1982 182
The Alfa Romeo 182 is a Formula One car that was used by the Alfa Romeo team during the 1982 Formula One season. The car made its debut at the 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix. In the third race of the season at Long Beach, Andrea de Cesaris achieved pole position at an average speed of 141.331 km/h (87.819 mph). The best race was at Monaco, where de Cesaris placed 3rd. Alfa Romeo used three different models throughout 1982: the 179D (2 entries), the 182 (28 entries) and the 182B (2 entries); all with Alfa Romeo 3.0 L V12 engines. The Alfa Romeo V12 produced about 540 hp (403 kW) at 12000 rpm.
The 182B variant was tested for the first time at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder; this version was 12 centimetres (4.7 in) narrower and had a new exhaust and side skirts.
At the Italian Grand Prix, a turbo variant of this car, designated 182T, which carried a V8 turbo engine was tested by Andrea de Cesaris. It was not used in the race though. This version was derived from the 182D version. The 182T was converted to one of five 183Ts later next year.
1983 183
The Alfa Romeo 183T was a Formula One car designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Mario Tollentino and was used by Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo during the 1983 Formula One season. The car, with a newly designed flat bottom, made its debut at the 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix. Running on French Michelins, the 183T was driven in 1983 by Italians Andrea de Cesaris and Mauro Baldi.
The 183T took 18 points from 29 entries; Andrea de Cesaris managed to score two second-place finishes and also gained one fastest lap at Spa Francorchamps, a race that he started from the 2nd row and led over half the distance.
The 183T was retired after the season and replaced for 1984 by the Alfa Romeo 184T.
1984 184
The Alfa Romeo 184T is a Formula One car which was used by the Alfa Romeo team during the 1984 and 1985 Formula One seasons. The car, which was Mario Tollentino's first F1 design, bore the colours of the team's major sponsor, Italian fashion designers Benetton.
The car, which had a 1.5 L V8 turbo engine, producing around 680 hp (507 kW) at 10700 rpm, achieved a total of 11 points, all in 1984. The car's best result was at the 1984 Italian Grand Prix, where Riccardo Patrese came 3rd, at team mate Eddie Cheever's expense as the American was running 3rd, but ran out of fuel.
When the 890T engine was introduced in 1983, it had comparable power to the BMW, Renault and Ferrari turbo engines which at times saw lead driver Andrea de Cesaris able to mix it with the quicker cars, while fuel was not a factor as in-race re-fuelling was allowed. By 1984 however, the 890T had been left behind on power by its rivals, while the new fuel regulations limiting cars to only 220 litres per race saw the Alfa's mostly uncompetitive in the races as the engine was notoriously hard on fuel consumption. Also, the lack of power saw both Patrese and Cheever having to push their 184T's harder just to try to keep in touch (more often than not this was a losing battle) and most of the 184T's retirements were due to the unreliability of the engine that the faster running produced, or the cars simply ran out of fuel.
The 184T was replaced for 1985 by the 185T, but the car proved to be uncompetitive so the 184T was brought out of retirement, updated to 1985 regulations and was dubbed the 184TB.
1985 185
The Alfa Romeo 185T is a Formula One car that Benetton Team Alfa Romeo used during the 1985 season. The car was entered in 8 races, but without any success and suffering from poor reliability, the team returned to the previous year's car, the 184T, uprated to "184TB" specification. The 1985 season was the last one for Alfa Romeo in Formula One. The car was powered by Alfa's own 890T, a 1.5 L turbocharged V8 engine which produced around 780 hp (582 kW) at 10,200 rpm. The team drivers were Riccardo Patrese and Eddie Cheever.
Driven by Patrese, the 185T was involved in arguably the most spectacular accident of the season. On lap 16 of the Monaco Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet in his Brabham-BMW was attempting to pass Patrese along the pit straight. Notoriously hard to pass, Patrese moved across on his former Brabham teammate and put the Brazilian into the guardrail. In a shower of sparks, flames and debris famously captured by the television cameras, both the Brabham and the Alfa were destroyed, though both drivers were able to walk away injury free.
It was at Monaco where Cheever achieved the best qualifying position for the 185T when he started from 4th on the grid with a time only 0.279 seconds slower than pole winner Ayrton Senna in his Lotus-Renault. Ironically Cheever had failed to qualify the 184T at Monaco in 1984. After qualifying 4th, Cheever told reporters "We have a new wing here, which is much better than the old one, and the grip is good. Most of all though, we're understanding more and more about the Bosch Motronic, and throttle response is excellent. I think we can run with just about anyone on power as well. I mean, the car is good all round right now - if it can finish". Though it would not take too long for the American to change his tune about the 185T.
In an interview he gave in 2000, Riccardo Patrese described the 185T as "The Worst Car I ever drove".
No comments:
Post a Comment