Shadow DN12

The Shadow DN12 from the year 1980 was the last race car, which the in Northampton based team Shadow Racing Cars in a Formula 1 brought race as well. In 1981 he appeared again on another team. In total, the car was entered in five Grand Prix, three of which had World Championship status. However, the car could only take part in the two races that were not part of the world championship.

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. 1979 Shadow reached only one finish in the points. In 1980 the team appeared with the newly designed Shadow DN11 , a car described as extremely simple, with which Geoff Lees could qualify for only one race. After the team management recognized that the DN11 was unsuitable, they commissioned the development of a new vehicle in March 1980. Even before its completion, Shadow, which had been in financial difficulties for a year, was sold to British entrepreneur Theodore "Teddy" Yip , who closed it shortly after the takeover and merged with his own racing team, Theodore Racing . In 1981 Theodore entered the Formula 1 World Championship using the Shadow infrastructure.

technology

The Shadow DN12 was developed by Vic Morris and Chuck Graeminger. There is little information about the technical details of the car in the specialist literature. It is sometimes described as "not unattractive". At just 2,578 mm, the DN12 had the shortest wheelbase of all racing cars used in Formula 1 in 1980. The cockpit surround and the engine cover ran horizontally and merged into one another; the low-positioned rear wing continued the line. An air scoop was completely missing. The side pods contained wing profiles, the aerodynamics of which, however, had not been tested in the wind tunnel. As in the case of the DN11, an eight-cylinder naturally aspirated engine from Cosworth served as the drive .

Shadow made two copies of the DN12.

Races

Shadow reported the DN12 for the first time at the Belgian Grand Prix , the fifth race of the season, which was held on May 4, 1980 in Zolder . Initially, only one copy was available that had been brought to the racetrack without prior test drives.

In Zolder, Geoff Lees drove the new DN12, while his teammate Dave Kennedy used the old DN11. Lees was 0.3 seconds faster than Kennedy, but still missed qualification. The same was true for the Monaco Grand Prix .

Two weeks later, at the Spanish Grand Prix , which was announced as the seventh World Championship run of the year, the team also registered a DN12 for Kennedy. Lees qualified for 20th place on the grid, Kennedy for 22nd. However, the competition in Spain was less than in other races: Due to differences in motorsport politics between FISA and FOCA , Alfa Romeo , Ensign , Scuderia Ferrari , Renault and RAM withdrew their entries or did not show up for the race, so that a total of eight cars tried less to get a place on the grid than usual. In the race itself, Kennedy could only hold two laps before he was eliminated due to a driving error. Lees lasted 42 laps before retiring after breaking the suspension. After the race, the sport-political disputes continued. They led to the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix being revoked of its world championship status the day after it was held.

At the following race in France , for which all teams registered for the Formula 1 World Championship competed again, both Shadow DN12s again failed to qualify. After this unsuccessful attempt, Teddy Yip stopped racing for Shadow.

Reused as Theodore

In 1981 Teddy Yip returned to Formula 1 with the Theodore Racing team. For the first race of the year, the Grand Prix of South Africa , which was not part of the world championship , the team again registered the Shadow DN12, which was now referred to as Theodore TR2 .

Race results

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	Points	rank
1980 Formula 1 season																0	-
G.Lees	17th					DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
Dave Kennedy	18th							DNQ

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. 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

• Geoff Lees at the Belgian Grand Prix 1980 in the Shadow DN12

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hodges: A - Z of Grand Prix Cars. 2001, p. 233.
2. ^ Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1. 2000, p. 502.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Hodges: A - Z of Grand Prix Cars. 2001, p. 210.
4. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. 1997, p. 308.
5. ↑ The Shadow DN12 on the website www.oldracingcars.com .