Failures of Motorsports - Car Designs, Team Mistakes and More

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Very topical, considering that I was just reading about how there's supposedly been notable progress in letting Andretti/Cadillac into F1 for 2026. That is, unless the article mentions that exact development...
The article is from October 2023.

Topical, but a bit harsh I feel, considering half of those teams won a race at least.
 
Funny you should mention Reynard, their stillborn F1 design of the early-1990s begat both a success (the Benetton B194, correct me if I'm wrong) and a failure (the Pacific PR01), the latter racked up only 7 starts out of a possible 32 (none in the last 10 races) and no finishes in 1994. Bertrand Gachot actually declared he was glad to never have to drive the PR01 again after the inevitable double-DNQ in Adelaide.

Only at the season-opener in Brazil did a Pacific qualify on merit in 1994, inevitably in Gachot's hands.

Gachot was guaranteed to qualify in Imola thanks to Rubens Barrichello's accident. Paul Belmondo respectfully didn't take the late Roland Ratzenberger's place on the grid.

Both drivers were guaranteed to qualify in Monaco after Williams only ran Damon Hill and Simtek ran only David Brabham and Sauber withdrew after Karl Wendlinger's accident.

Both drivers were guaranteed to qualify in Spain after Sauber ran only Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Andrea Montermini crashed his Simtek and broke his ankles.

Gachot was guaranteed to qualify in Canada after Simtek again only ran one car for Brabham. To show just how little actual racing Gachot and Belmondo got to do that year, Belmondo covered the most distance in a race either driver would manage all season at Monaco, lasting 53 laps before retiring due to being physically fatigued!

Truth be told, the car was originally designed for 1993 with Michael Bartels (and Gachot? Or possibly David Coulthard since he drove for Pacific in F3000 that year?) driving but a lack of finance meant their entry was delayed until 1994 so the car was already a year out of date before it had even raced (and possibly even older as the Reynard F1 car was intended for 1992).

Reynard was also involved in the construction of the unraced DAMS F1 car.
On a minor note, regarding the Pacific team's 1995 launch, how long does it take to open a bottle of champagne?
 
Formula Acceleration 1
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It ran for one season in 2014.

For all intents and purposes, it was an attempt to resurrect A1GP as it utilised the Lola-Zytek B05/52 that had been used in the first three seasons of the latter series.

The difference was the drivers weren't required to drive for the team representing their nation (for instance, Spaniard Dani Clos drove for the UK), although China was the only nation not to have a representative all season.

Nine meetings were planned but only five took place, largely due to lack of entrants, with grid numbers peaking at 14 for the final meeting at Assen.

12 Nations took part in all, but only 10 contested the full season as Venezuela dropped out ahead of Assen, the UK took their place and notably secured a fastest lap and a 2nd to take 10th in the standings.

The season was a straight fight between the Netherlands (Nigel Melker) and Italy (Mirko Bortolotti) with Melker winning the driver's title by default after Bortolotti withdrew. The pair won 8 of the 10 rounds between them. The Netherlands took the Team's honours.

The only other winners were Sweden with Felix Rosenqvist doing the double at Monza.

The series merged with Auto GP for 2015 as that series was also using the Lola B05/52 chassis. But that series also suffered from lack of entries and was canned before merging with the BOSS GP Series in 2016.
 
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