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.
Design
The car had a 1.5 L V8turbo 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 limited cars to only 220 litres per race.
Racing history
1984: 184T
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 Alfas 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 184Ts 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.
Livery
The car bore the colours of the team's main sponsor, Italian fashion brand Benetton.
