McLaren M30

McLaren M30

McLaren M30 (2009)
Constructor:	McLaren
Designer:	Gordon Coppuck
Predecessor:	McLaren M29
Successor:	McLaren MP4 / 1
Technical specifications
Chassis:	Aluminum monocoque
Engine:	Cosworth DFV V8
Tires:	Goodyear
statistics
Driver:	Alain Prost
First start:	1980 Dutch Grand Prix
Last start:	1980 Canadian Grand Prix
Starts Victories Poles SR 3 - - -
World Cup points:	1
Podiums:	-
Leadership laps:	-
Status: end of the season 1980

The McLaren M30 is a Formula 1 racing car from the British motorsport team McLaren Racing , which was used in three races of the 1980 Formula 1 World Championship . It comes from the final stages of the McLaren team in its original form and is the last racing car that was created before the merger with the Project Four racing team led by Ron Dennis . The M30 is a unique piece and is considered a faulty construction.

History of origin

Team McLaren, founded by Bruce McLaren and led by Teddy Mayer since 1970, found itself in a sporting crisis at the end of the 1970s. After McLaren had won the world championship in 1974 and finished the constructors' championship in two or three places by 1977 , the team fell back to eighth ( 1978 ) and seventh ( 1979 ). In neither year did a McLaren driver win a Grand Prix; In 1979 Patrick Tambay even missed qualification twice in a row. That was the first non-qualification of a regular driver in the history of the team. One of the main reasons for this was the team's late reaction to the ground effect that Lotus had introduced with the 78 back in 1977 and which had become the defining design feature in 1978. It was not until the beginning of the 1979 season that McLaren's first car with ground effect appeared, the M28 . It was too big, too heavy and too slow and had a "miserable road holding"; In retrospect, Patrick Tambay called him a shitbox . After just six months, the newly designed M29 came in August 1979 , with which McLaren copied the Williams FW07 . It was more balanced, but nonetheless solidified McLaren's position in “mediocrity”: three fourth places in a year and a half were the best results of the M29. McLaren's team boss Teddy Mayer then had long-time technical director Gordon Coppuck design a new model from January 1980 that was supposed to cope better with the ground effect, but was actually "a real deterioration": it was slower and harder to handle than its predecessor.

The M30 was only used in three world championship races in the second half of the 1980 season. After Alain Prost damaged the car in practice for the final race of the year, McLaren did not rebuild the M30. In the winter of 1980/81, McLaren merged with the Formula 2 team Project Four Racing , led by Ron Dennis, under pressure from their joint sponsor Marlboro . A new era began at McLaren. For the 1981 season , John Barnard developed the MP4 / 1, a state-of-the-art car with a monocoque made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic that set new standards. McLaren bridged the time until its appearance at the third race of the season in Argentina not with the M30, but with the older M29.

construction

Narrow monocoque, wide side pods, Cosworth DFV: McLaren M30

Gordon Coppuck, who has been technical director at McLaren for years, is usually named as the chief designer of the McLaren M30. One source assumes that the future McLaren designer John Barnard was involved in detailed work alongside him.

The M30 has a newly constructed monocoque made of aluminum sheets. McLaren stated that it was 50 percent more torsion-resistant compared to the chassis of its predecessor. The side pods are even wider than on the M29. Unlike the earlier McLaren racing cars, the brakes, springs and dampers are on the outside. Coppuck's goal was to improve the ground effect.

A conventional Cosworth DFV eight-cylinder engine with a displacement of 3.0 liters serves as the drive . McLaren prepared the engine itself through the subsidiary Nicholson-McLaren Racing Engines , managed by John Nicholson . The power transmission took over a manual five-speed transmission from Hewland .

McLaren bought the tires from Goodyear , with fuel and lubricants from Castrol .

Painting

The McLaren M30 was painted white and red. The color scheme thus corresponded to the specifications of the main sponsor Marlboro. In addition to the Marlboro lettering, there were only stickers from the tire supplier Goodyear and the fuel manufacturer Castrol on the car.

Racing in the Formula 1 world championship

The McLaren M30 made its debut at the Dutch Grand Prix in late August 1980 . The driver in all races was Alain Prost, whose team mate John Watson continued to compete with the M29 in B or C version. While Prost had qualified before Watson in all the Grand Prix he had contested with the M29 up to then, he was invariably behind Watson in qualifying with the new M30.

At Zandvoort , Prost started the race in eighteenth, nine places behind Watson. While Watson retired after an engine failure, Prost finished in sixth. He was almost a minute and a half behind the winner Nelson Piquet ( Brabham ) and was the last driver who had not been lapped at least once. The point scored in that race was the only point McLaren got with the M30. In the subsequent race in Italy , Prost qualified the M30 for 24th and last place on the grid; Watson finished in the M29C the launch site 14 Prost M30 was on the course at Monza half a second slower than the FA1B of Osella Corse , which was considered the weakest car starting field. Prost finished the race one lap behind in seventh place. The final race of the M30 was the Canadian Grand Prix . Prost was more than a second slower with the M30 in qualifying than Watson in the M29C. Prost started in twelfth, Watson in seventh. In the race, Prost retired after 41 laps due to a damage to the suspension. Prost was again registered with the M30 for the season finale in Watkins Glen at the US East Grand Prix . He qualified for 13th place on the grid - four places behind Watson - but suffered another suspension damage in practice and crashed; the car was damaged when it hit a guardrail. Because of a severe headache, Prost decided not to take part in the race. For the following season he moved to Renault .

The whereabouts of the M30

The McLaren M30 still exists. Irish racing driver Alo Lawler took over the car in the mid-1980s . He used it in a few Formula Libre races in Great Britain until 1986 , of which he won eight. Then the car went to the USA, where it was at least until 2018. George Nurse and later Sean Allen used the car occasionally in historic motorsport.

Race results

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	Points	rank
1980 Formula 1 season																11	7th
A. Cheers	8th											6th	7th	DNF	DNS

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 , Motorbuch Verlag, 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 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
• Hartmut Lehbrink, Rainer W. Schlegelmilch: McLaren Formula 1 . Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne 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. Rudolf Müller publishing company, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X .

Web links

Commons : McLaren M30  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• The McLaren M30 on www.oldracingcars.com

Remarks

1. ↑ This should be separated from the non-qualifications of Andrea de Adamich and Nanni Galli in the 1970 season, who started as additional drivers with different technical equipment than the regular drivers.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hartmut Lehbrink, Rainer W. Schlegelmilch: McLaren Formula 1 . Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-0945-3 , p. 82.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Doug Nye: The great book of Formula 1 racing cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Verlagsgesellschaft Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 214.
3. ↑ ^{a b} David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 184.
4. ↑ Simon Arron: Patrick Tambay Interview . Motorsport Magazine, August 2016 issue.
5. ↑ Hartmut Lehbrink, Rainer W. Schlegelmilch: McLaren Formula 1 . Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-0945-3 , p. 89.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Hartmut Lehbrink, Rainer W. Schlegelmilch: McLaren Formula 1 . Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-0945-3 , p. 93.
7. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , engine book publishing house, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 305th
8. ↑ Tribute to John Nicholson (accessed June 4, 2020).
9. ↑ The Dutch Grand Prix 1980 on the website www.grandprix.com (accessed on June 3, 2020).
10. ↑ The Italian Grand Prix 1980 on the website www.grandprix.com (accessed on June 3, 2020).
11. ^ The 1980 Canadian Grand Prix on www.grandprix.com (accessed June 3, 2020).
12. ↑ The 1980 USA Grand Prix on the website www.grandprix.com (accessed on June 3, 2020).
13. ↑ Racing history of the McLaren M30 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed June 3, 2020).
14. ↑ The McLaren M30 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed June 3, 2020).
15. ↑ Alain Prost and John Watson achieved 10 world championship points with the McLaren M29.