Match F1 Cars To Their Engines - 1950s to 2000s Quiz

Answer: Coventry Climax 2.5l inline four

This was the car that put an end to the front-engine machines that dominated the 50s. Nimble with great weight distribution, the car, much mocked by traditionalists like Enzo Ferrari, wiped the smile off their faces by winning the World Championship in the hands of Jack Brabham and with wins by Stirling Moss and Bruce McLaren.

The Coventry Climax engine, producing 220bhp, was specially commissioned for the car as a rear-engined design, which also eventually led to new gearbox designs from the likes of Hewland.

Answer: Coventry Climax FWMV MkIII 1.5l V8

The little V8 Coventry Climax FWMV produced 195bhp, enough to propel the Lotus 25 of Jim Clark to the 1963 World Championship. The 25 was the first fully-stressed monocoque design to appear in Formula 1, an early example of the innovation that Colin Chapman brought to car design. Coventry Climax were very successful in the 1.5 litre formula, also powering Coopers, Lolas and Brabhams, works teams and privateers. Coventry Climax withdrew from Grand Prix racing ahead of the new 3 litre formula of 1966, though Lotus were forced to use the 2.0 litre version of the FWMV for most of the 1966 season as their 3 litre design (BRM P75 H16) was not ready or was too heavy and unreliable.

Answer: Maserati 3l V12

The T81 was moderately successful, winning two races in the hands of John Surtees and Pedro Rodriguez, though the 1966 version was rather heavy. It was Cooper's first monocoque design. The engine was a Maserati Tipo 9 V12, bored out to 3 litres from 2.5.

This engine had its origins in Alfieri's V12 of the 50s which replaced the very tractable 6 cylinder engine of the classic Maserati 250F. Cooper was bought out in 1965 by Maserati's UK distributor, who supplied the engines.

Answer: Weslake 3l V12

Dan Gurney's blue and white Eagle, designed by Len Terry, which some have called the most beautiful Grand Prix car ever built, first appeared in 1966. It was powered from the 1966 Italian GP onward by a bespoke V12 built by Harry Weslake. This was light and powerful, progressively so in its development, though it never achieved the 500bhp Weslake was aiming at.

There were a lot of unfortunate retirements due to various mechanical failings, but in the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix Gurney scored the only victory in Formula 1 for the Anglo American Racers team that operated the Eagle cars.

Answer: Repco 860 3.0l V8

Brabham cars had been powered by Repco V8s since the start of the 3 litre formula in 1966. Repco was short for Replacement Parts Company. In 1966 and 1967 this simple, light and compact power unit had delivered two world drivers' championships and two constructors' titles.

However, in the search for more power, and in the face of the success of the Cosworth DFV, the engine became over-complicated with a gear-driven DOHC 32 valve setup. This proved disastrously unreliable. In 1969 Brabham switched to Cosworth power, as did most works teams except for Ferrari and BRM.

Answer: Alfa Romeo T33 3.0l V8

In 1970, McLaren entered both Cosworth and Alfa powered cars. The M14A driven by McLaren, Hulme, Gethin and Gurney was Cosworth-powered, but the M7D and later the M14D had Italian drivers (de Adamich and Galli) and Italian V8 engines supplied by Alfa Romeo.

The Italians scored no points that season with Galli failing to qualify at all. The canny Hulme did best with 27 and fourth place in the championship, while the other drivers managed 8 points between them. The Italians went with the Alfa engines to March for 1971, and McLaren stuck with just Cosworths, setting them up for mid-70s success with James Hunt.

Answer: Ford-Cosworth DFV 3.0l V8

The Cosworth DFV was the most successful and by far the most used engine in Formula 1 during the 1970s, powering cars to six world constructors' titles for Lotus, Tyrrell and McLaren during the decade, to Ferrari's four. Seven of the World Drivers Champions had Cosworth engines behind them during the 70s. The engine had been developed as part of Ford's drive to dominate Formula 1 as they had done at Le Mans with the GT40, and it was originally fitted as an integral stressed member of the Lotus 49 (i.e. not supported by a chassis, the rear suspension hung directly off the engine).

Its power, lightness, compactness, and revolutionary design were made available to other constructors from 1968. Although other engines were used, the 1970s were essentially the Cosworth DFV and Ferrari show.

The engine continued to grow in power as it was developed.

Answer: Hart 415T 1.5l 4 cyl. turbo

The late 70s had seen the arrival of the turbo era, and Brian Hart's engine is an interesting example of a small independent engineering company attempting to compete with the big well-resourced engine builders such as Renault and Ferrari. He had been associated with Toleman and when they entered a team for the 1981 season, he built them a four-cylinder turbo engine, the 415T.

The season turned out to be an uncompetitive disaster for Toleman-Hart, but his experience that year led him to supply other teams more successfully in the following years.

Answer: Renault EF15B 1.5l V6 turbo

Ayrton Senna drove the 98T, the last Lotus to appear in the black and gold of John Player Team Lotus, to two victories in the 1986 season. The Renault turbo engine developed up to 1200 bhp for qualifying, 800-900 bhp for race trim. Lotus switched to Camel sponsorship and Honda engines for 1987.

Answer: Honda RA167E 1.5l V6 turbo

By mid-1985 all teams were running turbo engines. The mid-80s saw a tussle between Williams and McLaren for dominance, and in '86 and '87 it was Williams on top in the constructors' championship. The top drivers were Mansell, Piquet, Prost and Senna. In the 1987 season the consistency of Piquet won out, delivering his 3rd world drivers' championship.

The Honda engine delivered 800-100bhp during the race and 1200bhp in qualifying.

Answer: Judd 3.5l V8

John Judd had started his engineering firm in the 70s with Jack Brabham. He produced a V8 engine in 1988 for the new normally-aspirated formula which would see the departure of the turbos in 1989. The 3.5 litre EV was supplied to March and Brabham who had modest success with it.

The V8s in the new formula could not compete with the V10s and V12s and later Judd produced a powerful V10. However it was not accompanied by much success and Judd pulled out of Formula 1 in 1992 to focus on F3000. Yamaha took over the Judd V10 and developed it into the OX10.

Answer: Lamborghini 3512 3.5l V12

Various teams used Forghieri's V12 design for Lamborghini, the 3512. Larousse was the first, followed by Ligier, Minardi and Lotus. The drivers didn't like the engine much as its power characteristics were difficult and it was unreliable. The engine was nearly adopted by McLaren, with Senna and Häkkinen suggesting improvements to the engine tuning. Both drivers were impressed with the result in testing, but in the end McLaren went with Peugeot engines and Lamborghini retired from F1 in 1993.

Answer: Peugeot A12 3.0l V10

Jordan had adopted Peugeot engines in 1995, when McLaren switched to Mercedes. Despite the striking Benson & Hedges liveries, Jordan had disappointing seasons in '95 and '96. Rubens Barrichello and Martin Brundle, fairly reliable drivers, if not in the very top rank, failed to win a race or even a podium in 1996. Peugeot went on to power Prost cars but after seven years with no race wins, they left Formula 1 after the 2000 season.

Answer: Mercedes FO110H 3.0l V10

McLaren began their partnership with Mercedes in 1995, and in the closing years of the decade, after the strong showing of Williams-Renault in in the early to mid-90s, they became the strongest performing team, winning world drivers' and constructors' titles.

As with Williams, their dominance was challenged by the brilliance of Michael Schumacher, who had defeated Williams in 1995, and once he and Ferrari had sorted their partnership was essentially untouchable from 2001-2004. In 2000, McLaren did well but Schumacher (with Barrichello's support) beat them to both the world drivers' and constructors' titles. Mercedes continued to supply McLaren with engines until 2014, with McLaren then reuniting with Honda for the 2015 season.

Answer: Ferrari 056 2.4l V8

Red Bull entered Formula 1 in 2005 and had run Cosworth engines that year. The team used Renault engines from 2007 to 2018, which included the Vettel era. But in 2006 they ran with a Ferrari V8, the 056, which was rather more successful for Ferrari themselves. Michael Schumacher scored eight victories and Felipe Massa one.

The best result for Red Bull was a third place. This screamer ran up to 19,000 rpm and developed 785 bhp.