Tyrrell 012

[Captain Hammer]

Ten minutes ago, I was under the impression that only twice in the history of Formula One had the FIA disqualified someone from an entire season: Michael Schumacher in 1997 after his attempt at running Jacques Villeneuve off the road at Jerez, and McLaren in the wake of the Ferrari-McLaren espionage controversy (I refuse to use the terms "spygate" and "Stepneygate) ten years later. But while posting in the thread on hideous car designs, I discovered that in 1984, the FIA banned the Tyrrell 012 after it had been dicovered that the team had put ball bearings in the water tank to bring the car up to the minimum weight for every race in the season until the US Grand Prix, where they were disqualified from every race up until that point and excluded from every race after it.

Does anyone else know anything about this sordid little chapter in Formula One history?

[Faustus]

Dodgy business, that. Stefan Bellof lost his 3rd place in Monaco and Martin Brundle his 2nd place in Detroit.
Tyrrell was the only team without a turbo engine and even with the short-stroke DFV that Cosworth specially developed for them, they were obviously miles away, so I guess they they tried to reduce the gap any way they could. In an effort to bridge the performance gap, the Tyrrell engineers came up with a solution that eventually caused the team's downfall. They installed a 3.3-gallon water tank in the car and rigged a system whereby water could be sprayed into the air inlet trumpets on the engine. Such a water injection system was legal. Refueling was illegal in those days, but the Tyrrells would come in late in the race to have the water injection tank topped up. The mechanics, however, added lead balls along with the water.
The Tyrrells in 1984 could, therefore, conceivably run underweight during the race.
Brundle drove to a superb second place in the United States Grand Prix in Detroit in June. Afterward, technical inspectors took water samples from the injection tank. The affair dragged on, but FISA, then the sporting arm of the FIA, decided in July to throw Tyrrell out of the 1984 championship.
Ken Tyrrell filed injunctions and appeals to keep his team racing. FISA maintained that the water samples showed infinitesimal traces of hydrocarbons, and that could mean that the water tank illegally contained fuel.
According to the 1984 F1 annual Autocourse, FISA charged Tyrrell with: refueling during the race; using fuel that did not comply with the regulations; using illegal fuel lines; and using unsecured ballast.
Most F1 insiders believe that the impurities in the water came from contamination that probably came from the cans the water was carried in. The water had come straight out of a tap in Detroit.
The FIA Court of Appeal heard the Tyrrell case in late August. Now Tyrrell was charged with: hydrocarbons in the water; movable ballast; and illegal holes in the bottom of the cars.
As hydrocarbons were absolutely forbidden in the water, Tyrrell was out of luck on that count even though he argued that no traces of any additive that could increase horsepower were ever found.
Tyrrell argued that tools were needed to remove the ballast, so it was not "unsecured".
The charge of illegal holes in the bottom of the car came out of the blue. They were there to allow air to escape during the "re-watering" process. Several leading F1 technical directors gave evidence that the holes could have in no way improved the aerodynamic performance of the car.
The court was unmoved. Tyrrell was banned from the last three races and thrown out of the entire championship. In losing the 13 points earned by its drivers, Tyrrell also lost the much needed travel fund money paid out in 1985 to the top 10 teams in the 1984 World Championships.