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Ensign was a Formula One constructor from Britain. They participated in 133 grands prix, entering a total of 155 cars.
Ensign scored 19 championship points and no podium finish. The best result was a 4th place at the 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix by Marc Surer.
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The team was founded by Morris Nunn who also carried out design duties during the first two seasons of the team's existence. |
| Mo Nunn |
Former racer Mo Nunn started building F3 cars with considerable success and from this, Rikky von Opel, heir to the German car company, commissioned Nunn to build an Formula 1 car for 1973.
The car turned out to be competent but von Opel's lack of experience and ability didn't help in the development of the project. Von Opel moved to a fully developed Brabham to continue his short-lived F1 career. That left Nunn to carry on alone and without any major finance.
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| Jacky Ickx driving the Ensign in a pit competition at the Canadian GP 1976. Ron Bennett and Mo Nunn on the tyres and Chuck Jones on the stop board. |
A Dutch sponsor, HB Bewaking, put Gijs van Lennep in the car and the team scored their first championship point in 1975. Nunn would later go on to be a prominent chief engineer in the American-based Champ Car series, winning championships with drivers Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya in the late 1990s.
After the end of the 1982 season, Ensign was merged into the Theodore team, which it had previous ties to via financier Teddy Yip, and took that team's name.
During many seasons, the connection between Ensign and Theodore was so great that in some years they used almost the same car, akin to how Red Bull Racing has a second but separate team called Toro Rosso in more recent times.
Ensign driver Roberto Guerrero continued on with the newly merged team for 1983, as did the team's main car designer. The entire Theodore F1 team did not last the 1983 season, though, and shut down late in the year.
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In 1977 following his release from Ferrari, Swiss driver Clay Regazzoni opted for a move to the Ensign team. His move to such a small team surprised some, but Regazzoni opted for the small outfit in preference to an offer from Bernie Ecclestone to driver for Brabham, as he preferred "to race with nice people". |
| Clay Regazzoni |
His season with Ensign, despite managing a points finish on his debut in Argentina, was not successful. Regazzoni finished in the points only a further two times. After breif stints with Shadow (1978) and Williams (1979) and lacking an offer for a competitive drive in 1980, Regazzoni re-joined Ensign.
His season came to an abrupt end only four races into the year. He crashed during the 1980 United States Grand Prix West, held at Long Beach, when the brake pedal of his Ensign failed at the end of a long, high-speed straight travelling at approximately 280 km/h. Ricardo Zunino's retired Brabham was parked in the escape road. Regazzoni later recalled, "I hit Zunino's car, then bounced into the barrier. For about 10 minutes I lost consciousness. Then I remember terrible pain in my hips...".
The crash left Regazzoni paralyzed from the waist down, ending his competitive career. On recovery, Regazzoni sued the race organisers, claiming their safety procedures were sub-standard. The race organisers won the case.
| On December 15, 2006, Regazzoni was killed when the Chrysler Voyager he was driving hit the rear of a lorry on the Italian A1 motorway, near Parma. |
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ENSIGN N177 HANES T-SHIRT
BUY IT NOW £24.95 |
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Other prominent drivers were, Chris Amon, Jacky Ickx and Nelson Piquet.
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N173
1973-74 |
N174
1974-76 |
N175
1975-78 |
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N176
1976
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N177
1977-79 |
N179
1979
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N180
1980 |
N180B
1981-82
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N181
1982 |
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| Clay Regazzoni in the Ensign N177 |
DID YOU KNOW THAT NEARLY ALL THE CARS WE FEATURE ON THE RETRO FORMULA 1 WEBSITE ARE STILL COMPETING?
Below you will find the full list of 2011 events. Do not think just because the cars are worth £300,000 plus, drivers hold back. This is 'on the edge' racing at it's best. |
| MAY 13-15 |
RED BULL RING Austria, HFO Rd 2 & 3 |
| MAY 29-30 |
BRANDS HATCH UK, Masters Series
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| JUN 3-5 |
MONZA Italy, HFO Rd 4 |
| JUN 17-19 |
PORTO Portugal, Masters Series |
| JUL 1-3 |
BRANDS HATCH UK, HFO Rd 5 |
| JUL 22-24 |
SILVERSTONE UK, Silverstone Classic |
| AUG 12-14 |
NURBURGRING Germany, Masters Series |
| SEPT 2-4 |
DONINGTON UK, Masters Series |
| SEPT 9-11 |
NURBURGRING Germany, HFO RD 6 |
| SEPT 23-25 |
SPA Belgium, Masters Series |
| OCT 7-9 |
PAUL RICARD France, HFO Rd 7 & 8 |
| OCT 21-23 |
ALGARVE Portugal, HFO Rd 9 & 10 |
The FIA Historic Formula One Championship ™ is at the pinnacle of historic motorsport. Its fans get a taste of classic old school Formula 1 and thrill to the sights and sounds of the cars driven by legends such as Gilles Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi and Keke Rosberg.
The Championship features the great Grand Prix cars raced between 1966 and 1985 re-creating the spectacle of the legendary 3 litre Formula 1 era on the great Race Circuits of the World. |
The Masters Historic Car Series is for 3 litre F1 Cars built between 1968 and 1978. From the pre-ground effects and pre-turbo era of F1 racing, Grand Prix Masters promises fast racing and close competition. Running in four distinct classes, providing a series of double-header races, emotive grids from the likes of Tyrrell, Lotus, Matra, McLaren, Cooper, Surtees and BRM, compete over two separate races per weekend.
Grand Prix Masters relives a fantastic decade of Grand Prix racing, including the actual cars driven by GP stars such as Hunt, Fittipaldi, Stewart, Amon, Rindt, Hill, Reutemann, Beltoise, Cevert and Peterson. |
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| RETRO FORMULA 1 HAS BEEN FEATURED IN |
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ALL MERCHANDISE IS DESIGNED AND HANDMADE IN GREAT BRITAIN BY RETRO FORMULA 1
Please bare this in mind when ordering as a gift. Due to demand, despatch can take 3 to 10 days. If you have any doubts that your garment may not arrive in time, please email us. |
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