The best F1 cars never to win a GP

Many good Formula 1 cars got their day in the sun, even if they weren't the benchmarks in a given season. But sometimes bad luck, poor timing or unusual circumstances combine to stop deserving machines crossing the line first.

There have been some very good F1 cars that failed to win a world championship grand prix, which made finalising this top 10 a challenge.

To do so we took into account many factors, including the overall level of the candidates, how close they came to winning a GP and what stopped them succeeding. We also spoke to some of the key figures involved.

Here are the results, which first appeared in Autosport magazine in December 2017.

10. Williams FW06

Best result: 2nd (1978 United States GP)

Best qualifying: 3rd

Designer: Patrick Head

This was a breakthrough design for Williams. New signing and solo entrant Alan Jones was a points-scoring threat in the neat DFV-engined machine and took 11th in the 1978 drivers' table.

Jones grabbed everyone's attention at Long Beach, charging up to second before a misfire struck, and another highlight came at Watkins Glen. Jones qualified third and finished second behind Carlos Reutemann's Ferrari.

The FW06 provided the launchpad for Williams, Head and Jones to become grand prix winners - and ultimately champions - with the FW07.

Q&A Patrick Head, Williams co-founder

Where does the FW06 rank when you consider all the F1 cars you designed?

The FW06 ranks fairly high in my memory, as it was a car designed in our very early days. Part way through the design, Neil Oatley joined me. He had no previous car design experience, but we were the only two in the design office. It was a very simple car, limited by our resources and knowledge. No windtunnel time supported the design.

I knew that it would not be fast enough to win races - we had seen the [ground-effect] Lotus of 1978, but I had no knowledge of how it functioned. I thought that the FW06 would be close behind. We were in race-winning positions, either actual or potential, a number of times, but they were not achieved due to unreliability.

How pleased were you with it, particularly given it was the first F1 car you designed?

I suppose I was pleased that it mostly put us midfield or above, as in the previous year we had often not qualified. The target is always to win, so I could not be too pleased, but it served its purpose for our embryonic team.

"The front wing had excessive curvature resulting in partial separations at low rideheights, but we only realised late in the car's development" Patrick Head

What were its strengths and weaknesses?

The FW06's strengths were simplicity, overall structural integrity, light weight and sound systems. Drivers commented that it was well balanced and enjoyable to drive. Our quality assurance systems and standards within the factory were not sufficiently developed to provide reliability. The front wing had excessive curvature resulting in partial separations at low rideheights, but we only realised late in the car's development.

How important was the FW06 to Williams, given the success of the subsequent FW07?

When we started Williams Grand Prix Engineering in late March 1977 we had eight employees. By the start of 1978, when we ran one FW06, we had less than 20 employees. This to design, manufacture and build the FW06, and then operate it in the field. When the team went racing, there were probably four people left back in the factory.

The FW06 was a simple car, not costly to make and fitted the requirements of the team well at that time. Budgets were very small - in 1977 with a purchased March and operating a single car, the complete budget including purchase of car and engines was £180,000! This might fund a current GP team for a couple of days now.

9. Jordan 197

Best result: 2nd (1997 Belgian GP)

Best qualifying: 2nd

Designer: Gary Anderson

We almost picked the Jordan 191 for this list, but former Jordan designer Gary Anderson reckoned the team's 1997 contender was a better choice: "The Jordan 197 was strong right out of the box and was good enough to win on the right weekend if everyone did a good job.

"At the initial Jerez test the car wasn't quite ready so Ralf Schumacher, who was a rookie for 1997, got some mileage in the 1996 car. Then he got in the 197 and, after the shakedown laps, on his first proper run he found it was a massive improvement in terms of performance and driveability. When he came in he had a massive smile on his face. Alongside him, we had Giancarlo Fisichella.

"We never ran the car on low fuel and fresh rubber, so when we got to the first race in Australia we struggled in qualifying [in 12th and 14th]. But we tested at Silverstone afterwards and sorted out the balance in that trim and after that the car was a joy to work with.

"Giancarlo finished second at Spa and third in Canada, with Ralf third in Argentina after they collided with each other. But we didn't quite get the win, which was a shame.

"The German Grand Prix was the best race we did. Fisi started second and led after the stops but spent too much time looking in his mirrors and Gerhard Berger passed him. Then he got a puncture from running over a piece from Jan Magnussen's Cosworth engine and tore up the sidepod.

"Had Rubens Barrichello stayed with the team, it's possible we might have got that win. It's not that he was more talented, but he was ready. He wouldn't have had the Argentina collision and would have handled leading in Germany well.

"The car was good in high-downforce too - in Monaco we qualified fourth and sixth. Rubens finished second that year for Stewart, so just maybe in the Jordan he could have gone one better."

8. Lola Mk4/4A

Best result: 2nd (1962 British and German GPs)

Poles: 1

Designer: Eric Broadley

Not many constructors win a world championship grand prix with their first F1 design, but Lola nearly managed it in 1962. Reg Parnell commissioned Lola to build cars for John Surtees and Roy Salvadori, run under the Bowmaker Racing Team banner.

Salvadori struggled and suffered poor reliability, but Surtees was competitive immediately. He took pole on the car's debut at the Dutch GP (though the time was disputed by some), but crashed out when the suspension broke.

Lola still beat Porsche and Ferrari to fourth in the 1962 constructors' table and Surtees was fourth in the drivers' standings

Chassis flex was a problem on the spaceframe car, but extra tubes were added around the cockpit during the campaign. The final car built had body panels welded to the chassis, creating a semi-monocoque.

After Zandvoort in May, Surtees scored points in the next five GPs, including two second places in the German and British GPs. At Silverstone, the Lola was the only car to finish within a minute of Jim Clark's revolutionary moncoque Lotus 25, while at the Nurburgring Surtees was narrowly beaten by Graham Hill's BRM after a titanic struggle in tricky conditions.

Surtees did score an F1 victory with the car, the non-championship Mallory Park 2000 Guineas, an event that included Clark, Hill and Jack Brabham. The team's form - and, perhaps more importantly, its budget - disappeared thereafter, but Lola still beat Porsche and Ferrari to fourth in the constructors' table and Surtees was fourth in the drivers' standings.

7. Matra MS120

Best result: 3rd (1970 Monaco GP, Belgian and Italian GPs; 1971 Spanish GP; 1972 French GP)

Poles: 2

Designers: Gerard Ducarouge and Bernard Boyer

After parting company with Ken Tyrrell and Jackie Stewart, a combination that had dominated 1969 with Matra chassis and Cosworth DFV power, the French concern ran its own team in 1970. Various iterations of the MS120 were used over the next three seasons and, although rarely a pacesetter, it should have been a winner. In fact, it was.

After a solid season and three podiums with Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo, Matra signed Chris Amon for 1971 and he promptly won the non-championship Argentinian GP, albeit against limited opposition in a combined F1/F5000 field.

More impressive was third at the Spanish GP, but the MS120B's best opportunity to win came at the pre-chicane Monza, where the wailing V12 could stretch its legs.

Amon beat Jacky Ickx's Ferrari to pole by 0.42s and, having stayed in the slipstreaming lead pack early on, moved to the front on lap 37 of 55. He looked strong there, only to accidentally remove both his visors instead of one and get hit in the face by the high-speed airflow. He lost the lead and fuel vaporisation issues meant he finished sixth.

Matra scaled back to one car for 1972 and the introduction of the stiffer MS120D for the French GP should have provided the team - and Amon - a long-awaited first victory.

Amon took pole, held off Denny Hulme (McLaren) and Stewart (Tyrrell) while the thirsty V2 burned off its extra fuel load, then started to edge away.

"The MS120D felt very good straight out of the box," Amon told Autosport in 2011. "Right from early on I knew we had a pretty good chance."

But stones being dragged onto the circuit caused several punctures and Amon was one of those afflicted. A slow tyre change left the Matra eighth, but Amon charged through the field. Lapping two seconds faster than eventual winner Stewart, Amon rose to third.

"I really felt nobody could touch me that day," he rued. "I had a clear margin over everyone."

Amon would never lead another GP and Matra withdrew from F1 at the end of 1972.

6. March 711

Best result: 2nd (1971 Monaco, British, Italian and Canadian GPs)

Best qualifying: 5th

Designers: Robin Herd and Frank Costin

Arguably the ugliest car on this list, the March 711 is probably the only one that could be said to have overperformed. Given that March was only the seventh-fastest team on supertimes and failed to score a pole despite having rising star Ronnie Peterson on its books, fourth in the 1971 constructors' championship must be considered a success.

The 711 came closer to a GP victory than any car on this list, Peterson losing out to Peter Gethin's BRM by 0.01 seconds in the famous five-car finish at the Italian GP at Monza

Crucially, the car was reliable, allowing Peterson to benefit from his spectacular press-on style. Often a major threat in races, Peterson scored five podiums on his way to the runner-up spot.

The 711 has the distinction of coming closer to a GP victory than any car on this list, Peterson losing out to Peter Gethin's BRM by 0.01 seconds in the famous five-car finish at the Italian GP at Monza.

Peterson also starred in the wet Canadian GP at Mosport, charging up from row three to battle the Tyrrell of Jackie Stewart for the lead. They swapped places several times and were still together when Peterson tripped over a backmarker at half-distance, damaging the March. He continued to finish second, but there was no chance of catching Stewart.

And so the 711, almost certainly a better car than the 701, failed to follow in the GP-winning wheeltracks of its predecessor. It would be another four years before March won again.

=4 Lotus 95T and Renault RE50

95T

Best result: 2nd (1984 Detroit GP)

Poles: 2

Designer: Gerard Ducarouge

RE50

Best result: 2nd (1984 Belgian, French and British GPs)

Poles: 1

Designers: Michel Tetu and Bernard Dudot

These two 1984 machines belong together. Not only did they achieve similar performance, they were powered by the same turbocharged Renault EF4 engine and both probably deserved to be winners.

The 95T, driven by Nigel Mansell and Elio de Angelis, was more reliable, helping to explain why Lotus finished third in the constructors' table, two spots ahead of Renault. Mansell famously crashed out in the wet at Monaco, shortly after taking the lead, and Lotus even locked out the front row at Dallas. But the Renault came closer to winning a GP.

"I think I could have won three or four races in that car," reckons Derek Warwick, who picks out the RE50 as one of the three best cars of his long career. "Same for [team-mate] Patrick Tambay - we just had too many mechanicals."

Warwick was only running at the end of four of the 16 races and each time he was on the podium, underlining the car's pace. He also nearly won the season opener in Brazil, retiring from the lead in the closing stages thanks to suspension failure, probably the legacy of a clash with Niki Lauda's McLaren.

Tambay scored a pole, but the poor reliability record stifled Renault and the car's fuel consumption was also an issue in an era of fuel restrictions. And yet Warwick remains a fan of the RE50: "When I first drove it out of the pitlane I thought, 'Wow, what is this?' It just felt right, it felt smooth, and we were instantly quick.

"It was a good engine with good power right the way through the range and the chassis was very responsive to change. We knew we had the chance to win races."

3. Shadow DN5

Best result: 3rd (1975 Austrian GP)

Poles: 3

Designer: Tony Southgate

This is the only car on our list that scored three pole positions, and it was also an F1 winner, thanks to Tom Pryce's victory in the non-championship 1975 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. Across the season, Shadow was faster than both March and Hesketh, which took a win apiece.

"We had silly problems - some of our making, some not. If Lotus had the cars they'd have done much better" Tony Southgate

"The car worked aerodynamically - it was better than the opposition," asserts its designer Tony Southgate. "It was the first car I developed on a rolling road. It made the centre of pressure more accurate and when it got to the track it just worked.

"At Interlagos Jean-Pierre Jarier was the only one who could go flat through the first corner. It was a high-downforce car so it was no good at high-speed tracks. It was competitive but we let ourselves down with reliability."

Jarier took pole for the first two races of 1975. Crown wheel and pinion failure prevented him from even starting in Argentina, but he dominated in Brazil, having been 0.8s clear of reigning champion Emerson Fittipaldi's McLaren in qualifying. Jarier was only eight laps from home when the cam arm of his fuel metering unit seized.

"No-one had ever had that before and it would be us!" says Southgate. "After the race the car started up and it never happened again."

Shadow also suffered with Hewland's new TL gearbox, which was supposed to be stronger, but suffered teething problems.

It wasn't just unreliability that hurt the DN5, though - having two inexperienced drivers didn't help on occasion.

"At Monaco we were super-quick, although Niki Lauda beat us to pole, and then both guys crashed," says Southgate.

Pryce then spun out of the British GP, after taking pole, though he was not alone in making an error on a day when a sudden shower arrived.

"It was a bit like that all the way through the year," adds Southgate. "We had silly problems - some of our making, some not.

"If Lotus had the cars they'd have done much better. They had more than twice the budget and got the best engines you could get.

"We also got distracted at Shadow. We did F5000 and Jarier convinced [team founder] Don Nichols to put a Matra V12 engine in the DN5 [to create the DN7]. There had to be more cooling and a bigger fuel tank. It was heavier and bigger so it went the same speed. Jarier did two races and then decided he wanted to go back to the Cosworth car.

"We lost the edge because of other distractions."

2. BAR 006

Best result: 2nd (2004 San Marino, Monaco, German and Chinese GPs)

Poles: 1

Designer: Geoff Willis

In almost any other year, the car finishing second in the constructors' table could be expected to win several races. But the BAR-Honda 006 had the misfortune of coming up against Ferrari's F2004, surely one of the greatest F1 cars of all time. That meant team leader Jenson Button took a pole and 10 podiums but no victories.

Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello won all but three of the 18 races for Ferrari.

Takuma Sato suffered a few reliability problems, but such was Button's score - he was 26 points clear of fourth-placed Fernando Alonso in the drivers' standings - that BAR took second anyway

In terms of supertimes, the BAR was closer to the pacesetter than any other car on this list - 0.218% - but that is misleading. Ferrari's Bridgestone rubber, which was specially developed for the F2004, was not at its best early on in a stint. That made Ferrari's qualifying performance weaker relative to its opposition than its race pace, which was crushing.

This was also the era of qualifying with fuel loads required to start the race, further skewing the figures. Imola, scene of Button's pole, provided a fine example. The BAR was 2.8s ahead at the end of lap one. Schumacher then closed in and unleashed the Ferrari's pace during the pitstops.

"I came in on lap nine, Michael stopped two laps later, and when he came out I could barely see him!" said Button in the official F1 season review. "On pure pace, Ferrari was around a second a lap quicker than us."

It was a similar story at Monza, where Schumacher spun on lap one and Barrichello started on wets, which was the wrong call. After making up for a poor start, Button thus led almost half the race, but could do nothing about the recovering Ferraris demoting him to third. The best F2004 lap was 1.2s quicker than anything else and 1.6s faster than Button's.

All bar one of Button's podiums came in races Ferrari won, perhaps the best being the charge from 13th to second at Hockenheim.

The Ferrari slip-up came at Monaco, where the BAR finished within half a second of winner Jarno Trulli. Button caught the Renault in the closing stages, but could not find a way by.

Takuma Sato suffered a few reliability problems, but such was Button's score - he was 26 points clear of fourth-placed Fernando Alonso in the drivers' standings - that BAR took second anyway.

The 960bhp machine wasn't without innovation, either. BAR arrived at the German GP with a torque-transfer braking system, which was immediately banned.

The 006 was stable under braking, forgiving and competitive at most circuits, even if it wasn't always strong off the line.

It was just unfortunate to be a very good car that came up against an extraordinary one.

1. Brabham BT45B

Best result: 2nd (1977 French GP)

Poles: 1

Designer: Gordon Murray

"Ferrari was getting very competitive with its 12-cylinder engine and Bernie and I thought we needed a 12," summarises designer Gordon Murray on Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone's move from Cosworth DFV power to Alfa Romeo for 1976.

"It was a massive challenge going from the Cosworth as a stressed member [in the 1975 BT44B] to the flat-12, which couldn't be a stressed member. It was also much heavier and an awkward shape, and much thirstier. It was a culture shock."

Watson ended the 1977 campaign with one podium and just nine points, but he should have scored at least three times that many

The BT45 ended up with five fuel tanks and had a very mediocre season in '76, but the car's successor was much more competitive. The BT45B featured engine, gearbox, suspension and aero revisions.

It was still heavy - 615kg, around 25-35kg heavier than its main rivals - and had to start with more fuel than its opposition, but it was fast.

"It was just learning about the issues, optimising the engine and tidying up the aero," recalls Murray. "It wasn't a bad car, but then ground-effects came along."

The ground-effect Lotus 78 was the quickest car of 1977, but the technology wasn't yet perfected and constant problems with the development Cosworth engines allowed others to win races. Based on supertimes, Brabham was the third-fastest team of the season. Ferrari, which ended up taking both the drivers' and constructors' crowns, was fourth...

Brabham favourite Carlos Pace put the BT45B on the front row on its debut at the 1977 South African GP. The Brazilian was then killed in a plane accident, but Penske refugee John Watson became a frontrunner thereafter, joined in the team by Hans Stuck. Watson's first chance of victory came at Monaco, where he took pole by 0.41s but lost the lead to Jody Scheckter's Wolf at the start.

"I then overdrove trying to push Jody into a mistake and pushed the car too hard," admits Watson, who retired with gearbox problems. Next time out, Watson jumped poleman Mario Andretti to lead the wet Belgian GP at Zolder, only to be hit out of the race by the Lotus on the opening lap.

But the closest near-misses were yet to come. At Dijon for the French GP, Watson quickly overcame fast-starter James Hunt and started to pull away. Eventually polesitter Andretti made it by Hunt's McLaren and the Lotus 78 closed in. Andretti pressed for a way by, but Watson seemed equal to the task.

"The Lotus was more nimble, but when the Brabham got to the straight I was able to stretch my legs enough and pull away," recalls Watson. "It must have been very frustrating for Mario - tough!"

That was until the final lap, when the Alfa engine spluttered briefly for reasons "never fully explained".

"Mario got alongside me and that was that," adds Watson. "It was disappointing because we'd done the nine yards. I should have won the race."

Two weeks later at Silverstone, fuel pick-up problems again cost Watson the chance of victory. Hunt's McLaren M26 beat Watson to pole, but the Brabham grabbed the lead at the start. Once he had recovered from his poor getaway, Hunt caught the Brabham, but he could not prise an opening. Then, after 49 of the 68 laps, the fuel issue struck the BT45B and Watson pitted. More fuel was put in, but the trouble soon returned and the Brabham retired.

Watson ended the campaign with one podium and just nine points, but he should have scored at least three times that many.

"There were a number of opportunities in 1977," concludes Watson. "Gordon did a brilliant job with the packaging and the car didn't have any vices. It was essentially a good car and was very quick with low fuel.

"At certain circuits the heavier fuel load [for races] was less noticeable - fast, flowing circuits such as Dijon and Silverstone."

"The Alfa was a brilliant engine, but it was heavy and it didn't have as low a centre of gravity as the DFV" John Watson

Stuck's season was less impressive but he saw the finish more often, scoring two podiums and ending up two places higher (11th) in the standings. His best chance of victory came at Watkins Glen, where the rainmaster dominated the early wet stages of the United States GP (East), despite clutch failure. He was leading comfortably after 14 laps when the Brabham jumped out of gear and spat him off.

Despite the questionable advantages of the Alfa powerplant - and the fuel-system problems - Watson believes Ecclestone's engine deal was a risk worth taking.

"The Alfa was a brilliant engine, but it was heavy and it didn't have as low a centre of gravity as the DFV," he says. "Alfa also messed around with them - there was meant to be a pool of identical engines, but you were never 100% sure they were always the same.

"There was a variety of reasons Ferrari had won in 1975, [only] one of which was the engine. It was probably a bit lighter and smaller than the Alfa, but overall Ferrari came up with a really competitive package. The Alfa wasn't a wrong gamble."

Niki Lauda obviously didn't think so either, as he left Ferrari to join the Brabham-Alfa squad for 1978...