detroit street circuit ; apart from that, he usually started the race from the last three rows on the grid. In South Africa , Mass finished twelfth and in Brazil tenth. Here, however, he was ultimately rated eighth after the pre-placed Nelson Piquet ( Brabham ) and Keke Rosberg ( Williams ) had been disqualified after the end of the race for using illegal water tanks. It was similar at the Grand Prix of the USA West in Long Beach : Here Mass came in ninth and was classified as eighth after the technical disqualification of Gilles Villeneuves . Mass achieved his best result of the season in Detroit, where he finished seventh, one lap behind. At the French Grand Prix , there was a serious accident: In the eleventh round collided Mass with the Arrows of Mauro Baldi . Mass' 821 crashed into the guardrails, overturned over them, landed upside down in a spectator area and caught fire. The roll bar of the 821 broke off on the first impact, and the helmet tore open. Although he was injured, Mass was able to get out of the vehicle in time. Some of the spectators suffered minor injuries. Mass took part in the first Friday training session for Macdonald's team at the subsequent German Grand Prix , but then withdrew due to excessive pain and declared his retirement from Formula 1.

Rupert Keegan Mass took over the cockpit for the remaining five races . Keegan missed qualifying twice, including his debut in Germany. Once his car broke down for technical reasons, at the Swiss Grand Prix a driving error led to it prematurely. Only in Las Vegas did Keegan finish: he was twelfth, three laps behind the winner.

The second chassis was entered for Raul Boesel in every 1982 Grand Prix. Boesel missed the pre-qualification in Monaco and on four other occasions the qualification. His best starting position was position 17 at the Brazilian Grand Prix, otherwise, like his team-mates, he mostly started the race from the last three rows on the grid. Boesel finished four times; his best result was eighth, which he achieved after a disqualification of Niki Laudas in Belgium . Boesel retired prematurely four times due to technical defects in the engine or the chassis. At the Canadian Grand Prix , Boesel was indirectly involved in the fatal accident of Osella pilot Riccardo Paletti . At the start Didier Pironi stalled the engine of his Ferrari 126C2 . Most of the following riders managed to avoid the unexpected obstacle. However, Boesel reacted very late and touched the standing Ferrari. Riccardo Paletti, who had previously been blocked from seeing the stationary vehicle by Boesel, could not react in time and crashed into the rear of the Ferrari with force.

LBT Team March

→ Main article : LBT Team March

Emilio de Villota announced the March 821 RM07 for his private team LBT Team March for five grand prizes. LBT was the last team to use customer chassis in Formula 1. The organization of racing was not carried out by RAM Racing, but by the Formula 2 racing team Onyx Racing , which was headed by Mike Earle . Earle described de Villota as "the last gentleman driver". He had technical understanding; But his talent was not enough to establish himself with a mediocre car in the Formula 1 World Championship.

De Villota announced his March 821 at the Grand Prix of Belgium , Monaco , Canada , the USA East and the Netherlands . In Belgium and Monaco he already failed in the pre-qualification, in the three other world championship races he did not qualify. Usually de Villota drove the slowest lap time; one exception was the USA East Grand Prix, where it was faster than Nelson Piquet in the new, largely untested Brabham BT50 with a BMW turbo engine .

Interseries

In the spring of 1983 Walter Lechner took over the 821 RM08 chassis. Between May 1983 and October 1984 he competed seven times in the Interseries . Lechner won two races: the run at the Österreichring in May 1983 and the Siegerland race in September 1983.

Race results in Formula 1

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
1982 Formula 1 season																		0	-
J. Mass	17th	12	8th	8th		DNF	DNQ	7th	11	DNF	10	DNF
R. Keegan													DNQ	DNF	DNF	DNQ	12
R. Bosel	18th	15th	DNF	10		8th	DNPQ	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNQ	DNQ	DNF	DNQ	DNF	DNQ	10
E. de Villota	19th					DNPQ	DNPQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNPQ

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

• 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
• Mike Lawrence: March, The Rise and Fall of a Motor Racing Legend . MRP, Orpington 2001, ISBN 1-899870-54-7 .
• Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 , 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French)

Web links

Commons : March 821  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Model history of the March 821

Individual evidence

1. ^ David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 147.
2. ↑ ^{a b} David Hodges: Rennwagen from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 165.
3. ↑ Mike Lawrence: March, The Rise and Fall of a Motor Racing Legend . MRP, Orpington 2001, ISBN 1-899870-54-7 , p. 139.
4. ↑ David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906-2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 196.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Mike Lawrence: March, The Rise and Fall of a Motor Racing Legend . MRP, Orpington 2001, ISBN 1-899870-54-7 , p. 142.
6. ↑ Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 , 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 , p. 387.
7. ^ ^{A b} David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 142.
8. ↑ Mike Lawrence: March, The Rise and Fall of a Motor Racing Legend . MRP, Orpington 2001, ISBN 1-899870-54-7 , p. 140.
9. ^ David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , S: 166.
10. ↑ Mike Lawrence: March, The Rise and Fall of a Motor Racing Legend . MRP, Orpington 2001, ISBN 1-899870-54-7 , p. 141.
11. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , 1st Edition Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 320th
12. ↑ ^{a b} Ferdinando Krähling, Gregor diameter: win or soda. The German drivers in Formula 1 . Delius Klasing, Bielefeld, 2013, ISBN 978-3-7688-3686-9 , SS 59.
13. ↑ At the first start at the Canadian Grand Prix, Boesel drove the RM09 chassis. After the RM09 was damaged in a start-up collision, Boesel restarted with the new RM10 chassis.
14. ↑ Boesel used the MR10 in training for the 1982 French Grand Prix. After Boesel missed the qualification, the qualified Mass took over the chassis RM10 for the race.
15. ↑ Mass used the RM11 chassis during the first practice session at the German Grand Prix in 1982. Due to an injury that he sustained in the previous race in France, he resigned after the first practice session. Keegan took over the car for the remainder of the race weekend.
16. ↑ Mike Lawrence: March, The Rise and Fall of a Motor Racing Legend . MRP, Orpington 2001, ISBN 1-899870-54-7 , p. 144.
17. ↑ Mike Lawrence: March, The Rise and Fall of a Motor Racing Legend . MRP, Orpington 2001, ISBN 1-899870-54-7 , p. 143.
18. ↑ Statistics of March 821 RM08 on the website www.oldracingcars.com ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed April 25, 2014).