Worst F1 team in recent history?

[jamiebae]

Inspired by the assorted USF1 and Campos speculation doing the rounds at the moment I thought it would be interesting to see what they have to live up to.

I remember as a pre-pubescent child almost wetting myself laughing at Pedro Chaves (who looked almost exactly like a Thunderbird puppet in most of his PR shots) being almost unbelievably rubbish in a Coloni back in the early 90s but a tiny bit of research turns up some more gems.

Mastercard Lola will be almost impossible to beat with one DNPQ by a margin which can only sensibly be expressed in powers of 10 before packing up and going home. However, there was a team with a terrible Subaru badged flat 12 engine whose name escapes me but they built a car out of bits of F3000 kit they nicked from someone else's shed. I know Pacific were pretty dire too, and who can forget the first-season disaster that was Brawn GP!

So, over to you guys, and where will USF1 sit within this pantheon of greats?

[Rollcage]

jamiebae said:

Inspired by the assorted USF1 and Campos speculation doing the rounds at the moment I thought it would be interesting to see what they have to live up to.

I remember as a pre-pubescent child almost wetting myself laughing at Pedro Chaves (who looked almost exactly like a Thunderbird puppet in most of his PR shots) being almost unbelievably rubbish in a Coloni back in the early 90s but a tiny bit of research turns up some more gems.

Mastercard Lola will be almost impossible to beat with one DNPQ by a margin which can only sensibly be expressed in powers of 10 before packing up and going home. However, there was a team with a terrible Subaru badged flat 12 engine whose name escapes me but they built a car out of bits of F3000 kit they nicked from someone else's shed. I know Pacific were pretty dire too, and who can forget the first-season disaster that was Brawn GP!

So, over to you guys, and where will USF1 sit within this pantheon of greats?

The Subaru team WAS Colini, as mentioned. I think Life were even worse though - they were the hacked about F3000 boys.

Edited by Rollcage on Sunday 24th January 16:07

[jamiebae]

Rollcage said:

jamiebae said:

Inspired by the assorted USF1 and Campos speculation doing the rounds at the moment I thought it would be interesting to see what they have to live up to.

I remember as a pre-pubescent child almost wetting myself laughing at Pedro Chaves (who looked almost exactly like a Thunderbird puppet in most of his PR shots) being almost unbelievably rubbish in a Coloni back in the early 90s but a tiny bit of research turns up some more gems.

Mastercard Lola will be almost impossible to beat with one DNPQ by a margin which can only sensibly be expressed in powers of 10 before packing up and going home. However, there was a team with a terrible Subaru badged flat 12 engine whose name escapes me but they built a car out of bits of F3000 kit they nicked from someone else's shed. I know Pacific were pretty dire too, and who can forget the first-season disaster that was Brawn GP!

So, over to you guys, and where will USF1 sit within this pantheon of greats?

The Subaru team WAS Colini, as mentioned. I think Life were even worse though - they were the hacked about F3000 boys.

You're right about Coloni, one of their stats on Wikipedia says

[quote]Races competed 82 (only 14 races started)

Which kind of says it all

[anonymous-user]

Rollcage said:

jamiebae said:

Inspired by the assorted USF1 and Campos speculation doing the rounds at the moment I thought it would be interesting to see what they have to live up to.

I remember as a pre-pubescent child almost wetting myself laughing at Pedro Chaves (who looked almost exactly like a Thunderbird puppet in most of his PR shots) being almost unbelievably rubbish in a Coloni back in the early 90s but a tiny bit of research turns up some more gems.

Mastercard Lola will be almost impossible to beat with one DNPQ by a margin which can only sensibly be expressed in powers of 10 before packing up and going home. However, there was a team with a terrible Subaru badged flat 12 engine whose name escapes me but they built a car out of bits of F3000 kit they nicked from someone else's shed. I know Pacific were pretty dire too, and who can forget the first-season disaster that was Brawn GP!

So, over to you guys, and where will USF1 sit within this pantheon of greats?

The Subaru team WAS Colini, as mentioned. I think Life were even worse though - they were the hacked about F3000 boys.

Edited by Rollcage on Sunday 24th January 16:07

ah but they were great years for f1, where 30+ cars would turn up for pre-qualifying on thursday, some would be packing their bags by friday night!

teams like Life (with the awesome, if rubbish W12 engine!), Coloni, Onyx, ATS, Andrea Moda, Pacific and Simtek made F1 great. no need to pay a deposit of £50m to get a look in, just get a car, an engine, some tyres and a driver and if you make it in to the top 26 you are in the race.

the desire for a homogenised, corporate F1 is its own downfall.

[Ahonen]

Life used the same set of tyres for the whole season, believe it or not, so the tyres had the scrutineering marks on them for each circuit. The tyres were probably worth more than the car by the end of the year...

[FourWheelDrift]

Andrea Moda.

In Canada Perry McCarthy was sat in the car as the mechanics tried to get the car started. Only they couldn't because it didn't have an engine in it. The engines hadn't arrived, Moreno's car borrowed an engine from Brabham.

The owner Andrea Sassetti had his club burnt to the ground and was shot at as he escaped the burning building. Those Italian F1 fans hate losers.

[sjn2004]

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

That seems pretty bad, was that Perry McCarthy the Stig at one point?

[groomi]

pablo said:

...Pacific and Simtek...

These two stick out as unlucky - presumably through simply not having the funds. Pacific were a very well run F3000 team who stepped up to F1. They appeared to have all the right credentials to make the step, but ultimately couldn't deliver.

Simtek IIRC had a half decent car but just didn't have the reliablility to do much with it. The death of Roland Ratzentberger was really the end for that team - no further investment was going to be found after that.

[AndrewW-G]

sjn2004 said:

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

That seems pretty bad, was that Perry McCarthy the Stig at one point?

Yes that Was Perry aka Black Stig, his version of events in "Flat Out & Flat Broke" is funny

[Ferg]

I remember McCarthy sitting in the pits at Silverstone waiting for the other car to come in from qualifying so he could use the wheels and tyres.....

[jamiebae]

OK, so Life look like they're pretty near the top of the list. They used a chassis which was designed for the year before (notice use of the singular there) which had been described by its designer as good for nothing except a flowerpot, and as being dangerous. This was then fitted with an engine at least 150bhp short of what the rest of the field and put in lap times significantly slower than a contemporary F3000 car.

This is starting to make USF1 look like McLaren!

[ajprice]

One old team in the 80's that I remember, mainly because of their car, was Rial. The car had really small curved sidepods and looked different to the other cars at the time, maybe that's why I remember it. I don't think they qualify though, they were in it for 2 years but they scored points!
http://www.f1technical.net/f1db/cars/623?sid=a2ef8...

[Merry]

There's a good list of them here

http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/index.html

I think Life or that Lola effort get my vote. I seem to remember Forti being awful too..

[jamiebae]

Merry said:

There's a good list of them here

http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/index.html

I think Life or that Lola effort get my vote. I seem to remember Forti being awful too..

I remember Forti being terrible too, turning up in a car with a manual gearbox and a fossilised Ford engine.

F1 would be much more exciting if we still had teams who finished 8 laps down purely due to their own lack of pace. Bring back Johnny Carwash

[Piginapoke]

Eurobrun would be up there, as would Fittipaldi.

I don't think that USF1 will qualify, as I guess you would actually have to turn up at an F1 race to count.

[anonymous-user]

groomi said:

pablo said:

...Pacific and Simtek...

These two stick out as unlucky - presumably through simply not having the funds. Pacific were a very well run F3000 team who stepped up to F1. They appeared to have all the right credentials to make the step, but ultimately couldn't deliver.

Simtek IIRC had a half decent car but just didn't have the reliablility to do much with it. The death of Roland Ratzentberger was really the end for that team - no further investment was going to be found after that.

to be fair you are right, they were very unlucky and probably arrived after the debacle that was pre-qualifying as previously described and dont deserve to be in the same list of also-rans like Life

[petergb]

I think I need help here but I seem to remember a team called Connor or Connew(?) who made an F1 car on the shortest of shoestrings. At a guess it would have been late 60's or early 70's and was constructed by Roger Connew(?) in a lock-up garage. He begged or borrowed almost everything including a Cosworth engine which he carted home in the interior of his road car. The car made it to BGP at Brands Hatch (can't remember driver) but did not make the grid. Thereafter it disappeared. On the other hand I may have dreamt this!

[jamiebae]

petergb said:

I think I need help here but I seem to remember a team called Connor or Connew(?) who made an F1 car on the shortest of shoestrings. At a guess it would have been late 60's or early 70's and was constructed by Roger Connew(?) in a lock-up garage. He begged or borrowed almost everything including a Cosworth engine which he carted home in the interior of his road car. The car made it to BGP at Brands Hatch (can't remember driver) but did not make the grid. Thereafter it disappeared. On the other hand I may have dreamt this!

Connew it is

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

[groomi]

petergb said:

I think I need help here but I seem to remember a team called Connor or Connew(?) who made an F1 car on the shortest of shoestrings. At a guess it would have been late 60's or early 70's and was constructed by Roger Connew(?) in a lock-up garage. He begged or borrowed almost everything including a Cosworth engine which he carted home in the interior of his road car. The car made it to BGP at Brands Hatch (can't remember driver) but did not make the grid. Thereafter it disappeared. On the other hand I may have dreamt this!

This one?: http://62.149.36.46/~bruce/cgi-bin/connew.htm

[petergb]

Thank you both - I tried to Wiki before I posted and came up with nothing. Not quite as I remembered but an interesting story - I would have thought I would have remembered the Peter bit!