Worst Formula 1 Team (merged)

[OVERSTEER]

Since Alesi95 has started a thread on Worst F1 driver, lets have one for worst F1 team

www.f1rejects.com

I'll start off with: -

Life
Forti
Lola (1997 Mastercard) you know, the cowboy effort that they put together

[Speedworx]

Andrea Moda
Simtek
Pacific
Lotus
Jaguar
Prost

[OVERSTEER]

Originally posted by hakkiman
Andrea Moda
Simtek
Pacific
Lotus
Jaguar
Prost

I don't call a world championship winning team like Lotus one of the worst teams, that's just plain

[Lee Janotta]

#1: Andrea Moda
#2: Mastercard Lola
#3: Life

[Lola]

Lotus?!!!!!!!!!

How many GP race and championship wins?

Simtec wasnt that bad either. They just had a cash problem. Jos did and time wind that car up on occasions.

I would have to vote for Andrea Moda or Life

[racing_guru]

Both Jaguar and Prost in their previous guises as Stewart and Ligier had won a race a piece since 1996 and as Oversteer points out Lotus won World Championships. Certainly many better candidates for worst team ever out there.

[Yoong Montoya]

None of you have mentioned Coloni or Eurobrun. Coloni was in F1 for 4 years and only started something like 5 or 6 races. And Eurobrun went a whole season without making the grid once in 1989. Here's my top three:

1. Andrea Moda
2. Mastercard Lola
3. Forti

[nameless]

there cant be any contest, life. well maybe mastercard lola (but they had a good livery) and possibly andrea moda.

[Speedworx]

I included them because I only ever saw they when they were bad. I know its short sighted, but that just the way I am.

[Mania]

1. Prost
2. BAR
3. Forti

I put Prost on top cos Alain ruined what was a perfectly good team in Ligier and turned it into the disaster that became Prost Grand Prix.

BAR deserves to be on the list as the most expensive failure in F1 history.

As for the Fortis - no explanation required!

[f1manoz]

Andrea Moda - Biggest joke ever to hit the F1 circus. No money, old cars, and were there ever really engines in the cars??/

Life - Poor Gary Brabham. Driving that wretched beast for two rounds destroyed his driving career. The fact that the engine blew up every time the driver accelerated didn't help things.

Forti/Pacific - For these teams to have such good junior category records show that F1 is a whole new ball game. Pacific suffered through lack of development, Forti through lack of cash.

Eurobrun - Brun should have sticked to his slot cars!

[Aysedasi]

The worst team? What exactly does that mean, I wonder?

For me, the worst team right now is Ferrari.

Their dominance is killing F1.

But then again, do I really care..........

[alesi95]

I wonder what Dams and Dome would have been like if they had entered their F1 teams.

1.Life
2.Lola
3.Andrea Moda
4.Pacific (94 car was 3 year old Benetton concept)

[BootsOntheSide]

Andrea Moda were the most farcical by a long way, soem of their mistakes beggar belief. As for Life, they were basically launched to advertise their unique engine deisgn and get a top team to take it on, so its hilarious that the engine was maybe the worst ever seen in F1. Osella have to get a mention- in 10 years in F1 under tehir own name they were always one of the worst teams, with I think less points in all that time than Jaguar got in tehir first (although in fairness Jag had mroe than 10 times the investment!)

[Spinner]

What about the Fittipaldi car? That was a flop

[The Red BARon]

Originally posted by Lee Janotta
#1: Andrea Moda
#2: Mastercard Lola
#3: Life

Couldn't have said it better myself. Life, who never completd more than 2 consecutive pre qualifying laps in their W12 powered car in 1990. Andrea Moda ho never completed a single lap in qualifying in 92 - and of course Lola who thought the entire world would buy a Mastercard with a nice pictue of a Lola on it and provide them with a Ferrari style budget....and the car never saw a windtunnel!!!!!!!!!!

How many times have Lola shined in other formulas when they sold customer cars and made an abortive attempt on F1 that sullied their reputation - 93 with BMS Scuderia Italia...1988 with Larrousse (at least the 89-90 car scored a couple of points with Lambo power)....Mastercard in 97...their cars were invariably low tech, overweight and built from F3000 parts!!!!

[DavyboyLT1]

Out of the past 10 years or so, I'd have to put my votes in for (in no particular order) Lola, Forti, and Pacific.

[DNQ]

Andrea Moda - you've got to be kidding, right?

Jaguar - Yes, they've always qualified, and sometimes ran at the back of the midfield, but when you take into account the money, and Ford backing, it just doesn't add up.

Life - and to think they actually wanted to lease there engines to other teams...

Pacific - Pretty slack all around really...

ATS - from the 1960's, not the yellow eighties grid fillers - basically a breakaway Ferrari, but hopeless

Deserving a mention: Prost, Lambo, Forti, Coloni, Scarab, BAR (same reasons as Jaguar), Lola (overall - they've had the odd moment, but rubbish overall), Eiffland; there are more, can't think.

One final note - dont mention Simtek - they had a lot of things beyond there control that ruined them, namely a series of serious accidents in the middle of 1994 that destroyed FOUR cars - they had talent those people, not the money, I wish they had been able to hang on and be here today.

RIP Roland.

[f1manoz]

The Simtek story is probably one of the saddest chapters in Formula One history. A tragedy that ended in the sad demise of a promising team.

[Muzza]

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

[OVERSTEER]

How about Rial? I know they scored I think 4 points in 1988 or 89 but that was dissallowed. and how about Coloni?

[Super Tourer]

How about the Monteverdi Team that bought Onyx and ran the car from the Monteverdi car museum in Switzerland, using the guy's that worked on the vintage cars... - I seem to remember an interview with Stefan Johansson - He said when they put the rear axle on the wrong way round for the 2nd time, he knew he had to leave....

How about the last days of the Middlebridge Brabham Team with one D Hill as the driver....

[OVERSTEER]

well it's still classed as the Brabham team so it shouldn't be included.

[ghinzani]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
Osella have to get a mention- in 10 years in F1 under tehir own name they were always one of the worst teams, with I think less points in all that time than Jaguar got in tehir first (although in fairness Jag had mroe than 10 times the investment!)

10 times? make that 100 - I once heard it said that Osellas budget wouldnt keep Mclaren in walkie talkies... I loved Osella, they were a team you could really get behind - when they scored points in 82 and 84 they were delirious, when Paletti died in an Osella in June 82 they didnt run a second car for the rest of the season as a mark of respect. Enzo Osella was a man of great integrity, a real racer.

[Nicholas]

Originally posted by Super Tourer
He said when they put the rear axle on the wrong way round for the 2nd time, he knew he had to leave....

I've always wanted to know...how exactly does a car handle when the differential has been put on back to front?

And just how much of someone's classic car collection would be useable in an F1 car?