7 Formula 1 Teams That Were Completely Useless

1. Mastercard Lola

After several years providing chassis to other outfits in F1, Lola decided to enter its own team for the 1998 season. However, commercial pressures from main sponsor Mastercard meant it eventually debuted at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix.

An in-house V10 engine wasn’t finished in time and so the garish-liveried T97/30 used an underpowered Ford V8. The car’s worst flaw was its aerodynamics, which is no surprise considering it hadn’t been anywhere near a wind tunnel.

Vincenzo Sospiri and Ricardo Rosset were signed to race in Melbourne but in qualifying they were 11 and 13 seconds off the pace (you thought Manor were slow in F1 right now!). As they were well off the 107% pole position time, they failed to qualify for the race. The car never hit the track again and Lola withdrew from F1 shortly after.

2. Life

Despite having a positive, upbeat name, the Life team was an utter disaster. Using its own W12 3.5-litre engine, the Italian outfit tried to qualify for 14 races in 1990, but failed to make the grid at every single one.

The car was heavy, slow, unreliable and no faster than a Formula 3 car. Quite embarrassing. On one race weekend, the car ground to a halt after 400 yards, as the mechanics had gone on strike and hadn’t put any oil in it. The team withdrew two races before the end of the season and was never seen again.

3. Coloni

The team’s yellow FC187 debuted at the 1987 Italian Grand Prix, running a Cosworth engine. It competed in F1 until the 1991 Australian Grand Prix, and attempted to qualify for 82 races, only managing to do so at 14.

Out of those, the car was only classified as a finisher four times. Even a tie-up with Subaru in 1990 couldn’t help the team make the grid. At the end of 1991 the team’s assets were sold to Andrea Moda, who didn’t fare much better… The Coloni name later re-appeared in Formula 3000 and GP2.

4. Andrea Moda

Yet another 1990s failed F1 attempt from Italy, Andrea Moda tried to race 12 times, failing to pre-qualify for eight. It was excluded from competing at the 1992 season opener as it had not paid its fee for a new teams, and both cars – ex-Simtek chassis with Judd V10 engines – failed to run next time out.

The problems continued, with driver Perry McCarthy (the original Stig from Top Gear) failing to be given a super license for his first race, the team failing to pre-qualify, its lorries being stuck in a blockade by French truck drivers, reliability woes and – of course – a rubbish car. It did qualify for one race, with Roberto Moreno lapping Monaco 11 times before an engine failure.

In Belgium the team’s owner was arrested in the paddock for allegedly forging invoices and Andrea Moda was then refused entry in Italy, before disappearing from F1.

5. Maki

The ambitious Japanese project looked to fill the void left in F1 by Honda’s departure. The Maki F101 was an ugly-looking thing, with bulky bodywork and even a chunky windscreen. In 1974 the team entered two races with driver Howden Ganley, but he failed to qualify in Great Britain and badly injured his legs at the next race in Germany.

After withdrawing the car and heading back to Japan, a modified version of the car reappeared at the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix. It was unable to start the race as it broke down in practice, and the team failed to qualify for the four other races it entered that year. One last appearance at the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix brought a similar lack of success before Maki exited F1 for good.

6. EuroBrun

As well as an awful name, EuroBrun’s reputation and results in Formula 1 were pretty bad too. Initially, however, performances were promising, with the Cosworth-powered ER188 qualifying and finishing several 1988 races.

However, its successor failed to compete in a single 1989 event, failing to qualify for all 16 rounds. EuroBrun’s cars made the grid in just two more races in 1990 before withdrawing from F1, having started just 21 times in 76 attempts.

7. HRT Formula 1 Team

The Spanish outfit is the most recent team on this list. While it did actually race in F1 and finished some of them too, it was still wildly unsuccessful and exited the sport after just three seasons. It debuted in 2010 as one of three new teams, who had originally signed up for F1 when a cost cap was set to be in place. That failed and completely screwed them over.

Formerly known as Campos Meta 1 and Hispania Racing, the Dallara-designed cars were barely ready for the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix. It was a very rushed start, but things did eventually improve. After tension, the team cut ties with Dallara and designed its own car for 2011. It wasn’t much better, while lots of changes were going on behind the scenes.

The team’s drivers did not qualify to race for the 2012 season opener and the car continued to be the slowest in the field. Eventually in November of that year HRT was put up for sale, but failed to find a buyer.