Do Look Back

Nowadays we are used to a February/March schedule of presentations by the Formula 1 teams of their new cars for the impending season.  These have become increasingly glitzy with carefully optimised ‘production values.’  Aston Martin, for instance, released a 36 minute video on 1 st March, which introduced us to the new AMR21.  As well as being informative, this video is clearly intended to portray and promote Aston Martin’s and Cognizant’s brand values and corporate identities.  Whilst the teams – and their main sponsors/funders – see such activities as essential to their operations, and thus seek to completely control the outputs, today’s media is proactive and intrusive, often reporting developments in timeframes entirely of their own choosing: result – the keeping of things confidential such as driver contract negotiations, technological innovations and technical failures is just a team manager’s fantasy.   Very different from how things were 51 years ago....

  A decade on from their foundation of Tecnokart s.n.c. in Bologna, brothers Luciano and Gianfranco Pederzani, embarked on a highly ambitious project.  Having seen considerable success with their karts and junior formulae cars, they resolved to build a car for Formula 1 and contest the World Championship.  But, as if this was not challenging enough, they decided to design and construct all the elements themselves, including a flat 12 engine.   Original Tecno corporate I.D. – the initial model name, Kaimano ,  translates as Cayman , hence the charismatic reptilian badge icon   For a concise summary of the project, complete with many intriguing photographs, see The Grand Prix Journal On-Line .   The resulting good-looking, if unsuccessful, cars – run in the seasons ’72 and ‘73 – are classified under three model types:   (’72) PA123 (chassis 001-005) – (spaceframes) – driven by Derek Bell and Nanni Galli     (’73) PA123 (chassis 0...