Home » F1, 40 years ago the victory of Gilles Villeneuve’s turbo Ferrari in Montecarlo

F1, 40 years ago the victory of Gilles Villeneuve’s turbo Ferrari in Montecarlo

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It was the first time in history that Ferrari won with a turbocharged engine. The single-seater, driven by Gilles Villeneuve, was the 126 CK, in which two types of supercharging coexisted: turbo and volumetric. Years of experimentation that led to the triumph on the track in the Principality of Monaco

Claudio Pavanello

Despite forty years having passed, May 31st 1981 is a date burned into the memory of every Ferrari driver. On that day, not only did Ferrari take the first victory in its history with a turbocharged engine, but it was Gilles Villeneuve who gave it to him with a stratospheric race. The track, Montecarlo, the most fascinating Grand Prix of the season was also cloaked in legend, where the turbocharged engine, due to the typical delay in acceleration response, seemed defeated at the start. Let’s rewind the tape and go back to Monza 1979, when Jody Scheckter, with Gilles faithful and loyal squire, brought the drivers title back to Maranello.

From triumph to the abyss

The single-seater of the triumph was the T4, the only 12-cylinder (together with the inconsistent Alfa Romeo) in a sea of ​​”garage owners”, as the various Lotus, Williams, Ligier equipped with the immortal 8-cylinder Ford Cosworth, born in the distant 1967. The only exception was Renault, which achieved its first success in the equally epic Dijon race (that of the immortal duel between Gilles and Arnoux). The T4 won thanks to power, balance and Michelin tires, but the architecture of its boxer engine represented an insurmountable obstacle for a further evolution towards the “wing car” concept. The following season was faced by Ferrari with resignation, well aware that the T5 would not have been able to defend the title in the face of rival cars that, thanks to the Venturi effect, were glued to the track. Thanks to Scheckter’s demotivation, decided to retire, the T5 was in fact one of the worst Ferraris in history, failing to qualify the world champion in the Canadian Grand Prix.

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New power solutions

Forced to abandon the historic 12-cylinder, Ferrari built an excellent 1500 cc V6, experimenting with two types of supercharging: turbo and volumetric. This last solution, where the compressor is driven by the crankshaft, probably liked Enzo Ferrari, because it was used a lot in his time as a driver. Its advantage consisted in eliminating the response delay that so bothered the pilots, but soon it was realized that it did not guarantee the maximum powers that could be imagined to be achieved by a more conventional turbine driven by exhaust gases. The new single-seater, called 126 (6 cylinders at 120 °) CK (Competizione Kkk, the brand of turbines) was developed entirely by Gilles Villeneuve, who dedicated himself to it with great commitment, denying the legend of being an unscrupulous test driver. The debut took place in practice in the 1980 Italian Grand Prix at the Imola circuit, even though Gilles then raced with the T5, miraculously unharmed from a frightening accident before the Tosa, a corner that is now called Villeneuve.

The triumph of Gilles in Montecarlo

The first Ferrari turbo had an extraordinary engine, which in no way envied the much more tested Renault, but suffered from the delay in chassis terms accumulated by the Maranello house, presenting itself with a tubular chassis, dramatically less rigid than the monocoque in composite materials of the opponents. It was for this reason that the victory came as a surprise on the Montecarlo circuit, where Villeneuve put to good use the extraordinary combativeness that made him the most beloved Ferrari driver in history, surprisingly repeating the next race on the slow Jarama. When the fast tracks arrived, the ones par excellence most favorable to the powerful turbos, the 126 was wrecked, despite the desperate reinforcements to the frame, conquering a last podium not by chance in the Canadian rain. The first victory in the history of the Ferrari turbo celebrated one of the most successful engines in the history of the Prancing Horse.

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Villeneuve’s death and the constructors’ title

With the arrival of the 1982 chassis designed by Harvey Postlethwaite, Ferrari put the best single-seater of the year on track, but the series of tragedies and accidents that hit the team in that year, with the death of Gilles, the very serious Pironi’s accident and Tambay’s physical problems, lacking the drivers ‘title to join the constructors’ title. In 1983 the Ferrari 126C3 won the constructors’ title again and proved to be the fastest on the flying lap, but the title escaped Arnoux and Tambay due to the Good Year tires. In 1984 it was Alboreto’s turn to assault the drivers’ title, an objective that seemed achievable until the dramatic decision to change supplier of turbines. From that moment on, the competitiveness of the Ferrari engine dropped dramatically.

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