The birth of F1 aerodynamics at the 2024 Monaco Historic

The Lotus 49, for instance, is genesis. It debuted with its 3.0-litre Ford-Cosworth DFV generating some 400PS – and acting as a stressed member of the car’s structure for the first time – without any aero addenda whatsoever. Messyrs Clark, Hill and Co. had nothing but the car’s limited mechanical grip with which to play, in pursuit of pace. It didn’t take long for a winglets and a spoiler to appear, denoting the 49B, which we’re seeing in action at the 2024 Monaco Historic this weekend, driven by Adrian Newey. 

Of course, the high-rising wings that were first used soon proved to be dangerous and were quickly outlawed, in favour of lower items with sturdier mountings. But the race was firmly on to harness a whole new dimension of performance enhancement. 

Quickly, the cars lost their curves as a wedge shape took precedence – no more apparent than when comparing the Lotus 49B to the 72 that shortly succeeded it. They could be a decade apart, never mind a couple of years. In between, like Lotus, Ferrari, Matra, BRM and more slowly sculpted their cars, flattening their noses and tapering their tails, while adding wings.

There was also the question of how you feed the engines, as airboxes started appearing, providing a more direct flow of air to the motor’s inlet trumpets. Just look at the Eiffelland 21 which, in addition to its strange airbox that stretches around to an intake in front of the driver, also has a first go at radiator-feeding sidepods. Side-mounted radiators of course began to appear as the more tapered, closed noses could no longer house them. An upside of that, of course? No hot and heavy radiator hosing running down the side of the car and no hot air blowing up out of the nose into the faces of drivers.

These early years were so experimental, that sibling variants of certain cars looked utterly unrelated. Just look at the 312 B3 ‘Spazzaneve’, which wears a quite incredible shovel-like NACA-ducted snout and box-like sidepods. Believe it or not, this is one iteration up from the comparatively conventional-looking 312B2. The B3 is the result of the genius designer Mauro Forghieri taking inspiration from Ferrari’s championship-winning sportscar.

This was the start of the journey to Niki Lauda’s championship-winning 312 T, which in spite of competing just six years on from the start of this aero race, bears zero resemblance to any of the cars that started it. It was a design that in essence, would carry Ferrari near-on to the end of the decade. The high airbox silhouette was also where the rest of the grid would find itself first settling, if only for a short while.

Between all these cars mentioned above, the Surtees with its plough snout, the McLaren M19A with its gulping airbox and many more, Group D at the Monaco Historic tells the story of rapid aerodynamic trial and error in F1.

You can watch qualifying at the 2024 Monaco Historic on our live stream by clicking here.

Photography by Peter Summers