The Greatest Racing Car of All Time – A Case Finally Herd

Many cars have been given the accolade of the greatest racing car of all-time, but not many of them have been Formula 2 cars. The March 782, however, was a different breed. The brainchild of Robin Herd at the head of a March squad now fully focused on Formula 2, it was a diamond emerging from the rough. And, like all diamonds, it was forged under pressure: BMW threatened to pull their works engine program from March if results did not improve after a disappointing start to 1977. This ultimatum led to a reimagining of that year’s 772 into a much thinner 772P which would form the basis of the 782. Herd was pulling out all the stops to return March to glory and seeing that their lead driver, Bruno Giacomelli, had studied mechanical engineering at university, decided to have the Italian design elements of the car to help him get the best out of it on track. This opportunity to have a driver actively involved in the design process of a car was something rarely seen since the ‘60s and no doubt had a big effect on the success of the car, particularly in the hands of Giacomelli who was especially proud of the mirrors that he designed himself.

Let’s start out by settling an old score: after dominating the 1976 Monaco F3 race, Bruno Giacomelli was driven to Maranello for a lunch with Enzo Ferrari, during which he was offered the seat of outgoing driver Clay Regazzoni for 1977. Bruno was delighted, of course, but explained to the great stable master that he already had a contract with March for next year. Mr Ferrari offered his lawyers, but Bruno was con dent that March would not stand in his way. He returned to Bicester and explained the situation to Max Mosely who assured him that they would not stand in the way of such a big opportunity to him – the Ferrari deal was on. However, when he returned to Italy, Mr Ferrari only offered him a Minardi F2 drive with Dino engines. So Giacomelli said no. To Enzo Ferrari. And then two years later he proved just how big a mistake Ingenere had made. What better car to compare the March 782 to, therefore, than the Ferrari F2004 – the Scuderia’s prized stallion.

Both cars had a podium in every race, and although the March uses three different drivers (Giacomelli, Surer, and Cheever) to achieve that feat, the relative inexperience of the March trio, with the cumulative number of years in their racing careers in 1978 (12 years in cars) not even equalling that of Schumacher’s time in F1 in 2004 (13 years). Additionally, there is the skill-level of the drivers. Giacomelli, Surer, and Cheever would get a combined 10 podiums in Formula 1 whereas Rubens Barichello scored 11 Grand Prix victories, and we all know who Michael Schumacher is. Therefore, the March 782 should be given some slack, due to the drivers the equipment had been supplied with and the mistakes that come with a lack of experience.

Despite this, the March 782 still proved it had greater outright pace than the F2004, comparative to its rivals. It scored 11 pole positions from 12 races (91.6%) across 3 drivers (Giacomelli: 8, Henton: 2, Surer: 1), but even restricting it to the two cars that finished highest in the championship (Giacomelli and Surer), that 75% is still far greater than the F2004’s 66.6%, which drops to 60% when including the 2 races it ran in 2005.

This point is compounded when the average qualifying gap is examined. Looking at the qualifying gap between the highest-placed Ferrari/March over the course of their respective seasons, the F2004’s measly gap of 0.184 seconds advantage over the field is decimated by the 782’s 0.679 second demolition of the field. Even when only considering Giacomelli and Surer’s times over any other chassis, the gap is 0.601 seconds. The Ferrari’s largest gap is 0.641 seconds at the second round in Malaysia, which Giacomelli alone beats on 4 occasions and Surer once, with Ferrari’s gap being less than half of that of Giacomelli’s outright record of 1.86 seconds over the nearest non-782 at round 1 in Thruxton. The 782’s outright pace advantage is even clearer when considering the percentage of fastest laps each car achieved – the March scored 9 from 12 races (75%) whereas the Ferrari scored 14 from 20 (only 70%) proving once and for all the 782’s raw speed advantage.

But, as we all know, a car can be as quick as you like over one lap, it’s in the race that points are paid. Initially, it looks like the F2004 has the legs on the 782 – that the March is only good over one lap – because Italy’s nest scored 80.86% of the available points in 2004, while the 782 only scored 73.38% of the available points, counting only Giacomelli and Surer, in 1978 and, while that increases to 89.44% when considering the two highest scoring 782s at each round it is not a fair comparison as had there been more than two F2004s on the grid then Ferrari would almost certainly scored a higher percentage of points. Although, it could be argued that comparing the top two March 782s to the Ferrari F2004s gives the Ferraris an advantage as Giacomelli and Surer had to compete against other equally dominating March 782s.

That as may be, there is no perfect system but comparing the total points of each car’s main rival is much more equitable. BAR scored 45.4% of Ferrari’s points, which is an impressive feat from Ferrari, but the top two Chevrons (Daly for the works squad and Rosberg for Fred Opert Racing) scored just 32.3% of Giacomelli and Surer’s points. Therefore, when using a metric that considers the talent and experience of the drivers and the reliability rates of their respective eras by comparing them to their peers, the March destroys the F2004.

But there is one more metric to line them up against each other on: the points scored per round. Using the 1978 scoring system and counting only Giacomelli and Surer, the Ferrari edges out the March 11.83 to 11.08 respectively, but removing the races in which one or more of the cars retired, the March smashes the Ferrari 13.875 to 12.5 points per round. In conclusion, it’s clear that the March 782 is greater than the Ferrari F2004 in terms of raw pace, absolutely, and in race domination when using any sensible metric.

Mr Ferrari famously called the upstart British teams like March garagiste and those teams quickly became giant killers, so let’s go one better – let’s build ourselves a tower of Babel: the McLaren MP4/4 is not as good a racing car as the March 782. Now, 15 wins from 16 races may seem hard to argue with, but it’s important to look at the context in which and by whom they were used. Yes, it’s true that one of these cars was driven by the greatest racing driver of all time – but the March’s success shouldn’t be put down to this alone, after all the McLaren had two incredible drivers in Senna and Prost while Giacomelli ‘only’ had Marc Surer as backup. Furthermore, the McLaren was driven by Senna and Prost in the absolute primes of their careers. Both with at least 4 years of experience in Formula 1 and with an inter-team relationship that had not yet turned sour. They were without doubt the two best drivers in the field that year. Meanwhile at March-BMW, Giacomelli and Surer were in their 2nd years of Formula 2, their entire racing careers being the same length of time Senna had had in Formula 1 in ’88, with Prost having had 8 years in Formula 1. Therefore, the MP4/4 had a much easier time dominating, as had the F2004.

There is also the fact that, as 1988 was the final year of turbo engines, only McLaren and Lotus developed new chassis, while only Honda developed a completely new engine, meaning that they had an inherent advantage due to other teams not focusing on that season as much as McLaren. Meanwhile, F2 was a level playing field – March and Chevron both developed new chassis and BMW and Hart both brought new engines. Both the 782 and MP4/4’s main rivals (Chevron and Ferrari) scored 32% of the dominant car’s championship points, although if the March is compared to its closest single team the percentage falls to 23% of March Racing’s top two drivers, with Chevron Racing only scoring 31 points over the season. Considering that the McLaren was fighting a field that had one hand tied behind its back and March were fighting a Chevron Racing team who had put everything into this season to try and take advantage of the power vacuum left by the Renault-powered teams, the 782 is clearly a much greater car comparative to its rivals.

A more objective look at how dominant a car is, is to look at how many points the best driver scored per round, as focusing on the highest-scoring driver over a season shows as close to the maximum performance of the car as possible while mitigating the driver skill and removing teammate performance due to the wildly different quality of teammates in the two cars. Giacomelli scored 6.8 points per race, taking 8 wins, 10 podiums, and 2 DNFs from 12 races, while Prost scored 6.5265 points per race, taking 6 wins, 14 podiums, and 2 DNFS from 16 races. With DNFs removed, Giacomelli scored 8.2 points per race finished, while Prost scored 7.5 points per race finished. Clearer than ever is the evidence that the March is the greater car, far more consistently higher-placed than a 4-time World Champion in a car that had everything poured into it from the motorsport juggernauts that were McLaren and Honda.

Now, an easy criticism of this metric is that Prost’s points per race were lowered by Senna beating him on 8 occasions and that this should be taken into account, but if that is the case then surely it is only fair to measure it against a Giacomelli with a hypothetical teammate who finished 2nd in all but two races Giacomelli won (DNFing in the other two), finished 1st whenever Giacomelli finished anywhere other than top spot, won in one of the races in which the Italian retired, DNFing in another, and finishing 4th and 6th in two races, as Senna did to Prost. In such a hypothetical situation, said teammate would have scored 56 points, meaning Giacomelli now scored 80 points and March’s new total was 136 points. It would also have meant the best two Chevrons scored 32 points, if Surer’s scores were removed and a new teammate placed into the aforementioned positions, totalling a pitiful 23.5% of March’s e ort.

So, the case is unequivocal, in the hands of one driver – or of two drivers with equal ability to those at the McLaren’s disposal – the March destroys the MP4/4, just as it destroyed everyone on track. While the McLaren may have had greater one lap pace, thanks to one Brazilian and a half-baked field, the March finished better more often, even with young, inexperienced drivers – times get you headlines but points mean prizes.

From F1’s most famous marque, to its greatest rival, to the one that gave it its start:

Lancia’s Delta made it the most successful manufacturer in World Rally history, winning 6 Constructors titles on the bounce, creating an icon in the process. It won 58% of the races between 1987 and 1991, including those it did not enter, but to give it a fighting chance against the March we’ll look at its most dominant season – 1988. It won 10 out of the 11 races it entered and, when looking at all teams, it earned seven 1-2s and swept the podium on four occasions. On the March’s side, while it can’t match that win total, it does match the 1-2 and podium sweep totals. The Delta scored 100% of the available points in the Manufacturer’s championship, but that is largely down to the WRC’s scoring system only counting the single best result from each marque in each round and dropping each manufacturer worst four scores from an 11-round championship. When using a normal scoring system, such as the F2 system, and the best two cars from each round the Lancia scores 13.18 points per round, whereas the 782 scores 13.6 per round, proving that the March is more consistently quick.

Furthermore, as both the Lancia and March were the most prevalent cars on their respective grids, we can compare how they fared. Lancia, with its 5-car factory team, and its 3-car B team in the form of Jolly Club, had seven cars in the top 10 of the Drivers’ Championship, but March with its 3-car factory team and all other entrants being other teams or private entries, had eight in the top ten and 10 in the top 15. This top-ten domination proves that the March 782 is the most adaptable and easy-to-drive car ever built – even more so because three of the eight were cars entered by their own drivers – because of just how easy it was for even the most inexperienced drivers to score points in.

This is the March 782’s greatest asset, this arrive and drive nature, the fact that Herd had made it so easy to set up – and so easy to run. It was no wonder that it became such a popular hill-climb car and swept smaller series such as the Aurora and the Formula Pacific and Atlantic series. Brian Henton, who drove a private 782 to two points finishes in 1978, certainly agrees, saying it “was supremely and very finely balanced, very simple to operate”. Yet Henton’s best result in a 782 wasn’t until 1979 when he finished 2nd in the Nürburgring round, while teammate Rad Dougall won the previous round at Thruxton in another 782, even while up against March’s latest e ort, the ground-effect 792. A customer car being fast enough to beat its factory-run replacement, which was utilising a game-changing aerodynamic concept, absolutely cements this car as the greatest of all time.

Nowhere was the 782’s ability as a customer car more evident than at the Hockenheim round. On Saturday, the 782 locked out the first nine positions, and on Sunday Giacomelli won the race from pole, claiming March’s 50th victory, and leading home a March 1-2-3-45-6. This sheer obliteration of the opposition proves, without exception, that the March 782 is the greatest racing car of all time.

In conclusion, the March 782 is a supreme racing car. It’s Robin Herd’s zenith, a car so quick, so consistent, so easy to drive and, crucially, so easy to set up that it was unrivalled on the circuit. Even its reliability is impressive – Giacomelli and Surer suffered mechanical retirements in only 16.7% of races, only 4.2% more than the MP4/4 a decade later, and 11.7% less than a Ferrari F2004 that could change its engine every other race a quarter of a century later. March had no such luxury – there was no way BMW were spending that much on the program.

But a racing car is always more than the sum of its statistics – it’s a thing of passion, something so symbolic of the human endeavour: seeing what the human mind – and body – could do given a set of parameters and enough resources to fulfil a dream. But the March 782 is even more than that: it’s a car for a junior series, a launchpad for a driver’s career, something that could de ne someone’s entire career – and by extension change their life. And that was exactly what we saw in 1978 – Bruno Giacomelli: 12 races, 8 wins, 8 poles, 6 fastest laps, 1 championship title.

– Source: https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/gallery/March-782-BMW-71128.html