The potential-laden F1 car that Ferrari neglected

When Mauro Forghieri passed away in November he left a remarkable body of work, for he was arguably the last engineer working in Formula 1 who was truly capable of designing a car from nose to tail, including its engine and gearbox. Almost unthinkable now, in an era in which perhaps half a dozen aerodynamic specialists might be engaged on the front wing alone.

Forghieri was but 26 and aiming to work in the American aviation industry when Enzo Ferrari put him in charge of the company’s racing department. Forghieri’s father had worked for the company in multiple spells since before the war and Enzo had taken an interest in young Mauro’s progress, offering him an internship in 1960 and then, at the tail end of ’61, the keys to the design office. A swift ascent by any measure, though in this case lubricated by the abrupt departure of key staff including engineering chief Carlo Chiti.

The clear-out – simmering angst among Ferrari’s rank-and-file brought to the surface by a confrontation between Enzo’s wife Laura and commercial chief Gerolamo Gardini – left a denuded technical staff facing a substantial range of tasks. Formula 1 was by no means the only show in town but it was a prominent enough element of the competitive portfolio for Ferrari’s decline to have become embarrassing.

Restoring Ferrari to the sharp end of the grand prix grid would require a ground-up rethink of car design, the reasons for which were obvious to Forghieri and his remaining colleagues if not to Enzo himself, firm in his belief that the engine was the ultimate arbiter of performance. Yes, the V6 had run out of development road and now offered inferior grunt compared with new V8s from rivals such as BRM and Coventry Climax. But the malaise extended beyond horsepower.

Chassis design had taken a leap in the form of stressed-skin cars produced by the small British teams Enzo had dismissed as “garagistes” – organisations whose work Ferrari would once again have to emulate. The championship-winning BRMs and Lotuses of 1962 and 1963 had been lighter and more agile than Ferrari’s ageing 156, and faster in a straight line because they offered less frontal area to the wind, all of which were crucial virtues in the 1.5-litre formula.

While work progressed on parallel V8 and flat-12 engine projects, Forghieri designed a new chassis which adopted key philosophies exploited by the British cars, and which foreshadowed developments they would make later in the decade.

Forghieri produced the 1512 Ferrari at the end of 1964, but Surtees rarely raced it during his 1965 title defence

Photo by: Motorsport Images

The ‘Aero’ chassis was a semi-monocoque like the BRM P61, with a forward section in which aluminium exterior panels were riveted to steel tubes and a pair of pontoons which housed some of the fuel. Riveted bulkheads at each end provided locations for engine and suspension mountings, with a further one amidships added rigidity while acting as a mounting for the steering column and instruments. As with the Lotus 25, the fuel tank configuration enabled the driver to be positioned at a laid-back angle which reduced aerodynamic drag.

The principal of keeping the frontal area of the car minimal also informed the engine design. Under Chiti, the previous V6 had been widened from 65 to 120 degrees, theoretically producing smoother power-delivery characteristics while fitting more neatly within the car’s frontal silhouette. Forghieri’s 12-cylinder was more radical, essentially a flattened-out V12 rather than a true ‘boxer’ engine in which the cylinders are horizontally opposed.

Forghieri also envisioned that the V8 and flat-12 engine blocks would be strong enough to act as load-bearing elements of the chassis when bolted directly to the back of the ‘tub’. Eventually this concept – adopted successfully by Lotus and Cosworth for the DFV V8 later in the decade – had to be watered down.

While Ferrari remained confident the flat-12 would be the better race engine and ultimately yield far more power, its greater complexity rendered it troublesome

The V8 engine was installed with a pair of steel members running underneath, connecting to a bulkhead which ran around the clutch bellhousing and provided a mounting point for the rear wishbones and coil-over shock absorbers. While the flat-12 and its gearbox proved strong enough, the engine would be mounted to the tub via an alloy plate which also located the rear radius arms, because there was neither the time nor the financial resources to design a new chassis.

Development of the new engines lagged to the extent that Ferrari introduced the ‘Aero’ chassis at Monza in 1963 with the V6 installed, albeit in a subframe and with a recast block. The fuel injection system remained problematic even after Ferrari introduced the V8 and, eventually, the flat-12. John Surtees gave the V8-engined car, the 158, a victorious debut in a non-championship race at Syracuse in April 1964 and, despite a few reliability gremlins, stayed in the championship fight until he clinched the drivers’ title in the final round.

Team-mate Lorenzo Bandini contested the majority of the grands prix in a V6-powered car until Monza, when the flat-12-engined 1512 was deemed ready enough to be seen in public – and even then he raced a 158. While Ferrari remained confident the flat-12 would be the better race engine and ultimately yield far more power, its greater complexity (24 spark plugs, four ignition coils and two distributors) rendered it troublesome. Once running smoothly it produced a most incredible noise, at once harmonious and ear-splittingly aggressive as it ascended through its rev range, but the ever-pragmatic Surtees remained unsentimental about such things.

Bandini drove the 1512 in the 1964 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, but retired with engine problems as Surtees finished second in the conventional 158

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Circumstances militated against the 1512 delivering on its potential. Surtees, in later life, would say he considered the 1512 to be among the greatest F1 cars he raced – indeed, that if he’d had access to it throughout the 1965 season he might have won the world championship again – he drove the 158 for the majority of that campaign. The reasons for this are typical of Ferrari in this era, a tapestry of fraught internal politics and relatively meagre resources stretched ever thinner by fighting wars on too many fronts. Myths abound also.

It’s claimed by some historians that Surtees was excluded from driving the 1512 by team boss Eugenio Dragoni, with whom Surtees enjoyed a less than cordial relationship – indeed, a row between the two would provide the catalyst for Surtees quitting in mid-1966. But the suggestion that Bandini was favoured at the expense of Surtees is ultimately unconvincing.

While there were occasional instances of ‘Il Grande John’ being compelled to use a particular car (such as Monaco 1966, the beginning of the end of his working relationship with Dragoni), Surtees was an uncompromising character who generally got what he wanted. Bandini, meanwhile, was manifestly unhappy with having to campaign a V6-engined car for much of 1964 while Surtees often had two 158s at his disposal, one kept as a spare.

The favouritism narrative also assumes the 1512 was the better car, which it wasn’t definitively until right at the end of its life. When Bandini tried the 1512 in practice for the 1964 Italian Grand Prix, poor weather rendered the lap times inconclusive and Ferrari wasn’t confident the car would last the race. Bandini chafed at not getting the opportunity to try and was given Surtees’ spare V8.

When he was handed the 1512 for the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen engine failure eliminated him from the race and, three weeks later in Mexico, the circuit’s altitude played havoc with the flat-12’s fuel metering although it contrived to run well on race day. Through 1965 Surtees generally passed on the 1512 in favour of the 158 because the two engines had broadly similar power and torque and the flat-12 was thirstier, requiring a disadvantageously heavier fuel load.

It was the workload and conflicting priorities which truly cost Ferrari its F1 chances during this period. Sportscar racing was generally more financially lucrative and Ferrari was embroiled in an intense rivalry with Ford and its GT40 project, with the result that little meaningful development was completed until after Le Mans each year. It’s claimed, for instance, that when the 158 made its first appearance at Syracuse Surtees had to help his mechanics paint it.

Detuning the flat-12 to benefit its fuel consumption and reliability came at great cost to performance and, after Bandini laboured to ninth place – two laps down – in a 1512 at Spa-Francorchamps in June 1965, Franco Rocchi set to work on a new cylinder head design with angled rather than vertical air intakes. While this wasn’t ready to run until Monza, the 1512 proved quicker than the 158 in practice for the British GP, so Surtees at last decided to race it. A podium finish was his reward, albeit almost half a minute down on Graham Hill and Jim Clark, who was nursing his sickly Lotus to the finish.

Surtees finally raced the 1512 at the British Grand Prix, where he took third

Photo by: David Phipps

For Germany and the fearsome Nurburgring Ferrari built a new 1512 chassis (0008), which is the example photographed here, although gearbox problems forced Surtees to park it during the race. By now the revised flat-12 was developing around 220bhp on the dyno, making it one of the most powerful engines in F1 – only the Honda V12 was believed to develop more grunt.

At Monza Surtees and Bandini raced it for the first time: Surtees qualified on the front row, just 0.2s off Clark’s pole position time, then enjoyed himself in the leading battle with Clark and the BRMs of Hill and Jackie Stewart until his clutch failed. Bandini picked up fourth place in 0008.

It looked as though Ferrari had turned its season around. But then, two weeks later, Surtees had an enormous accident during practice for a Can-Am race at Mosport. Pedro Rodriguez took his place for the remaining rounds but neither he nor Bandini could wring enough pace from their 1512s to run with Hill and Clark at Watkins Glen. In Mexico the altitude once again caused breathing difficulties for the flat-12 but it was extra pitstops for mechanical attention which consigned Bandini and Rodriguez to seventh and eighth at the flag.

It was the workload and conflicting priorities which truly cost Ferrari its F1 chances during this period. Sportscar racing was generally more financially lucrative and Ferrari was embroiled in an intense rivalry with Ford and its GT40 project

There would be no further development on the flat-12 since Formula 1 engines were doubling in capacity to three litres for 1966 and Ferrari remained focused on its sportscar tussle with Ford. Forghieri’s new 312 chassis would be powered by an overweight and underpowered V12 which was a hand-me-down from the sportscar programme.

Four seasons of only middling competitiveness ensued before Forghieri was given the go-ahead to return to the flat-12 concept – and the engine he produced would serve Ferrari until the turn of the 1980s, claiming three world titles.

Chassis 0008 was rescued from being scrapped and recycled – the fate of many Ferrari race cars of that era – by Luigi Chinetti, the marque’s US sales agent, whose victory in a 166 MM at Le Mans in 1949 ranks among Ferrari’s most significant early successes. It found its way into the hands of American collector Larry Auriana, who funded a comprehensive restoration in 2009 and a development programme which has enabled it to compete in historic racing. Through his passion and largesse, a whole new generation now gets to enjoy that remarkable noise and dream of what might have been.

Should Ferrari have put more emphasis on developing the 1512?

Photo by: David Phipps

Race Record

Starts: 15 
Wins: 0
Poles: 0 
Fastest laps: 0 
Podiums: 3 
Championship points: 22

Specification

Chassis: Steel semi-monocoque with aluminium panels
Suspension: Reversed lower wishbone, inboard coil springs/dampers actuated by upper rocker arm (front); upper arm, reversed lower wishbone, two radius arms and outboard coil springs/dampers 
Engine: Normally aspirated Ferrari Tipo 207 flat-12
Engine capacity: 1489cc  
Power: 220bhp @ 12000 rpm
Gearbox: Six-speed manual
Brakes: Steel discs front and rear 
Tyres: Dunlop
Weight: 490kg
Notable drivers: John Surtees, Lorenzo Bandini, Pedro Rodriguez

The 1512 had a fairly unsuccessful record in period, but thankfully can be seen (and heard!) in historic competition today

Photo by: James Mann