F1: The 50 Greatest Looking Cars Of All Time
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
No. 25 through No. 21
25. Minardi PS02
Over the course of its twenty year history in Formula 1, Minardi were never a team which claimed significant success.
Yet the Italian team was popular among fans, and many were sad to see the Minardi name leave the sport.
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In 2005 Red Bull bought the team, making it its ‘rookie’ team and renaming it Scuderia Toro Rosso. This new team, now a decade old itself, is credited with a number of notable names such as Sebastian Vettel, Sebastian Buemi, and Daniel Ricciardo.
Not to be outdone, Minardi has its own impressive alumni; Fernando Alonso, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli, and Mark Webber to name a few. Its failings due to a lack a funds rather than talent.
Though never winning a race, Minardi did manage to produce some impressive cars, the PS02 being one.
24. BAR 01
After taking control of Tyrrell Formula One, British American Tobacco renamed the team British American Racing the following year.
BAR, as it was now known, signed current world champion, Jacques Villeneuve and set about preparing for their debut season with goals set high.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Paul Lannuier, Wikimedia Commons
The team claimed it would win a race in its first season, however, such an event failed to transpire.
BAR’s results were actually less than mediocre, with Villeneuve retiring from eleven of the sixteen races.
More ‘striking’ than good looking, the 01’s duel livery usually overshadows BAR’s disastrous year, and one which remains a talking point today.
23. Auto Union racing car
The Auto Union racing cars of the 1930s, alongside their German counterparts, Mercedes, dominated formula racing.
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Winning a stunning 25 races between 1935 and 1937, the Type A, B, C, and D ‘Silver Arrows’ are legends of the sport.
Unfortunately, very little of them remain. Many were used for scrap metal or either captured in the war by Soviet forces, and subsequently taken back to Russia.
Though some of these beautiful racing cars have been rediscovered, no Type A or Bs are yet to be found.
22. Mercedes-Benz W196 Open Wheel
The W196 competed in two championship seasons in 1954 and 1955, dominating them both.
Driven by none other than Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss, it won nine of 12 races, secured eight pole starts, and managed nine fastest laps.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lothar Spurzem, Wikimedia Commons
These results would have already made certain that the striking W196 would be remembered, yet ‘what ifs?’ are still attached to the racer.
The W196’s DNA was used to create the 300 SLR, a car which dominated the 1955 World Sportscar Championship until a catastrophic accident at Le Mans occurred that same year.
The accident which killed 84 people, including the 300 SLR’s driver Pierre Levegh, led Mercedes to cancel its racing program; the company not returning to Formula 1 for more than three decades.
The W196 project was shelved, with the car’s full potential possibly never being shown.
21. Aston Martin DBR4 (pictured above)
Following on from recent successes in the World Sportscar Championship, Aston Martin decided the time was right to see if such success could be carried over into Formula 1.
Driven by the same team who would go on to win the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans, Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby couldn’t get much, if anything, out of the DBR4.
The car, which was already significantly out of date at the time of its unveiling in 1959, was replaced by the equally bad but less pretty DBR5.
After only its second season in the sport, Aston Martin pulled out of Formula 1 and haven’t returned since.