Piola selects his favourite F1 designs of all time

As legendary technical illustrator Giorgio Piola celebrates his 50th anniversary in the Formula 1 paddock, we asked him to select his favourite cars - using whatever criteria he saw fit.

"For my favourite cars, I've chosen the ones which were the most innovative - the milestones of Formula 1 cars. There are two examples that I chose just because of a particular feeling, but usually, they're the most innovative cars that I saw in my career."

Lotus 72

"It completely changed the shape of a Formula 1 car, with a wedge nose. If you remember, the previous car was a Lotus 49, still with a big radiator in the front with a traditional nose, the traditional shape of an F1 car - they were called 'cigars', and were very slim.

"The 72 had the wedge nose and a thin, rear aerodynamic shape. The inboard brakes at the front and rear were a dangerous solution but it was, for sure, a milestone car.

"Colin Chapman was a genius in those years, and made a very important car - in fact, when he did the Lotus 25 and the 49, and after the 72 he did the 78 and 79, they were the most important cars in all of those years.

"I have to say, I was living in the best time of Formula 1 then, and it was no problem at all to see the cars very, very close."

Ferrari 312B3

"The B3 was the mother of the Ferrari 312T, that won the championship in 1975 with Niki Lauda. They changed, again, the shape of F1 at that time. There was a big delta wing in the front, a completely different shape of the sidepods - very round, oval shape from the top, and a long radiator along the side. After that, there were no more radiators under the rear wing, and all of the other cars, the competitors, developed this solution.

"It was made by Mauro Forghieri, he made a big revolution starting from the Grand Prix of Austria in 1973, with only one car driven by Arturo Merzario, and working with Autosport I made a very big story on the B3 - more than 40 drawings, and it was probably the best work of my career."

Ferrari 312T

"Forghieri made some fantastic cars, and the T was the daughter of the B3 - the only major difference was the transverse gearbox, and it was a fantastic car. He was a big genius, for me, and must be considered in the same group as the biggest geniuses in F1.

"It was an iconic car, very successful. For the B3, I made a very big cutaway - it took 30 days of work and was very detailed, but I had to do the Ferrari T in a hurry, maybe in three or four days!

"I made a table with the suspension, and it was some of my best work. But I'm not happy with the cutaway, I'd like to do it again when I retire from going to races.

"The T4 was again a championship car, and those cars - like the Lotus 72, the Ferrari B3 and the McLaren MP4 - they're cars that last a long time, they're not winning just one season and they're a philosophy that lasts for several years because they're a milestone."

Tyrrell P34

"It was so different, and I chose this car as I made a lot of drawings of it. I was pleased, because it was the first time I worked for a team - I was sitting beside Ken Tyrrell on a flight going to Rio de Janeiro, and he asked me to do the brochure for the car.

"When I did the drawings, Derek Gardner - the designer of the car - was very helpful, a wonderful personality, so more than the technical side of the car I've chosen it because I love the drawing, from feeling, from passion, and from the relationship with the team.

"The biggest problem was not to do with the car. Goodyear, at that time, made a big evolution with the rear tyre in '77, due to the fact that they thought another team could be doing a six-wheeled car with four in the front, but it was too expensive and not very logical to build an evolution of the small front tyre.

"So it was handicapped by the fact that the development of the front tyre didn't match that in the back."

Lotus 78 and 79

"Everyone talks about the 79, because it was so successful - Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson were really playing, rather than driving, because the car was so fantastic they were using about 80% of the potential.

"But the Lotus 79 couldn't exist without the 78 before - made by Tony Southgate, and the first one together with the wing in the sidepods, had the miniskirt.

"The reason why that car was creating ground effect was given by the seal of the miniskirt to the ground. Without that, there was only a wing with no Venturi effect, so the gain of downforce would be quite miserable. All the work was done to make the seal work properly.

"The Williams FW07 was, I don't want to say a copy, but following the principle of the 79 built in a wonderful way. The chassis was much stiffer, the suspension was working much better, and the brakes were stronger. Because the 79's aerodynamic advantage was so big, it compensated with the lack of stiffness because the two drivers were playing, really.

"If they competed in the same year, there would be no history from the 79 because the Williams was a better car - but it was the 79 that started the ground effects."

Ligier JS11

"I picked the Ligier because it was the typical example of the interesting work that I was connected to with my technical stuff - what was the secret that the team was trying to hide?

"That car was particularly fast on the straights, because there was an illegal system in the sidepods. In French, they called it the 'clapet' - a window that under a certain pressure was opening and allowed them to have a better straightline speed and less drag.

"To cover this, the mechanics were always putting a towel on top of the radiator. I remember in Germany, they were hiding so much, and I was standing there because I wanted to do the picture. They left the car going out with the towel and it overheated, so they had to stop.

"In Watkins Glen, Jacques Laffite had a crash. At that time, the pitlane was down the hill and the big garage up the hill was for fabricating stuff. I went there, and thank god - I was so lucky the accident destroyed the bodywork just at the point where there was the 'clapet'. So I could do the picture, and coming down the hill I remember designer Gerard Ducarouge saw me. I made a sign with my finger to say 'OK, done' and he hated me!

"It's funny, he never admitted even 20 years later that the system was illegal. But they had to take it off and were immediately slower down the straight."

Lotus 88

"Colin Chapman sometimes was able to open a new era. But sometimes he wanted to do something new, and it would be impossible.

"In that case it was the Lotus 88 - his principle and his idea was a fantastic idea, to have two separate chassis to help the handling problem with the aerodynamics was a wonderful idea.

"Sometimes on the 88, the downforce is massive, but sometimes the air was going inside the bodywork and creating lift. It was unpredictable, very dangerous, and I know that from Elio de Angelis, the day that they banned the car he was very happy.

"It happened very often that a very sophisticated car worked well in the windtunnel, but had a very narrow window where they become unpredictable and difficult to drive."

McLaren MP4 and MP4/2

"John Barnard was another genius. He pushed to have all the car in carbonfibre, and his cars were often very beautiful. To do the car, they went to America - to Salt Lake City to work with Hercules, who did the moon shuttle.

"This technology changed the way cars were made in Formula 1, and the MP4 was the mother of a series of cars that were very successful.

"For example, the MP4/2 won two consecutive championships with Alain Prost and Niki Lauda with the Porsche engine. The chassis was exactly the same as the MP4, and this concept was evolved through the year. They had the Coca-Cola bottle shape at the rear - it was the first one, so it was a big milestone too.

"Barnard gave Porsche the shape and size of what the engine should be to cope with what the car should be. That level of integration between chassis and engine had never been seen before."

Brabham BT52

"If you talk about Gordon Murray's BT52, you also have to talk about the BT42 and the BT44 - the triangular chassis shape these cars had was unique.

"That car was different from everything else, but didn't create a trend - it was just unique, narrow in the front with a big weight distribution towards the back, a big, heavy four-cylinder BMW engine. It was the most powerful, in qualifying it had over 1000bhp.

"I loved the shape, it was very beautiful. Looking at all the details, Gordon Murray - like John Barnard - is very keen on detail, for example, the suspension arm are made by machined solid pieces instead of fabricated, and were beautiful pieces.

"I say often that F1 pieces like that could be in a modern art museum because they are wonderful - so clean, efficient and pure, and for me they're fascinating."

Ferrari 640

"The mother of the modern car! Even a city car has a paddleshift gearbox now, but at that time everyone was using a simple, longitudinal gearbox with a hydraulic actuator.

"I remember from a practical point of view, I liked that car, because when I made the drawing of the steering wheel with the paddle, it was published by all magazines and TV in the world. It was an easy drawing, 45 minutes in total, but the most successful!

"But not only is it the mother because of the semi-automatic gearbox, but also because of the torsion bar suspension and the shape was completely different. John Barnard was very good, and he didn't trust the Italians and designed the chassis in a way so it was impossible to fit a gearshift lever!

"He was right, because the car won - nobody knows how it won at the first race! They even changed the steering wheel during the race, it was completely unpredictable and after that win, it was never reliable.

"The alternator was not able to charge enough power required by the electronic management for the gearbox. It finally became successful, Prost nearly won the championship in 1990, and it made a huge step forward."

Red Bull RB5

"It was a car 10 years ahead of everybody else's. The shape was incredible, when I first saw it I was astonished. I said to Adrian Newey 'thank you', because I had such a big emotion when I saw the car and it was completely different from everybody else.

"What took my attention was the suspension, a pullrod with exhausts nearly blowing on the suspension arm. And nobody could believe it would be reliable!

"If the Brawn GP car didn't have the double diffuser, Red Bull would have dominated the season. Unfortunately for Red Bull, the Brawn dominated the first part - but when Red Bull put the double diffuser on, there was no more history for the Brawn.

"If I have to pick the car of the year, I am sorry and I hope Ross Brawn doesn't get upset, but I'll have to pick the RB5 over the Brawn GP.

"This year, Red Bull went with a completely direction of sidepods, with less undercut in the low section, and we have to say that everybody else has tried to make a similar shape - so they're still creating another trend."