GP Racing - UK (2020-04)

results continued to slide; 1977 was itsfi rst win-lessseason

in a decade, sponsors began to desert, and Ken Tyrrell had to

subsidise the team from his own pocket.

Lack of funds meant Phillippe hadto fa ll back on cloning

rivals’ more successful designs – the Lotus 79 for the Tyrrell

009 in 1979, and the Williams FW07 (itself influenced by

the 79, but b etter sor ted th anks to grea ter un derstanding o f

ground-effect) for the 010 in 1980. Here Phillippe ran into the

same problems Lotusencountered when it tried to follow up

the 79. Ground effect relied on inverted wing shapeswithin

fully enclosed sidepods, sealed to the ground by sliding skirts,

to create downforce – but these structures added weight to the

car and put huge additional loads onthe chassis. Engineers

were naturally reticent to beef up the core structure of the car

because this would incur an even greater weight penalty.

The 010 showed potential, but the chassis’ lack of rigidity

manifested itself in unpredictable handling and poor

reliability. Jean-Pierre Jarier, Derek Daly and Eddie Cheever

notched up eight pointsfi nishes between them in its 22-race

service life, but there were plenty more retirements and

GP RACING APRIL 2020 83

failures to qualify. Now operating on a shoestring again aftera

brief injection of Candy sponsorship for 1980, Phillippetook a

belt-and-braces approach for the 011, set against a background

of almost continuous rulechanges as the FIA unsuccesssfully

tried to legislate ground-eff ect aero out of existence.

If the 011 appears bulky in comparison with some of its

rivals of the era, that’s because Phillippe set out to draw the

entire structure of the aluminium honeycomb chassis with no

more than one fold on each side. That gave it a rather bluff

frontal aspect, but to mitigate this and the potential weight

gain Phillippe minimised thepresence ofcosme tic bodywork.

The entire side ofthe car between the cockpit and the sidepods

is the central ‘tub’. To minimise disruption of the airflow into

Pic to come

smooth out sky refl ecti ons,

please

results continued to slide; 1977 was itsfi rst win-lessseason
in a decade, sponsors began to desert, and Ken Tyrrell had to
subsidise the team from his own pocket.
Lack of funds meant Phillippe hadto fa ll back on cloning
rivals’ more successful designs – the Lotus 79 for the Tyrrell
009 in 1979, and the Williams FW07 (itself influenced by
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