6 F1 engine manufacturers who fell from grace

#2 Ford-Cosworth DFV

Originally developed for Colin Chapman’s Team Lotus and sponsored by Ford, the Cosworth DFV effectively replaced the Coventry Climax as the standard F1 powerplant for the privateer outfits as soon as Copp and Hayes convinced Chapman to sell the highly versatile engines breaking the monopoly for the sake of fair competition. The three-litre normally aspirated engine’s debut at the 1967 Dutch GP was an instant success as Graham Hill put the Lotus 49 on pole while his team-mate Jim Clark came through the field to win once the former retired.

In 1969 and 1973 every World Championship race was won by DFV-powered cars, with the engine taking a total of 155 wins from 262 races between 1967 and 1985. Apart from Ferrari’s Jody Scheckter taking the championship in 1979, the DFV would claim every championship between 1978 & 1982. The arrival of ground effect aerodynamics in the late 70s gave new lease of life for the decade-old yet highly adaptable engine as Ferrari and Alfa-Romeo were closing performance gap with twelve cylinder power units that possess low centre of gravity.

The V-configuration of the Cosworth engine was angled in such a way that it could provide ample space under the car for under-body profiles to creat massive downforce and gave more efficient aero balance, thus increasing cornering potential and straight line speed altogether. World champions like Mario Andretti in 1978, Alan Jones in 1980, Nelson Piquet in 1981 and Keke Rosberg in 1982 used a combination of British ground effect chassis and a DFV engine to be eventually successful.

Their very existence was threatened with the advent of turbocharged power units in the 80s. However, extra power and torque of turbo engines put much more strain on the gearbox, driveshafts and brakes on the Renaults and Ferraris and also the performance was hampered by "throttle lag" initially. As engineers learned to hone such amounts of power, the problems were sorted out leaving no room in the garages for naturally aspirated powerplants like DFV V8s. Michele Alboreto took the DFV's last F1 win in a Tyrrell at the Detroit Grand Prix in 1983 while Martin Brundle became the last person to race with such an iconic engine also at the Austrian Grand Prix in 1985 also driving a Tyrrell.