Brian Hart 1936-2014

Sunday January 5^th saw the death of former F1 manufacturer Brian Hart. His brief spell as a driver saw some relative success, especially in single seater formulae including Formula Junior, Formula 3 and Formula 2. Hart also competed in a few non-championship Formula 1 races, using Formula 2 cars. However, he made his name in engine manufacturing when, in 1969, he formed Brian Hart Limited.

His company was commissioned by Ford to work on new engine development. He developed the Ford BDA, which was used in Ford’s rally programs during the 1970s. The engine was also successful is Formula 2 along with the FVA. Ronnie Peterson won the Formula 2 European title in 1971 using the FVA and Mike Hailwood winning the same title in 1972 using the BDA engine. When BMW and Renault entered Formula 2, Hart started to develop his own F2 engine, the 420R which made its debut in 1976 in a Chevron sportscar. Then at the end of 1978, Hart’s company got its next big break. The Toleman F2 team committed to R&D financing so that Hart could develop his engines further. As a result of this, Toleman-Hart dominated the European F2 Championship in 1980, with Brian Henton and Derek Warwick finishing 1^st and 2^nd in the standings.

Formula 1 beckoned for both Toleman and Hart and in 1981, Hart developed a turbocharged version of the 420R for Toleman’s first season in Formula 1. Even though the unit was initially underpowered and unreliable, it was enough to establish Hart’s company as a Formula 1 engine supplier. Toleman continued to use Hart’s engine up until the teams purchase by Benetton. This saw Hart provide Ayrton Senna with his first F1 engine in 1984 and what should have been a first win for all parties involved. Senna was different class in the torrential rain at Monaco and finished an incredible second. It would have been an astounding victory had the race not been red flagged on lap 31 because of the conditions (or for Alain Prost influencing the decision to stop the race). Engines were also supplied to RAM, Haas Lola and Tyrell during the 1980’s but, none came as close to the top step of the podium like Senna did. In 1988 Hart’s company returned to a role as a tuning and servicing specialist for Cosworth to help develop the Cosworth DFZ and DFR engines. This was because turbo charging was prohibited in 1988 and a return to development of naturally aspired configurations that had not widely been used since the start of the 1980s. Cosworth was one company that was still doing this however for Formula 2 teams and a couple of better funded Formula 1 teams.

By the time 1992 came around, Hart’s company had funded the design of its first V10 engine, the type 1035 and announced and exclusive two year partnership with Jordan Grand Prix to supply their engines for the 1993 and 94 seasons. The partnership brought some very good results, including Rubens Barrichello’s 3^rd place at the Pacific Grand Prix in 1994. Unfortunately for Hart, Peugeot came along and offered Jordan a factory deal; therefore Hart’s contract was not renewed. Hart instead went onto supply Footwork/Arrows with engines but, the team was struggling financially at the time, which prevented the development of the V10 and the old V8 was used instead. Despite this, the engine managed to get the Footwork car on the podium in Australia 1995 with Gianni Morbidelli at the wheel. Hart took his engines to Minardi in 1997 and began work on another V10 design but could not get the finance for the project.

In 1999, Arrows’ owner Tom Walkinshaw purchased Brian Hart Limited and injected money into the V10 project and it became the Arrows V10. However the deal was hit with many legal issues and Brian parted company with Arrows and Formula 1 before the end of the year. All in all, Hart’s engines yielded 5 podiums in total in f1.              

The End of Many Eras

2013 won’t live long in the memory of F1 fans. It will effectively be known as the year of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull. It hasn’t been the greatest season ever; bringing back memories of the dominance of Michael Schumacher in the early 2000s. Vettel has been in a different league to all other drivers, especially since the Belgian Grand Prix. Despite that, there have been a lot of positives from the season. For me however, the end of the 2013 season brings up a lot of emotion. We have long lasting driver/team partnerships end as drivers move on to pastures new, relationships ending before they even really got going and of course, the V8 era is over.

Long Relationships End

The final race in Brazil saw Mark Webber compete in his last F1 race. What a performance it was from Webber too, as he stormed to a brilliant second place. How different it could have been for Mark, not just in this race but it his whole career. He had his usual sluggish start, but came back at both Mercedes and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. A possible win was there for Webber as well, had he not have to queue behind Sebastian Vettel. The fear of a safety car saw Vettel pit and, had Red Bull told Mark, he could have done an extra lap and surely come out in the lead. It would have been a fairytale ending for Webber but, as usual for him, it didn’t quite work out for the popular Australian. He can be proud of his career for Red Bull, and the fact that in his final race he was still challenging at the sharp end of the grid would give him great satisfaction. I really hope he has a successful career for Porsche because he deserves it. I've said before he deserved better treatment from Red Bull; he was just unfortunate that their blue eyed boy happened to be his team mate. 

An eight year relationship has also ended with Felipe Massa signing off his Ferrari career with a 7^th place finish at his home event. It could have been a fairytale ending for Massa as well had it not been for a soft drive through penalty. Has was driving a solid race in fourth when he was given a penalty for crossing the white line at pit entry. Personally, I think it was a ridiculous penalty. We see race after race, driver after driver, not respecting the track limits and gaining an advantage in doing so, and nothing is ever done. So for Massa to cut the pit lane entry a bit further down than normal, and get a penalty, I thought was harsh; he couldn’t possibly have gotten an advantage. Yes, he was warned about it but still, I don’t see the advantage that he could have gained. I think what makes things worse, well for me anyway, was that Alonso was willing to move over and let Massa onto the podium. A nice gesture from Alonso after all Massa has done for him since 2010. I sincerely hope that Williams can produce a good car for 2014, and give Massa a chance to fight near the front again in F1. He will be a fantastic team leader and I wish him all the best.

Doomed From The Start?

When Sergio Perez was announced at McLaren last year, I found myself asking why? Surely there are better drivers on the grid? So when the news broke that he was to be replaced by Kevin Magnusson for 2014, I wasn’t really surprised. If you look at Perez’s F1 career with Sauber, yes it was impressive at times but overall, he didn’t look like a top team driver; at least not yet. I do believe that in a few seasons time, if he is able to stay in F1, he will be ready for a drive in a top team.

Unfortunately for Perez, his one season at McLaren may have cost him a top team drive in the future. In fairness to Perez however, this McLaren has been one of the worst I've seen, which hasn’t helped his cause. He out qualified Jensen Button 10-9 over the season as well, but when it comes to the race, Button has outperformed Perez, even though Button hasn’t been anywhere near his best this season. Ultimately I think Perez will still be in F1 next year, possibly back at Sauber or even Force India. The short marriage at McLaren may have made Perez a stronger driver, or it could have hit him harder than it appears.

R.I.P V8 Engines

The end of the 2013 season also saw the final race for the 2.4 V8 engines that have served F1 since 2006. Since the introduction of these engines, five different Driver’s World Champions have emerged from as many manufacturers. To add to that, five out of the seven Driver’s Championship battles have been decided at the final race of the season, including the incredible final races in Brazil in 2007 and 2008 where Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton became champion. Let’s not forget in 2010 as well, where Sebastian Vettel began his F1 dominance by winning the title in the final round in Abu Dhabi. Seven manufactures have made engines during this eight year period (Renault, Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda, Cosworth, BMW, and Toyota) and three have dominated in this time span. Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault have won every single race since 2006 with the exclusion of just two. That is an incredible 145 wins of out 147. The two exclusions being the Hungarian GP in 2006 where Jenson Button’s BAR Honda won and the 2008 Canadian GP where Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber took the top step. The dominance is set to continue in 2014 as these are the only engine manufactures participating next year, until Honda makes its return in 2015. The question is how will the 1.6 liter turbo engines for next year have an impact on the racing? There are many critics of the new engines, however there were many critics when the V10 engines where scrapped in 2005 and look how well the V8’s have done since their introduction. Only time will tell if these engines will be a hit as well.