Did you know that Ducati built a Formula One engine?
Speak of the name “Ducati” and there is no ambiguity to what they build. They have ruled the racetrack for so many years now and their current form in MotoGP has some detractors calling it “The Ducati Cup.” The Italian manufacturer is so proud of their achievements that the CEO Claudio Domenicali rubbished any suggestion of building mopeds and scooters recently.
But yes, they did build a Formula One engine.
Those years
The Italian icon found their calling of building motorcycles after WWII. They were producing radios, parts of radios and even artillery shells prior to that.
But the post-war era was tough on many companies other than those on American soil. Ducati’s factory was bombed to smithereens in 1944. All they had to go on with was Aldo Farinelli’s Cucuiolo (puppy) engine. So, Ducati had to find some money and they did so by trying on almost anything.
The car industry was starting to boom in Italy, so Ducati they put together a car prototype called the DU4 in 1946. It failed and that put the maker out of the automotive business for the next 14 years.
Changing rules in Formula One
In 1960, the deaths of three prominent drivers served as an impetus for the Formula One organisers to force manufacturers to downsize their engine sizes from 2500cc to 1500cc, to curb the speeds of their cars. This change appealed to the legendary Ducati engineer Fabio Taglioni. He went ahead and worked on an engine which he thought may do well in Formula One.
He came up with a 1500cc V8 featuring his signature desmodromic valve actuation (of course). It produced 170 hp, which was a big deal back then.
At the same time, the OSCA-Maserati Formula One team was looking for a new engine. But they had been losing so much money that they could not afford Ducati’s F1 engine. Besides that, other teams have already ironed out their engine supplier and have no place for Ducati.
It was thus that the Ducati F1 engine was never produced in volume. It would have been lost to history had not for their achievements in the motorcycling world.
