The 312B replaced the Ferrari 312 and represented a significant engineering departure. Forghieri's flat-12 engine, while technically a horizontally opposed unit rather than a true boxer, sat low in the chassis and freed airflow to the rear wing in a way that conventional V-engines could not match. The combination of the new drivetrain with the returning Jacky Ickx and the newly signed Clay Regazzoni gave Ferrari genuine championship machinery at the start of the decade.
The car's debut year in 1970 was immediately competitive. Ickx won three Grands Prix and engaged in a title fight with Lotus's Jochen Rindt, who was killed in a practice accident at Monza before the season concluded. Regazzoni then won the Italian Grand Prix that same weekend. Despite the tragedy that cleared the path, Ickx could not close the points gap in the remaining races, and Lotus secured both championships — constructors ahead of Ferrari, drivers posthumously to Rindt.
The B2 debuted mid-season in 1971 at the Monaco Grand Prix, following a January presentation, and delivered a Dutch Grand Prix victory for Ickx. However the revised car introduced new problems: an innovative rear suspension combined with Firestone tyres generated severe vibrations at the limit, hampering the drivers. Ferrari finished third in the constructors standings as Jackie Stewart and Tyrrell dominated. Forghieri experimented with winglets on the front wings at the British Grand Prix that year but did not pursue the concept further.
For 1972 a more conventional rear suspension was fitted to the B2, yet Ferrari dropped to fourth in the constructors championship as rivals advanced more quickly. Ickx won the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring — his final Formula One victory — but the car could not sustain a title challenge.
During 1972 Forghieri drew up a radical new design on a short wheelbase with square bodywork and a full-width nose. Tested by Ickx and Arturo Merzario but never raced, the Italian press called it the spazzaneve (snowplow). For 1973, FIAT executives imposed new technical leadership and transferred Forghieri to the experimental department, with Sandro Colombo stepping in as chief engineer. The snowplow was discarded in favour of a revised 312B3 featuring a full monocoque chassis built by the English specialist firm TC Prototypes under John Thompson, with the engine serving as a stressed structural member.
The new B3 debuted at the 1973 Spanish Grand Prix but proved slow and unreliable. Ferrari's season deteriorated to the point where the team skipped certain rounds, including the Nürburgring. Ickx departed mid-season.
Forghieri was recalled as technical director during the summer of 1973 and set about revising the B3 using ideas from his original radical design. For 1974 a heavily updated car, the 312B3-74, was prepared alongside new driver signings: Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni, both arriving from BRM. The revised package gave Ferrari renewed competitiveness, laying the groundwork for what followed.
The 312B era bridged a difficult transitional period for Ferrari in Formula One, from the factory's departure from sports car racing through years of political and engineering upheaval. Forghieri's flat-12 engine concept proved durable and competitive enough to underpin a championship challenge across five seasons, even if the constructor's title remained elusive throughout. The lessons absorbed — aerodynamic development, tyre behaviour, structural efficiency — fed directly into the 312T that arrived in 1975 and delivered Ferrari's first constructors championship since 1964. The 312B is remembered as the car that kept Ferrari relevant through its hardest years and gave drivers of the calibre of Ickx and Regazzoni a tool capable of winning.