Failures of Motorsports - Car Designs, Team Mistakes and More

[MIE1992]

Stars and racing stripes: Six American teams that failed to crack F1

Several teams have tried in the past to become the flagship American outfit to tackle Formula 1, some even won races.

www.planetf1.com

The real failure here is Planet F1 when it comes to judgement.

Very topical, considering that I was just reading this headline a couple days ago about how there's supposedly been notable progress in letting Andretti/Cadillac into F1 for 2026.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

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.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

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?

 

[Har1MAS1415]

Formula Acceleration 1

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.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

The one which turned and crashed into the wall immediately at Thruxton?

You mean this?

 

[Har1MAS1415]

The event last season was punctuated by tyre issues on the kerbs forcing mandated pitstops (USA 2005 eat your heart out)​

The 2023 Qatar Grand Prix certainly threatened to be one.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

BTCC 2024 News & Rumours - Page 143 - TenTenths Motorsport Forum

Page 143- BTCC 2024 News & Rumours Touring Car Racing

tentenths.com

Now does Team HARD definitely count?

 

[Har1MAS1415]

Nissan had an unsuccessful attempt in Group A Rallying with the Sunny GTI-R contesting just 9 events bewteen 1991 and 1992 with different drivers including veteran Stig Blomqvist and a young Tommi Mäkinen, the car was relatively competitive but had a few flaws mostly being the uncompetitive Dunlop tyres, the awkwardly fitted intercooler which made the engine prone to overheating (to which they tried to fix it by fitting the light pod most of the times) and issues between Nissan Japan and Nissan Motorsport Europe.

The Sunny's best result was 3rd at the 1992 Rally Sweden, at the end of the year Nissan pulled the plug on the project, while it did not succeed in Group A, it did in Group N, winning the title in 1992 with Grégoire de Mevius at the wheel.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

What about Yamaha as an F1 engine supplier? Especially 1989 with Zakspeed, 2 DNFs, 30 DNPQs, one destroyed single seater career of a future DTM legend, one lost sponsor that doesn't reappear until 1997 thus precipitating in the team's demise despite briefly appearing in pre-season testing for 1990 and Yamaha taking a year out.

I am prone to misinterpretation and misunderstanding as well as difficulties with articulation, explaining things, stringing sentences together and finding the right words as these are all part and parcel of my having a learning disability as I am on the Autism Spectrum. These difficulties are particularly prominent when I am excited or frustrated or both as was the case with watching Mikey Doble blow his first BTCC pole position before the race even started as mentioned earlier in the thread.

Back on subject.

Zakspeed is an interesting case. They certainly failed in F1 with their own turbo engines (only a single twice-lapped 5th place to show for 4 seasons worth of trying) but the Yamaha OX88 engine they used in 1989 really let them down.

Yamaha: Zakspeed Killer - Grand Prix Rejects

The history of Formula 1 has been littered with deals that looked good on paper but turned out to be utter disasters in practice, often at times of great technological upheaval. One such occasion occurred when the FIA decided to phase out turbo engines in

gprejects.com

Mind you, Yamaha engines only ever yielded two podiums in 7 years of trying from 1991-1997, including Damon Hill's near-miss at Hungary in 1997.

(I will admit my main influence was F1/GP Rejects)