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Bruce McLaren, 1964

This article was written by Bruce in 1964 for AUTOSPORT magazine. He has decided views on continuing the 1.5 Litre engine size for 1965. With his driver's (rather than his engineer's) view he wants more horsepower and F1 cars being a challenge to drive.

FORMULA ONE
The Cooper-Climax Team driver has decided views on the coming formula.

The general trend in Formula 1 Grand Prix Racing since its inception as the crème de la crème of Motorsport has been towards a gradual reduction in capacity, but I feel that we may be on the threshold of a reversal.

The thought of smaller engine capacity limits for the 1965 grande epreuve series is something that would gain displeasure from all the GP drivers and practically everyone else involved – including the spectators. In my five years of GP racing I have seen an entire era, as it were, with the emphasis on smaller engines bringing to the utmost degree of importance the light construction of small racing cars that started originally with the first rear engined Coopers.

When I talk about formulae, or volunteer opinions, they are prompted almost entirely by my attitude as a driver. Although involved in design and development and the odd private racing project, my engineering point of view doesn’t influence my feelings on a new formula when I speak from the driver’s angle. I do have strong feelings against the current run of lighter and still lighter formula cars.

For instance, the present Formula Junior car set up to handle well, shod with large section tyres on wide rims, results in a motor car which, if I can draw a rough comparison, handles like a glider instead of a fighter plane. Instead of handling like a powerful racing car it is as smooth as a sewing machine. I’m pretty sure if Juan Manuel Fangio, or even those brave men who drove the pre-war Mercedes Benz and Auto Unions in the rain on the Nurburgring were asked to drive one of the present Formula 1 cars, they would call it “kid stuff”. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that they would be as quick, and the circuit times give a clue here, because of the way lap records have tumbled recently. These present day cars require considerable special technique. All they don’t require is delicacy of control on the accelerator. More than one circuit, by virtue of the present formula has lost a lot of its challenge. Spa-Francorchamps and Rheims are two in particular. I can remember with the 2.5 litre cars at Spa that the “S” bend in the middle of the straight, and the uphill right handers towards La Source were definitely not flat. They were high speed bends requiring careful braking, or even a gear change, and then a full power drift. The same goes for the Gueux right hander at Rheims. With the Formula 1 cars now, all you do is turn the steering wheel (although on the “S” bend in the Masta Straight at Spa you’ve got to hold your breath a little!).

At Rheims this year I had occasion to walk back around the circuit in the latter stages of the race. I hadn’t watched Formula 1 cars on this section of the circuit since 1958, when I had the privilege of watching Fangio, Hawthorn and Collins. Fangio was taking it flat, coming underneath the Dunlop bridge, a quick tug at the steering wheel which scrubbed off speed with a fair angle of drift as he entered the corner and carrying on round with the Maserati still on full song. Hawthorn appeared to be taking it flat too, but I believe he said later to someone who he thought wouldn’t pass it on, that he was just squeezing the brake with his left foot to knock off one or two miles an hour. This year the Formula 1 cars were nothing to watch. They only pull around this curve at 150mph, and going through they gradually lose speed. Another important factor is that the cars are getting too small. Ritchie Ginther is reported to have said “soon the size of a GP car is going to depend entirely on the size of the driver, and when that happens, Dan Gurney’s out and I’m in!” Unfortunately, this is true, but there is no simple answer to this one except regulations, and I don’t like regulations that are framed to restrict a designer’s hand. A change to larger capacity is not going to help this situation. In my opinion small racing cars, no matter how fast, certainly aren’t as interesting to watch as big racing cars.

I think most people will agree with me when I suggest that given equal drivers, a field of Maserati, Mercedes, Ferraris, and a couple of V16 BRMs would be a much better spectacle that the present Coopers, Brabhams, Lotuses, BRMs and Ferraris. But I’m shying away from my driver’s point of view again.

In my hometown of Auckland, New Zealand there is a very steep hill. I was delighted when my first-ever sports car – an Austin Seven Special – would actually accelerate up this hill in low gear, and I can remember thinking to myself, that some day I would like to drive a car which would spin its wheels all the way up this hill. At that time, of course, I was thinking of only the rear wheels spinning, but I guess with over a decade of progress since then, I would have to think of all four wheels spinning. If it was a really potent machine, this would be the sort of car I would like to drive. A car in which the fine limits of handling, frontal area, weight and engine tune aren’t as important as the pure ability of the driver, where there is power to burn so that it doesn’t matter if the engine is down a fraction, or where the handling and the way you take corners is more dependent on the position of your right foot than on the tyre pressures – then you’ve got something to think about. But apart from just dreaming and hoping, I wonder is it worth theorizing as to what will happen in the near future. As I’ve said, I think we are at the bottom of the curve at present, and I believe the C.S.I. are intending to raise the existing limit. I sincerely hope they do, for Formula 1 racing will then definitely improve.