Ferrari 156 F F1 race Car

Builder	Ferrari
Class	Race Car
Type	Formula 1
Designed by	Carlo Chiti (project director) Franco Rocchi (engine) Angelo Bellei (engine) (transmission) Valerio ColottiWalter Salvarani (chassis) (engine) Mauro Forghieri
Chassis	Trillis made of steel tubes steel tubes
Motor	6 V-shaped cylinders 120° from 1476 cm³
Transmission	5 or 6-speed gearbox + RM, rear-wheel drive
Length	4030 mm
Length	1400mm
Height	1000 mm
Step	2320 mm
Weight	420 kg
Fuel	Shell
Tyres	Dunlop

The Ferrari 156 was a Formula 1 car that built the Scuderia Ferrari from 1961 to 1964 and began. This was and is one of the most legendary formula vehicles in motorsport history, the racing car with the "shark's mouth".

History

The Ferrari 156 F1 was the single-seater with which Scuderia Ferrari competed in Formula 1 in 1961 and in 1962. Despite two prototypes from 1960 (246 P and 156 F2), the 156 F1 is commonly referred to as the first rear-engine Ferrari. The superiority of the car resulted from the power of its 1.5-liter V6 engine, which more than compensated for the weaknesses of the chassis. The 156 was the first Ferrari with a mid-engine . The concept for the car came from Carlo Chiti , the engine was built to a design by Mauro Forghieri , who was responsible for the Ferrari racing engines in the next 25 years. The engine was light and made at 1476 cc 190 hp. The unit was built extremely deep in the chassis, which positively influenced the centre of gravity of the entire car. Chiti followed in his approach to the lines of the Ferrari 246P , but the 156 was shorter and the chassis was based on four large tube carriers.

 Designed by Carlo Chiti with the collaboration of the newly hired Mauro Forghieri it was equipped with both a Dino V6 and a 120° V-6 cylinder. With Phil Hill he won the drivers' and constructors' championship in 1961.In the two-year period 1958-1959, there was an epochal change in Formula 1: the rear engine formula became established introduced by the "assemblers" English, in particular from Cooper. In reality this choice was not really new, because it had already been seen before in previous decades, and Cooper itself had been using that formula, in minor races, since the early 1950s. In the gap between the less powerful English engines and the more powerful ones was bridged Ferrari, Maserati, Vanwall and Mercedes, who used the latest technological advances to seek performance rather than lightness.

Despite the scepticism of Enzo Ferrari, the engineer Chiti convinced of the goodness of the new formula, managed to convince him (also thanks to the intercession of Vittorio Jano) and obtained the green light to start designing a new single-seater. A little-known story also took place in this context. In fact, Ferrari thought that Chiti could work better and faster if he had a Cooper chassis to study, and therefore turned to his friend Guglielmo Dei, owner of the Scuderia Centro Sud Scuderia Centro Sud , so that he would secretly lend him one of the Cooper chassis that he used to race in Formula 1. Dei agreed and one evening in 1959 he delivered the chassis to a Ferrari dealer in Modena who would then transfer him to Maranello. Perhaps also thanks to this operation, the first rear-engine Ferrari was born, the 246 P which took part in the Grand Prix of Munich 1960.

For the project of the new single-seater, Ferrari started from the proven Dino V6 engine of the Dino 156 F2. This engine, designed by Dino Ferrari in collaboration with Vittorio Jano, featured the particularity of the 65° angle between the banks; this angle allowed the creation of straight intake ducts, thus improving fuel supply. Ferrari technicians adapted the Dino V6 to the ; use in F1 by slightly modifying the displacement (from 1489.35 to 1476.6 cm³), by increasing the bore (from 70 to 73 mm) and decreasing the stroke (from 64.5 to 58 .8 mm), the same measurements as the 1953 Colombo 12-cylinder. This modification, together with the adoption of a new cylinder head, thus made it possible to obtain 5 more HP and to slightly increase the maximum rotation speed. took part in the Solitude GP, which he won, at Wolfgang von Trips All that remained was to place the engine behind the driver, but already in 1960, after the 246 P, a new rear-engine prototype had been prepared, the 156 F2, to study the behaviour of future Formula 1. With this car , where he finished 5th overall (1st among the F2), and at the Modena GP (3rd overall).

In addition to perfecting the Dino V6, Chiti also designed a new 120° V6, with the aim of lowering the car's centre of gravity and obtaining more space for the carburettors. Initially this engine was plagued by barbotage problems (the oil remained largely in the crankcase, impoverishing lubrication), which were resolved by using a greater number of recovery pumps. This new V6 was also lighter and more powerful (190 HP at 9,500 rpm). The new hire Mauro Forghieri also participated in the development of this engine.

The chassis was borrowed from that of the 246 P and the 156 F2, with a tubular trellis structure. The gearbox was placed slightly downstream of the rear wheel hub and 4-disc brakes Dunlop were adopted. The fuel tanks were placed laterally and the radiator, located in the nose, was ventilated by two large ovoid intakes, a stylistic peculiarity of the 156 F1, which earned it the name shark nose (shark nose).

The 156 F1 was also used for the 1962 season, but Ferrari, orphaned of Chiti, Bizzarrini and a good part of the technicians and sporting directors of the previous year, failed to give adequate technical development to the car. Thus, the creation of the new engine designed in collaboration with Gilera and already in the execution phase was also abandoned: an eight-cylinder in-line, air-cooled and positioned transversely, with a declared power of 215 HP at 11,000 rpm.

The 156 F1 thus remained practically unchanged; 6th gear was added to the gearbox and only during the year were radical changes made to the car, in anticipation of the 1963 version: starting from German GP the characteristic front air intakes were in fact eliminated in Favor of a single ovoid opening; the driving seat, chassis and suspension were also modified.

Race career

The 156 F1 did not disappoint the team's expectations of revenge, having returned from unconvincing years, winning the Maranello team's fifth drivers' title and its first constructors' title.

The opening race of the 1961 season took place in Monaco and the 156 F1 immediately shined, taking 2nd ( Ginther), 3rd (Hill) and 4th ( von Trips) place, behind the winner Stirling Moss on Lotus 18. In Holland the first victory came thanks to von Trips, followed in second place by Phil Hill, who instead won the next Belgian GP, in which the Ferraris finished in the first four places (2nd von Trips, 3rd Ginther, 4th Gendebien).

The French GP saw the lucky debut of Giancarlo Baghetti. Thanks also to the retirements of Ginther and von Trips, who were driving the 156 with a 120° engine and who had been the fastest for all the tests, Baghetti started a duel with the more competitive Porsche by Gurney, managing to prevail despite a radiator problem to date, this is the only time in which a driver won his debut race in Formula 1. In Great Britain Ferrari scored another success by achieving a hat-trick (1st von Trips, Hill 2nd, Ginther 3rd), while in Germany Hill and von Trips took 2nd and 3rd place respectively. At the Italian GP, the penultimate race of the season, Hill and von Trips showed up with equal chances of winning the title ; However, the confrontation between the two did not last long due to the tragic death of von Trips: at the end of the second lap Jim Clark and von Trips showed up paired at the 39;entrance to the parabolic dish. The English driver, attempting to brake at the limit, skidded and hit von Trips' car which, after a spin, went off the track and flew into the protective fences behind which numerous spectators were crowded. In addition to the pilot, 14 people lost their lives. Ferrari did not participate in the last grand prix due to mourning, also because, after winning the Monza race, Hill was mathematically champion Monza was the first fatal Formula 1 accident to be broadcast on television.

After a top-notch 1961, 1962 was a disappointing year for Ferrari. In fact, while the Maranello team had fielded the same car as the year before, their opponents had developed new single-seaters, more competitive than the 156 F1.After a decent start to the season, where the Ferraris achieved a second place with Hill in Monaco, and three third places, the Scuderia of Maranello saw the possibility of fighting for the world championship disappear both due to the lack of competitiveness of the car and because some trade union unrest made the development work problematic and Ferrari was forced to abandon the GPs in France limited himself to fielding just one car. Great Britain, while in South Africa and USA,

In 1963, the 156 was just an interim solution. Forghieri, who had also taken over the work on the chassis, developed a lighter tubular frame and a new rear suspension. It was a construction of upper and lower wishbones with double tie rods. A new fuel injection boosted the engine's power to 200 hp. Towards the end of the year, the car was completely rebuilt. Now the engine was installed as a supporting element in a semi-monocoque, which was actually built for the new V8 engine. This monocoque was also used in 1964 for the Ferrari 158 . The car was called 156 Aero and was still partially used in 1964.

The winning car was the 156 but not more; In 1963 Ferrari was completely inferior to the Lotus 25 with Jim Clark . Only with the successor, the 158, the tide turned again and the Scuderia 1964 could win both world championships.

The 156 was piloted by top riders of its time. Besides Baghetti, Hill and von Trips drove Lorenzo Bandini , Olivier Gendebien , Richie Ginther , Innes Ireland  in 1962 a 156 awarded for a race) , Willy Mairesse , Pedro Rodríguez , Ricardo Rodríguez , Ludovico Scarfiotti and John Surtees .