REVISITING
THE BEST CARS
FROM EVERY DECADE
IN F1 HISTORY
The F1 grid has featured some incredible cars over the years...
Mark Hughes looks at the greatest
1950s
ALFA ROMEO ALFETTA
The Alfetta was originally designed for the pre-war voiturette (F2) class and was very successful there from its introduction in 1937. But it came to full flower post-war as what had been the pre-war voiturette class became the new F1, thereby instantly making the Alfetta a Grand Prix car, one which powered the sport’s first two World Champion drivers to their titles in 1950 and ’51.
The man behind the creation of the car was Enzo Ferrari in his 1930s capacity as Alfa Romeo’s entrant and advisor. Alfa Romeo designer Gioacchino Colombo created a 1.5-litre supercharged straight-8 engine which was built by Alfa, but the car into which it was fitted was created at Ferrari’s workshop before Ferrari was a constructor in his own right. So, it was ironic that post-war, Enzo Ferrari’s initial barrier to success as he tried to establish his own race team was the formidable Alfetta he’d helped create!
It was powerful, beautifully balanced and reliable. Its engine became progressively more powerful as ways were found to withstand ever-more boost pressure. From an initial 195bhp, it was, by 1951, delivering in excess of 400bhp.
The balance came from the perfect weight distribution facilitated by having a rear ‘transaxle’ house for the gearbox to offset the front-mounted engine. Juan Manuel Fangio won the first of his five titles with this car in 1951 and later recounted it as his absolute favourite.
1960s
LOTUS 25
Jim Clark won almost every race he finished in this car (and its derivative, the Lotus 33) between 1962-65. It was the machine which introduced monocoque construction to F1 whereby the body shell was the chassis rather than something simply bolted to a metal frame. Not only did this make it lighter, but it increased the torsional stiffness enormously, allowing it to withstand ever-greater cornering loads. It was the brainchild of Lotus boss Colin Chapman.
It also created the space to lay the driver in a much more reclined position, significantly reducing the car’s drag, which in the era of the 1.5-litre formula (when engines produced only around 200bhp) was especially valuable.
Honourable mentions...
Ferrari 156: The dominant car of 1961 courtesy of a huge power advantage from its 1.5-litre V6 in the first year of the new formula.
Lotus 49: Married the Lotus 25’s monocoque construction to using the revolutionary new Cosworth DFV 3-litre V8 as a stressed member, increasing torsional stiffness even further.
1970s
LOTUS 79
The car which fully exploited ground effect in F1, the 79 of 1978 was an evolution of the original ground effect car, the Lotus 78 of the previous year. Just as with current cars, venturi tunnels within the sidepods of the car created a low-pressure area beneath the floor, effectively sucking it to the track.
The downforce increase over conventional non-ground effect cars was spectacular (from around 600kg to 2,000kg), and although the Lotus 79 was somewhat unreliable, when it ran cleanly it was unbeatable.
Honourable mentions...
Lotus 72: Wedge-shape derived from mounting radiators at the side rather than the front increased downforce and helped give a weight distribution, which better exploited the traction potential of the big rear tyres. Won Grands Prix from 1970-74, and championships for Jochen Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi.
Ferrari 312T: Transverse gearbox ahead of the axle line helped centralise the mass of the car and made possible a short wheelbase despite the long flat-12 engine. Mauro Forghieri’s masterpiece, it won Niki Lauda a dominant first title in 1975.
Renault RS10: Jean-Pierre Jabouille’s cantering victory in the 1979 French Grand Prix was the first for a turbocharged F1 car, ushering in a new era.
1980s
MCLAREN-HONDA MP4/4
Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won all but one race with this car in 1988. For the final year in which turbocharged engines were permitted before F1 reverted universally to naturally-aspirated motors, severe fuel and boost limits (150 litres and 2.5 bar respectively) were placed upon them.
Honda created an all-new engine specifically for this one season – and it provided the McLaren drivers with a power advantage of around 100bhp. This was invariably translated into raw downforce by use of bigger wings than the opposition.
A step-up arrangement for the gearbox allowed the engine to be lowered considerably, making possible a beautiful lowline chassis, enhancing the car’s aero efficiency and lowering its centre of gravity height.
Honourable mentions...
McLaren MP4/1: The first carbon fibre F1 car, for the same weight as an equivalent aluminium monocoque, it was twice as stiff. The ground effect-generating venturis could be made bigger for an equivalent stiffness. It debuted in 1981 and John Watson gave it its first victory in that year’s British Grand Prix. Soon all cars would be made this way.
Williams-Honda FW11: Honda’s V6 delivered enormous horsepower despite the new 1986 fuel limitation of 195 litres. Patrick Head’s FW11 chassis could be balanced around much bigger wings than the opposition.
1990s
WILLIAMS-HONDA FW14B
Electronic control systems had matured sufficiently by 1992 that Adrian Newey was able to more fully exploit the active ride technology that Williams (and Lotus) had tried in the mid-1980s.
This time the instant ride control it offered allowed an aerodynamic platform which spectacularly increased the potential downforce, with the car always in its optimum aerodynamic position. Nigel Mansell steamrollered the opposition with it to take his world title.
Honourable mentions...
Williams-Renault FW18: The secret of the 1996 car that took Damon Hill to his world title was a diffuser which used a regulation loophole to give a much bigger exit area than on rival cars, to the benefit of underfloor downforce.
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-13: The 1998 McLaren which Mika Hakkinen used to clinch the first of his two world titles was the best resolution to that year’s new narrow track/grooved tyres regulations. With a lower nose and a lower chassis giving a lower centre of gravity height, its excellent mechanical grip meant the rubber was less stressed. Its Mercedes V10 was the most powerful on the grid with over 800bhp.
2000s
FERRARI F2004
This was Ferrari’s first proper response to the single lap Qualifying/parc ferme rules which had been introduced at short notice in 2003 and had left the team with a car that was unsuitably long to get the ideal weight distribution for Qualifying. This was shorter in wheelbase but also much more aggressive in its packaging, allowing an incredibly shrink-wrapped body.
A lot of attention had been made – in combination with Bridgestone – in endowing the car with the quick rotation favoured by lead driver Michael Schumacher. The resulting car was overwhelmingly the fastest on the grid, winning 15 of the season’s 18 races.
Honourable mentions...
Ferrari F2002: Ferrari’s 2002 car was almost as dominant as its descendant of 2004, winning 15 from 19 races that season. In many ways it was the prototype of the 2004 car, with short wheelbase and tightly packaged dimensions, in contrast to the longer 2003GA machine.
Red Bull-Renault RB5: Adrian Newey’s response to the radical regulation reset of 2009 was hugely influential and set the template for F1 design for the next four years. As with his ’98 McLaren, Newey used fins at the top of the chassis to meet the regulation depth requirement but allowing the bottom to be rounded off rather than square, this giving a far better airflow for the Y250 vortex from the new front wing. Pull-rod rear suspension allowed the rockers to be laid low, giving better performance to the beam wing.
2010s
MERCEDES W05
Mercedes were prepared like no other for 2014’s new hybrid formula and the embodiment of that preparation was the amazing W05. At the heart of it was a power unit literally years ahead of the competition, featuring turbulent jet injection and a turbocharger in which the compressor and turbine were decoupled, facilitating an aerodynamics-enhancing packaging of the car. There were only three occasions in which either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg failed to win a race.
Honourable mentions...
Red Bull-Renault RB7: The car which powered Sebastian Vettel to his second world title in 2011 was on pole for all but one of the season’s 19 races and won 12 times. It was very much a further iteration of Newey’s trend-setting RB5 of two years earlier but adapted to the new single diffuser regulations. To compensate for the loss of a double diffuser, the single diffuser was boosted in its effectiveness by blowing the exhaust through it, this requiring some very trick software from engine partner Renault.
Ferrari F70H: Although the 2017 Ferrari was generally out-powered by Mercedes in Qualifying, its aerodynamic concept was probably more advanced. Key to that was a feature which was later widely copied: the sidepods were pared back behind the side impact crash structures. It allowed a good control of the front wheel wake to be combined with a much shorter wheelbase than the Mercedes, making for a car which was lighter and had a better weight distribution when ballasted to the minimum weight requirement.
2020s
RED BULL-HONDA RB19
This was the car which steamrollered all opposition aside in 2023, setting new records of consecutive victories for both the team and its lead driver Max Verstappen. It failed to win only once.
For the second year of the ground effect regulations it built upon the previous year’s RB18 and its sophisticated underbody shaping and great suspension control. But it enhanced the performance further with a deeper v-section chassis which freed up space behind the front wing, allowing the car to be balanced around the massive rear downforce it was capable of generating.
Honourable mention...
McLaren-Mercedes MCL39: The 2025 McLaren is making the battle for the Drivers’ Championship an in-team affair, such is its general superiority over the full range of circuit types. Its aerodynamic efficiency is combined with fantastic temperature management – of both the power unit, the brakes and thus also the tyres.
