The 10 weirdest cars that have raced in F1
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- čas přidán 30. 05. 2024
- There’s a saying that if a Formula 1 car looks fast, it is fast. But some designers have ignored that over the years, with some weird and wacky designs emerging in search of that elusive competitive advantage.
So when we came to pick our choice of the 10 most bizarre designs, we had to work through a very long list.
Our only criteria are that the cars must have actually competed in F1 world championship races and have some visually obvious design oddity that went against the norm, and that our choices cover a broad timespan.
Let us know in the comments what you’d have chosen to include, and which weird design is your favourite.
#F1 #Formula1 #F1cars
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Imagine telling your race engineer which wheel you're having understeer in that 6 wheel Tyrell.
Engineer: "Which wheel was locking up?"
Tyrell P34: "Yes."
“My back front right is flatspotted badly”
@@EllaGP22 Hahaha, i can imagine they would simply number them ;-)
Driver: "understeering on the front left"
engineer: "front left or front front left"
Part of the problem with that car was exactly that, in a way. The driver would never really be sure what kind of understeer to expect, because the feel would switch between the two front axles, meaning the car would handle like long wheel-base one moment, short wheel-base the next!
I heard that when Romain Grosjean drove the first laps in the E22, the balance of the car was so bad, that he thought he had a puncture on one of the rear tyres... :0
It was because Ericsson hit him.
I was definitely looking for the Brabham BT46B. The only fan car in F1 history. It's a race-winning car.
Also, funnily enough, at Sweden/Anderstorp.
@@michaelocyoung RED BULL X2014 FAN CAR: Hello there.
@@purwantiallan5089 That's not real
@@purwantiallan5089 What, you mean the hypothetical concept car that Gran Turismo made to promote GT6? You're aware of the fact that the only real life version of this car is a 1/18 diecast scale model, right?
@@FengshenNL yep. But one of the Red Bull crews also created that car in real life, Fengshen.
Even after all these years I'm still amazed Rubens got that Honda RA108 on the podium at Silverstone.
REEL TAWK
Hm, Honda's reliability might have aided due to rainy condition, but still though, it's incredible.
@@kohikappu No, Honda brought Rubens for full wets few laps before everyone was aqua-planning on the inters.
@@wingsofheartproblems6400 shout-out Sean ranklin
Wet weather drives were his specialty. He did win from nearly dead last in Hockenheim in 2000.
The Arrows A22 and its extra front wing! Mounted on spindly legs high above the nose, it was about as robust as the fur on the robot ‘Diotoir’ on the Robot Wars series.
Well Arrows A22 isnt as cool as Brabham BT46B but still amazing.
@@purwantiallan5089 Yes but the BT46B is in literally F1 car compilation ever made, along with the Tyrell. It’s nice to throw some recognition to some other truly weird F1 cars instead of the usual suspects.
Gloriously niche reference to Robot Wars!
Next, THE RACE should make a list of the weirdest proposed tracks in F1.
The early 2010's really were a low point for aesthetics, the lego-nosed Ferrari being one of the worst offenders.
Agreed there were some awful looking cars during that period.
I agree with you on most of the 2012 cars, but I really do like the 2010 and 2011 Ferrari's aesthetic. 2013 really was all right too, before the aesthetics hit rock bottom in 2014.
Yeah 2012 Ferrari was butt ugly
Most of the 2010 cars looked nice though (RB, Ferrari, McLaren, etc)
2012 Ferrari was literally the ugliest car to contend for the championship.
When can we have Top 10 Ed Straw moments.
We need this video
Don’t be the weird fan. You’re creeping the man out
10?! We’re struggling to think of one!
@@WeAreTheRace oh c'mon, with so many puns over the past two years
@@WeAreTheRace It seems Edd loves 90s back-of-the-grid teams ... that alone ranks him highly in my books!
The interesting thing about the mid-wing on the MP4/10 is that Ron Dennis went round telling everyone that one day every team would have one. And he was kind of right, because in 2017 every team was running an enlarged shark fin engine cover with a mid-wing perched on it. So just for that one season his prediction come true, 22 years after he made it.
You guys aren't ready for this one yet, but your kids, they're gonna love it
It must have been quite some interesting times when designers could even create 6 wheelers. For mr still the most curious F1 car.
Yeah, sometimes I think how cool would it be if teams were allowed to come up with such radical concepts such as the number of wheels. 😄
@@soundscape26 imagine if X2011 Prototype has this same characteristic.
Brabham BT34 “Lobster Claw”
Ferrari 312T4 & T5
Ensign N179 with the nose-mounted radiators
Ligier JS5 with the giant airbox
Lotus 56B
I knew my favourite car, the P34, would be on this list! Such an amazing idea. Ken Tyrrell had hoped that other teams would adopt the 6 wheel design and that Goodyear would then increase development of the small front wheels.
I built a 1/20 scale model of it earlier this year.
Williams almost did just back to front so the wheels were different sizes but theoretically it could've kept the small tires alive
@@mazdaroadster-mx5 March also did that design - I've seen their 6 wheel design as a Scalextric car
STP March 721 with it’s “tea tray” front wing was unique.
And the Eifelland which was based on this March, which took it a few steps beyond deserves a mention as well.
The 2011 McLaren with the L shaped side pods - quite a beautiful looking car in my view
Gorgeous car, probably the best looking car of the 2009-13 regulations. Those sidepods plus the lovely curved nose (at a time when every other nose looked like a staircase), and of course that McLaren chrome livery.
@@DalleDayul the L shaped side pods at first didn’t look good to me, but I think it was at round 2 in Malaysia they just looked so darn cool! Especially with the yellow helmet of hamilton
Yeah that was a lovely car in fairness. Not weird but also beautiful, I loved the 2010 Ferrari F10
@@DannySB991 I didn’t like the 2010 cars because of the elongated rear section due to the new fuel regs etc. looked very top heaven to me, although the F-duct looked cool the 2009 and 2010 cars weren’t the best aesthetically
the 1972 Eifelland was my personal favorite! A car with a periscope rear mirror above the drivers head. it's quite a sight to see!
haha just left a comment about that car. A true marvel & interesting approach from Colani.
Damn good call!! It's is possibly the craziest looking F1 car in history imo...
You should see the original design for that thing. The blue car we know and love is mostly stock March parts. The original version is even more wild, and basically wingless.
I was about to comment about that one. It was weird even by 70s standards.
Never heard of that car, so I went and searched for it. Just wow, it definitely should’ve been on this list
The Eifelland E21 with only 1 mirror of 1972 was also a unique car.
Surprised by the omission of the 1976 Ligier... what an abomination. Worth an inclusion more than the 2004 Williams imho.
The teapot!
02:35 Rory Byrne is a great designer, but they run of competitive GPs sometimes were due to underfueling the car and running out of petrol. Not every GP, but only they know when (1984 Monaco?). Hats off to him, because co-designing the 1994-95 Benetton was a huge achievement.
The Lotus 56B from 1971 with a gas turbine engine. Those were the days with a light touch on engine regulations. Based on 1967's STP Indy 500 near-winner, which was even crazier with the driver sitting offset to make room for the turbine. At least Lotus's F1 version was symmetrical, if not terribly beautiful.
And from the same year the March 711 with its tea tray front wing. Optically a tour de force. I always the loved the appearance of that car!
The Williams 6 wheeler might have been worth an 'honourable mention' since it never raced, but was certainly unusual.
And I remember the Mercedes event where those shots of the W196 were taken at Silverstone - I was commentating on a club race meeting on the other circuit layout and kept being distracted by all those beautiful classic Mercs going round in the distance from my commentary box!
I actually liked the F310. I was doing fluid mechanics then, so learning what the pods were trying to achieve was interesting. It was nice to see the pod design evolve through the redbulls in later years
The f310 was deemed almost as aerodymically challenged as the forti-corse ford of that season. Only michael or possibly ayrton would ever win in that car.
Schu at his peak.
Red bulls sidepods began with ferrari in 2003. They were the first to slightly scoop with tradional sidepods(not 96) on the f2003-ga and it was adopted by almost all teams by 2006. And kept evolving from there...
Nice to see merc following Lamborghinis sidepods from 1991 🤣
An honourable mention should go to the Lotus type 56. While it used the same wedge shape as the very successful type 72, the 56 was strange not so much for its looks, more for its engine. Rather than the popular and very successful Ford Cosworth DFV V8 engine, it was powered instead by...a Pratt & Witney gas Turbine engine, aka a jet engine. Rather than hearing the distinctive revving of a conventional Internal Combustion Engine, to hear the whistle of a jet engine as the car was powering up must have been incredibly strange. It wasn't used very much, as throttle lag was a big issue, although there is a picture of Emerson Fittipaldi driving the car at Monza in 1971 with the car in World Wide Racing colours
Honourable mention to the 1995 Benetton and Ligier cars, or at least the earlier versions, with those big square topped air boxes. I think they designed them to try and bypass the holes that were mandated half way through the 94 season in attempt to reduce engine power and thus speed in the wake of Imola. But then some time in to the 95 season the FIA decided it made no difference and closed the holes and Benetton/Ligier went back to a conventional design
Not seen that before!! Got any pics? I know they ran what resembled a mini shark fin in Silverstone, for example, but I guess you mean something else?
@@edisaacsson2722 bit difficult to find any pics but that’s one I found. Only ran that version until about the Canadian GP
Well it was but the link has gone
Benettons were always weird looking
The March 711 tea tray must surely deserve an honorable mention?
The Eifelland E21 with its central mirror, vent and weird bulbous bodywork; the Ensign N179 with his weird stacked nose radiators; the many weird lobster-like shapes of the Tecno PA123 and the oddly W13-esque Modena Lambo 291 all definitely deserve a mention as strange looking F1 cars go.
The real inspiration for the current Merc : The Modena f1 with its Lambo 291 , and the triangular sidepods…
That car was a beauty, but still, beauty isn't everything in F1 when not being that fast.
I expected Edd to mention the Modena too
1983 Tyrrell 012 with its "boomerang" rear wing is also one of the weirdest F1 cars
But it never raced
Classic summer break content
A much needed break from all the Piastri/Ricciardo drama.
Looking at the 2022 cars compared to ever generation before them is like looking at a 2023 Corvette next to a 2008 one; they’re so advanced and organic looking that they might as well be from another planet. A more developed and civilized one.
Thank you THE-RACE, we will never forget the hyphen.
Mine would have to be the Brabham BT-52, Gordon Murray thought it was the obvious solution to the skirt ban but was shocked when no one else went that route with their designs in 1983.
I still remember watching that six wheel car coming down the hill at turn one & two of the Long Beach Grand Prix it blew my mind to see that car when all the cars would literally get airborne exiting one down the steep hill too turn two!
Those 2008 cars are beautiful
I always had a soft spot for that mp4/10. 95 was one of the first seasons I remember watching, and I always wanted a model of that car.
That Ligier with the huge airbox. JS5?
Arrows A22
The V-wing March of the 70's with extreme dihedral was certainly strange as well as the tea table one thanks to Maurice Phillipe and a misunderstanding of the use of dihedral. At least an honorable mention.
If it don't look it ain't good. Nice video. Keep up the good work.
Some of these cars have great meme potential
I can't find it anywhere but for a few races there was a car with two giant vertical planks right in front of the driver. There was huge discussion of these limiting visibility or not and they were made illegal quite quickly.
The '88 and '89 Benettons with their twin low-mount air inlets and standalone roll hoop were certainly weird among naturally aspirated cars.
The W196 is also the only car (that I know of) to have competed in both Formula One and Le Mans. The 300 SLR, which was infamously involved in the 1955 Le Mans disaster, was a modified version of the W196 and was also known as the W196S.
Another car that looked out of place in Formula 1 was the Theodore TY01 that competed in 1981, its front wings were located about halfway up the nose cone of the car.
I have a soft spot for the Benetton Tyrell 012 'Boomerang' wing.
suggestion : a list of features teams put on the track that 'should' of been made standard to push the sport forward but instead were 'banned'. my vote for such a list would hands down be mercedes tilt-camber steering. imagine if that mechanic had been standard on all 2022 cars... wow.
Thanks for this list again
Gary Anderson, of this parish, referred to the Ferrari 310 as 'The Skip'!
As a kid I was gutted when the Williams car dropped the walrus nose haha
I can't believe there's no mention of the Eifelland E21 or the Brabham BT46B. There's so many more unique and interesting F1 cars and The Race picked all the least unusual ones.
The Tusks actually make sense, if you consider that the TV broadcasts used a Fleetwood Mac song as intro music for years ;)
Ferrari 312T ... as a kid watching Schumacher win in F1 I got toy version of the before mentioned car and I struggled to recognize it being F1 car ... while fairly normal design for it's time, it still stands out for me to this day
And the winner is Tyrell(Tyrell, Mercedes AMG, Honda).
Missing on this list is ARROWS A2.. What an wierd looking ride🤣🤣
@8:44 - You might call it weird, but I absolutely LOVE the W196.
Looks actually so funking cool like a 1940s spaceship
The call for subscription "If you like what you see..." seems a bit odd in this video 😆
You know your getting on a bit when you can remember watching 7 out of these cars racing .
I always liked the Tyrrell 025 and 026, they were pretty tidy looking cars minus the x-wings. The low-nose F310 was a nice looking car too, the high-nose version though... that looked hideous.
I’d love for the Mercedes portion of this video to be updated post the season to see if it was successful or not
It was not.
My favorite BMW williams 2004, but sadly it was a failure more than a good front nose
Great list - but you missed out the Brabham BT34!
I wish they had a video out there of that six-wheel f1 cars pit stop.
what about the Brabham BT46 fan car, the March 711 and the Ligier JS5
2009 Renault with that Boxy Nose
2007 (I think) BMW Sauber with its tower wings at the French GP
What was the car that had the radiator built into the front nose in the 1970s?
The Renault Teapot RS01
Don't forget the fan Brabham car, those fans loved seeing it racing back then.
And then, at the bottom of the iceberg, Arrows A22.
Ach the teapot , absolute trailblazer , probably the last car designed and built with the input of the driver .....
Thanks for having the 2004 Williams on there
Man, I needed a video from you guys today. Great content choice for me to get my mindset shifted. Thanks, The Race. I appreciate you! 👊🏻🏎
The Ferrari, I love a lot. I was at the track for Schummy’s first win with it, and that was unforgettable…
The w13 has a fighter jet vibe too it, very angular and sharp looking, if only it didn't have its issues
Why no mention of the Eifelland Type 21? It didn’t have mirrors….it had a periscope!
... a Halo before there was Halo!
Further contenders would have been: the Brabham BT46B, the original boomerang-wing Tyrrell 012, the March 751 with its monstrous wing-extensions from the British GP 1975, the "wingless" wonders Lotus 80 and Arrows A2, definitely the Lotus 56B turbine car, the Lancia-Ferrari D50 with the sidepannier fuel tanks, the March 701 with its aerofoil shaped sidetanks, which preceeded the Lotus 78 ground effect car by some 7 years, the BRM/lotus 43 with the BRM-H16 engine, the original Renault RS01, the Lotus 49 with the wings on ever larger stalks mounted on the uprights from 1969 and Brabhams and McLarens from the same year, the twin-chassis Lotus 88/88B from 1981, the teapot shaped Ligier JS5 from 1975, the 4wd Ferguson P99 from 1960 and the BRM P67 from 1964, the 4wd Lotus 63 with its cousins McLaren M9A, Matra MS84 and Cosworth 4wd cars, the Ferrari 312B3 Spazzaneve from 1973, the twin-snorkel Brabham BT45, the original Brabham BT46 with surface-coolers, the Ferrari F92A with double-floors, the lowline Brabham BT55, the Life with its W12-engine.
That March wit hteh "tea Tray" wing
i've forgotten that merc doesn't have sidepods and i also kinda like the x-wings
Weird designs conclusions:
1) if they didn’t work pass to history like ugly cars
2) if they work teams do whatever there is in their power to ban them and get out of the rules ASAP
Not including the infamous Brabham design with the fan? That must have been the craziest, along with the six wheeler.
You didn't mention the gas turbine Lotus....? and what about that Cooper that put the engine behind the driver!
The W13’s sidepods make it look like the F-117 Stealth Fighter
I would have included (any of) the super high winged cars of the end of the ‘60s.
Surely any car Mazepin drove was weird. It never looked straight!
you miss the obvious ones, the 6 wheeled tyrell, the brabham fan car. and a few more.
March 711 [look at the thing].
Lotus 56B [gas turbine! howdja miss a gas turbine?].
Arrows A2 [again, look at the thing].
Brabham BT42 [fan car - replace one walrus nose, fer gawd's sake! who phoned your list in? geez, b'ys].
Honorable mention: the Cossie 4WD [never raced, ugly AF, and the prime "You knew you could, but did you stop and think you should?" object lessons for race car designers].
What about the fan car? Great list!
The 2009 Spec Cars when the first broke cover were weird looking.
I always liked the Walrus nose as it was different and I could see what they were trying to achieve.
Love the ridiculous designs from 2008, including that goofy Honda!
Getting the Merc copycat in...and not the original Lambo 291...is a CRIME against IP property. 😝
2008 has many favorite looking cars. exciting to see all the aero bits and bobs. disliked the cars at first after I heard them being called snow plows. hope to return to top mounted aero freedom.
i genuinely love the tusked lotus' looks
I would have thought that the biggest impact of the Tyrell 025 was the fact that pit-stops became mandatory? Or was that story apocryphal?
As soon as I saw weirdest cars I knew the 6-wheel Tyrell had to be there.
Ferraris 2012 car with the stepped nose. How alonso got that car to championship contention was a Herculean achievement.
I was waiting for the Eifelland e21 and ensign n179
The Arrows A2 of 1979 looked straight out of science fiction for me.
The Tyrrell P34 6-wheeler for the toy car aesthetic.
The Eifelend with its central mirror should have make the list
The low nose F310 reminds me always of herby the beetle car. So for me it's more cute than ugly.
The Arrows A2 looks like it belongs in an Aviation Museum rather than a race track. And of course, the teapot Ligier JS5.
March 711, Arrows A2, both missing from the list
IMO nearly too many more modern entries, there were even more weird design choices in the 70ies for example.
Eddstraw'ordinary video once again!
Brabham BT46B, the only ever car winning a world title with a unique fan car characteristic.
The 2004 FW26 is a Beauty Queen ❤😇🌷🌸