THE TURBO ERA(1977-1988)

THE BEGINING
In the 1977 season two very exiting concepts were introduced into formula1, One was the ground beaking technology of ground effects and the other was the development of turbo charged engines. The team was Renault, but all was not easy and it was a year before renault actually finished a race

Turbo development was slow, with after one year of lotus's turbo power domination the nonturbo powered ferrari of Jody Scheckter drove home.Renault won the '79 French Grand Prix with Jabouille, while Villeneuve and René Arnoux waged a fantastic duel behind, with Villeneuve crossing the line 0.3 seconds ahead.
TURBO ERA BEGINS
The turbo era actually took of in 1980, when team Williams achieved almost complete domination. While Ferrari had a terrible year,it was only a short while before the Scuderia introduced their own turbocharged car at Imola, Although Cosworth-powered teams would win the championship in 1981 and 1982, Grand Prix was increasingly dominated by the turbos from 1981 onwards.

TURBO WINS IN 82

Still, in 1982 there were 11 teams using the Cosworth engine. And while the turbos continued to improve, with wins in 7 of 14 races, the 1982 season was dominated by a rift between Villeneuve and Didier Pironi at Ferrari that would lead to tragedy for both men.After the San Marino Grand Prix, in which Pironi passed Villeneuve, against team orders, while the Ferraris were easily running 1-2 under turbo power, Gilles vowed he would never again speak to his team mate.

BIG LOSS FOR FERRARI

He never did, as two weeks later was killed while trying to improve his grid position late in qualifying for the Dutch GP at Zolder, in a severe accident in which the Ferrari cartwheeled across the track, nose in the sand, flinging the driver out of the cockpit. Four weeks later Ricardo Paletti was killed in his Osala at the start of the Canadian GP at Montréal and Pironi himself suffered terrible leg injuries in practice for the German GP at Hockenheim two months after that, never to race in F1 again.

HURRAY FOR TURBO!

The turbo era picked up when turbo powered Piquet won his second World Championship by two points this time using a turbocharged BMW powerplant  and McLaren introduced the TAG-Porsche engine, driven to four checkered flags by runner-up Prost.Lotus as well brought out a turbo Renault, piloted by 4th-year driver Nigel Mansell to his first podium finish at Brands Hatch. In the 1984 season, with a new MP4/2 car designed by John Barnard, McLaren and the TAG turbo won 12 of 16 races and took the constructors' championship with record points. Niki Lauda won five of those to seven for Prost, and won the F1 drivers' title by 1/2 point, the strange total arising because the Monaco GP was halted in a thunderstorm after 31 laps and only half points awarded. This was also the race, by now legendary, in which Ayrton Senna, driving for Toleman in his first F1 season, passed Prost on the last lap in the rain, and forever accused the Formula One establishment of stealing the win.
McLAREN DOMINATION
Mclaren  dominated the late 1980s like no team before  or since. Prost won the World Championship in 1985 and 1986 . Senna, who joined McLaren after several seasons with Lotus, won the F1 title in 1988, taking the championship deciding race in Japan at Suzuka, after stalling on the grid, with an inspired drive to catch and pass Prost and then draw away in the rain.
END OF AN ERA
Each of Prost and Senna was eventually to win three drivers' titles with Dennis and Team McLaren. And as a season, 1988 was like no other, with Senna and Prost finishing 1-2, combining for 167 points while winning 15 of the 16 GPs, and McLaren cruising to the constructors' title. Yet it was also the begining of the end for both the turbo era, as normally aspirated engines were mandated beginning in the 1989 season, and for cooperation between Prost and Senna, as their rivalry would boil over into thinly disguised disdain and dramatic on-track clashes in the coming seasons. But while things would be very different within Team McLaren and in its Barnard-designed cars as F1 moved toward the 1990s, their almost complete dominance of the series -- judged by many fans as boring to watch -- would continue into Formula One's 5th decade.