There has long been an exchange of drivers back and forth across the pond between Formula 1 and the Indy racing series. As we know, for a while in the 50's the Indy 500 was classified as a part of the Formula 1 world championship which has given stat compilers a headache ever since.
In terms of car building however, by the mid 80's if you wanted to start yourself an Indy car team you had only two real options, a Lola or a March chassis equipped with a Cosworth built varient of the DFV or a Buick engine. It was into this arena that two of F1's biggest teams threw their hats but for various reasons the projects were pulled leaving a couple of curious "what ifs" in their wake.
The Lotus 96T
Gerard Ducarouge designed the Lotus 96T based on the chassis of the current 1984 Lotus 95T. Lotus had been approached by Ron Winkelmann who had managed Jochen Rindt's formula 2 campaign in the 60s before relocating to America. Winkelmann was convinced that a works team entering the Indy Car series would have a great chance of taking the title. There are numerous reasons that have been put forward in the following years as to why the plug was pulled on the project including the percieved fear of the Indy establishment to the arrival of a full works team (especially as Lotus still had a reputation as being the British team with the little car that took the title away from the Americans for the first time, in the 60's). Other reasons have included the series organisors worry over the safety of the all Carbon / Kevlar chassis. In the end though, the main reason why the project stalled is that Ron Winkelmann simply could not raise enough money from US backers to support a foreign team and there was little interest from British companies in supporting an Indy Car effort. So through lack of funding the project didn't get off the ground. The legacy that the car left behind for Lotus however was the use of an aluminium foil honeycomb between the Carbon / Kevlar layers to give added strength to the chassis in place of the Nomex paper foil. The aluminium foil was as light as the Nomex paper foil but added a large increase in the stiffness and strength of the chassis and would be a feature on nearly all subsequent Lotus cars.
Ferrari 637
A couple of years after Lotus, in one of the last of Enzo Ferrari's decisions before he passed away, Ferrari constructed a fully developed Indy Car typed the 637. Bobby Rahal who had been using a March chassis approached Ferrari with a view to running a team with Ferrari built cars. Rahal's March chassis was shipped over to Italy for testing by Rahal and Michele Alboreto and Ferrari subsequently dismantled the car to find out exactly how the design worked. From this session, Gustav Brunner then designed the Ferrari 637 which Alboreto again tested at the Fiorano test track. There are no clear reasons as to why this project stalled but the most widely held one is that John Barnard on arriving at his new job as technical director made the decision to cancel the project so that the team would not divert resources between two racing series. It is also believed that Enzo Ferrari used the project to threaten that the team would quit F1 at a time when the Scudaria were suffering from a lack of funds. In the end, Ferrari extracted a promise from FISA, not to ban V12 engines (at the time of the transition from turbo's to normally aspirated cars, it was understood that the V8 engine would be set as standard) and presumably some additional funding for the team in return for Ferrari remaining in F1. The car itself was handed over to Alfa Romeo who at the time were considering their own Indy project. While the car was never used competitively, Alfa did use it to run their own engine that subsequently ran in the Indy series in the back of the March chassis.
Both of these projects were perhaps the last serious attempts by F1 manufacturers to run duel projects in different series and I wonder how they would have done had they actually ran? Its a shame that in today's F1 there is even less chance of cross motorsport involvement by F1 teams.
In terms of car building however, by the mid 80's if you wanted to start yourself an Indy car team you had only two real options, a Lola or a March chassis equipped with a Cosworth built varient of the DFV or a Buick engine. It was into this arena that two of F1's biggest teams threw their hats but for various reasons the projects were pulled leaving a couple of curious "what ifs" in their wake.
The Lotus 96T
Gerard Ducarouge designed the Lotus 96T based on the chassis of the current 1984 Lotus 95T. Lotus had been approached by Ron Winkelmann who had managed Jochen Rindt's formula 2 campaign in the 60s before relocating to America. Winkelmann was convinced that a works team entering the Indy Car series would have a great chance of taking the title. There are numerous reasons that have been put forward in the following years as to why the plug was pulled on the project including the percieved fear of the Indy establishment to the arrival of a full works team (especially as Lotus still had a reputation as being the British team with the little car that took the title away from the Americans for the first time, in the 60's). Other reasons have included the series organisors worry over the safety of the all Carbon / Kevlar chassis. In the end though, the main reason why the project stalled is that Ron Winkelmann simply could not raise enough money from US backers to support a foreign team and there was little interest from British companies in supporting an Indy Car effort. So through lack of funding the project didn't get off the ground. The legacy that the car left behind for Lotus however was the use of an aluminium foil honeycomb between the Carbon / Kevlar layers to give added strength to the chassis in place of the Nomex paper foil. The aluminium foil was as light as the Nomex paper foil but added a large increase in the stiffness and strength of the chassis and would be a feature on nearly all subsequent Lotus cars.
Ferrari 637
A couple of years after Lotus, in one of the last of Enzo Ferrari's decisions before he passed away, Ferrari constructed a fully developed Indy Car typed the 637. Bobby Rahal who had been using a March chassis approached Ferrari with a view to running a team with Ferrari built cars. Rahal's March chassis was shipped over to Italy for testing by Rahal and Michele Alboreto and Ferrari subsequently dismantled the car to find out exactly how the design worked. From this session, Gustav Brunner then designed the Ferrari 637 which Alboreto again tested at the Fiorano test track. There are no clear reasons as to why this project stalled but the most widely held one is that John Barnard on arriving at his new job as technical director made the decision to cancel the project so that the team would not divert resources between two racing series. It is also believed that Enzo Ferrari used the project to threaten that the team would quit F1 at a time when the Scudaria were suffering from a lack of funds. In the end, Ferrari extracted a promise from FISA, not to ban V12 engines (at the time of the transition from turbo's to normally aspirated cars, it was understood that the V8 engine would be set as standard) and presumably some additional funding for the team in return for Ferrari remaining in F1. The car itself was handed over to Alfa Romeo who at the time were considering their own Indy project. While the car was never used competitively, Alfa did use it to run their own engine that subsequently ran in the Indy series in the back of the March chassis.
Both of these projects were perhaps the last serious attempts by F1 manufacturers to run duel projects in different series and I wonder how they would have done had they actually ran? Its a shame that in today's F1 there is even less chance of cross motorsport involvement by F1 teams.
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