The COAT - QF - Lotus 72 vs Brawn BGP 001

[crmalcolm]

The third quarter final sees the Lotus 72 take on the Brawn BGP 001.

In the third round, the Lotus took a 3-2 win over the Lotus 79. The Brawn took a 5-2 win over the Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid.

Lotus 72 (goodwood.com):
Seventy-five races and 20 wins does not sound that impressive in the present company. But the Lotus 72 has an ace up its sleeve. It won three Constructors’ Championships and two Drivers’ Championships in six seasons of racing and its 20 victories are spread out over five seasons, not just one. The Lotus 72 is a special racing car.

A complete innovation when it was launched, with inboard brakes, side-mounted radiators, and an overhead air intake the 72 was possibly Colin Chapman’s masterpiece. The wedge shape was a departure from the cigar-style Formula 1 cars that had preceded it, and was inspired by the pure-wedge form of the Lotus 56 IndyCar. At first it wasn’t quite right, with the anti-dive and anti-squat suspension (designed to stop the nose dipping under braking or the back squatting down under acceleration) causing issues for the drivers, but after some modification the car was unstoppable. The 72 made its debut in the middle of the 1970 season and, after retiring from his first race with it, Jochen Rindt proceeded to reel off four wins in a row. Sadly a crash at Monza robbed the world of Rindt, but he and the 72 had already been dominant enough that he won the title posthumously. In the penultimate race of the season, in a perfect memorial to Rindt, and foreshadowing what was to come, Emerson Fittipaldi took the car’s fifth victory. 1971 was a fallow year, as the car developed through the 72C to become the 72D, complete with iconic John Player Special livery. In 1972 Fittipaldi took five wins and the title, in ‘73 he took three, Ronnie Petersen another four and Lotus won the constructors' title. Petersen would take three more wins for the 72, now in 72E form in 1974, before the car struggled in ’75, while the 77 was developed for Lotus’s next F1 revolution.

No other car has had such longevity of success as the 72. It holds the record for the longest time between first and last victories for an F1 chassis, and to be competitive for five consecutive seasons (and race on for a sixth) seems mind-boggling in the world of pretty-much disposable racing cars we live in today. If you were amazed that the F2002, 500 and 158’s careers spanned across a couple of seasons, the 72 is in a completely different world.

Brawn BGP 001 (plantef1.com):
The Brawn BGP 001 can truly be classed as a one-hit wonder; this was the only car ever made under the guise of Brawn GP. The rebrand came after Honda left the sport at the end of the 2008 season, and Ross Brawn faced major issues as they tried to fit the Mercedes power unit in the back of it.

Six inches were removed from the back end of the vehicle, but because of the newly designed double diffuser, the car had more downforce than any of its rivals. Despite official complaints from other teams, Jenson Button would go on to win the World Championship, after winning six of the opening seven races of the 2009 season. He and Rubens Barrichello finished 1-2 on the car’s debut, the first time that had happened since 1954.

[chillibowl]

wanted to vote for the Brawn but had to go for the Lotus.

[S griffin]

In terms of the love story, I’d go with Brawn, but I’ll go with the Lotus 72, it was more successful and for a long time too