The Season That Never Happened — Tyrrell’s 1984 Ballast Bust
There’s long been an interesting dichotomy at play in Formula 1. On the one hand, F1 prides itself as a sport that has consistently valued innovation and clever interpretations of the rules in order to gain a competitive advantage.
This attitude can clearly be seen from how figures such as Colin Chapman are lauded for their technical innovations, and how outside-the-box ideas such as Brabham’s 1978 “fan car” or more recently Mercedes’ Dual Axis Steering are celebrated as genius.
On the other hand though, Formula 1 is a sport that is often quite happy to hand out penalties for even the smallest transgression of the rules, be they from teams or drivers. In a sport of such fine margins, this approach can at least be somewhat understood, even if it can be painful when a team or driver is denied a well-earned result because of some minor technical or sporting infraction.
Formula 1 is therefore a delicate balancing act for both teams and drivers, who each seek to push the regulations to their absolute limit or sometimes even beyond, yet without doing so in a way that attracts the ire of those charged with enforcing the rules.
Sometimes though, teams take a step too far, and find themselves in the crosshairs of F1’s governing body and being made an example of in order to remind other teams of the tightrope that they must walk when competing in F1.
Perhaps the greatest example of this kind of scenario in Formula 1 — with the possible exception of the infamous McLaren “Spygate” furore of 2007 — is Tyrrell in 1984, who found themselves on the receiving end of one of the most brutal shows of force by the FIA in Formula 1 history.
It would be fair to say that by 1984, Tyrrell was a team in decline. The last time that they had truly been a title challenger was a full decade earlier in 1974. Even being more generous, the last time that the team had been a real force at the front of the F1 field was 1978 with Patrick Depailler’s heroic efforts in the team’s 008 chassis.
Nevertheless, the team had managed to sneak wins in both 1982 and 1983 through canny driving and tactics from the team’s driver Michele Alboreto, and smart strategy which put him in a position to win.
Both of those victories had been rather unexpected though, particularly the 1983 one, as Tyrrell were one of a few teams to be without a turbocharged engine that year. By 1983 such engines had become essentially mandatory in order to be a title contender and race winner under normal circumstances.
Tyrrell had hoped to run the same BMW turbo engines that eventually powered Nelson Piquet’s Brabham to that year’s title in 1983, with talks being held in late 1982, but the deal fell through and Tyrrell were left with venerable old Cosworth engines in 1983 and for the foreseeable future. A further blow also came when Alboreto left the team to go to Ferrari, where he experienced some of the defining moments of his career.
Tyrrell’s situation in 1984 looked dire. Turbocharged engines had taken yet another step forwards, and essentially every team had worked behind the scenes to sort out a deal to put a turbocharged engine in their car. All, that is, except Tyrrell.
Ken Tyrrell — the founder and boss of his eponymous F1 team, made no secret of the fact that he disliked turbos, with his attitude in many ways mirroring that of the Cosworth DFV’s designer Keith Duckworth, which I have covered previously.
“Uncle Ken”, as many called him, was convinced that turbochargers shouldn’t even have been legal in the first place, citing a section of the regulations that disallowed turbine engines which had been introduced after Lotus had run just such an engine in the early 1970s as part of his continued protests against turbocharged engines throughout the early 1980s.
Tyrrell’s protestations fell on deaf ears though, with the FIA rejecting his viewpoint as F1 went all-in on turbo power in the mid-1980s. Tyrrell’s Surrey-based team was therefore left as the lone fulltime entrant using a normally aspirated engine for 1984.
This would have rendered Tyrrell completely and utterly without hope of results in 1984, as by that time turbocharged engines were producing comfortably over 600 horsepower in race trim, compared to the just over 500 of the best normally aspirated engines of the time. In qualifying the gap was even larger, with top turbo entrants nudging the magical 1000 horsepower figure.
Tyrrell therefore sought any possible advantage they could get to try and make their cars competitive with the turbo-equipped opposition.
The concept that Tyrrell turned to was one which had been seen before in Formula 1, and which used a loophole in the rules which the FIA thought they had successfully closed. Tyrrell however saw a way that it could be implemented that dodged the wording of the rules that had banned it and would theoretically have left them in the clear while also conferring a significant performance boost.
The trick was a revival of one that had been used previously by non-turbo teams in the early part of the 1982 season. The minimum weight limit for F1 cars at the time had been set with turbocharged cars in mind, and therefore accounted for the heavier engine and larger fuel tank that such engines required by setting the minimum weight limit fairly high.
A non-turbocharged car, with their lighter engines and smaller fuel tank due to their lower fuel consumption, could quite easily weigh in massively below this limit, but were prevented from doing so by this minimum weight limit rule.
In 1982, teams had got around this by fitting their cars with large water tanks, which were explained as being a brake cooling system. The cars would have their weight taken by the FIA scrutineers with the water tank full (as the regulations specified that such measurements would be taken with all fluids needed for operation of the car present), but during the race the tank would quickly be emptied so that the car ran the majority of the race well under the normal minimum weight limit, before having the water tank topped back up once the race had ended for another check from the scrutineers, which was again legal at the time.
The FIA thought they had nipped this rule in the bud in 1982. They disqualified two prominent teams who used it from podium finishes (including a win) towards the start of 1982, and disallowed teams from topping up fluids in the car after the race had ended, which was believed to have put an end to the trick.
Tyrrell saw a loophole though. To begin with in 1982, teams rarely made pitstops during races. Only if the weather changed or a driver’s car was damaged would a car come into the pits mid-race.
By 1984 this had changed though, as a result of the reintroduction of strategic pitstops to Formula 1 by the Brabham team towards the end of the 1982 season.
Brabham had realised that fresh tyres and a fuel top up could allow cars to finish the race quicker than simply running non-stop from start to finish, and chose to make a mid-race pitstop to incorporate this new discovery.
The refuelling part of the pitstop equation was banned for 1984, but teams had nevertheless seen the light, and now realised that fresh tyres alone could make a enough of a difference in pace to offset the time lost by coming into the pits — just as we see in Formula 1 today.
With regular pit stops being a part of the F1 again, Tyrrell realised that they could reintroduce the water tank trick if they simply made a pitstop to refill the water tank towards the end of the race, rather than doing it after the race as had been banned in 1982, while still conferring the same benefits that teams two years prior had seen.
Tyrrell’s justification for presence of the water tank was also different to the “water cooled brakes” excuse which had been used in 1982 and was arguably more legitimate. Tyrrell had fitted their Cosworth engine with a water injection system to try to wring every last bit of power they could from the by-then anaemic non-turbo unit. The water tank was therefore explained away as simply being a reservoir for this system.
For 1984, along with the new car with its water tank trick, the team fielded an all-new driver lineup composed of two F1 rookies. One was young Briton Martin Brundle — now best known for his long-standing position as F1’s colour commentator. At the time though Brundle was fresh off a titanic battle for the British Formula 3 title, where he had fought the legendary Ayrton Senna every step of the way before eventually coming off second best.
Tyrrell’s second driver was also an exciting prospect — the young German Stefan Bellof. Bellof had made waves by winning his first ever race in European Formula 2 in wet conditions. Perhaps more notable though were his showings in sportscar racing, where he drove for the factory Porsche squad in 1983, setting several high-profile lap records and winning 3 races.
In 1984 he continued this association with Porsche, dovetailing his drive in F1 with Tyrrell with his WEC commitments. In many ways Bellof’s career path was later mirrored by his compatriot Michael Schumacher, who would of course go on to become an F1 legend after starting his top level career in sportscars.
With a pair of rookie drivers — even highly rated ones — and an underpowered car, little was expected of Tyrrell in 1984. For the most part this held true, especially in qualifying where turbo teams could turn up the boost pressure to take their engine power even higher. However the featherweight Tyrrells were able to sneak results at some races, particularly on street tracks where their power disadvantage was minimised, while the extra nimbleness conferred by their lower weight was particularly impactful.
The first proper illustration of this came at the sixth race of the season in Monaco. Tyrrell had managed to pick up 5 points in the first 5 races of the season, mainly by virtue of the reliability conferred by the Cosworth engine, but Monaco proved to be the first time that they really contended for a result.
Even on the twisting streets of Monte Carlo, the breathless Tyrrells were well down in qualifying, with Brundle failing to even qualify for the race after an enormous crash, and Bellof slotting into the final place on the grid in 20th position. This was about in line with what had become expected after the first few races of the season. Come race day however the situation changed markedly.
The conditions for the race proved to be appallingly bad, as torrential rain soaked the circuit making the already tricky and unforgiving circuit even more difficult. As it happened though, these conditions proved to be perfect for smaller teams and skilled drivers to spring a surprise. One of these was of course Ayrton Senna, who delivered his first of several head-turning drives in his turbo-engined Toleman.
Another was Bellof, with the conditions being ideal for his Tyrrell due to its power disadvantage being minimised by the low speeds, while its advantages such as the normally aspirated Cosworth engine’s superior throttle response due to not having “turbo lag” became more apparent in the slippery conditions.
Despite these advantages it was still a fight for survival, as was proven by many high-profile names such as Niki Lauda crashing out. Bellof nonetheless acquitted himself excellently, and made steady progress from his lowly grid spot until he was up into the podium positions.
By that time, the only cars ahead of him were race leader Alain Prost, and Senna in his Toleman, who was himself closing on Prost. Bellof meanwhile was closing on both Prost and Senna at a rate of knots, and looked to be in a position to challenge later in the race when the red flag came out and the race was stopped by clerk of the course Jacky Ickx due to worsening conditions — a decision which is still contentious to this day.
Bellof therefore had to be content with only a podium, but his pace had shown that if conditions were right, Tyrrell’s approach of a lightweight car with a non-turbo engine could deliver a result. In Monaco the team were not even able to make use of their water tank trick due to the race being run non-stop due to the conditions, yet still Bellof was able to shine.
It didn’t take long for another opportunity for Tyrrell to come about, and this time it was one where the water tank trick made a key difference.
Two rounds after Monaco came another street circuit — the bumpy and unforgiving Detroit Grand Prix, and this time it was Brundle who took a starring role in the race.
The Detroit circuit had been on the calendar for two years by 1984 and had established a reputation as being a particularly tricky race with tight walls and a rutted track surface which made staying out of the barriers even more difficult.
Unlike at Monaco, the Tyrrells actually achieved a fairly respectable qualifying performance given their power deficit. Brundle managed a season-best 11th place on the grid, while Bellof put his car 16th — both solidly midfield positions on the 26-car grid. Despite this, they were still some 3 seconds off the pole position time of Nelson Piquet, set in his Brabham BT53 with its 1000bhp qualifying-spec BMW engine.
In the race though, the horsepower deficit that Tyrrell suffered would be reduced due to the turbo teams having to use race-tuned engines with less power, while Tyrrell would also be able to make use of their water tank trick.
The combination proved wildly effective. The start of the race displayed the treacherous nature of the tight Detroit track well, as an overambitious attempt to grab the lead by Nigel Mansell resulted in a massive pileup among the top grid positions. The race was stopped and restarted with almost everyone swapping to their spare cars, but it nonetheless served to illustrate the unforgiving nature of the circuit.
Following the restart, Brundle thrived. The lighter weight and lower power of the Tyrrell meant that he could use a softer, grippier tyre compound than his rivals, which proved to be a major difference-maker. He climbed the field inexorably, as many other competitors dropped out due to reliability issues or crashes.
One such casualty was Bellof, who had been making similar progress to Brundle until he hit the wall and retired. Brundle was not deterred though, and came into the pits around the same time for his ballast pit stop — having run up to that point well underweight.
Despite having taken on weight, Brundle if anything seemed to get quicker in the later stages of the race. By lap 50 he was in the podium positions and gaining on the struggling second placed Lotus of Elio de Angelis, who was suffering from gearbox problems.
The nimble Tyrrell dispatched the Lotus with relative ease, and set about closing on Piquet, who had led from start to finish in a rare display of reliable running from that season’s Brabham. Brundle clearly had the bit between his teeth though, and was visibly quicker in the closing laps. By the final tour, he was tucked right under the Brabham’s rear wing, but the imperious Piquet was able to keep the door closed and force the young Briton to accept second best.
It was nonetheless a brilliant result for Tyrrell, but was also what would prove to be their undoing. Brundle’s charge and particularly his late race pitstop had attracted considerable suspicion from other teams and race officials and led to intense scrutiny of Tyrrell’s cars post-race.
What was found, and the eventually fallout from its uncovering would prove to be perhaps the most dramatic storyline of the 1984 season — maybe even more so than the title fight.
It transpired that not only had Tyrrell been using the old 1982 water tank trick to lower the weight of their cars for much of the race, but that they had taken the trick one step further by including a large quantity of lead weight in the water that was pumped into the car during its pit stop.
This allowed the Tyrrells to be even further under the weight limit before the water was pumped in, but also clearly contravened a regulation stating that all ballast must be securely fixed to the car, and that it must be accessible to FIA stewards so that they may inspect the ballast and affix tamper seals to ensure legality.
Furthermore, testing of the water that Tyrrell pumped into the car alleged that it contained aromatic compounds which could have been used to increase engine power more than just water injection alone could. In the eventual hearing which arose from the investigation, it was argued that this constituted refuelling of the car — which had been expressly banned at the start of 1984 after several high-profile incidents involving refuelling had occurred in 1983.
Tyrrell had their backs to the wall and were facing severe consequences for their transgressions at the hands of the FIA, with a hearing to determine the team’s guilt being held. Tyrrell fought the charges, noting that the percentages of hydrocarbons in the water pumped into the car were extremely minimal, and that the figures initially given by the FIA were incorrect, but it was clear that the team were fighting a losing battle and no argument could be made for the presence of the lead weights in the water which clearly contravened the unsecured ballast rule.
The result was that Tyrrell’s appeal against potential penalties were dismissed, and they were found in breach of F1 regulations.
In the period following the opening of the investigation into Tyrrell’s transgressions, the team continued competing in grands prix, and notably saw further incidents such as driver Martin Brundle seriously injuring his legs in a crash at the Dallas Grand Prix, which only worsened the situation that the team found themselves in.
As the opening to this article stated, Tyrrell were far from the first team to have tried to skirt around the regulations, nor were they the first to have been found out by the governing body. However, in Tyrrell’s case some of their previous political maneuverings came back to bite them.
After the 1982 water tank affair which had seen two podium-finishing cars disqualified from that year’s Brazilian Grand Prix, essentially all of the teams who were members of the Formula One Constructors Association resolved to boycott the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix in protest.
This protest went through, and the San Marino Grand Prix was contested by just 14 cars from 7 teams. One of these teams was Tyrrell, who had broken ranks with the Formula One Constructors Association which they were a member of and chosen to compete anyway.
Furthermore, with Tyrrell being the only non-turbo team in 1984, they had been a consistent roadblock to other teams in terms of the rules of the sport. For example, a proposal to reduce fuel tank size was put forth by the FIA. Every single team opposed this, as their fuel thirsty turbocharged engines would have struggled to make the finish with a smaller fuel tank, but since Tyrrell did not have a turbocharged engine, they welcomed the proposal, and with unanimity among the teams being required to block it, Tyrrell stood in the way.
The result of this recalcitrance from Tyrrell was that sympathy from other teams for their plight was essentially non-existent, and nobody supported the team or their appeals against their punishment by the FIA. The FIA were therefore free to make an example of Tyrrell, and they chose to do so in the most brutal way possible.
Firstly, Tyrrell were barred from entering any more grands prix in 1984. This verdict came through just before the British Grand Prix, but Tyrrell were able to fight it initially and compete in a further 4 races. Eventually though the appeal was dismissed, which meant that the team missed the final 3 races of 1984, and were hit with accompanying fines for having not participated in races which they had contractually signed up for.
Even more severely though, they were disqualified entirely from the 1984 season. This punishment is rare, but not unheard of even in more recent years. McLaren for example were disqualified from the constructor’s championship in 2007 after the “spygate” controversy which saw the team found guilty of industrial espionage.
In Tyrrell’s case though, the disqualification applied not just to the constructor’s championship, but to the drivers’ championship too. Effectively, this meant that Bellof and Brundle’s podiums, as well as all of the team’s other results for the year had never happened in the eyes of the record books, with the points that Tyrrell had scored in 1984 being redistributed to the other cars.
Indeed, if you look on almost any website recording Formula 1 results, it will simply show DSQ at every race and a total of 0 points scored for Tyrrell in 1984.
With Tyrrell disqualified, the other teams now also had the unanimity that they needed in order to block anti-turbo regulation changes such as further reductions to fuel tank size, as the stubborn roadblock of Tyrrell was effectively removed.
Tyrrell, as stubborn as ever, attempted to fight the FIA verdict, even taking the matter as far as criminal court in France, who actually sided with the team. He was insistent that the punishment his team received was merely a political move in order to get a roadblock to full adoption of turbo engines out of the way. However, in the eyes of the FIA the matter was closed, and the disqualification stood.
Tyrrell did eventually ink a deal to run turbocharged engines from Renault, which they began using in the second half of 1985 in a season which also saw the team hit by further tragedy when the talented young Bellof was killed in a sportscar accident at Spa.
In a twist of brutal irony, Tyrrell’s first full season with turbocharged engines in 1986 also saw the announcement by the FIA that turbocharging was set to be phased out and eventually banned.
This ban eventually went through, and turbocharged engines were outlawed from the start of the 1989 season, meaning that right as Tyrrell had finally got on the same page as everyone else with regard to turbos, the FIA had effectively rewritten the book.
While Tyrrell were already a team in decline by 1984, it is fair to say that the financial and political fallout of the ballast affair dealt a body blow to the team. Ever stubborn, “Uncle Ken’s” outfit struggled on gamely in Formula 1 until 1998, when the Tyrrell name finally disappeared from the grid as its entry was sold to the new British American Racing team, which would eventually metamorphose into today’s Mercedes team.
Almost poetically, the very B.A.R team that bought Tyrrell’s entry were entangled in a similar furore in 2005 involving a hidden fuel tank in their car that allowed them to run below minimum weight, and which saw them disqualified and excluded from several races that year.
It seems that old habits die hard for Tyrrell and its successor teams…
