The WORST F1 team (or car) in the world...EVER!

Knowlesy · 12 Jun 2003, 11:20 (Ref:629306)

What, over the last half century and a bit, do you consider the worst F1 team or car.

My personal 'favourite' is the pathetic "LIFE" team with it's innovative 350bhp, W12 engine, giving a top speed of 220kph. With some incredible pre-qualifying times up to seven minutes off the pace. The car was as durable and safe as a rocket-propelled skateboard and the cockpit sides were so low that the drivers whole upper body was practically exposed. Gearbox castings were awful, suspension pick up points were seriously flawed, the chassis mould had been overcooked and the steering column was always at breaking point. It was a death-trap. The man who was credited with the design (but didn't actually design it or build it) took legal action to prevent his name from being associated with the car!
In 14 pre-qualifying attempts in 1990, they pre-qualified successfully.....never.
The car never managed more than two laps without breaking down.
They changed to a Judd V8 at Estoril......but the engine cover wouldn't fit.

What a team. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

SpeedLite · 12 Jun 2003, 11:23 (Ref:629310)

If only all red cars were that useless

JonesF1 · 12 Jun 2003, 11:33 (Ref:629315)

This thread deserves the complimentary link to F1 Rejects. You want bad teams, they got 'em.
http://f1rejects.crosswinds.net/main.html

Andrea Moda is my pick, they were a bigger joke then Life.

RWC · 12 Jun 2003, 11:52 (Ref:629329)

Andrea moda had a reasonable car (from dim memory)but the owner just didn't want to spend the huge dollars to be in f1

I think the only time that perry macarthy(?) got a drive ,the engine died exiting the pitlane for practice
...Some wags suggested that the mechanics were making the engine noises as they pushed his car to the line....
That f1 rejects page is a beaut

**Bononi** · 12 Jun 2003, 12:27 (Ref:629358)

F1 rejects has loads of ugly cars, terrible divers and other rejects of F1... it's a good fun to read it.

racer69 · 12 Jun 2003, 12:34 (Ref:629365)

Life W12

garagegirl · 12 Jun 2003, 12:41 (Ref:629372)

i've been into f1 for a few years, and most bad teams, etc i either don't remember or have never seen, so i can only name recent ones such as prost and arrows, who weren't really terrible, just not brilliant.

BootsOntheSide · 12 Jun 2003, 13:20 (Ref:629413)

Life as the worst car, and Andrea Moda the worst team seem like the right guesses. Andrea Moda were farcical beyond belief. They were excluded from the first round as they were deemed to be a new team (although they took over the old Coloni team, which was also pretty hopeless - rarely qualified in 5 years) and weren't willing to pay the new team fee, missed one race because they couldn't get through the French Lorry blockades, missed the one before that because they couldn't get the engines shipped over, had an engine die after 18 metres as RWC says, made a succession of driver changes before ever turning a competitive wheel in anger, and had a suspension lockup as McCarthy went through Eau Rouge! After that, they got kicked out.

krt917 · 12 Jun 2003, 16:03 (Ref:629551)

Not sure about the worst, but wasn't there a pretty awful Maki in the 1970s?

Fiorentina 1 · 12 Jun 2003, 17:13 (Ref:629606)

Life for sure! at least Andrea Moda qualified for a race. What about that one team that bought the Forti's in 96, but never had enough money for motors? Shannon or something? That one ranks 2nd, then Moda in 3rd.

Logrence · 12 Jun 2003, 17:16 (Ref:629611)

Lola were pretty cool at the Oz GP in 1997 - they were 7 seconds off the pace in practice and ran out of money before the saturday...

x_dt · 12 Jun 2003, 17:24 (Ref:629621)

Life and Andrea Moda are rightly up there - wasn't Moda thrown out (for bringing F1 into disrepute) after the team owner got arrested?

As for the worst car - there was a list of 10 particularly bad cars in Autosport a while back. One of the cars mentioned was the Judd powered Ligier JS31 (driven in 1988 by Arnoux and Johansson). The worst car by an established team???

BootsOntheSide · 12 Jun 2003, 17:31 (Ref:629626)

Ligier produced a string of stinkers in the late 80s. I think the 1989 one did score points though, unlike 1988's twin-tank monstrosity. The 2000 Prost is the worst in recent years.

The 1980 Ferrari is one of the worst - even Gilles could only get 6 points out of it. The handling was said to be atrocious.

The 1988 Williams was awful as well - another one which had no chance of defending the titles. For one thing, they were stuck with an underpowered and unreliable Judd engine, and secondly they tried a dismal active suspension system which was binned midseason (their later attempt from 1991 was much better)

MrSal · 12 Jun 2003, 17:35 (Ref:629630)

Possibly not the worst car ever, but I remember an appalling Brabham that was so low to the ground that the drivers were literally lying flat on their backs. This was in a period when Brabham had just won a couple of world championships so their fall from grace was spectacular. I think this was the car that de Angelis was killed in.

429CJ · 12 Jun 2003, 17:39 (Ref:629637)

Lec and Surtees.

**Bononi** · 12 Jun 2003, 18:18 (Ref:629705)

I guess f1manoz made a definitive list back 2 years ago, in this thread :The worst of the worst

ASCII Man · 12 Jun 2003, 19:05 (Ref:629735)

Quote:

Originally posted by MrSal
Possibly not the worst car ever, but I remember an appalling Brabham that was so low to the ground that the drivers were literally lying flat on their backs. This was in a period when Brabham had just won a couple of world championships so their fall from grace was spectacular. I think this was the car that de Angelis was killed in.

Yep, that was in 1986 IIRC and it was the car that claimed Elio's life.

Here's a link to the whole story.
http://www.geocities.com/chasey_uk/bt55history.htm

ensign14 · 12 Jun 2003, 19:12 (Ref:629746)

Andrea Moda don't count because they actually made a race when you had to pre-qualify. That automatically puts them above Maki, Kauhsen and Lifeless.

No-one mentioned Kauhsen but a decent driver (Brancatelli) could not get within about 6 seconds of qualifying.

If we include private teams, then OASC would also figure, it ran Otto Stuppacher in a Tyrrell 007 for 3 races in 1976 and would have needed a 120% rule to get in.

Yoong Montoya · 12 Jun 2003, 21:45 (Ref:629998)

The 1999 BAR is probably the worst car in recent years. I read that the car kept falling apart because of engine vibrations!

And that dual livery

gttouring · 13 Jun 2003, 00:38 (Ref:630117)

Yup the BAR of 99-2000 withthe snapping rear wing that would break off and send JV spinning- well if it wasn't oil, suspension, traffic (wait he was the traffic)...
BAR promised much and delivered squat- they are the worst in the last few years surely...even arrows and minardi never promised anything...

**GTRMagic** · 13 Jun 2003, 01:38 (Ref:630139)

I wouldnt be inclined to call a PS03 Minardi anyone's favourite car... its not a joke, but is a step backwards on the 2002 car

Muzza · 13 Jun 2003, 02:30 (Ref:630147)

I posted the message below on the thread http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...hreadid=22209, very similar to this one:

Folks,

The worst Formula 1 team I have ever seen myself was Life.

I had the "privilege" and the "honor" of visiting both Life and Andrea Moda boxes and, compared to Life, Andrea Moda was a top-notch operation!

On the practice sessions for the 1992 Brazilian GP, we were just walking down the paddock until we reached the Andrea Moda box. The back door was open, so three friends and myself - college student killing off classes - calmly walked in. Nobody bothered to shove us off: there were some six or seven mechanics around the car, and at least three of them had been recruited in the car repair shops in Avenida Interlagos, a main street that runs in front of the track! Guys that usually would grease their hands messing with old VW Beetles carburetors and stuff...

I cannot call the box a mess because there was not a lot in it to mess up with. One of the mechanics was reshaping a sidepod exhaust with a file and whistling, until the whole thing crack on his hands. Then they ran out of bolts and nuts (!) and after a quick debate about what to do, one of the guys said "ok, someone goes to a hardware store and buys some bolts". For a while no volunteers raised hands, until finally one of them conceded "ok, fine, I will...".

The guy left the pits and one of my friends asked if we could go along, and there we went, another friend and me, shopping the hardware stores of the Interlagos neighborhood for Formula 1 parts!

And we were in an early-70s VW Kombi, all rusted, falling apart, only the front seat in (cover peeling off), back wheels pointing to opposite directions and bobbling like crazy...

When we came back to the track - and I so proud of being waved by security, as the car had an all-access card! - we walked back to the box and... surprise! All mechanics had gone out for lunch, and my two other friends were the only people there, one of them seating lazy in a chair "because the cockpit was too crampy and plenty of sharp edges"...

Those were, maybe, my most memorable moments in a Formula 1 weekend.

And just to think that Life was even worse.

Cheers,

Muzza

mortda · 13 Jun 2003, 06:57 (Ref:630244)

What about the "Stanley Steamer" BRM of the mid '70s

**ghinzani** · 13 Jun 2003, 07:36 (Ref:630268)

Quote:

Originally posted by 429CJ
Lec and Surtees.

How can yo say this about cars that both lead GP's at some point in their careers?

climb · 13 Jun 2003, 07:46 (Ref:630280)

Quote:

Originally posted by SpeedLite
If only all red cars were that useless

Why!?
What do you have against BMS Dallara?

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