With a vintage year for Formula One racing about to get underway, here's the most up-to-date form chart on how the hottest GP cars and drivers shape up

The announcement of the new 3-liter Formula One sent a host of people dashing to their drawing boards. As the first year of the new formula gets under way, there will be at least eight different marques involved, using engine designs from eight different countries. Never has a formula been so international, with designs from Europe, America, Australia and Asia. It is a strong contrast with the beginning of the 1.5-liter formula in 1961 when only five different marques from three European countries were involved.
The true test of a formula is whether it fires the imagination of the public, and many people insist that the 1.5-liter formula did not. Nevertheless, it was successful in that it always drew sufficient crowds and more often than not, proved very exciting if not spectacular racing. Those who anticipate spectacular racing from the 3-liter cars are going to be disappointed. Modern suspension systems and tires are such that the best of them will get 400 horsepower to the ground even out of slow corners without smoking the tires or scrambling crabwise down the road. The cars won't be
the "big bangers" some had hoped for; in fact, they will be scarcely larger than the 1.5-liter cars. And since most people refuse to believe that speed is merely relative, the 3 liter formula will fire their imaginations: 200-plus mph sounds much more exciting today when there are half a dozen road cars which can achieve the 150-mph top speed of the 1.5-liter single-seaters. The 1500cc formula sounded even less impressive expressed as 91 cubic inches; 183 cubic inches starts to sound like the capacity of a real racing engine.
Formula One constructors are as opposed to change as anybody, but thankfully they have considerably less influence on the International Sporting Commission than their American counterparts have on the United States Auto Club. Indications from Lotus, Cooper and Brabham that they might give up racing when Coventry Climax announced that they would not build a 3-liter engine were never meant to be taken seriously. Men like Colin Chapman, John Cooper and Jack Brabham are in motor racing for one reason: they are racing people. Changes of formulas, even if they involve financial losses, won't frighten off such people. Less than 12 months ago, all three claimed that they didn't have any plans for 1966-but they always say that. By the end of 1965, both Brabham and Cooper had already done several hundred miles of testing on their new 3-liter engines. A change of formula revitalizes the whole racing scene and gets everybody involved in the sport thinking and working at their maximum. It is, in short, a great idea.
BRM was probably the first to start thinking about 3-liter engines, and they considered both V -12 and H -16 designs based on their existing 2-liter and 1.5-liter V -8s. The 1.5 liter unit gave 218 horsepower at best, and the team had two such engines when they were victorious at Monza last September. The 2-liter versions fitted to this year's very successful Tasman cars give over 260 bhp. But the Vee layout proved too bulky even if fitted transversely, so it was decided to mount two flat eights, one above the other, for a very compact H layout. This, however, precipitated some other problems. The chassis proper of the BRM will end in front of the engine, and the engine itself will take some of the rear cornering loads via a light alloy plate between the engine and gearbox. The two flat crankshafts are set at 90° to each other and two cylinders of both eights will fire together. The crankshafts are geared to an idler spur gear at the rear of the engine and BRM's drive will be taken from the gear on the end of the lower crankshaft. Although the cylinder heads are cast in two groups of four, the upper and lower four on each side being part of the same casting, they are very similar mechanically and in layout to the heads used on the 1.5-liter V -8s. Water is channeled separately through each side of the engine, but the oil system is shared. The air intake trumpets for the Lucas fuel injection will project from the sides between the camshaft covers, while the exhaust pipes will come from above and below the engine. It's a tremendously ambitious engine, and BRM expects it to rev up to 12,000 rpm and produce over 400 bhp in its first season. The H-16 weighs 420 lbs. and has been stressed to take 600 bhp. BRM hopes to have 500 bhp before the 3-liter formula ends.
The first H-16 didn't run until the end of January since delivery of the head castings was delayed. Recently, they decided they should have a passage to accommodate a thin drive-shaft should fourwheel-drive be used. Since the valves, pistons, and connecting rods will be of dimensions and construction similar to those used in the 1.5-liter V-8, they should be reasonably reliable. That the H-16 as a whole should be completely reliable in its first season is too much to expect. But if it is, the BRM will be the car to beat, since its monocoque chassis will be fairly orthodox and suspension layout much the same as on the 1965 cars. No other team has a stronger pairing of drivers than BRM: Graham Hill has a lot of winning left in him and Jackie Stewart won’t be making things easy for Graham or "anybody else in 1966.
Everybody regards the Ferrari 3-liter V-12 engine as a proven quantity because of Ferrari's long experience with racing engines of this capacity and configuration. If the Ferrari is to be competitive, its four-camshaft engine will have to be a whole lot lighter than the two cam V-12s and produce a great deal more specific power. Engine development proceeds faster at Maranello than most places, but the four-cam 3.3- and 4-liter engines never produced the power they should have last season. John Surtees is well on the way to mending completely after his Canadian mishap, and if ever there was a man to be unaffected by a big shunt, it's John. You can bet that he'll be just as determinedly fast as ever. Lorenzo Bandini will probably be the number two driver - for although it's not always apparent, he must be improving with age. Certainly his fire has never waned, and with more experience, it might be coaxed to burn in the right direction.
The Ferrari chassis is again a mixture of tubular and monocoque construction, with the monocoque structure stretching alongside the engine to carry extra fuel within rubberized fuel tanks. The 3-liter cars are going to need nearly 45 gallons to complete 200 miles on the thirstier circuits like Monte Carlo an increase of more than 15 gallons over the capacities of the 1.5-liter cars. The swollen fuel tanks will boost frontal areas a little, and there will be another drag increase from the front wheels. Although most teams will use 13- or 14-inch diameter wheels, the flatter-section tires now in vogue present a very large frontal area. The latest Dunlop 6.00 x 14 is 12 inches wide with 7 % inches of tread.
Housing that extra 15 gallons of fuel will be more of a problem to Brabham than to any body, for his cars alone retain a tubular chassis. The prototype car was designed for the flat-16 Coventry Climax engine, but his Repco V -8 fits beautifully, and it's expected that the new car or cars he builds will be very similar. With a scuttle tank, the Brabham can carry 40 gallons of fuel, and since the V -8 will be less greedy than the higher-revving 12s and 16s, this should prove just enough. The Brabham is one car that won't be far off the minimum weight limit of 1102.3 lbs. (500 kilograms). The Repco engine started life as a 2.5-liter unit for use in the Tasman formula, but a 3-liter engine has now been developed. Designed in Australia, it employs the ill-fated Buick aluminum block. The crankshaft and cylinder heads with single overhead camshafts are made in Britain, but all the development work is being done in Australia. The first 3-liter engine was given a hurried test run at Repco, then flown to England in time for Brabham to accomplish one day's faultless testing at Goodwood before the car was shipped to South Africa.
There it very nearly won the first race of the new formula. The engine itself performed flawlessly what stopped Jack was a seized shaft in the Lucas fuel injection distributing pump. Brabham said of the Repco V-8: "You just put it in the car and it goes like clockwork it's just like a Cosworth," which is high praise indeed from a racing engineer. The best output of such an engine must surely fall short of 350 bhp, but in favor of the Repco Brabham are such factors as reliability, lighter fuel load and overall weight, and Jack Brabham himself. At 40 years of age, Jack is still one of the quickest drivers around, and is undoubtedly the world's number one test driver. Don't underestimate the importance of test driving. It could be vital in the 3-liter formula where the exercise will be to get maximum power to the road, rather than out of the engine. Brabham's number two will be Denis Hulme who drove consistently-if not brilliantly-in the few F -1 races he entered in 1965.
The Cooper crew completed 1400 .miles of trouble-free testing with their V-12 Maserati engine before Christmas. This early carburetor engine gave only 330 bhp, but its reliability was extraordinary. lng. Alfieri has a reputation as an extremely fertile, designer' who has been unwilling to develop some of his best ideas to fruition. The 3-liter Maserati V -12 seems to be an exception with all kinds of promise. After very little running, the first fuel injection engine gave 359 bhp early in January, so by the time the season is under way, it could be competitive with everything except BRM. Ferrari never saw more than 200 bhp with its 1.5-liter V-12s and will probably have less than 400 bhp at the start of this season: Cooper has finally abandoned its space frame tubes and opted for a monocoque structure designed by Derek White who did much of the work on the lightweight Jaguar E-type. Assisting him at Cooper was B.R.P. engineer Tony Robinson, who built
Masten Gregory's 1965 Indianapolis car. The new Cooper is a very clean design indeed and since they're now using the same suspension layout as everybody else, they might have a winner. The front disc brakes are placed in board of the suspension upright where they get better cooling, and this makes it possible to fit a larger diameter disc than can be squeezed inside the rim of a 13-inch wheel. Roy Salvadori is directing the racing program on behalf of John Cooper and millionaire car dealer Jonathan Sieff, whose Chipstead Group merged with the Cooper Car Company last year. Richie Ginther will drive the Cooper until his Honda ride is ready. Richie is considered a demon test driver and Cooper has used him for the testing since February. He has more experience at this sort of thing than Jochen Rindt, who will again drive for the Cooper team. Rindt was able to keep up with McLaren last year, and will probably give Richie a hard time this season.
News from Lotus is scant. Chapman ordered BRM engines and gearboxes for 1966 because the Ford of Great Britain V-12 engine which Cosworth is developing won't be ready until 1967. BRM has stated that it will supply other teams with H-16 engines with over 400 bhp, and if Jim Clark has anywhere near as good an engine as Hill and Stew
art, he will again be the man to beat. Clark is as good as having an extra handful of horsepower in any car. Peter Arundell has recovered from his '64 shunt and will resume his Team Lotus duties, while Mike Spence moves on to Tim Parnell's equipe and a 1966 Lotus fitted with a BRM H-16. Parnell will run one of the rare non-works teams in 1966: Rob Walker will field a lone Cooper Maserati for Joseph Siffert. French F-2 and GT driver Guy Ligier will have a similar car.
Colin Chapman surprised everybody with the unheralded Mk. 25 Lotus in 1962 and he might just have something up his sleeve again. The ZF company confirms that, like Cooper, McLaren and Brabham, Lotus, will use the ZF 5DS-25 fivespeed gearbox. But Chapman insists he is using the BRM unit. It's possible that he has an alternative engine - perhaps a smaller version of the lndianapolis Ford V-8. But no matter what engine he uses, the 1966 Lotus will be the most efficient car around-probably the smallest, the lightest, and the best roadholder.
Bruce McLaren's choice of the Indianapolis Ford engine made low chassis weight vital for his initial F-1 car. The prototype which appeared last September with an Oldsmobile engine, was his first venture with Mallite, an aircraft material consisting of a sandwich of 1/8..,. inch-thick end grain balsa wood between 26 swg aluminum sheets. By the time the first F-1 chassis were begun in January, McLaren and his designer Robin Herd had learned a great deal about the application of this material. The new chassis are consequently simpler, lighter and stiffer. Two versions of the Ford V-8 have been built and tested at Traco with bits manufactured in Europe one is a short-stroke variation with standard bore; the other has been both destroked and linered down. It is doubtful if this engine will produce much more than 350 bhp, but since it's stressed for over 500 bhp on fuel, it should be one of the most reliable engines on the scene. McLaren is always at his quickest in a McLaren, and his 22-year-old teammate Chris Amon has already
, missed enough chances for a lifetime and is very anxious to make amends.
The Gurney-Shelby American Eagle project is encouraging in that it represents a very serious U.S. entry into F-1 racing. Gurney himself is one of the world's greatest drivers-but the ultimate test is going to be his ability to administrate competently the work of his designers and mechanics. A V-12 is a logical engine choice, and since Len Terry is capable of designing something that holds the road better than the Lotus Thirty, the Eagle has, at the very least, a runner's chance.
The Honda is still a mystery. Nobody seems to know how many cylinders it will have, or even in what
configuration. This much is certain: when all 16, or 14, or however many cylinders are firing, the Japanese unit will probably have more power than anything on the track. There was very little wrong with the road holding of the 1965 car, and the Japanese might learn to put 400 bhp on the road quicker than you'd expect. It seems unlikely that the first car will be ready until the latter part of the season, by which time Ginther should be warmed up, after developing and racing the Cooper as well as track-testing the Honda. If they keep the car reasonably simple, the Honda could be a winner straight off.
The first year of the new formula will undoubtedly feature very interesting racing. It's unlikely that there will be many six-car battles with the lead changing every lap, because initially, there will be great discrepancies between the fastest and slowest cars. The list of variables has suddenly swollen-there will be cars of widely differing weights and frontal areas, as well as power outputs. The higher speeds will place new emphasis on braking efficiency and the tire war will no longer be a cold one with both Goodyear and Firestone aiming to put an end to Dunlop supremacy in Formula One racing.
That's the line-up. If the 16-cylinder BRM engine works, the chances are very much in favor of BRM and Lotus. If it doesn't, each race could have a different winner. Ferrari has the best chance-due simply to experience and rapid development made possible by its self-contained operation, but the various: hybrids like the McLaren-Ford, the Cooper-Maserati, AAR and the Repco-Brabham are all capable of winning races. The uncertainty of it all is very refreshing. Here's to a great new formula.

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Author: ArchitectPage

John Surtees in 3-litre Ferrari F1

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Bob Bondurant (tent.) Lorenzo Bandini, John Surtees

FERRARI Engine: Ferrari V-12 Est. HP: 360 @ 10,500 Designer: Mauro Forghieri Tires: Dunlop Team Manager: Eugenio Dragoni

BRABHAM RACING Engine Repco-Brabham V-8 Est. HP: 300 @ 8,000 Designer: Brabham/Tauranac Tires: Goodyear Team Manager: Jack Brabham

COOPER CARS Engine: Maserati V-12 Est. HP: 375 @ 9,750 Designer: White/ Robinson Tires: Dunlop Team Manager: Roy Salvadori

TEAM-LOTUS
Chassis: Lotus Engine: BRM H-16
Est. HP: 400 @ 12,000 Designer: Colin Chapman Tires: Firestone Team Manager: Colin Chapman

'ALL AMERICAN RACERS
Chassis: Eagle Engine: Gurney-Weslake V-12"
Est. HP: 400 @ 10,000 Designer: Len Terry Tires: Goodyear Team Manager: Dan Gurney

ALL AMERICAN RACERS
Chassis: Eagle Engine: Gurney-Weslake V-12"
Est. HP: 400 @ 10,000 Designer: Len Terry Tires: Goodyear Team Manager: Dan Gurney

HONDA MOTOR COMPANY Engine: Unknown Est. HP: Unknown Designer: Soichiro Honda Tires: Goodyear Team Manager: Yoshio Nakamura

HONDA MOTOR COMPANY Engine: Unknown Est. HP: Unknown Designer: Soichiro Honda Tires: Goodyear Team Manager: Yoshio Nakamura

McLAREN RACING Engine: McLaren-Ford V-8 Est. HP: 350 Designer: Robin Herd Tires: Firestone Team Manager: Ted Mayer

McLAREN RACING Engine: McLaren-Ford V-8 Est. HP: 350 Designer: Robin Herd Tires: Firestone Team Manager: Ted Mayer

Chassis: Lotus. Engine: BRM H-16 Est. HP: 400 @ 12,000 Designer: Colin Chapman Tires: Firestone Team Manager: Tim Parnell

SCUDERIA CENTRO SUD Chassis: BRM Engine: Maserati V-12 Est. HP: 375 @ 9,750 Tires: Dunlop Team Manager: Nimo Dei