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Lamoureux
Lamoureux
Former Formule Renault man Michel Lamoureux decided to enter F3 with his own design in 1983.
1983
Although it looks quite neat in the picture it was apparently pretty horrible in the flesh. It took part in a European Championship round and some French F3 Championship rounds with no success.
Drivers
1983 Michel Lamoureux.
LAC
Martini
Martini
Tico Martini’s first racing machine was a kart-like 650cc Triumph motorcycle powered hill climb machine that he built in 1962. Within a year this naturalized Frenchman of Italian parents was looking after the technical side of the Winfield Racing Drivers School at Magny Cours and he began building his first cars at a garage at the track. All the Martini chassis have since had either the MW, (for Martini-Winfield) or MK (for Martini-Knight, the Knight brothers owned the Winfield school) designations. The first Martini F3 was a car designed for the school team and this was followed by a succession of F3, Formule France and Formule Renault machines depending on what the French market demanded at the time and by the end of the 70s Alain Prost in the ORECA run Martini MK27 Renault was the dominant force in F3. Over the next few years Martini continued to build F3 cars as well as being very successful in F2, there was even a disastrous try at F1 with Rene Arnoux in 1978. Martini have continued to produce F3 cars through the 90s and beyond although success against the Dallara monopoly has been rare.
1968
The first F3 Martini car was the MW1 built for the Winfield school, their first F3 proper was the MW3 and was raced by Etienne Vigoreux who was a graduate of the Winfield school. The Ford powered car was a spaceframe with conventional suspension, results were adequate with a fifth at Dijon and sixths at Rheims and Magny Cours.
1969
A new car was introduced in 1969 it was a development of the Formule France chassis. The MK4 retained a spaceframe and it was reminiscent of a current Brabham. Results were again OK with two thirds at Magny Cours which wasn’t too surprising as that was were all the testing was done.
1970
James Hunt testing the MK5.
The MK5 was a development of the MW3, still retaining its spaceframe chassis and wishbone based suspension. For the first time the small bulges for the fuel tanks were fitted to the sides of the car, something that would be a Martini characteristic for several years. Obviously Martini had got everything right as its drivers were fulsome in their praise for the cars handling. Jean-Pierre Jaussaud scored the teams first win at Nogaro also taking a second at Cadwell Park whilst Jean-Luc Salomon also took seconds at Paul Ricard and Montlhéry.
1971
The MK7 was perhaps the first Martini F3 that successfully penetrated the customer market and 11 of these neat little cars were built, all for use by French drivers. The design followed the standard Martini line, a space frame chassis with wishbone suspension. Bodywork was typically low and flat with low bulging fuel tanks, the chassis was considered to be slightly overweight. As can be seen from the picture it seems as if an unusually shaped full-width nose was used on faster circuits. Front and rear wings were occasionally fitted but with these low powered machines the drag penalty of the simple wing designs of the period was often considered not worth the handicap. In France the cars were usually second best to the Alpines but Migault did win and Coulon and Dolhem had some good results. Ford Novamotors were the preferred power unit.
1972
The MK7 space frame was retained for the 1972 MK9 but there was a switch to Holbay engines, however the most noticeable change was the full-width nose cone and aerodynamic engine covers. Once again in France the Alpines were still the more successful but Coulon had some good results with some wins at the end of the season at Magny Cours, Monthlhéry and Brands Hatch in his Filipinetti run car.
1973
Once again the MK12 continued to use the rather heavy space frame originating from the MW7 but further refinements were carried out to the bodywork with smoother noses whilst often the engine cover was left off. The car proved to be very popular amongst French privateers and for the first time Martini took the French championship away from Alpine. Highlight of the year was Jacques Laffite’s victory in the Monaco F3 race in his BP sponsored car. This would be the last F3 Martini for several years as France turned to Formule Renault for a while.
1977
Martini, but not France, returned to F3 in 1977 with a conventional monocoque that still managed to retain the Martini look with its low bulging fuel tanks. Only a few races were contested but once again victory was taken at Monaco with Didier Pironi victorious in his Toyota Novamotor powered MK21.
1978
For 1978 the “B” version of the MK21 was offered although any changes were of a minor variety. The car wasn’t particularly competitive with only a handful of top 6 results. A certain amount of controversy surrounded the one Martini success, Prost’s win at the Jarama round of the European Championship, as up until then the MK21B had been little better than a midfield runner and after the victory it returned to its former position. At the time fingers were pointed at the legality of the Gordini-tuned Renault engine that Prost had exclusive use of.
1979
The MK27 was a straightforward monocoque built right down to the minimum weight limit, the car weighed in at 443kg, only three over the limit, special attention was also paid on making the car easy to work on. The engine, which in the case of the works car was a Renault, was mounted in a tubular framed bay. The Renault engine was reckoned to be more powerful than the Toyota engines and it certainly weighed less, the aluminium block of the Renault weighing 15kg less than the Toyota. Additionally Renault and their tuner Gordini spared no expense in developing the engines and by season end Prost had 5 works engines at his disposal. The best example of the Renault advantage was that Prost won 7 of the 12 European Championship series, there was also a clear difference between Prost’s car and the other customer Martini Renaults as when Streiff switched from a Renault to a Toyota he immediately became far more competitive
1980
The MK31 was a tidied up version of the MK27 and again simplicity was the name of the game, Renault had withdrawn from the scene and the cars were now mostly Toyota powered. They were particularly strong on tight and twisty tracks and they dominated the first part of the season including three one-two finishes. When March updated their 803 to the “B” version it got the upper hand over the Martini’s which also seemed unsuited to the later season tyre developments and Alboreto beat Boutsen to the European Championship but Alain Ferté took the French Championship in his MK27/31.
1981
The MK34 was a further refinement of the MK27/31 line, unfortunately the cars suffered badly from a lack of straight line speed and there was almost no real development from the factory during the season.
There was something of a tyre war that year with Michelin determined to win the European Championship and the Monaco GP support. To this end they supplied the works Martinis of Ferté and Alliot plus the private car of Streiff and this helped the cars a great deal, especially Ferté who seemed to get the best out of the rubber. This gave Ferté the Monaco win plus the runner-up spot in the European standings even though he only won one race, a string of second places giving him the required points.
1982
The MK37 was a new design, it used an aluminium monocoque that Martini claimed was more rigid than that of the MK34, it was also narrower to give the maximum width of ground-effect sidepods. Front suspension was by top rockers and lower wishbones whilst at the rear it was parallel links with the dampers mounted on brackets over the gearbox to allow for a clean airflow through the rear suspension.
Sadly the MK37 was not a great success, it still suffered badly from a lack of straight-line speed, it was 7mph slower than a Ralt RT3 or the Euroracing 101. This year there was however development carried out and the rear suspension was worked on all season and a new slippery body (that looked very like the Euroracing) was introduced. At least the drivers were able to throw the car about a bit and Alain Ferté was able to win again at Monaco as well as at Magny Cours and Alliot won at La Châtre, all circuits were the lack of speed wasn’t a handicap.
1983
Perhaps surprisingly, in view of the MK37’s problems, the MK39 was just a tidied up version of the previous year’s car. More work was carried out on the suspension and a new body design was employed.
Martini decided to give the European Championship a miss and concentrate on the French Championship. This worked and Michel Ferté just won after beating the Ralt of François Hesnault by two points, both drivers winning five rounds each during the year.
1984
Once again it was evolution rather than revolution for the MK42 but after all this development things looked good again for Martini.
Ivan Capelli took the European Championship in the Coloni-run car winning three races. Capelli also took a fourth win at Monza but was excluded when the airbox on the car was found to be illegally modified. This put rather a cloud on Capelli’s year but he did win two more races after Monza in a fully legal car. In the French Championship the MK42 dominated taking the first five places in the order Grouillard, Delavallade, Raphanel, Belmondo and Morin.
1985
The arrival of the flat-bottom regulations for 1985 saw a new model, the MK45, appear on the scene. It looked much smaller and neater than some of the more recent Martinis with its low, sloping sidepods.
Once again it did very well with Raphanel and Dalmas taking 1-2 in the French Championship and Volker Weidler winning the German equivalent whilst Alex Caffi finished second in the Italian version. Yet again it was a Martini win at Monaco with Dalmas taking the victory laurels.
1986
The MK49 was in effect a stopgap whilst Martini were working on their first composite chassis. It was very much an evolution of the MK45 and once again was successful. Perhaps its most remarkable achievement was Dalmas winning the Monaco GP support race, the eighth successive win for Martini! At home Dalmas won six of the eleven rounds to win the French Championship, Michel Trollé taking third. Elsewhere it was less successful with just a sixth place in the final standings of the German Championship for Otto Rensing.
1987
There were high hopes for the MK52, Martini’s first composite chassis, it used pushrod suspension and was a typical late eighties design. Jean Alesi, runner-up in the 1986 series, was the works driver in France and in the first race of the French Championship at Albi he could only finish twelfth. For the next round Alesi borrowed his previous year’s Dallara and immediately won, the third round saw Alesi in a MK49 with MK52 suspension finishing seventh. Alesi was fed up and insisted on running a new Dallara for the rest of the year, he won six more rounds and took the championship. Martini blamed the problems on the drivers saying they were unwilling to develop the car but it was a similar story in Germany where despite some heroic efforts by Otto Rensing he could only manage two fourth places at Hockenheim and Zolder.
1988
The MK55 was Martini’s attempt to recover after the disaster of the MK52 and to some degree it was a success. The works cars of Lionel Robert and Didier Artzet ran well on occasions with the highlight a 1-2 at Paul Ricard and Artzet was leading comfortably at La Chatre until a loose wheel put him out. Sadly both men had to leave the championship half way through due to sponsorship problems. They finished seventh and eighth in the French Championship despite this, a case of what might have been. In Germany Frank Biela won at Mainz and the Hungaroring and took a second at Brno to finish third in the German Championship. Not a bad effort after the disaster of the previous year.
1989
Another new car for 1989, the MK58, it didn’t win any races but Yvan Muller and Lionel Robert had some good results in France to take fifth and sixth in the final standings although Robert did the last three races in a Dallara. Despite the previous years success in Germany the only runner of note was Michael Roppes, eighth at the end of the year.
1990
After the recent improved form of the Martini it all went wrong again in 1990 with the MK60, results were poor in both France and Germany.
1994
After leaving F3 for a few years Martini returned to the fray in 1994 with the Opel-powered MK67. The car was designed in 1993 but not built until ’84 when Promotec, the team running it, had secured the necessary finance. The car was driven by David Dussau who by the time the car appeared in the middle of May was the joint leader of the French F3 Championship in a Dallara. It finished fifth on its debut at Dijon in June, despite this promising beginning it seems the team weren’t happy with it and returned to the Dallara for the rest of the year.
1996
The Mk73 first appeared in August 1996 driven in the German F3 Championship. The idea was to have the car racing in 1996 so that it would qualify for the 1997 French championship which would only allow cars that raced before the end of 1996 to race. It showed immediate promise with a couple of top six finishes against the massed hordes of Dallaras.
1997
Martini’s ploy of introducing the MK73 early and getting some racing miles under it’s belt paid off in 1997. Although it was Dallara that took the French championship and Martini were up against the sheer numbers of the Italian cars Montagny showed the MK73 was a front runner with four wins towards the end of the year. In addition German driver Wolf Henzler took an excellent second place at the Monaco GP support race as well as finishing third in the German Championship. Henzler’s win at the Nurburgring was the first time Dallara had been beaten in Europe for over three years.
1997
The MK73 continued into 1998 and once again proved successful with Wolf Henzler and Pierre Kaffer finishing third and fourth in the German Championship. There was a similar story in France where Frank Montagny continued on his wining way taking no less than ten wins during the season in the French Championship. Montagny just missed out winning the championship by three points after a phenomenal run of wins be Dallara-mounted David Saeleans. At the end of the season at Spa there was a round of the British Championship, Montagny qualified fourth and was battling for second with Saelens when they had a coming together which indicates the Martini MK73 could run with the best in any series.
1999
The MK79 showed immediate promise in France when it won the opening two races of the French Championship at Nogaro in the hands of Sebastien Bourdais. The car then went off the boil for several races until Bourdais took another two wins at Dijon. From then on Bourdais continued to run at the front and at the end of the year he was crowned French Champion and the MK79 had got the best of the Dallaras.
2000
Drivers
The MK79 continued to be used in 2000 but the previous year’s success was not to be repeated and the best the MK79 could manage was to finish 7th in the French Championship. This was despite winning the opening round of the Championship but thereafter there was only one other top three finish and it was back to Dallara on top. A new car, the MK80 raced in early season races in the German Championship but the car struggled to qualify/race in the top twenty and after a handful of races it was not seen again.
1968 MW3
Etienne Vigoreux.
1969
MW4
Jacques Lafitte.
MW3
Jacques Lafitte.
1970
MW5
Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Jean-Luc Salomon.
MW3
Jimmy Mieusset.
1971 MW7
Phillip Albera, Joel Auvray, Patrice Compain, Jacques Coulon, Guy Dhotel, José Dolhem, Lucien Guitteny, François Laccarrau, François Migault, Marcel Morel, Patrick Perrier, François Rabbione.
1972
MK9
Phillipe Albera, Joel Auvray, Bernard Beguin, John Bisignano, Ray Caruthers, Miguel Coarasa, Jacques Coulon, Guy Dhotel, José Dolhem, Cliff Haworth, François Laccarrau, Philippe Munier.
MW7
José Dolhem, François Rabbione.
1973
MK12
Bernard Beguin, Patryck Boutin, Bernard Chevanne, Alain Cudini, Christian Ethuin, Jacques Laffite, Jean Max, Jean-Pierre Paoli.
MK11
Bernard Beguin, Cliff Haworth.
MK9
Philippe Albera, Patric Boutin, Philippe Munier, Jean Ragnotti.
?
Georges Ansermoz
1974 MK9
Reinhard Pfändler, Marcel Wettstein.
1975 MK9
Reinhard Pfändler.
1976 MK9
Marcel Wettstein.
1977 MK21
Didier Pironi, Danny Snobeck.
1978
MK21B
Patrick Bardinon, Anders Olofsson, Alain Prost.
MK21
Patrick Bardinon, Jacques Coulon, Anders Olofsson.
1979
MK27
Richard Dallest, Jo Gartner, Mats Paninder, Alain Prost, Serge Saulnier, Philippe Streiff.
MK21
Jean-Pierre Malcher, Serge Saulnier.
1980
MK31
Daniele Albertin, Philippe Alliot, Mauro Baldi, Thierry Boutsen, Enzo Coloni, Pascal Fabre, Alain Hubert, Patrick Lancelot, Oscar Ruben Larrauri, Piero Necchi, Vinicio Salmi, Philippe Streiff, Manuel Valls.
MK27/31
Alain Ferté.
MK27
Alfredo Ruggeri.
1981
MK34
Philippe Alliot, Paolo Barilla, Eddy Bianchi, Gerhard Berger, Pascal Fabre, Alain Ferté, Ricardo Galiano, Paolo Giangrossi, Denis Morin, Jean-Michel Neyrial, Emanuele Pirro, Vinicio Salmi, Jean-Louis Schlesser, Philippe Streiff, Patrick Teillet, Didier Theys, Andy Wietzke.
MK31
Jakob Bordoli, Albert Coll, Josef Kaufmann, Michel Lateste, Jean-Michel Neyrial, Pierre Petit, Emanuele Pirro, Riccardo Galiano Ramos, Dominique Tiercellin, Alexandre Yvon, Jean-François Yvon.
MK27
Dieter Bergermann.
?
Manfred Hebben.
1982
MK37
Philippe Alliot, Gerhard Berger, Alain Ferté, Michel Ferté, Franco Forini, Patrick Gonin, François Hesnault, Philippe Huart, Guy Leon-Dufour, Pascal Pessiot, Philippe Renault, Franco Scapini, Alfredo Sebastiani, Patrick Teillet, Didier Theys, Jürg-Pascal Vogt, Walter Voulaz.
MK34
Guido Dacco, Jacques Gambier, Philippe Huart, Josef Kaufmann, Arie Luyendijk, Bernard Santal.
MK31
Jakob Bordoli, Bernard Bribes, Alain Fell, Eric Lukes, Alexandre Neefs, Camilo Parizot, Claude Tourand.
MK21B
Hervé Delaunay.
1983
MK39
Harald Becker, Frédéric Dellavallade, Pascal Fabre, Michel Ferté, Patrick Gonin, Olivier Grouillard, Josef Kaufmann.
MK37
Ferdinand de Lesseps, Pascal Pessiot, Jürg Vogt.
MK35 (Appears to be a converted Super Vee chassis)
Bruno Eichmann, Manfred Hebben, Josef Kaufmann.
MK34
Thomas Bertschinger, Rolf Engert, Cor Euser, Claude Marcq.
MK31
Otto Christmann, Erich Höhmann, Alexander Seibold.
?
Georges A. Hedinger
1984
MK42
Harald Becker, Paul Belmondo, Ivan Capelli, Frédéric Dellavallade, Ricardo Galiano, Bruno di Gioa, Olivier Grouillard, Manfred Hebben, Jean-Pierre Hoursourigaray, Josef Kaufmann, Denis Morin, Pierre-Henri Raphanel, Bernard Santal, Richard Weggelaar.
MK39
Cor Euser, Josef Kaufmann, Jürgen Kühn, Ferdinand de Lesseps.
MK37
Jacky Eeckelaert, Ruedi Schurter.
MK34
Karl-Heinz Wenig.
MK31
Otto Christmann, Erich Höhmann.
1985
MK45
Alex Caffi, Yannick Dalmas, Frédéric Dellavallade, Bruno di Gioia, Philippe de Henning, Franz Konrad, Jean-Noel Lanctuit, Nicola Larini, Gilles Lempereur, Denis Moran, Stefan Neuberger, Jari Nurminen, Markus Oestreich, Pierre-Henri Raphanel, Philippe Renault, Jo Ris, Bartl Stadler, Alfonso de Vinuesa, Volker Weidler.
MK44
Mario Bauer, Helmut Mundas, Rudi Seher, Pietro Spazolla, Alfonso Toledano.
MK42
Bernard Cognet, Franz Hunkeler.
MK39
Bernard Cognet, Karl-Heinz Wenig.
MK35 (Appears to be a converted Super Vee chassis)
Otto Christmann.
MK31
Eberhard Ernst.
1986
MK49
Eric Bachelart, Eric Bellefroid, Eric Bernard, Yannick Dalmas, Markus Oestreich, Manuel Reuter, Michel Trollé, Volker Weidler, Yuuji Yamamoto.
MK45
Gianni Bianchi, Jakob Bordoli, Andy Bovensiepen, Peter Elgaard, Pierre Hirschi, Peter Kroeber, Helmut Mundas, Stefan Neuberger, Franz-Josef Prangemeier, Otto Rensing, Ralf Rauh.
MK44
Willi Bergmeister, Sigi Betz, Helmut Bross, Eberhard Ernst, Richard Hamann, Christian Vogler.
MK37
Romeo Nüssli.
MK35 (Appears to be a converted Super Vee chassis)
Otto Christmann.
MK27
Karl-Heinz Maurer.
?
Adi Lechner, Delia Stegemann.
1987
MK52
Jean Alesi, Markus Oestreich, Otto Rensing.
MK49/52
Jean Alesi, Yuuji Yamamoto.
MK49
Roland Franzen
MK45
Jakob Bordoli, Stefan Neuberger, Bernard Thuner.
MK42
Georg Arbinger.
MK35 (Appears to be a converted Super Vee chassis)
Otto Christmann.
MK31
Karl-Heinz Kerschensteiner.
MK27
Karl-Heinz Maurer.
1988
MK55
Georg Arbinger, Didier Arztet, Frank Biela, Franz Binder, Ellen Lohr, Lionel Robert, Peter Zakowski.
MK52
Frank Biela, Jakob Bordoli.
MK49
Roland Franzen, Georg Neyer.
MK35 (Appears to be a converted Super Vee chassis)
Otto Christmann.
1989
MK58
Cathy Muller, Yvan Muller, Michael Roppes.
MK55
Lionel Robert, Peter Schär.
MK49
Pierre-André Cossy.
MK45
Romeo Nüssli.
1990
MK60
Frank Beyerlein, Franz Engstler, Meik Wagner.
MK58
Olivier Caekebeeke, Walter Kupferschmid.
MK55
Günter Muskovits.
MK52
Romeo Nüssli.
MK49
Richard Neurauter.
?
Roland Bossy.
1991
MK58
Peter Fischer.
MK52
Romeo Nüssli.
?
Walter Kupferschmid.
1992
MK60
Peter Fischer.
MK58
Hansruedi Debrunner.
MK52
Romeo Nüssli.
1993
MK60
Peter Fischer.
MK52
Romeo Nüssli.
1994
MK67
David Dussau.
MK58
Hansruedi Debrunner, Christoph Grossenbacher.
1995 MK45
Othmar Oswald.
1996
MK73
Wolf Henzler.
MK58
André Gauch.
1997
MK73
Tom Coronel, Wolf Henzler, Franck Montagny, Tom Schwister, Oriol Servia, Steffen Widmann, Jaroslaw Wierczuk.
MK58
André Gauch.
1998 MK73
Sebastien Bourdais, Jonathan Cochet, Tomas Enge, Marcel Fassler, Yasutaka Gomi, Wolf Henzler, Thomas Jäger, Pierre Kaffer, Franck Montagny, Timo Rumpfkeil, Toby Scheckter, Timo Schneider, Tom Schwister, Steffen Widmann.
1999 MK79
James Andanson, Westly Barber, Sebastien Bourdais, Marcel Costa, Patrick Frieschar, Ryo Fukuda, Hugo van der Ham, Alexander Müller, Timo Rumpfkeil, Yannick Schroeder.
2000
MK80
Thomas Mutsch.
MK79
Marcos Ambrose, James Andanson, Romain Dumas, Andreas Feichtner, Patrick Hildenbrandt, Ying-Kin Lee, Thomas Mutsch.
MK73
Philip Giebler, Adam Jones.
2001 MK79
Simon Abadie, Jerome dalla Lana.
Matra
Matra
SA Engins Matra ( Mécanique-Aviation-Traction) sojourn in motor sport was relatively brief but they achieved a phenomenal amount winning Le Mans, the F1 World Championship, the F2 European Championship and a large number of F3 races. The company was formed in 1941 and specialised in aeronautical and missile engineering and they first took an interest in cars when they took over the ailing René Bonnet car company in 1964. In 1965 Matra Sports was created and in spring the MS1 F3 car was shown, it was almost immediately competitive and Matra followed this in 1966 with cars for F2 and Group 6 sports car racing. By 1967 the Matras were really flying and Jacky Ickx took the F2 European Championship a feat emulated by Jean-Pierre Beltoise the following year and Johnny Servoz-Gavin the year after. In 1968 Matra produced their first F1 cars the Ford powered MS10 for Tyrrell and Jackie Stewart and their own V12 powered MS11. Stewart took three wins in the first year and in 1969 with the new MS80 he won five more races and took the World Championship. Matra continued in F1 until 1972 but their insistence that the cars must now run with Matra engines meant that success was limited despite some heroic efforts by Chris Amon. Their F2/F3 interest had finished at the end of the sixties when regulation changes made their cars obsolete. They continued to run in Sports cars winning Le Mans in 1972, 1973 and 1974, at the end of ’74 they also withdrew from this class of racing ending their motor sport involvement for a couple of years. Matra returned briefly to F1 providing an updated version of their V12 engine for Ligier between 1976-78 and again in 1981-82, Laffitte managing a couple of wins.
1965
Matra’s first F3 car was the MS1, the MS standing for Matra Sports, designed by Paul Carillo and based on the René Bonnet F2 design, it was a monocoque car featuring suspension along conventional lines with the front inboard. Its most unusual feature was the tub which had been built using aerospace techniques, so tightly and accurately were the sections joined that fuel bag tanks weren’t required as the tub was leak-proof. This technique meant that lateral bracing to the tub was possible giving it a very high degree of stiffness. The car was an immediate success winning the high-profile support race at the Rheims 12 hours in Jacky Ickx’s hands. Later in the year Ickx won again at Cognac and Jaussaud took a win at Montlhéry. Four cars were built during the year, two in short-chassis which had the MS1 designation and two in long-chassis configurations that were designated as MS2.
1966
The MS5 was the definitive version of the F3 car and was a refined version of the MS1/MS2. Matra capitalised on the success of their first year building six more cars. The cars were raced almost entirely in France and during the year they took eight wins with Johnny Servoz-Gavin the most successful driver with three wins. Six MS5s were built in total.
1967
The MS5 was modified for 1967 with suspension changes being introduced to take advantage of the latest in tyre development, the new car was known as the MS6. It certainly seemed to work as the cars had an excellent reputation for their ability to put the power down giving them a definite edge over their rivals. A further three new cars were built to add to the previous tally.
The season started in fine style with Jean-Pierre Beltoise dominating the Temporada series in Argentina by winning all four races. After that the MS5 just kept winning racking up another 17 wins during the year including finishing 1-2-3-4-6 in a race at the French circuit of Dax. Although there was no “World”championship for F3 most observers reckoned that Henri Pescarolo was the star of the year.
1968
Matra withdrew from F3 in 1968 selling off their cars to any (in an oddly chauvanistic decision) Frechman that could afford one. Development had now ceased and the cars began to slip from their previous pinnacle with Jean-Pierre Jabouille being the only driver to make a mark with five wins. The MS5 continued in private hands for a couple of years until changes in regulations that required the fitting of bag tanks made them obsolete.
Drivers
1965
MS1
Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Jean-Pierre Jaussaud.
MS2
Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Eric Offenstadt.
1966
MS5
Jean-Pierre Beltoise, John Fenning, Jacky Ickx, Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Derek Kavanagh, Henri Pescarolo, Johnny Servoz-Gavin, Claude Vigreux.
1967
MS6
Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Henri Pescarolo, Roby Weber.
MS5
Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Alain Boudier, Robert Challoy, Michel Dagorne, “Geki”, Jean-Claude Guenard, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Johnny Servoz-Gavin, Philippe Vidal.
MS1
Alain Boudier, Serge Mesnil.
1968
MS5
Hervé Bayard, Max Bonnin, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Adam Potocki.
?
Gérard Bazin.
1969
MS5
Hervé Bayard, Max Bonnin.
Tui
Tui
Alan McCall was a respected mechanic at McLaren when he produced the Tui F3 car in 1970, Tui is the name of a small bird from McCall’s native New Zealand. In 1971 a Formula B car was built which acted as base for the 1972 F2 car which Dave Morgan and John Watson showed had some promise. McCall then became involved in building the tub for the Tecno F1 project. The Tui was then converted to run in the North American F Atlantic but without great success and after this Tui were not seen again.
1970
The Tui AM1 consisted of an aluminium monocoque with outboard suspension, the Broadspeed engine acted as a stressed member. Many of the parts used were ex-McLaren including the wheels, uprights and windscreen.
Wheelbase: 84.5 ins.
Track front: 54 ins. Rear: 56 ins.
Bet Hawthorne showed the car had potential but like many of the smaller teams with no budgets getting hold of a decent engine was a problem. The best finish for the AM1 was a fourth in a Lombank round at Brands Hatch.
Drivers:
1970
Bert Hawthorne.
1964
The pictures of the 1964 Abarth F3 indicate that the chassis was the same as that used for the F2 design, in addition track and wheelbase dimensions were virtually identical. It was a conventional spaceframe design with wishbone-based outboard suspension front and rear. Front track was 1320mm, rear 1330mm, wheelbase 2300mm and the chassis weighed 400kg. The engine was a 982cc Fiat-based unit with a four-speed gearbox, a Weber 40DCD carburetor was used and power was quoted as 88bhp at 7900rpm.
For whatever reason, perhaps the F3 engine wasn’t up to the job, the Abarth never raced.
Tom’s
Tom’s
TOM’S was established in 1974 and started life as a tuning shop specialising in Toyota cars, a range of products was soon available including wheels, suspension parts and engine tuning options. The company proved very successful and by 1983 it had set up its own competitions department, still with a Toyota basis. TOM’s first foray into F3 came in 1981 when they began tuning Toyota engines for use in the Japanese F3 championship where they met with almost immediate success. In 1987 TOM’S opened a base in Norfolk in England and began developing their Toyota F3 engine for the European market and in 1988 they won the British F3 title with JJ Lehto in the Pacific run Reynard 883. In 1991 they became a F3 constructor and began to appear in other formula including Japanese F3000 and the World Sports Car Championship where they ran the works Toyota effort. Today TOM’s are still producing their race winning F3 engines as well running their own Japanese F3 team (now using a Dallara chassis), in addition they are competing in the Japanese GT Championship
1991
The first TOM’s F3 chassis, the 031F, was built in England at TOM’S UK base and was designed by Andrew Thorby (who soon after left to join March), Martin Brigden and Kris Dwornik. The tub was constructed from carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb, at the rear a tubular steel subframe took the engine and gearbox. Cooling was by twin radiators mounted in the sidepods. Unsurprisingly it was fitted with one of the company’s own Toyota engines as well as a TOM’s built gearbox. The car impressed everyone with its build quality and cutting-edge design.
It ran competitively from the start of the season and Rickard Rydell won the opening round of the British Championship, this was followed by a third and two second place finishes. However it all went wrong thereafter with a several non-finishes and results tailed off. The major handicap for the car, ironically, was its engine which seemed down on power compared with its rivals and was never happy running on the UK spec fuel. Things were better in Japan were the engine wasn’t a problem and Paulo Carcasci, in the works car, took the championship with four wins in the series. Team mate Victor Rosso backed up Carcasci with fourth place and two wins.
1992
A new car, the 032F, was produced for 1982 although it was an evolutionary design. For this new season TOM’S decided to concentrate on the Japanese Championship and other than at Macau the cars stayed in Japan.
Changes in regulations regarding the size and positioning of wings initially handicapped the new car. Problems with weight distribution made the car difficult to drive but it was refined during the season and Jacques Villeneuve took the runner-up spot in the standings after winning three times. Rickard Rydell finished third with two wins and in addition he came away with a win at Macau.
1993
A new car, the 032F, was produced for 1982 although it was an evolutionary design. For this new season TOM’S decided to concentrate on the Japanese Championship and other than at Macau the cars stayed in Japan.
Changes in regulations regarding the size and positioning of wings initially handicapped the new car. Problems with weight distribution made the car difficult to drive but it was refined during the season and Jacques Villeneuve took the runner-up spot in the standings after winning three times. Rickard Rydell finished third with two wins and in addition he came away with a win at Macau.
1994
It was another 1-2 for TOM’S in the All Japan Championship for the works cars of Michael Krumm and Masami Kageyama. Only Krumm had use of the new 034F which was built to give maximum downforce and he dominated the series with six wins from ten races. Only one other 034F appeared during the year, driven by Tora Takagi from the midpoint of the season it took several top three finishes.
1995
The 035F was designed by Andrew Thorby (who designed the original 031F) with detail work carried out by F1 designer Martin Ogilvie. The car was designed from scratch in only five months. The front suspension layout was unusual in that it used twin dampers but only a single spring.
Plans to have up to four cars running in the UK came to naught and with no cars running in Japan the 035F was not one of TOM’S successes.
1996
The 1996 model was the 036F and was once again designed by Andrew Thorby. It proved to be more successful than its immediate predecessor with Dutchman Tom Coronel finishing third in the All Japan Championship with a single win. In the UK a solitary car appeared for Argentinean newcomer Brian Smith who, despite his inexperience, had several good runs with a best finish of third. It was tested extensively during the year by several drivers all of whom seemed quite complimentary about it, mostly suggesting it needed further development to get it right on the pace of the all-conquering Dallaras.
1997
For TOM’S final season as a F3 constructor the 037F was produced. Heavily based on the 036F it featured a modified tub, revised suspension and was fitted with a new gearbox casing. Initially the same aerodynamic package that had been fitted to the 036F was employed. The design revisions were the work of Mark Bailey who was responsible for the Swift F Ford car.
Rather surprisingly TOM’S eschewed the All Japan Championship preferring to run a Dallara for Tom Coronel which in fact was a shrewd move as the won the title. Instead the 037F raced exclusively in the UK, it had problems early on but as the season progressed it showed flashes of promise. Its main weakness seemed to be an inability to get enough heat into its front tyres and it was very inconsistent from circuit to circuit being very quick on one and then slow on another. Kevin McGarrity had the best finish of the year with a third at Oulton Park.
At the end of the year TOM’S ceased building their own cars although they continued in F3 for another year in the UK running Dallaras (and occasionally the 037F). They are still active and successful in Japan, again with Dallaras, in 1998 and ’99 they won the championship.
Drivers:
1991
031F
Paulo Carcasci, Takuya Kurosawa, Victor Rosso, Rickard Rydell.
1992
032F
Naozumi Itou, Tom Kristensen, Victor Rosso, Rickard Rydell, Tetsuya Tanaka, Jacques Villeneuve.
1993
033F
Masahiko Kondou, Tom Kristensen, Hidetoshi Mitsusada, Kazutomo Mizuki, Rickard Rydell, Shinsuke Shibahara, Yoshiyasu Tachi, Toranosuke Takagi, Tetsuya Tanaka, Yoshiro Tani.
032F
Hidetoshi Mitsusada, Yutaka Okano, Shinsuke Shibahara, Yoshio Tsuduki.
1994
034F
Michael Krumm, Toranosuke Takagi.
033F
Michael Graff, Shigeaki Hattori, Yuuji Ide, Russell Ingall, Masami Kageyama, Satoshi Motoyama, Manabu Ootsuka, Hirofumi Sada, Oonishi Taichirou, Toranosuke Takagi, Tsuchiya Takeshi.
031F
Fernando Croceri, Omar Martinez, Ricardo Risatti.
1995
034F
Sebastián Martino, Juan Manuel Silva.
033F
Hiroshi Sasaki, Hidekazu Shigetomi.
031F
Omar Martinez.
1996
036F
Tom Coronel, Syouta Mizuno, Brian Smith, Takashi Yokoyama.
034F
Rubén Derfler, Christian Ledesma, Juan Manuel Silva.
1997
037F
Giovanni Anapoli, Ricardo Mauricio, Kevin McGarrity, Martin O’Connell, Andy Priaulx, Jamie Spence, Darren Turner.
034F
Juan Manuel Silva.
1998 037F
Adam Wilcox.
1999
037F
Gavin Jones.
031F
Javier Catalfo.
McLaren
McLaren
McLaren together with Ferrari are the two most successful teams in Grand Prix history and like Ferrari McLaren have had success in other classes of racing, notably Can-Am and Indy car racing. Bruce McLaren had bought the Xerex Special sports car from Roger Penske in America and after racing it himself he decided in 1964 to build his own sports car the McLaren M1A powered by an Oldsmobile engine. Trojan took over the production of customer cars and at the end of 1965 McLaren took the decision to leave the Cooper F1 team and start his own GP project, the rest, as they say, is history. After a sticky start finding a suitable engine when he tried a converted Ford Indy V8 and then a Serenissima V8 he bought one of the new BRM V12s and fitted to his new M5 chassis and was immediately competitive.
The following year, 1968, he bought some Ford DFVs and fitted them to the M7A, Denny Hulme joined and McLaren started winning GPs. At the same time the legendary Bruce & Denny show totally dominated Can-Am racing for the next few years and their cars won USAC races in America.
Tragically Bruce lost his life in a testing accident at Goodwood in 1970 but the team continued through the good years with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt but by the end of the seventies the team began to fade as ground effect came in. Sponsors Marlboro pushed McLaren into joining together with Ron Dennis of Project Four and McLaren International was formed. This shotgun marriage worked better than anyone dared hope and from then on McLaren became the team to beat as Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger, Mikka Hakkinen and David Coulthard bought the team win after win.
1968
Designed by Robin Herd the M4A consisted of a bathtub monocoque formed from aluminium panelling bonded and riveted to four mild steel bulkheads. The front suspension was a single top link with radius arms and lower wishbones, outboard coil spring/damper units and an anti-roll bar were also fitted. Twin radius arms, reversed lower wishbones and single top links with outboard coil spring and damper units were found at the rear of the car.
The M4As seemed to suffer from a lack of development and although they started the season reasonably well and Mike Walker took a win at Oulton they quickly faded into also-rans. No more cars were built and this would be the only McLaren to race in F3.
Drivers
1968 Ian Ashley, Mike Walker.
Toj
Toj
Jorg Obermoser made his money as a supplier of electrical industrial equipment and did some racing himself in saloon cars. In 1972 he became the GRD distributor for Germany and surrounding areas and when GRD designer Jo Marquart switched to Modus so to did Obermoser. The first car to be called a ToJ (ToJ SC02) was a GRD 2-litre sports car design followed by SC03 based on a 1974 Modus project. The bodywork for SC03 was designed by Achim Storz who would continue to carry out the same arrangement for single seaters. ToJ also built some F2 cars from 1976-78 but despite having Keke Rosberg on board the best results were a 4th and two 5ths. ToJ continued in parallel with Modus and kept on for a while after Modus collapsed but within a couple of years Obermoser gave up his dreams of being a constructor.
1975
For 1975 standard Modus M1s were employed except that the had modified Storz bodywork fitted, initially described as Modus/ToJ as the season progressed they were increasingly thought of as ToJ.
1976
The F301 was now a ToJ but sadly it wasn’t too competitive, it was certainly no match for the dominant March/Chevron/Ralt trio that made up most races and even as regards German constructors it was number two to Maco. However towards at the end of the season there was a second place finish at Hockenheim in a German F3 championship round, the field wasn’t very strong and there is some dispute as to the driver, some reports say it was Keke Rosberg others Heinz Lang.
1977
For 1977 the F302 was introduced, it used the existing monocoque chassis plan with a conventional outboard suspension layout. Side radiators were fitted and at the front an unusual flat low nose with side wings was attached. During the season both Toyota and BMW engines were fitted and through a combination of good places and reliability Peter Scharmann took the German Championship. Best results were 2nd at the Nurburgring and a 3rd at Diepholz. Perhaps, all things considered, it was best to go out on a high note as this was the last year of ToJ in F3.
Drivers
1975 Not given as the cars still appeared under the Modus name on German F3 entry lists.
1976 Heinz Lange, Keke Rosberg(?).
1977
F302
Peter Scharmann, Walter Spitaler.
F301
Leopold von Bayern, Manfred Cassani.
Toda
Toda
Entered by Toda Racing, who also appeared to tune a number of the front-running Toyota engines used in the Japanese championship, the Toyota-powered RS6 took part in four races running at the rear of the field. This seems to have been Toda’s only appearance as a constructor.
Drivers:
1980
Katsuhiko Sugiura.