6 F1 engine manufacturers who fell from grace

A look inside the Renault F1 Sport Formula One has been at the fore of automobile technological revolutions for decades as it acts as the testing bed for innovations at extreme and exhaustive circumstances. Apart from improving brand value, the wondrous inventions like traction control, launch control, electronic differential, Anti Lock Braking system, carbon fibre construction and composite brakes, adaptive suspension, paddle shifters, efficient fuel and lubrication systems, active aerodynamics, data loggers, hybrid motors, durable tyres and much more were directly substituted into the road car industry. This is contributed by the ever-changing technical regulations governing the competition. Even before the true potential of aerodynamics in enhancing performance had been realised, the most extensive of modifications were infused upon the heart and soul of a racing car, the engines. Over the years, many engine manufactures have raised to the stardom before taking a short trip to extinction proving that unpredictability is F1’s only certainty. Here’s a look into the history books for such manufacturers:

#1 Cooper Climax

The 1958 season was a watershed in the evolution of Formula One cars as the little-known Cooper Car Company designer Owen Maddock sketched a frame that accommodated engines at the rear which aided handling and balancing of the car for it being behind the driver. Amongst a field of Ferraris and Maseratis, Sir Stirling Moss astonishingly won the Argentine Grand Prix driving a mid-engined Cooper powered by a 2-litre Coventry-Climax four pod FPF straight engine before Maurice Trintignant replicated the feat at the next race in Monaco infuriating front-engined counterparts.

The smaller British teams shattered the morale and left the rest in their wake earning them the nickname “Garagistes” from big spending Ferrari owner Enzo Ferrari. The improved 2.5 litre Coventry-Climax engines made available for the following season saw fierce competition between the works Cooper of Australian Jack Brabham and Moss in the Walker team's Cooper. The modified transaxle turned out to be more unreliable for the works squad as Brabham took the title ahead of Tony Brooks with Moss in third.

Brabham and Cooper Climax retained both drivers’ and constructors’ titles while Lotus-Climax finished second in 1960. However, with a change to 1.5 litre engine formula the following year, Ferrari returned to winning ways as Climax struggled to make the 1.5 FPF competitive whilst having started working on a new V8 configuration dubbed as the FWMV. Boasting power of around 180bhp, it proved unreliable before coming in grips with the contest in 1962 with four victories.

The lethal combination of Jim Clark and Colin Chapman wedged with the superior V8 engine bolted to the back of Lotus 25 took seven victories and as many poles out of ten rounds on their way to the double crown in 1963. Narrowly losing the championship to John Surtees’ Ferrari next season after failing to take the chequered flag at the finale in Mexico due to engine failure, Jim Clark powered his way to second drivers’ title in dominant fashion the following year with engine power peaking at 213bhp. The Coventry-Climax engines won 22 races in total before withdrawing from the sport after deciding not to be involved in making a new 3 litre engine for 1966.

#2 Ford-Cosworth DFV

Originally developed for Colin Chapman’s Team Lotus and sponsored by Ford, the Cosworth DFV effectively replaced the Coventry Climax as the standard F1 powerplant for the privateer outfits as soon as Copp and Hayes convinced Chapman to sell the highly versatile engines breaking the monopoly for the sake of fair competition. The three-litre normally aspirated engine’s debut at the 1967 Dutch GP was an instant success as Graham Hill put the Lotus 49 on pole while his team-mate Jim Clark came through the field to win once the former retired.

In 1969 and 1973 every World Championship race was won by DFV-powered cars, with the engine taking a total of 155 wins from 262 races between 1967 and 1985. Apart from Ferrari’s Jody Scheckter taking the championship in 1979, the DFV would claim every championship between 1978 & 1982. The arrival of ground effect aerodynamics in the late 70s gave new lease of life for the decade-old yet highly adaptable engine as Ferrari and Alfa-Romeo were closing performance gap with twelve cylinder power units that possess low centre of gravity.

The V-configuration of the Cosworth engine was angled in such a way that it could provide ample space under the car for under-body profiles to creat massive downforce and gave more efficient aero balance, thus increasing cornering potential and straight line speed altogether. World champions like Mario Andretti in 1978, Alan Jones in 1980, Nelson Piquet in 1981 and Keke Rosberg in 1982 used a combination of British ground effect chassis and a DFV engine to be eventually successful.

Their very existence was threatened with the advent of turbocharged power units in the 80s. However, extra power and torque of turbo engines put much more strain on the gearbox, driveshafts and brakes on the Renaults and Ferraris and also the performance was hampered by "throttle lag" initially. As engineers learned to hone such amounts of power, the problems were sorted out leaving no room in the garages for naturally aspirated powerplants like DFV V8s. Michele Alboreto took the DFV's last F1 win in a Tyrrell at the Detroit Grand Prix in 1983 while Martin Brundle became the last person to race with such an iconic engine also at the Austrian Grand Prix in 1985 also driving a Tyrrell.

#3 TAG Porsche

Despite Ferdinand Porsche designed Grand Prix cars in the 1920s and 1930s for Mercedes and Auto Union, the Porsche AG never felt at home in single seaters. For 1962, a newly developed flat-eight powered and sleek Porsche 804 produced the German manufacturer's only win as a constructor courtesy of Dan Gurney at the 1962 French Grand Prix. One week later, he repeated the success in front of Porsche's home crowd at Stuttgart in a non-championship race. At the end of the season, Porsche withdrew from F1 due to the high spiraling costs.

While still a sponsor of Williams, TAG’s Ojjeh financed the development of a turbocharged Porsche V6 engine for use by McLaren in the early 80s displaying the words "Made by Porsche". The engine made its F1 debut at the 1983 Dutch Grand Prix with Niki Lauda qualifying the car 19th before retiring with a brake failure. The TAG engined McLarens failed to finish a race in the late part of the 1983 season, though Lauda was classified 11th at the last race in South Africa even though he had retired 5 laps from the finish with electrical failure.

Better was to come for the TAG engines in 1984, with Lauda and Alain Prost sharing 12 wins of the season's 16 races between them and easily clinching McLaren the Constructors' Championship by the penultimate round in the Netherlands. Prost went on to become the first French F1 champion when he drove the McLaren-TAG 1.5L v6 turbo to the title in 1985. McLaren did not dominate as they had been in the previous year with rivals Ferrari and the emergence of the Honda turbo engine with Williams upped the ante in the spending war.

Prost would claim back to back championships in 1986 with TAG engine, however, the better power and fuel economy of Honda RA164E 1.5L V6 turbo meant than the TAG-Porsche units would lose the Constructors' Championship to Williams.

The final year of the TAG-Porsche engines in Formula One was 1987 as Prost was unable to defend his title and finished 4th in the championship with only 3 victories to his credit. The final win for the TAG engine was at the Portuguese Grand Prix where Prost recorded his 28th career win breaking the record of 27 held by Jackie Stewart since 1973. Overall the TAG engines powered McLaren racked up an impressive 25 Grand Prix wins in five seasons in addition to 7 pole positions, 18 fastest laps and 54 podium finishes in 68 races.

#4 BMW

German automotive giant BMW decided to develop its own turbo engine for the sport in 1980 based on the M10 unit - a four cylinder, 1.5 litre, normally aspirated engine that had originally been designed in the late 1950s. Its racing derivative the M12 had also found successes in Formula Two and other categories as well along the years.

Testing of the bonkers M12/13 got underway in late 1980 with a Brabham BT49 chassis modified to suit engine architecture when turbocharging was at its infancy. Brabham chief designer Gordon Murray its successor the BT50 exclusively with that turbo engine in mind featuring a longer wheelbase and a larger fuel cell. It was also one of the first Formula One cars to feature onboard telemetry to monitor fuel injection. The team's lead driver Nelson Piquet tested the BT50 throughout 1981 but the car proved unreliable until Bosch’s digital electronic management system was fitted at the end of the year.

The turbo engine was one of the most powerful with supposedly reaching figures of 1500bhp in qualifying trim. The Brabham and BMW partnership won a race in 1982 before achieving championship triumph the following year making the BMW M12 the first turbocharged engine to win the World Championship.

The following two seasons were miserable nonetheless with only three wins Piquet managed to muster due to unreliability and fuelling errors. The 4 cylinder engine had been pushed to its very limits with massive turbo boost pressures of around 50-60 psi leading to failures and high fuel consumption. The engine would go on to power teams such as Benetton, Arrows & Brabham until the end of 1988 when turbocharging was banned but the same block continued to be used in touring cars until the early 90s proving quite successful. During its time in F1, the engine had won the 1983 Drivers' Championship and nine Grands Prix. In addition, it also took 14 pole positions and set 13 fastest laps.

Returning after more than ten years absence in the beginning of new millennium with Williams, BMW designed the more aggressive P80 engine for 2001 that immediately propelled Ralf Schumacher and JuanPablo Montoya into contention for race victories. Its unreliable predecessor E41’s configuration of 3.0L V10 would form the basis for the following seasons. The BMW Williams F1 Team finished runner-up consecutively in 2002 and ’03 before winding down at the end of 2005.

BMW bought Hinwii-based Sauber team in June 2005 and formed the alliance that would last until the end of 2009. Polish driver Robert Kubicatook the team's only Grand Prix victory at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix before the German marque withdrew its operations and sold the stakes back to founder Peter Sauber.

#5 Honda

Honda entered Grand Prix scene in 1964 just four years after producing first road car. They began development of the RA271 in 1962 with their all-Japanese factory team and startlingly built their own engine and chassis. In response to the new 3.0L rules from 1966, Honda introduced a well-designed 360 bhp V12 engine but the car was let down by a relatively heavy and unwieldy in-house chassis. Honda returned to the winner's circle with John Surtees and won the 1967 Italian Grand Prix in only its first F1 race. The death of driver Jo Schlesser prompted Honda to withdraw at the end of 1968 before making a comeback fifteen years later as an engine supplier for Spirit and stayed in the sport for a decade.

Honda engines at their peak between 1986 and 1991 were considered as unbeatable with its monstrous 1.5L V6 turbo engines and 3.5L V10 and V12 units in the late 80s and early 90s. The Japanese outfit supplied its engines to six consecutive constructor champions - two with Williams 1986–87 and four with McLaren 1988–91. Despite winning five consecutive driver championships - one by Nelson Piquet in 1987, three by Ayrton Senna in 1988, 1990 and 1991, and one by Alain Prost in 1989 – they dropped out of the sport once again at the conclusion of 1992 season after Honda-powered cars amassing a total of 71 Grands Prix victories.

Honda returned yet again in 2000 providing engines for BAR and also supplied for Jordan in 2001 and 2002. Honda purchased 45% of the BAR team following their best season in mid-November 2004 after deciding to drop Jordan from supplying engines. With Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello at the helm for three years since 2006, the BAR Honda team stood on top step of the podium only once courtesy of Button’s stellar drive in a wet race at Hungary.

Looking to revive the glory days, Honda have returned for 2015 and supplies McLaren with 1.6L V6 turbo hybrid power units. Their struggles are well-documented with the partnership bore nothing but frustration so far.

#6 Renault:

At a time when almost all the manufacturers ran the Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8s, Renault decided to go against conventional thinking for 1977 and develop a 1.5 litre turbocharged V6 power plant. The EF1 engine was mated to the Renault RS01 and driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille retired from almost every race he entered. The car picked up the nickname ‘the yellow teapot’ before the intense improvements in 1977 saw Renault swapping from single to twin turbochargers.

The engine won its home race in France when Jabouille took the chequered flag in the new Renault RS10 chassis. Regular pole positions in the second half of that season meant Ferrari, BMW, Honda & TAG-Porsche all started looking into developing their own turbocharged engines in the years to come. With the EF1 engine, Renault claimed 15 race wins, 30 pole positions and 19 pole positions by the end of 1983.

Renault continued supplying engines to other teams until 1986, then again from 1989 to 1997 enjoying successful years with Williams in the early 1990s. It returned to Formula One in 2000 when it acquired the Enstone-based Benetton team. In 2002 Renault re-branded the team and started to use "Renault" as its constructor name and subsequently won both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships two years in a row in 2005 and 2006 with Fernando Alonso.

Since decided to sell the majority of their works team’s shares to Genii capital in 2010 that eventually came in to be Lotus Renault GP the following year, the French marque contended to focus solely on being the engine supplier.

The dominant Red Bull chassis and the superior Renault RS27 V8 engines ruled the competition with four consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championships between 2010 and 2013. But Red Bull have been quick to point the blame on Renault since the V6 incarnation for the dire performances in the last year and half and criticisms were bucketed at the French outfit in a constant manner thus deteriorating the relationship between them.