Porsche in Formula 1

When someone thinks of Formula 1, the Porsche name does not necessarily come to mind. That wasn’t always the case though.

In the late 1950’s, Porsche was finding success in the sports car and GT classes of racing, sometimes beating out the much more powerful teams. That was the case for the 1956 Targa Florio where the Porsche 550 of Umberto Maglioli and Huschke von Hanstein won the Sicilian race against the Maseratis and Ferraris.

In the late 1950’s, Porsche decided to try their hand in the 1500cc class F2 races with the Porsche 718. In 1961, the former F2 class became Formula 1, so Porsche went F1 racing with the 718.

It’s 1957 design showed itself as outdated, so Porsche produce a new car, the 804, for 1962.

Porsche 804 Formula 1, rear view, 1962
Pen&ink, paint markers and markers on gray archival paper
17"x 12" © Paul Chenard 2012
This original artwork is available, as are limited editions

American Dan Gurney brought Porsche their first and only Formula 1 win as a constructor, taking the French Grand Prix at at Rouen-Les-Essarts on July 8th. Gurney also finished 3rd at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring on August 5th.

With the upcoming Formula 1 rule changes, Porsche decided to withdraw from Grand Prix racing in 1964 to focus on sports and endurance racing.

In 1983, Porsche returned to Formula 1 as an engine developer through TAG for McLaren and helped them win the 1984 and 1985 Constructors Championships.

Grand Prix de France 1934

The French Grand Prix in Montlhéry, just south of Paris, signaled the return of Rudolf Caracciola with the Mercedes Team, having spent the last fourteen months recovering from a serious accident.

Auto Union was present, along with the Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeos and a couple of Maseratis. Tazio Nuvolari was invited to try the Bugatti Type 59 by Ettore Bugatti.

At race start, Louis Chiron driving for Scuderia Ferrari quickly took the lead from Caracciola, Luigi Fagioli (Mercedes) and Hans Stuck (Auto Union). Stuck than pushed hard past the Mercedes drivers to take the lead from Chiron.

Nuvolari experienced gearbox trouble in the Bugatti so he handed it off to Jean-Pierre Wimille. Fagioli was instructed to push harder to catch the lead cars.

The high pace of the race started taking it’s toll on the new German cars, and one by one they dropped out, Caracciola with fuel-feed problems, Fagioli with a broken brake-line, von Brauchitsch with supercharger woes, the persistent Stuck with engine problems, and Momberger with a steering break.

The other teams also dropped out, Bugatti with mostly engine and transmission issues, and Maserati with axle and engine breaks.

Trossi, Chiron and Varzi, race-ready for Scuderia Ferrari

Pen&ink, markers and pencil on white archival stock 12”x 9” (30.5cm x 22.9cm) © Paul Chenard 2010

Original sketch available, as is the limited edition.

This led to a clean sweep for the Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeos with Chiron first, Varzi second and the Trossi/Moll duo third.

The 80,000 spectators were thrilled with Chiron’s win over the Germans teams. This win hid the fact that all the German cars, though still being very new, fell out of the race for fairly minor reasons, and that with better preparation, they would have clearly matched the opposition.

Alfa Romeo & the 1934 Grand Prix Season

The 1934 Grand Prix season introduce to the world a glimmer of the powerful government-subsidized German Grand Prix racing teams. Both Mercedes and Auto Union (formed by the racing union of Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer) brought new racers to battle, highlighting advanced technologies.

These new technologies were so new that they were not fully developed for the 1934 season. The very well organized Scuderia Ferrari developed and managed the Alfa Romeo racing cars for the company, and that season’s Alfa Romeo domination was the result; they won 18 out of a total 35 races.

Pen&ink, markers and pencil on white archival stock 12”x 9” (30.5cm x 22.9cm)

© Paul Chenard 2010
Original sketch available, as is the limited edition.

In the image above, the Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo P3’s of Varzi, Chiron and Trossi are ready to race the Grand Prix de France at Montlhéry. They came in respectively 2nd, 1st, and 3rd place.

Dijon 1979 - A race not easily forgotten ...

The Renault Team was favored to make a clean sweep of the 1979 French Grand Prix. A French car on French soil driven by a Frenchman and fueled by French "carburant" had the making of P.R. gold.

But they didn't count on the tenacity of the Canadian driving for Ferrari ...
Pen & ink and Prismacolor pencils on gray archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2008
Original art available, as are limited editions.

Photographer, author, keynote speaker Allan De La Plante had the chance to witness that famous race; in his words:

Hi Paul,
I was there In Dijon that crazy day and it was something else. When I returned to the pits Gilles' T4 was sitting there all alone with the front tires completely spent, but the thing that got to me was the car was growning and creaking as it cooled down. It almost seemed to talk! I am sure the car was as satisfied as everyone, well almost everyone, that saw that almighty duel.
Nice work!

You can see Allan's fabulous photography at http://www.allandelaplante.webs.com/

Phil Hill - Ferrari 246 F1 - Reims 1960

Pen & ink on white archival stock, digitally coloured, 9"x 6" © Paul Chenard 2006

Phil Hill started with Ferrari in 1956, he was driving sports cars, and quite successfully at that.

In 1959, he got his break in F1. In 1960, he won his first Formula 1 race, driving the 246 F1 at Monza. It happened to be the last front-engined F1 Ferrari win, too.

Of course, in 1961, he became Formula 1 World Driver Champion in a Ferrari 156 F1 "Sharknose".

A brilliant man, and brilliant racer.

Gilles Villeneuve vs René Arnoux – Dijon 1979

Pen & ink with Prismacolor pencils 22"x 12"
© Paul Chenard 2008

This illustration is for sale; please contact me if you are interested.

The 1979 French Grand Prix had all the ingredients for public relations gold the Renault team.

Previous to the race, Renault had 5 weeks to fine tune and improve their French-designed turbo-charged cars. The cars were raced by 2 French drivers, Jean Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux, fueled by French fuel (elf) and shod in French tires (Michelin).

The race was started and though Jabouille had to get by a very determined Villeneuve in Ferrari, he advanced easily into a lead that he would not relinquish.

Arnoux had only to do the same, and near the end of the race, he did. But because of a fuel pick-up problem, it was not as easy. The powers that be started popping corks for what was supposed to be a Renault sweep.

Of course, Villeneuve saw things differently. He noticed that Arnoux did not readily pull away, so saw that he had a slim but possible chance to fight for 2nd place, which is exactly what he did.

With worn out tires and a slight power deficit, Villeneuve proceed to regain the lead with a wreckless control that has become legend. He and Arnoux swapped leads a few times, bumping tires and moving on and off the track, with Villeneuve finally taking the flag for 2nd.

The media jumped on the story, almost forgetting who actually won. But Villeneuve exemplified the winning spirit.

Jimmy Murphy winning the 1921 French GP for Duesenburg

Pencil on paper 12"x 9" © Paul Chenard
Scott Higgins Collection