F1 HISTORY By Graham Duxbury @ TheRealDux
Older Formula One fans will always say“ it was better in my day”. But was the racing better in the first“ turbo era” which started in earnest in the early 1980s? Or is racing more exciting in the current turbo era – more accurately, the turbo-hybrid era- which began in 2014?
The first turbo era was ushered in by Renault, with the constructor convinced that a 1.5-litre turbo engine would outperform the 3-litre naturally-aspirated engines which dominated the F1 field back then.
Renault debuted its revolutionary turbo racer at the 1977 British Grand Prix. It did not initially impress. Reliability problems blighted the car. It took seven race starts before a finish was recorded.
The first turbo era was ushered in by Renault with its revolutionary turbo racer. Photocredit: Getty
Two contrasting F1 turbo eras
South African designer Gordon Murray noted that drivers new to turbo cars would be“ completely lost” until familiarity eventually set in and the turbo lag was mastered.
Soon turbo engines began producing exceptional power outputs, with special qualifying engines delivering up to 1500 horsepower. Unfortunately, the fun soon came to an end, as the sport’ s governing body, the FIA curbed this excess by limiting turbo boost pressure to four bar in 1987 and then just 2.5 bar in 1988. And fuel tank capacities were limited to 195 litres in 1986 and 150 litres in’ 88.
Unfortunately, this signalled the end of the so-called golden age of turbo-engined F1 cars. Alain Prost would make history by winning the 1988 Australian GP, the last race of that era.
For 1989 turbos were banned outright and all cars were required to be powered by 3.5-litre V8, V10 or V12 engines.
Graham Duxbury is a former professional racing driver, celebrated SA champion and acclaimed motorsport administrator and commentator. A South African Hall of Fame Inductee, he made history in 1984 by winning the famous Daytona 24-hour sports car race in the USA in an all-South African team. Today, he heads Duxbury Networking, a leading IT company.
in their own right- couldn’ t be starker. For example, the new-generation, techladen electric-ICE powertrain in Nico’ s Mercedes- and, by regulation, all other F1 cars since then – incorporated two motor-generator units( MGUs) which recovered energy to be stored in a large floor-mounted battery( to a maximum of 120 kW).
These and other regulations permitted a race to be completed with a maximum of 100 kg of fuel on board, illustrating the realworld fuel-saving benefits of hybrid power units.
The first MGU- the MGU-H- recovers energy from the hot exhaust gasses The second, the MGU-K, recovers kinetic energy from braking.
The stored energy is deployed to help meet what is now technically known as the“ torque demand” required by the driver, thus eliminating the dreaded turbo lag that so challenged Keke and his compatriots nearly four decades ago.
However, less than two years after launch, Jean-Pierre Jabouille took an historic and well-deserved victory at – fittingly- the 1979 French GP.
With so much scepticism concerning the viability of turbo engines it was not surprising that the other teams took time to catch up. Ferrari previewed its V6 turbo unit in 1980 but didn’ t race it until March 1981. BMW presented a turbo car in 1982, while Honda and Alfa Romeo would follow in early 1983. By August‘ 83, McLaren had entered the fray with a TAG / Porsche engine.
Those early turbo cars, with unlimited boost pressures, provided a prodigious power“ rush” as the significant and disturbing turbo lag was overcome. Drivers who could anticipate this characteristic( as Ayrton Senna did) fared best.
In 2014, thanks to the world demanding more eco-friendly means of mobility, fans were presented with new turbo F1 cars which incorporated electric power from a large battery coupled to a 1.6-litre V6 single turbo internal combustion engine( ICE).
Nico Rosberg won the first race of the new turbo-hybrid era, the 2014 Australian GP, in a Mercedes. Significantly, it was a GP that his father Keke had also won in 1985 in a Honda turbo-powered Williams.
The contrast between the Keke’ s Williams and Nico’ s Mercedes – two legendary cars
During a race, every team’ s goal is to maintain an appropriate balance between electrical energy harvesting, energy deployment and fuel burn.
Do today’ s highly-regulated, tightlymanaged turbo-hybrid cars- which will be retained in modified form next year( 2026) with a 50:50 electric / ICE power split, a ban on the MGU-H and a generation limit upped to 350kW- offer the best powertrain option for the sport?
Or do fans still hanker after those unreliable, fire-breathing, hard-to-manage turbo cars of the past?
Or, more imaginatively, should naturallyaspirated V8 or V10 engines running on sustainable fuel be in F1’ s future?
WORDS IN ACTION 34 NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2025