In modern Formula One there are only twenty cars on the grid and everything becomes more and more tightened regulated. There is room for three more teams on the grid. However, due to the ridiculous amount of money you have to pay just to be even granted access to the circus there will never be thirteen teams on the grid. How different this was only 30 years ago. A complete different era when Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley were in control and the early birds dominated the Formula One paddock and grid.
Be sure to buy the book Formule Hopeloos from my buddy Jeroen Demmendaal. Who wrote about those early birds in their hopeless cars trying to qualify for a race. Knowing they would fail! The book can be purchased online as well in the local bookstore!
Obviously the early birds reference to the years when pre-qualification was a common thing in the Formula One. The pre-qualification was for the first time introduced during the 1977 British Grand Prix. For that race an insane amount of 40 cars were on the entry list. In those days it was common for drivers/teams to buy a chassis from March and fit it with a Cosworth engine. Fourteen drivers were forced to appear at the pre-qualifying. Which was held on the Wednesday the 12th of July prior the British Grand Prix. Interestingly, most of those who were forces to were not a member from the FOCA. Six drivers failed to pre-qualify the others were allowed in the qualifying session. In the end there were thirty cars present at the start of that British Grand Prix.
After the Turbo era was over in 1988 it would cost less money for teams to debut in the Formula One. From the point of view for teams that were active in the F3000 or F3 this was good news. As the atmospheric engines were much cheaper and there were many suppliers like Ford, Cosworth, TAG, Honda, Judd, Ilmor, Yamaha and so on. There were even companies developing new atmosphere V10 engines! It was the start shot for overcrowded paddock with teams forced to set up their tents outside the paddock even!
However, 1989 saw the biggest amount of entries from the last 35 years. A staggering 39 cars were on the entry list! Something had to be done to keep it safe in the paddock and on the tracks. It seems they remembered that British Grand Prix in 1977 which even saw 40 cars! The 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix saw the early birds for the first time appearing on the track. Besides the safety reason, there was another reason for the pre-qualifying. There were only 30 participants allowed during a Grand Prix Weekend. Therefore, before the Grand Prix weekend could start the pre-qualification with the early birds had to be completed.
The system was more or less correct, though you could ask yourself how fair it was. Based on the results from previous season the decision was made if you were forced to set up your tents on a muddy grass field next to the paddock. Only to hope you would make it through the session. Also new teams had to start in the pre-qualification, as they had no results from previous seasons. Good examples are the Onyx Moneytron team in 1989 and the Jordan Grand Prix team in 1991. After the first half of the season, an adjustment would be made for the team who had to pre-qualify themselves. If your first half of the season was far from good, you could be in the danger zone.
Especially in 1989 and 1990 there were a lot of early birds on the track. Imagine, you are one of those early birds. Your alarm goes off at 05:30 in the morning you get your coffee asking yourself why the hack you have to get up this early. Get yourself a croissant and some juice d’ orange to travel towards the circuit. It is 07:00 in the morning and you start preparing yourself. Looking out of the trailer to see the damping forest at Spa, it will be a hell of a job to qualify your AGS JH25 for the 1990 Belgium Grand Prix.
But hey, you got to do what you got to do as the early bird. Only the few die-hard fans are cheering for you while you’re put everything out of that AGS. As you, have only 60minutes for the pre-qualifying. The joy is enormous when you came through the pre-qualifying for the Belgium Grand Prix. Now the weekend really starts, though as you had the experience already you had a bit of an advantage for the setup of the car.
If you were Gregor Foitek or Oscar Larrauri driving for EuroBrun in 1989 it meant you would leave the circuit even before the weekend would properly start. As that was one of the teams that season that failed to pre-qualify, except for the first race of the season, the car was just horrible.
The early birds were dominating the Formula One until the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix. After that Grand Prix Brabham retired permanently from the Formula One. For a couple of seasons it were drivers like McCarthy, van de Poele, Tarquini, Langes, Larrauri to call some who dominated the early Friday morning in EuroBrun’s, Andrea Moda’s and Coloni’s only to retire before the weekend really began.
However, looking back this was probably for most of the fans one of the best era’s in the Formula One. Having almost 40 cars willing to start a Grand Prix with many drivers from many levels, with different styles and outdated cars and teams who could barely made the trip to the circuit. Gave the Formula One that extra spark. I mean how amazing was it for a fan to sit on a Friday morning with your own croissant and Juice d’ orange and coffee from home to see an early bird in his Life Racing passing by in Eau Rouge?
