The COAT - Round One - Brabham BT52 vs Williams FW19

[crmalcolm]

The eleventh match up sees the Brabham BT52 take on the Williams FW19.

Brabham BT52 (f1history.fandom.com):
Development of Brabham's 1983 entrant began before the end of the 1982 season. The original car designed for use during 1983, the ground effect BT51, had been extensively tested before rule changes for 1983 stipulated that ground effect aerodynamics were to be banned for the oncoming season. Unlike most teams who modified their existing designs, Brabham's designer Gordon Murray decided to design a whole new car; the BT52.

Overall the car featured a distinctive dart-shaped profile. Gone were the long sidpods used to generate the crucial surface area for ground effect. New short angular sidepods were designed to keep lift at a minimum and the radiators within were bolted onto the rear sub-frame. This enabled the mechanics to remove the complete rear end of the car complete with fluids, allowing for much quicker and easier engine changes. New large front and rear wings were added in an attempt to regain the lost down-force. While other teams used carbon fibre chassis, Murray remained conservative opting for a conventional sheet aluminium bottom half with a carbon-fibre top half. With double wishbones and push-rod actuated coil springs over dampers, the front and rear suspension was also conventional. A relatively small fuel tank was fitted due to the reintroduction of refuelling stops

This would be the first full season with the BMW M12/13 turbo engine. The four-cylinder unit was actually based on a production engine. The stock cast-iron block was fitted with a bespoke alloy head with four valves per cylinder. A KKK turbocharger helped boost the power to 640 bhp in race trim and well over 750 bhp in qualifying. The BMW engine was mated to a Brabham gearbox with Hewland internals that had five or six forward gears depending on the circuit.

Retaining the same driver line up as the year before, 1983 was a make-or-break season for the Brabham/BMW partnership. Their main rivals for the season were the Renault and Ferrari team, both running their own V6 turbo engines. Piquet got the year off to a good start by winning the season opener in Brazil. He achieved two further podiums at France and Monaco, both second places. Patrese however did not have as good a run, although seemingly as quick as Piquet he had the most of the bad luck and reliability issues, only registering one finish at round two. From the British Grand Prix onward the BT52 was replaced with the B-spec car. Piquet went onto win the Driver's Championship with a total of 59 points while Patrese finished ninth with 13 points giving Brabham a third place finish in the Constructors' Championship.

Williams FW19 (goodwood.com):
The year is 1997, and the Rothmans Williams Renault Formula 1 team is on a residual high from an incredibly successful 1996, in which Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve drove the FW18 to first and second places, securing the Constructor’s Championship by a huge margin of 105 points.

Faced with the task of repeating that feat, Williams presented the FW19, an evolution of its predecessor, featuring a carbon-fibre and honeycomb composite structure and powered by a Renault RS9 naturally aspirated V10 engine.

The new car’s Williams-Komatsu six-speed, transverse semi-automatic gearbox was more compact than that of its predecessor, while the lower crankshaft enabled a lower transmission, resulting in better aerodynamics at the rear end. Meanwhile, an extensively revised cooling system worked to decrease drag compared to the old cooling system.

While not an extraordinarily innovative car for Williams, it was momentous for the fact that it was both the last Williams chassis to receive input from designer Adrian Newey, who absconded to McLaren during the ‘97 season, and the last to run a works Renault engine before the manufacturer’s hiatus.

With Hill now departed for Arrows, Heinz-Harald Frentzen took up the second seat beside Villeneuve, and despite the prevalent threat of Schumacher and Ferrari, the pair got off to a good start in the season opener in Australia, with Villeneuve taking pole and Frentzen joining him on the front row. Unfortunately, a bad start saw the Canadian taken out of the race early on and Frentzen didn’t fare much better, with his brakes failing three laps from the end.

While the ensuing two rounds, in Brazil and Argentina, proved fruitful for Villeneuve, with consecutive wins, Frentzen fell by the wayside with a ninth position and a retirement. But Frentzen’s turn came at April’s San Marino Grand Prix, where he took his first ever F1 victory, and his only of the season. Villeneuve, meanwhile, retired with gearbox problems. At the following round, Frentzen took his first career pole, but both drivers ultimately retired due to accident damage.

Villeneuve again took pole and victory in Spain, before retiring at the following round in Canada. He was back on winning form by the British GP, and again at the Hungarian race, while Austria and Luxembourg took his race win toll to seven. Notably, he was disqualified from the penultimate race in Japan having ignored yellow flags on two consecutive laps during practice.

In the background, Frentzen was chugging on, winning the occasional second place and a brace of thirds. Despite retiring from a total of five of the 17 races, and only winning one race, his second place in Japan meant the Rothmans Williams Renault team had secured the Constructors' title. Meanwhile, Villeneuve took the Drivers' Championship, despite a controversial collision with Schumacher in the season finale at Jerez, in which Schumacher was accused of deliberately colliding with the Canadian. And despite only winning the one race across the season, Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished second in the Drivers' Championship due to Schumacher's being excluded following the incident.

Was the FW19 quite as impressive as the FW18? Its on-track records suggests not. Then again, it had big boots to fill and, ultimately, still secured the drivers’ and constructors’ crowns. A bad car? Far from it.

[S griffin]

The BT52, even if there are suspicions over the fuel they used. The fact that they had to design the car in next to no time due to a sudden rule change, is testament to the likes of Gordon Murray it then went on to win the title.