Ferrari made an attempt to exploit a loophole in the 1982 Formula 1 regulations and fit two rear wings to the back of their 126C2 for the United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach.
This was only the third race of the season full with tension; In Kyalami a drivers’ strike, the political ongoing scrap between FISA and the drivers FOCA but also the rivalry between Didier Pironi and Gilles Villeneuve. Williams and Brabham had also courted controversy by trying to flaunt minimum weight restrictions with a water-filled ballast tank that would deliberately leak and shed weight during the race. Ferrari, nor ruling body FISA, would buy Williams’ reasoning of ‘water-cooled brakes’.
The Scuderia then engineered their own loophole for the race at Long Beach: the rules dictated how wide wings could be, but not how many wings could be fitted to a car. So, trying to find an inch of performance within the regulations, they raced with two rear wings seeking more downforce on a street-circuit where the ground-effect were of lesser value than on a high-speed circuit(Spa, Monza). Ferrari ran in Long Beach with two separate, staggered different rear wings of an identical width to create what essentially was one double-width rear wing. The 126C was in this way able to run with a rear aerofoil that was as wide as the rear track.
Politics aside, the race saw some fantastic battles including Niki Lauda deploy a defensive masterclass to overtake Andrea de Cesaris for the lead while Gilles Villeneuve battled fiercely with Keke Rosberg over fourth place.
Despite Ferrari’s creative interpretation of the rules, they would not be rewarded for the endeavour. Didier Pironi retired early having completed just 9 laps and Villeneuve in the sister car charged to a third-place finish from seventh on the grid.
And Lauda? In only his third race after his retirement he was leading the race from lap 15 until the last lap. He was back!
After the race, Ken Tyrrell posted a protest against the double wing and hence the third place of Gilles Villeneuve. He found it having the same proportion as the ‘water bottles ballast item’ that the non-turbo teams were using. And it was considered dangerous, as there was little support for these two wings. The rules stipulated the maximum rear wing width was 110cm, but fitting two overlapping 110cm wings, one ahead of the other was not done. His protest was honoured by the scrutineering, Villeneuve was disqualified and Tyrrell driver Michele Alboreto was promoted to fourth.
Some extra :
Team ATS : Eliseo Salazar -Joachim Winkelhock
Team March in pits at Rio De Janeir
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Mario Andretti as stand-in for Reutemann with Williams FW07C
Publication: 18/03/2024Back to overview
