Legendary engine builders Cosworth will return to Formula One racing next season after a three-year absence, having agreed three-year supply deals with 2010 newcomers Campos Grand Prix, Manor Grand Prix and Team US F1. Their last appearance was with Williams and Toro Rosso at the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, which marked the end of a 38-year run of F1 involvement.
Originally the brainchild of British engineers Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, Cosworth was set-up in a small London workshop in 1958. The pair, convinced their future paths lay in designing engines for racing cars, began working on the development of a Ford 105E unit almost immediately. Success followed and in 1960, Jim Clark drove to victory in a Cosworth-powered Lotus 18 in a Formula Junior race held at Goodwood.
The win would be the first of many for the engine builders and as their reputation grew, the company expanded and relocated to Northampton in the mid-sixties. In 1966, Duckworth signed a contract with Ford to develop a new three-litre Formula One engine. The agreement spawned the legendary DFV (Double Four Valve) engine and marked the beginning of a relationship which would last for almost four decades.
Duckworth’s DFV was a quantum leap forward in terms of engine design and remains the most successful in the history of Formula One racing. The first unit was delivered to Lotus in time for the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix and fittingly it was Jim Clark who drove it to a historic victory on its maiden outing.
The same engine, in different guises, would go on to win a total of 155 Grands Prix over the next 15 years. Emerson Fittipaldi, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt and Nelson Piquet were just some of the names who took titles in the 1970s driving Cosworth-powered cars. Success wasn’t solely reserved for Formula One racing. In the seventies, the DFX version dominated the Indy/Cart series in the US, clinching a total of 10 championships and 151 wins during a 14-year reign.
Cosworth had supplanted the DFV with a new engine, the HB, by the late 1980s. This new design won 11 races between 1989 and 1993, before being replaced by the Zetec V8 F1, which powered Michael Schumacher to his first title for Benetton in 1994. When Benetton switched to Renault power the following year, Cosworth began supplying the Ford-supported Sauber team.
Another switch in 1996 saw Cosworth designing a new V10 engine for the Stewart Grand Prix team, run by three-time world champion Jackie Stewart. A three-year partnership followed, with steady progress resulting in Johnny Herbert’s victory in the 1999 European Grand Prix. In 2000, Ford bought Stewart, and Cosworth - by then already owned by the car manufacturer - continued to supply engines to the rechristened Jaguar team, alongside several other customer teams.
Ford departed Formula One racing at the end of 2004 and Cosworth once more came under new ownership. In 2005, both Red Bull and Minardi were powered by the company’s V10 engines, whilst in 2006 Cosworth supplied Williams with a newly-designed V8 and provided Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso with the older, rev-limited V10. The V8 proved an immediate hit, with Nico Rosberg scoring a fastest lap in Bahrain, and the engine received much praise - particularly for its ability to regularly rev to the magical 20,000 rpm mark.
However, it wasn’t enough to stop an inevitable Williams-Toyota deal for 2007. Toro Rosso also called time on their Cosworth contract and when the then Spyker team sealed a Ferrari deal it effectively ended Cosworth’s run of almost four decades in F1 racing. However, it didn’t stop the company retaining close ties with the FIA, whose ongoing efforts to bring down costs have included offering new teams a sensibly -priced, fixed-cost engine option. A new chapter in Cosworth’s F1 history has begun.
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