McKenzie Formula A Team

**McKenzie Formula Team** is a British Racing Team that currently competes for the Formula A Championship. Historically, the team has been very successful, with a long history spamming across various open-wheel series, managing 4 constructors' championships in IFS. Founded by Timothy McKenzie, the team now sits in the midfield.

## **History**

### Foundation

McKenzie was founded by Timothy McKenzie, a GPWC driver who achieved much success racing with various English teams. He founded the McKenzie team in 1965, wishing to race in various sports car series. A renowned engineer as well as incredibly quick driver, McKenzie also stated that he enjoyed the autonomy of being able to control all the decisions of his team, and engineering cars to his liking. His first cars would be entries into the NARRC, achieving middling success in the Kreuzer and Barzetti-dominated field. Despite this, he would still achieve multiple wins whenever either manufacturer ran into issues, solidifying a healthy 3rd in the series in their first season. McKenzie would also enter various regional formulae series, achieving decent success with their excellent chassis design, although they would hop from engine to engine, never being able to solidify relationships with any one engine make. McKenzie would first enter the GPWC in 1968, with McKenzie becoming an owner-driver and fellow Englishman Nicholas Thomspon joining the team. They would come out the gate with decent performance, ranging from competing to winning to fighting at the top of the midfield. Their inconsistency would hurt them in the long run, causing the team to finish 5th in the constructors’, but with a solid debut season. The team would take two more years to score their first win, wherein 1970 McKenzie would score a win on home soil in front of an ecstatic British crowd.

### Continued GPWC Success

After 1970, McKenzie would step down from driving and sign Irishman Patrick Moore to drive alongside Thompson. The two of them would prove to be an excellent duo, finishing 3rd in the constructors’ in 1971. McKenzie would continue to fight for championship-winning positions, producing competitive car after competitive car multiple years in a row. During this time, they would also dominate on home soil, with the British Grand Prix becoming a historic ground for McKenzie as they won it 5 times in a row from 1970 to 1976. In 1972, they would produce their most competitive season yet, finishing 2nd to Silver Leaf in an incredibly close fight, coming down to the wire in the final round in Japan. In a wet weather race, Silver Leaf’s star new driver Gabriel Chages. 1972 would also be when disaster struck. Patrick Moore would lose his life in a harrowing accident at the Nürburgring in 1972, where he was struck by a car that was blind-sighted by pouring rain. The accident led to the GPWC’s disappearance in the Eifel mountains, never to return. Claire Garreau would join the team, becoming one of the few female drivers to ever race in the GPWC. She would prove to achieve much success as well, finishing out the 1972 season by giving the team some much-needed points. Nicholas Thompson would once again finish runner-up in the championship to Gabriel Chages. 1973 would be the season they finally achieved success, with Thomspon winning the championship and McKenzie claiming the constructors’ in a dominant season. They would trail off as the 70s would continue, with 1973 being their only title-winning season. Silver Leaf would continue to dominate as they would continually change the landscape of aerodynamics. Nicholas Thompson would retire in 1976, with Claire Garreau continuing to race until 1979. The second driver spot would become a revolving door of drivers. McKenzie would slowly falter and fall to the middle of the grid, collapsing under the weight of teams such as Barzetti entering, with massive pockets and talented drivers. Along with their main technical partner, Kruse, backing out of the series, they would slowly fall to the midfield once again, staying there until the 80s.

### Entry into IFS

With the demise of the GPWC and the foundation of the IFS, McKenzie would join for the inaugural season in 1983. They would prove to be decent, running at the top end of the field for the first few seasons. Silver Leaf would dominate the opening seasons with George Weston, mastering the art of ground effect. McKenzie would fight closely for the title in 1985 and 1986, headed by French driver Francois Martin. In 1985, in a three-way title duel between Barzetti, Silver Leaf, and McKenzie, McKenzie would narrowly be bested by George Watson once again. Francois Martin would finally come out on top in 1986, giving McKenzie their first of what would eventually become 4 IFS titles. Until the end of the 80s, McKenzie would continue to post good results, contending for titles throughout the end of the decade.
Remarkably, McKenzie went through 3 different engine manufacturers throughout this period. During the end of the GPWC, they started by using Louvet engines. During the first seasons of IFS, they switched to using Kreuzer engines, similar to what they were using in Group C at the time (which had similar engine regulations to IFS.) After achieving much success with Kreuzer, they left, allocating more resources toward their continued GSC success. At the end of the decade, they switched to using Kruze engines, where they would form a longstanding technical alliance until the middle of the 1990s. Despite this, their consistency would be noteworthy, as they finished no lower than 4th in the standings throughout the entirety of the 1980s.

### IFS - 90s

Heading into the 90s, they would capitalize on new regulations that shrunk the cars and reduced the power output. With teams like Barzetti faltering as they struggled to produce reliable cars, McKenzie would see the front of the grid once more, but they would achieve no championships as they wouldn’t be able to stop SAMB, who produced the best cars on the grid multiple years in a row. Headed by Risto Pulkkinen, the team would win multiple races in 1990 and 1991, and Pulkkinen would finish on the podium for both seasons. Paired with second driver Matteo Russo, for 1992 they would once again have an incredible season. Despite this, Patrick Williams would enter an incredible title fight with McKenzie in the Weston car. Even though the Weston was lacking in grip and power, Williams hustled the car as much as he could, achieving 3 wins in a row to enter the final race tied on points with Pulkkinen. In an incredibly wet race in Brazil, Pulkkinen would crash out late to give Williams the championship in one of the most thrilling title fights in IFS history. 1993 would prove to be a different season, however, with McKenzie producing an incredible car that would bring Pulkkinen his first and only championship, as well as McKenzie’s 2nd IFS title. In a shock move, Matteo Russo would leave for up-and-coming team EuroTechnica, who achieved a shock title in 1994 after one of the most chaotic seasons in IFS history, with multiple teams struggling with reliability and many crashes plaguing high-level drivers after the move to ban electronic assists. After 1995, which proved to be a decent season for McKenzie, they would switch to using Louvet engines in a bid to become a factory effort for the first time in their history. The deal would be short-lived and unsuccessful, with reliability issues and being underpowered would plague McKenzie until the end of the decade. They would go from title-contending to contending for 5th in the constructors', producing competitive cars but being strangled by their engine performance. The deal would fall apart after 1999 when they would join forces with Tachibana to produce successful engines.

### IFS - 2000s

The start of the 2000s would prove unremarkable against a flood of Barzetti dominance. McKenzie would consistently fluctuate from being 2nd to 4th in the championship, battling against the likes of SAMB, Equipe Girault and Weston-Braun. Although the team would achieve multiple wins and even achieve 2nd in the drivers’ championship in 2001, it wouldn’t be enough to stop the titans of Barzetti. In 2003, McKenzie would try multiple radical aerodynamic concepts, none of which would end up coming to fruition. The car, the MC03, would go down in infamy as one of the most experimental concepts of all time, changing the width of the nose, the diameter of the side pods, suspension geometry, and more. The car would prove incredibly quick; however, it would prove incredibly unreliable and undrivable, with the car failing multiple safety tests and proving incredibly difficult to drive. Despite the car’s inherent flaws, it would still post times that would be faster than the Barzetti. Due to the safety test failures, the car would never run, but a modified version would run in 2004, proving to be unreliable and costing McKenzie a top 4 run in the championship, finishing a low of 5th in a historically bad season. 2005 would be a return to form, with McKenzie finally nailing the aerodynamic concept, with an incredible title fight between Barzetti and McKenzie ensuing. Barzetti would narrowly take both championships once again, beating out McKenzie due to reliability and many unfortunate failures mid-season. Proving to be a trend, McKenzie would meet similar fates in 2006 to 2008, having unreliability and inconsistency hampering their ability to compete for titles consistently. SAMB, Tsukuda and Equipe Girault would also fight against McKenzie, creating incredibly tense title fights in the latter half of the decade. 2009 would prove another good season to round out the decade, finishing ahead of Barzetti, but behind SAMB, Equipe Girault and Tsukuda in a season based on technological innovation and R&D.

### IFS - 2010s: Pinnacle and Downfall

In 2010, the team would take a different approach, dropping their current two drivers and signing Brittons Alex Thompson and Daniel Lyons. The two proved to be a dynamic duo for the team, with the all-British driver-team pairing becoming beloved by many fans. The two would immediately prove competitive, taking a 1-2 in the first round of the season. Despite this, the two would trail off in the middle of the season, with the championship becoming much closer between the Tsukuda, Barzetti, SAMB, and Polaris teams. 2010 would prove to be a good season for McKenzie, posting competitive results for all season, finishing a solid 3rd in the constructors behind Tsukuda and Barzetti, achieving multiple wins while Giovanni Marchesi would run away with the 2010 and 2011 seasons, taking advantage of the double diffuser concept that had now become commonplace in the IFS. As they would battle it out in 2012, Thompson would take the title after a dominant 3 race-winning streak to cap the end of the season. Daniel Lyons would claim another championship in 2013, teaming up with Vyktor Melnyk in the twilight of his career. McKenzie was on top of the world and followed it up with another great season in 2014. As Javier Salas tore up the next two seasons in dominant fashion, McKenzie continued to compete closely through multiple regulation changes, as other teams such as Barzetti faltered through various regulation changes. 2016 would prove another excellent season. Toomas Saar would win the championship, and McKenzie would take their final constructors’ championship. 2017 would be the beginning of an unraveling of McKenzie’s great run, with their main title sponsor at the time leaving. After a regulation change where McKenzie would produce a horrible car, finishing 7th in the championship, they would also have their main engine supplier leave as Tachibana shut down their IFS program. They would be forced to use Louvet engines, which had many reliability issues in the McKenzie chassis. McKenzie would quietly fall to the back of the grid, and stay in the back to occasionally fighting in the upper midfield for much of the rest of the year. McKenzie would stay like this until the end of IFS, where they would finish the final season second to last.

### Transition to Formula A

McKenzie would join Formula A in 2023 for its first season. The team posted competitive results and achieved 5th in their first season.