Worst F1 Car in History?

[jamiebae]

So the driver thread has provoked some interesting discussion, how about cars?

The worst recent car is clearly the MasterCard Lola from 1997 (I think) but before that there were some real shockers like the Subaru flat 12 powered Coloni.

To qualify for this thread it must have at least tried to qualify for an F1 race, so USF1 making what looked a lot like a carbon fibre bathtub doesn't count!

[Life Saab Itch]

The Mastercard Lola project is an interesting one. I'll make a couple of phonecalls to a couple of mechanics who worked on it. There was something odd about it like not being able to run the proper aero iirc. I'll have a word.



Surely the worst has to go to the Andrea Moda or the Life W12. Both stter than a st. The Andrea Moda flexed so much that the steering rack seized whilst going through Eau Rouge.

[DanB7290]

Got to be the Life. Took over 7 minutes to get round Imola IIRC

[Vocal Minority]

Over 7 minutes? Surely not.

3 miles...thats around 30 mph

[DanB7290]

Vocal Minority said:

Over 7 minutes? Surely not.

3 miles...thats around 30 mph

It would appear so, 7:16.2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_San_Marino_Grand... unsurprisingly in Pre-Quali. Life were around for 1 season, and did not get through pre-quali even once. Fairly sure I could get round Imola quicker on roller skates

Edited by DanB7290 on Friday 11th November 12:26

[Mr_Thyroid]

What about the Team Moda car that Perry McCarthy drove? Pretty bad car and possibly worst team - Qualifying, dry track.....Perry, you're going out on wet weather tyres.

[Henry Fiddleton]

A lot of the above were fai to say expected to be bad so I will add a little spin to the thread.

The Ferrari from 2009 (I think), the Williams from 1998 (when it went red), and the Renaults when Alonso went back after it went wrong at Macca.

All teams who made p!ss poor cars when they should make great cars.

O and Williams this year surely is close to the worst car in history. Its shocking.

[jamiebae]

Life Saab Itch said:

The Mastercard Lola project is an interesting one. I'll make a couple of phonecalls to a couple of mechanics who worked on it. There was something odd about it like not being able to run the proper aero iirc. I'll have a word.

:

It was launched a year early due to sponsor pressure, and massively under developed. The plug was pullsd pronto when it became clear how hopeless the car was.

[ukaskew]

Henry Fiddleton said:

O and Williams this year surely is close to the worst car in history. Its shocking.

Considering there are much slower cars on the grid I don't get this one. Compared to their previous efforts - maybe so, but comparitively speaking it's not exactly far off the pace, and comfortably quicker than 3 other cars.

[Megaflow]

It's got to the the Life. A fantastically optimistic car, from a fantastically under finaced team.

It was at Goodwood FoS in '09 and I got some nice shots of it, a second engine which was on a stand next to it and set of mega complicated rods and pistons on the stand two. Think Brabham H16 complex... Not quite as bad as it only has one crank, but you get the idea.

[sanf]

I remember the Life from Silverstone 1990. It was pretty hopeless really - they only managed 14 rounds, the last 2 had the Judd engine fitted and the car was still well off the pace. Every session the car's engine failed - I believe the most it ever managed in 1 session was 8 laps

To put it into context - I made some notes from pre-qualying in my photo-album in 1990 -
The fastest pre-qualifiers were the Lola's - Bernard 1.10.254
Slowest of the 4 to go through Grouillard's Osella - 1.11.953
Gachot's Coloni-Subaru -1.19.230
Giacomelli's Life W12- 1.25.947 - which I think was slower than the F3000 cars in 1990.

Mansell's pole time was - 1.07.428 so that's 18.5 seconds slower per lap - In 1990 the circuit was 2.9 miles long so that's 6.38 seconds per MILE slower than the top cars!!

[Killer2005]

Last years Hispania looked an absolute turd to drive in some of the onboard footage

[Life Saab Itch]

Killer2005 said:

Last years Hispania looked an absolute turd to drive in some of the onboard footage

On the other hand the footage was some of the most entertaining.

Those drivers really drove those cars.

[Redlake27]

I have a soft spot for rubbish F1 cars. Zakspeeds, Osellas, Fortis, Colonis, EuroBruns, Hispanias. But I agree, the Life was truly terrible. Osella kept recycling old Alfas. At one point in 1986 they were running three different chassis designs. One was a 1983 Alfa, one was their own 1985 car and one was a new chassis design. Imagine that now, turning up with three cars from different years at one race!

From the big teams, the 1995 McLaren, the 1980 and 1986 Ferraris and the current Williams are low-points that (history hopefully encourages Williams)can be bounced back from. On the other hand, the 1985 Brabham, 1997 Tyrrell and 1997 Lola pretty much killed off the teams.....

[Derek Smith]

There was a startline pile up at a (Austrian?) GP where the Zakspeed ended up balanced on top of another car. Hunt's comment, 'That's the highest a Zakspeed has ever been on the grid' sort of summed up the team.

[Stack]

Redlake27 said:

I have a soft spot for rubbish F1 cars. Zakspeeds, Osellas, Fortis, Colonis, EuroBruns, Hispanias. But I agree, the Life was truly terrible. Osella kept recycling old Alfas. At one point in 1986 they were running three different chassis designs. One was a 1983 Alfa, one was their own 1985 car and one was a new chassis design. Imagine that now, turning up with three cars from different years at one race!

From the big teams, the 1995 McLaren, the 1980 and 1986 Ferraris and the current Williams are low-points that (history hopefully encourages Williams)can be bounced back from. On the other hand, the 1985 Brabham, 1997 Tyrrell and 1997 Lola pretty much killed off the teams.....

I love all the old back of the grid mid 80's stuff, I have a soft spot for Osella & also AGS , thier first car was based on the 1893 Renault.
I think the 85 Brabham the BT54 was not too bad a car - it was the Pirellis that were the problem mainly in cold temps,in hot weather the car was very quick. I think the rot sent in with the revolutionary BT55 the following year.

[EDLT]

Mr_Thyroid said:

What about the Team Moda car that Perry McCarthy drove? Pretty bad car and possibly worst team - Qualifying, dry track.....Perry, you're going out on wet weather tyres.

Was that the one that was supposedly based on an F3 car, but after they had modified it to F1 standards it ended up going slower?

[Lotus Elan +2]

Stack said:

I have a soft spot for Osella & also AGS , thier first car was based on the 1893 Renault.

Here's a renault from 1903.....



The 1893 version must have been a shocker

[Dan Friel]

My favourtie "bad" F1 car was the Modena run Lambo 291.. Great looking car, usually off the pace but a couple of great races by a couple of decent drivers.

Pic here:

http://www.seriouswheels.com/1980-1989/1989-1990-L...

[Save Ferris]

Stack said:

I love all the old back of the grid mid 80's stuff, I have a soft spot for Osella & also AGS , thier first car was based on the 1893 Renault.

It was the JH21C, and I wrote the wikipedia entry for it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGS_JH21C

I love all the '80s backmarkers too, Ive done a few other wiki pages for AGS, EuroBrun, Dallara, Larrousse Lola aswell.

(I really need to get out more......)