Another guest post for you now. This time from Ned Flanders. He’s taken time off from Church and combing his moustache to bring us a fantastic top ten, this time on the oddest team names to grace F1.
Some are hilarious, some embarrassing and some are just plain rubbish. So take it away, Ned…
F1 team names have been a topic of discussion lately with the Lotus- Renault/ Renault- Lotus mess dominating the news. It got me thinking- why couldn’t they both just stop trying to jump on the Lotus bandwagon and come up with something a bit more original. Team Grapefruit, perhaps? Chimpanzee GP, maybe? Talula does the Hula from Hawaii, at a push? Oh wait, that’s taken…
Anyway, my point is that I do love it when team owners think outside the box when it comes to naming their F1 challengers. So here are a collection of teams that chose their titles from the left-field.
10. Super Aguri
No name in motor racing history possesses even a fraction of the banzaiosity of the legendary Super Aguri. A team basically created to appease the angry Japanese masses by keeping their hero Takuma Sato in F1, Super Aguri proved to be one of the most popular underdogs in F1 history in their short stay in the sport.
In fact, so highly regarded was their title that there was even talk of all 11 team principals on the grid rebranding their organisations in similar terms. Sadly, the plans failed, as Mario Thiessen was vehement in his opposition…
9. Spirit
You could be forgiven for thinking that this team had links to the Catholic Church, but there was nothing holy about this Spirit. The team raced in 25 races in the early 80’s before folding due to financial troubles.
Perhaps the team should’ve asked the Vatican for sponsorship funds?
8. Shadow
I do love a team named after an abstract noun. Without a shadow of a doubt, this shady outfit deserves a place on the list.
7. Onyx
Rarely do we see the letters Y and X side by side in any word, never mind a Formula 1 team name. Onyx Grand Prix, to give them their official title, were a moderately successful team in the late 80’s and early 90’s, scoring an impressive 3rd place at the 1989 Portuguese courtesy of Stefan Johansson, before folding the following season. But don’t ask me how to pronounce their name…
6. All American Racers
Yeehah! Get Mom’s apple pie out of the oven, pass me some pretzels and fly the stars and stripes- it’s time for the All American Racers! U- S- A! U- S- A! On a technicality, they were forced to label their F1 outfit the Anglo American Racers, yet the team remained thoroughly Yankified.
Unfortunately, you won’t see either iteration of AAR in the F1 record books- during their three year stint in F1 they tended to go by the name of their cars, Eagle. But of course the eagle is an American symbol, typifying the nation more than any other animal… Except perhaps a Snorlax.
5. Footwork
When Japanese businessman Wataru Ohashi bought into the notoriously unsuccessful Arrows team in the early 1990’s, the outfit was rebranded to share the name with a company he owned, Footwork.
Predictably, their six year F1 spell was about as uninspiring as the team name itself. The team will probably be remembered for that incident involving Taki Inoue and a medical car…
4. Token
Yep… There really was a team called Token. The short lived Token team entered four events in the 1974 season, before pulling out of motorsport altogether and focusing on slot machine’s instead.
3. EuroBrun
Take two lower formulae racing teams: Euroracing and Brun Motorsport. Fuse them together with the aim of creating an F1 superteam. And what do you get?
One of the most unsuccessful teams of an era, and with a terrible name to match: EuroBrun. It almost conjures images of a notorious late night TV programme shown here in the UK!
2. Tecno
This team of loony ravers spent to unsuccessful seasons in F1 in 1972 and 1973. Rumour has it that the legendary Techno Viking derived his name for the team’s exploits.
1. Trojan
The Trojan team discovered long before any of their rivals the advantages of making money from their brand name. Even now, over 30 years since their demise, their team merchandise remains on sale in pub toilets worldwide.
Got an idea for a Top Ten or want to write your own? Let me know via comments, Twitter or Facebook.
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