Formula 1 pictures of 1977

fjgines wrote:MONACO

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] #06 Nilsson Lotus 78

Long Beach

Spain

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] #37 March 761B Merzario

Spain

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] #24 Hesketh 308E Keegan

Austria

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] #22 Ensign N177 Regazzoni

Uploaded in RbR incl. all previously posted photos up to and including the Austrian GP

Austria (New and some in better resolution)

General
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Start Formation Lap
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Start
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Hunt
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Mass
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Peterson
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Depailler
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Andretti
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Nilsson
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Nilsson (T-car)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Watson
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Watson (T-car)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Stuck
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Ribeiro
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Ian Scheckter
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Lauda
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Reutemann
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Merzario
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Jones
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Jones (T-car)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Schuppan (Practice)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Schuppan (Race in the T-car)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Brambilla (Practice)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Brambilla (T-car)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Brambilla
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Jody Scheckter
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Jody Scheckter (T-car)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Regazzoni
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Tambay
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Keegan
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Rebaque
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Laffite (T-car)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Laffite
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Neve
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Fittipaldi (T-car)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Fittipaldi
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Lunger
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Binder
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Jarier
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

de Villota
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Henton
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Ashley
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Finish
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Podium
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Ambience
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

That's a great set of pictures. Thank you very much!

I just have some doubt's about the Lotus T-car.
Gunnar was a bit taller then Mario. If he would have taken place in Mario's car, his head would had been above the safety line drawn between the front and the rear rollbar. For that reason Gunnar and also Ronnie in 1978 had a higher rollbar behind their heads. The rollbar on the T-car is just high enough to protect Mario, but not Gunnar.
So, from a safety point of View, Gunnar would not had been allowed to drive that car.

CaptainX wrote:That's a great set of pictures. Thank you very much!

I just have some doubt's about the Lotus T-car.
Gunnar was a bit taller then Mario. If he would have taken place in Mario's car, his head would had been above the safety line drawn between the front and the rear rollbar. For that reason Gunnar and also Ronnie in 1978 had a higher rollbar behind their heads. The rollbar on the T-car is just high enough to protect Mario, but not Gunnar.
So, from a safety point of View, Gunnar would not had been allowed to drive that car.

You are absolutely right that if he would have driven that car, the combination would not have met the safety regulations.....nevertheless...look at the two pictures posted earlier.....
he did it anyhow. On the first one you can even see the #6 being attached to cover the #5

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks a lot, Hans! :-)

In my opinion these pictures must have been taken during a free practice session. Just imagine, Gunnar would have driven his fastest qualifying lap or the race with this configuration. There would have been protests from all the other Teams for sure.
And they would have succeeded!

So, I can not imagine the T-car is intended to be a Nilsson car. The T-car is there to be used, if there is a problem with the racecar. So the T-car should be build in such a way the driver can compete in the race without being disqualified.
I don't know how difficult it is to change the rollbar, but I always got the impression these kind of modification can't be done at the circuit, but only at the workshops. But I might be wrong here, too.

From my point of view the question of Lotus T-car is not so easy: In Argentina and Brasil there was no T-car, in Argentina Mario used 78/1, Gunnar 78/2, in Brasil Mario used 78/2, Gunnar 78/1. In South Africa new monocock was available - 78/3 as T-car for Mario. In Race of Champions Mario drove 78/2 again BUT T-car was 78/1! From USA west Mario drove 78/3 as racing car, Gunnar used old 78/2, and 78/1 was declared as T-car with number 5T, only in Belgium as 6T. In British GP the new 78/4 was declared as T-car (5T), BUT in Germany 78/4 was used as Gunnar's racing car and 78/2 as T-car (6T)! From Austria to the end of season Mario used 78/3 as regular car, BUT Gunnar used 78/2 in Austria, Netherlands and Italy, 78/4 was used as T-car (5T). To America and Japan team flew only with two cars - 78/3 for Mario as mentioned before BUT with 78/4 for Gunnar!
So - eight times T-car was 78/1, one time for Gunnar, rest of them for Mario, four times 78/4 was used as T-car, all of them for Mario, 78/2 was used only once for Gunnar.
I think the rollbar was not welded or riveted to the momocock so it was not so big problem to change it. As visible from my analyse Mario and Gunnar changed the cars from race to race and it is clear the mechanics had to change the rollbars...

Thank you Ondro! Yes of course the rollbars were changed on the cars when it was a planned swap of cars. But in Austria Gunnar suddenly needed the T-car in the final hour of practice because his race car had an engine problem. Have look at the report below from Motorsport Magazine and you will see he set his time in the final hour of practice with 78/4, which is the car wich was set up for Mario. I don't think they had time enough to change the rollbar at that point, so in my opinion the two on track pictures are from that final hour of practice.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]