Eddie Cheever in the Alfa Romeo 184T at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix | |||||||||||
Category | Formula One | ||||||||||
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Constructor | Alfa Romeo | ||||||||||
Designer(s) | Luigi Marmiroli (Technical Director) Mario Tollentino (Chief Designer) | ||||||||||
Predecessor | 183T | ||||||||||
Successor | |||||||||||
Technical specifications [1] | |||||||||||
Chassis | Carbon fibre monocoque | ||||||||||
Suspension (front) | Coil, wishbone, pushrod | ||||||||||
Suspension (rear) | Coil, wishbone, pushrod | ||||||||||
Axle track | Front: 1,810 mm (71 in) Rear: 1,680 mm (66 in) | ||||||||||
Wheelbase | 2,720 mm (107.1 in) | ||||||||||
Engine | Alfa Romeo 890T, 1,496 cc (91.3 cu in), 90° V8, turbo, mid-engine, longitudinally mounted | ||||||||||
Transmission | Alfa / Hewland 6-speed manual | ||||||||||
Weight | 550 kg (1,212.5 lb) [2] | ||||||||||
Fuel | Agip | ||||||||||
Tyres | Goodyear | ||||||||||
Competition history | |||||||||||
Notable entrants | Benetton Team Alfa Romeo | ||||||||||
Notable drivers | 22. Riccardo Patrese 23. Eddie Cheever | ||||||||||
Debut | 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix | ||||||||||
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Constructors' Championships | 0 | ||||||||||
Drivers' Championships | 0 |
The Alfa Romeo 184T is a Formula One car which was used by the Alfa Romeo team during the 1984 and 1985 Formula One seasons.
The car bore the colours of the team's major sponsor, Italian fashion designers Benetton.
The car had a 1.5 L V8 turbo engine, which produced around 680 hp (507 kW) at 10700 rpm, [2] was Mario Tollentino's first F1 design, [3] and it used the Alfa Romeo 890T engine.
When the 890T engine was introduced in 1983, it had comparable power to the BMW, Renault and Ferrari turbo engines which at times saw lead driver Andrea de Cesaris able to mix it with the quicker cars, while fuel was not a factor as in-race re-fuelling was allowed. By 1984 however, the 890T had been left behind on power by its rivals, while the new fuel regulations limiting cars to only 220 litres per race.
It achieved a total of 11 points, all in 1984. The car's best result was at the 1984 Italian Grand Prix, where Riccardo Patrese came 3rd, at teammate Eddie Cheever's expense as the American was running 3rd, but ran out of fuel. The new fuel regulations saw the Alfa's mostly uncompetitive in the races as the engine was notoriously hard on fuel consumption. Also, the lack of power saw both Patrese and Cheever having to push their 184T's harder just to try to keep in touch (more often than not this was a losing battle) and most of the 184T's retirements were due to the unreliability of the engine that the faster running produced, or the cars simply ran out of fuel.
The 184T was replaced for 1985 by the 185T, but the car proved to be uncompetitive so the 184T was brought out of retirement, updated to 1985 regulations and was dubbed the 184TB. The 184TB model would become the last Alfa Romeo car to be raced in Formula One until the manufacturer's return to the sport with the C38 in 2019.
(key)
Year | Team/Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Points | WCC |
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1984 | Alfa Romeo 184T | Alfa Romeo 890T V8 tc | G | BRA | RSA | BEL | SMR | FRA | MON | CAN | DET | DAL | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | EUR | POR | 11 | 8th | |
Riccardo Patrese | Ret | 4 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | 10 | Ret | 3 | 6 | 8 | ||||||
Eddie Cheever | 4 | Ret | Ret | 7 | Ret | DNQ | 11 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 13 | 9 | Ret | 17 | ||||||
1985 | Alfa Romeo 184TB | Alfa Romeo 890T V8 tc | G | BRA | POR | SMR | MON | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | BEL | EUR | RSA | AUS | 0 | NC | |
Riccardo Patrese | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | Ret | Ret | ||||||||||||||
Eddie Cheever | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | Ret |
Riccardo Gabriele Patrese is an Italian former racing driver, who raced in Formula One from 1977 to 1993. For 19 years, he held the record for the most Grand Prix starts.
Edward McKay "Eddie" Cheever Jr. is an American former racing driver who raced for almost 30 years in Formula One, sports cars, CART, and the Indy Racing League. Cheever participated in 143 Formula One World Championship races and started 132, more than any other American, driving for nine different teams from 1978 through 1989. In 1996, he formed his own IRL team, Team Cheever, and won the 1998 Indianapolis 500 as both owner and driver. The team later competed in sports cars.
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The Alfa Romeo 185T is a Formula One car that Benetton Team Alfa Romeo used during the 1985 season. The car was entered in 8 races, but without any success and suffering from poor reliability, the team returned to the previous year's car, the 184T, uprated to "184TB" specification.
The Alfa Romeo 183T was a Formula One car designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Mario Tollentino and was used by Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo during the 1983 Formula One season. The car, with a newly designed flat bottom, made its debut at the 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix. Running on French Michelins, the 183T was driven in 1983 by Italians Andrea de Cesaris and Mauro Baldi.
Italian motor manufacturer Alfa Romeo has participated many times in Formula One. It currently participates as Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen while being operated by Sauber Motorsport AG. The brand has competed in motor racing as both a constructor and engine supplier sporadically between 1950 and 1987, and later as a commercial partner since 2015. The company's works drivers won the first two World Drivers' Championships in the pre-war Alfetta: Nino Farina in 1950 and Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951. Following these successes, Alfa Romeo withdrew from Formula One.
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