page_title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One
section_title: Naturally aspirated engines (1960s and 1970s)
hierarchical_section_title: Alfa Romeo in Formula One / Engine supplier / Naturally aspirated engines (1960s and 1970s)
caption_attribution_description: Alfa Special F1
context_page_description: Italian motor manufacturer Alfa Romeo has participated many times in Formula One. It currently participates as Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen while being operated by Sauber Motorsport AG. The brand has competed in motor racing as both a constructor and engine supplier sporadically between 1950 and 1987, and later as a commercial partner since 2015. The company's works drivers won the first two World Drivers' Championships in the pre-war Alfetta: Nino Farina in 1950; and Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951. Following these successes Alfa Romeo withdrew from Formula One.
  During the 1960s, although the company had no official presence in the top tier of motorsport a number of Formula One teams used independently developed Alfa Romeo engines to power their cars. In the early 1970s, Alfa provided Formula One support for their works driver Andrea de Adamich, supplying adapted versions of their 3-litre V8 engine from the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3 sports car to power Adamich's McLaren and March entries. None of these engine combinations scored championship points.
context_section_description: During the 1960s, several minor F1 teams used Alfa Romeo straight-4 engines in cars such as the LDS Mk1 and Mk2 "Specials", Coopers and De Tomasos.
  In 1962, Peter de Klerk created a custom-made, single seater racing special built for the South African Formula One Championship. De Klerk's car was powered by an Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.5-litre straight-4 engines that was also used by LDS, but unlike the LDS cars, de Klerk's own car was christened as the Alfa Romeo "Special". The Special participated in two Grands Prix, retiring at the 1963 South African Grand Prix and finishing 10th at the 1965 South African Grand Prix. It also entered five non-championship Grands Prix, scoring a podium finish at the 1963 Rand Grand Prix.
  In the end of 1960s, Alfa Romeo was developing a new V8 engine for its racing cars, this engine was tested briefly in Cooper T86C F1-3-68 by Lucien Bianchi. Alfa Romeo briefly returned to Formula One for the 1970 and 1971 seasons with a V8 engine based on their sportscar unit. In 1970 the unit was mainly entrusted to Andrea de Adamich, a long time Alfa driver, in a third works McLaren. The combination often failed to qualify and was uncompetitive when it did run in the races. In 1971 a similar arrangement saw de Adamich run most of the second half of the season in a works March car, with a similar lack of success.
  For 1976 Bernie Ecclestone did a deal for the Brabham Formula One team to use Alfa Romeo engines based on their new flat-12 sports car unit, designed by Carlo Chiti. The engines were free and produced a claimed 510 bhp (380 kW) against the 465 bhp (347 kW) of the ubiquitous Cosworth DFV; although the 12-cylinder Alfa engine was heavier and used more oil and water than the 8-cylinder DFV, because of more mechanical processes going on in it. Packaging the engines was difficult – they had to be removed in order to change the spark plugs – and the high fuel consumption engine required no fewer than four separate fuel tanks to contain 47 imperial gallons (214 L; 56 US gal) of fuel. Gordon Murray's increasingly adventurous designs, like the BT46 which won two races in 1978, were partly a response to the challenge of producing a suitably light and aerodynamic chassis around the bulky unit. When aerodynamic ground effect became important in 1978, it was clear that the low, wide engines would interfere with the large venturi tunnels under the car which were needed to create the ground effect. At Murray's instigation Alfa produced a narrower V12 design in only three months for the 1979 season, but it continued to be unreliable and fuel inefficient.
caption: Peter de Klerk's Alfa Romeo Special.
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