Shadow DN11

The Shadow DN11 used by Geoff Lees in the supporting program of the Great Britain Grand Prix 2018.

The Shadow DN11 was a Formula 1 racing car of in Northampton based teams Shadow Racing Cars that in the Formula 1 season in 1980 was reported to six world championship races. The drivers could only qualify the car for a Grand Prix, but did not achieve any world championship points.

background

Team Shadow, founded in 1971 by Don Nichols , has competed in the Formula 1 World Championship since 1973 . In the early years, Shadow's cars made repeated podium finishes; 1977 was Alan Jones with the Grand Prix of Austria even win a World Cup race for Shadow. The results worsened after some of the staff, including the designer Tony Southgate and the long-time sponsor of the racing team, moved to the rival Arrows team at the beginning of the 1978 season . In 1978, the Shadow pilots failed six times and four times in 1979 when they passed the qualification hurdle. In 1979 Shadow only reached one point in the points when Elio de Angelis was fourth in the US Grand Prix .

In 1980 Don Nichols wanted to make up lost ground with the newly designed Shadow DN11. However, the car turned out to be so unsuitable that a successor had to be designed shortly after its debut. Even before its completion, Shadow was on the verge of insolvency. Nichols sold the team in May 1980 to the British entrepreneur Theodore "Teddy" Yip , who ran his own motorsport team with Theodore Racing and at the same time sponsored the rival Ensign team . Yip joined the Shadow team in June 1980 and merged it with his own racing team, which reappeared in Formula 1 in 1981 under the name Theodore Racing using the Shadow infrastructure.

technology

The DN11 replaced the Shadow DN9B , which was designed by Tony Southgate in 1978 and slightly redesigned in the 1979 season. The construction of the Shadow DN11 is described as extremely simple; it was noted in the car that the team had little money for development work.

The Shadow DN11 was designed by John Gentry . Gentry left the team in late 1979 before the construction work was fully completed. A lot of detailed work was therefore done by Richard Owen and Vic Morris.

The rear suspension was the same as that of the Shadow DN9B, but the front suspension had been redesigned. The body was also new. The side boxes were long and had a sloping line towards the rear. The coolers were placed in the side pods far forward. The monocoque was framed low and straight. The car could be driven with or without an engine cover. A special feature of the DN11 was a pointed vehicle nose. A Cosworth DFV eight-cylinder engine served as the drive ; the power transmission took place via a five-speed transmission from Hewland .

Shadow made three copies of the DN11. The first vehicle, the DN11 / 1, was only used once.

Races

Shadow reported the Irish Dave Kennedy and the Swede Stefan Johansson for the 1980 season . Both drivers had no experience in Formula 1; they made their debut at Shadow in Grand Prix racing. Geoff Lees , who replaced Johansson from the third race of the season, could fall back on the experience of a Formula 1 race.

Johansson missed qualifying in the first two races of the year. His successor Lees qualified for Shadow, the Grand Prix of South Africa , in his first race and finished 13th. In the following race in Monaco he failed to qualify. Then he received the newly designed Shadow DN12.

Kennedy tried unsuccessfully in the first six races of the year to qualify the DN11. From the Spanish Grand Prix he also drove the new DN12.

The individual chassis were used in the 1980 World Championship races as follows:

Grand Prix	Shadow DN11 / 1	Shadow DN11 / 2	Shadow DN11 / 3
Argentina Argentina		Dave Kennedy	Stefan Johansson
Brazil 1968 Brazil		Dave Kennedy	Stefan Johansson
South Africa South Africa		Geoff Lees	Dave Kennedy
United States United States	Geoff Lees		David Kennedy
Belgium Belgium			David Kennedy
Monaco Monaco			David Kennedy

Results

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	Points	rank
1980 Formula 1 season								0	-
Sweden S. Johansson	17th	DNQ	DNQ
United Kingdom G. Lees	17th			13	DNQ
Ireland Dave Kennedy	18th	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ

literature

Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. Cars, tracks and pilots. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
David Hodges: A-Z of Grand Prix Cars. Crowood Press, Marlborough 2001, ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
David Hodges: Racing cars from A - Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
Pierre Ménard et al: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1st 2nd edition. Chronosports Editeur, St. Sulpice 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).

Web links

Commons : Shadow DN11 - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Hodges: A - Z of Grand Prix Cars. 2001, p. 210.
^ Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1. 2000, p. 502.
↑ To the whole: Hodges: Rennwagen von A - Z after 1945. 1994, p. 233.
↑ Lees made his debut with Mario Deliotti Racing in 1978, but could not qualify there. In 1979 he drove the second Tyrrell at the German Grand Prix as a replacement for Jean-Pierre Jarier and finished in seventh place ahead of his team-mate Didier Pironi.

[1] Hodges: A - Z of Grand Prix Cars. 2001, p. 210.

[2] Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1. 2000, p. 502.

[3] To the whole: Hodges: Rennwagen von A - Z after 1945. 1994, p. 233.

[4] Lees made his debut with Mario Deliotti Racing in 1978, but could not qualify there. In 1979 he drove the second Tyrrell at the German Grand Prix as a replacement for Jean-Pierre Jarier and finished in seventh place ahead of his team-mate Didier Pironi.