Creating the cars, then and now

By the end of the 1950s Grand Prix racing had ceased to be dominated by the big car-producing factories and instead had been taken over by specialist race car producers. Ferrari was one of these – at the time it made road-going cars only as special commissions – but the British constructors such as Cooper and Lotus took the concept one step further. They didn’t make their own engines, just bought them in, along with gearboxes, steering, and other components, and assembled everything together. Soon these funny little cars –which incidentally had their engines in the back, overturning the convention of half a century of racing cars – were running rings around everyone else. The factories began to return to Formula One in the 1980s and have stayed ever since.

But usually they tend to be represented as engine suppliers only, going into partnerships with established specialist teams. Hence McLaren-Mercedes, BMW-Williams and BAR-Honda. The only exception to this rule is Toyota, which has bravely decided to go it alone, producing the whole car, including chassis, engine, and transmission in a purpose-built factory in Cologne, Germany.