F1 team names have been a big topic of discussion during the off-season as the two constructors rebranded for the 2024 campaign.
Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri has changed its operations to VisaCash app RB, while Sauber has ditched its Alfa Romeo guise and signed title sponsorship deals with online casino company Stake and live streaming platform Kick.
Both have caused a lot of controversy in F1, and Autosport’s Alex Kalinauskas believes they should ring the alarm bells for the series as they are nothing more than a “branding exercise” for extra funds.
However, not every team in the history of F1 has won as many titles as Ferrari and Williams. Here are five of the strangest teams to compete at Grand Prix weekend since the championship’s inception in 1950.
antique automobiles
1969 Monaco Grand Prix |
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1970 American Grand Prix |
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Vic Elford Ronnie Peterson |
Antique Automobiles is a privateer team run by Colin Crabb who competed with one car in 14 Grands Prix as part of the Formula 1 World Championship. Crabbe is a famous dealer of historic racing cars, hence its name, and Antique Automobiles allows other teams to rent one of their cars to the races he competes in. I signed a contract with.
The British team made its debut at the 1969 Race of Champions, but driver Roy Pike was unable to start his Brabham BT23B due to a fuel pump failure. Antique Automobiles then made its F1 debut at the 1969 Monaco Grand Prix, with Vic Elford finishing seventh in a Cooper T86, before competing in four further Grands Prix for the team that year in a McLaren M7B. Antique Automobiles was also a highly competitive team, with Elford scoring points at the French and British Grands Prix and finishing the season in 14th place in the championship.
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Antique Automobiles then signed rookie Ronnie Peterson, who would eventually win 10 Grands Prix in his career, for the 1970 season. However, Peterson finished the year with no points, and his seventh place on his debut in Monaco (points were awarded only to top six finishers at the time) was his best finish in the 701 in March. Ta.
Vic Elford (UK) Antique Automobiles McLaren M7A, Round 10 Dutch GP finished, Zandvoort, June 21, 1969
Photo credit: Motorsport Images/David Phipps
The team’s last race was the 1970 United States Grand Prix, where Crabbe turned down an offer to drive a private Ferrari 312 in 1971 and opted to retire, resulting in Peterson finishing 11th.
Clark Mordaunt Guthrie Darlacher
1971 British Grand Prix |
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1973 American Grand Prix |
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mike beutler Reine Weisel |
When Clark-Mordaunt-Guthrie-Darlacher entered the 1973 F1 season with a March 721G and then a March 731, it must have been a nightmare for commentators. It was not a successful year for the British team. Mike Beutler’s 7th place at the 1973 Spanish Grand Prix was his best result.
Technically, the team started in 1971 as Clarke-Mordaunt-Guthrie. These are the surnames of three London stockbrokers who financed Beatler’s race. However, Rob Walker’s former team partner Jack Darlasher added his name to the 1973 list, along with Ralph Clarke, David Mordaunt and Alistair Guthrie, becoming Clark-Mordaunt-Guthrie-Darlasher.
In any case, the team remained on the F1 grid for three years until it slumped in 1974 without scoring points as the impact of the 1973 oil crisis affected team owners and investment was no longer viable. was not competitive.
goldie hexagon
1974 Argentina Grand Prix |
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1974 American Grand Prix |
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john watson carlos pace |
Goldie Hexagon was a pure sponsor name, similar to today’s VCARB (or RB), derived from car dealer John Goldie and Highgate’s Hexagon. The British team made its non-championship debut in the 1972 Victory Race, with eventual Grand Prix winner John Watson finishing sixth for the team in a March 721.
Goldie Hexagon returned for the 1974 F1 season, leading a full championship campaign with Watson driving a Brabham BT42 and a BT44 in the series’ second year, while Brazilian Carlos Pace also entered the French Grand Prix with the team. I participated but did not qualify.
Despite this, Goldie Hexagon was quite competitive in 1974, with Watson scoring a 3-point finish with 6th place in Monaco, then 4th place at Osterreichring in Austria, and 5th place at the final race of the season, the American Grand Prix. did.
John Watson (UK) Brabham BT 44 finished fifth in the final GP for the Hexagon Goldie team.
Photo credit: Motorsport Images/David Phipps
However, Goldie Hexagon only entered F1 in 1974, as John Goldie’s finances were tight and the team was unable to secure sufficient investment for the 1975 season.
jolly club
1971 Italian Grand Prix |
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1986 Portuguese Grand Prix |
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Silvio Moser Loris Kessel Ivan Capelli |
The origins of the Jolly Club date back to 1957 in a restaurant in Milan. There, Mario Angiolini and his friends met to form a motorsport team. Little did they know that this team would later become one of the most successful privateer teams in the history of rallying.
The Italian team’s name “Jolly” comes from the special playing card “Joker” that can do more than other teams and competed in the World Rally Championship in 1983. The Jolly Crab recorded his 24 top-three finishes, including a win in Italy. , won rally’s top championship for 16 years.
However, the Jolly Club also made a brief appearance in F1, making its debut at the 1971 Italian Grand Prix in a Belassi F170 driven by Silvio Moser, but he retired on the fifth lap due to suspension failure.
The Jolly Club returned to F1 at the 1977 Italian Grand Prix. Loris Kessel drove Apollon Fly but failed to qualify. Finally, the Jolly Club made two further appearances during the 1986 F1 season, with Ivan Capelli competing in both the Italian and Portuguese Grand Prix, but retired from each race in an AGS JH21C.
life racing engine
1990 American Grand Prix |
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1990 Spanish Grand Prix |
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Gary Brabham Bruno Giacomelli |
“Vita” means “life” in Italian, so the name Life was actually named in honor of team founder Ernesto Vita. Rife was an F1 constructor from Modena who had a disastrous 1990 season, perhaps the worst season in the team’s history, failing to get on the grid in all 14 of his attempts.
The trigger for Rife’s decline was the W12 engine, designed by former Ferrari engineer Franco Rocchi, which produced just 480 horsepower compared to the 600-700 horsepower offered by its competitors. The W12 had his three banks of four DOHC cylinders, was taller than the normal V-bank engine, and appeared at a time when Ferrari and Lamborghini were driving their V12s.
Gary Brabham, Life L190
Photo courtesy of Sutton Images
Initially, there were plans to sell W12 to a competitor for the 1989 season, but with no buyers, Vita ultimately abandoned the idea and decided to run it with his own team in 1990.
Not only did Rife’s engine have the least power, its chassis was one of the heaviest on the grid at 530kg, and it had poor handling and reliability. In fact, Rife built a car that was the equivalent of his F3 machine.
Jack’s son Gary Brabham suffered an electrical failure just four laps into his debut race for Life, missing out on qualification for the 1990 United States Grand Prix, and subsequently failing to record a lap time in Brazil.
Brabham left Life after two rounds and signed Bruno Giacomelli to a contract for the remainder of the season, but he did not perform any better.
Giacomelli was often more than 20 seconds off the pace in qualifying and was therefore unable to line up on the grid for races, missing out on Italy by 28.3 seconds, for example. In Mexico, his W12 engine failed on his first outlap.
Rife then fitted a more conventional Judd V8 for the Portuguese Grand Prix, but Giacomelli’s engine cover flew off on the first lap and he was unable to record a time. Reiff’s last appearance was a week later in Spain, and after Giacomelli missed the lead time by 20 seconds in qualifying, the team decided to sit out the final two rounds of the 1990 season.