15 Unusual F1 Car Concepts

formula one is the fastest and one of the most challenging racing series in the world that pits some of the planet's best racing drivers and manufacturers against one another amazingly there's been a formula one world championship every year since 1950 and with more than 100 different teams taking part in that time there have been a huge number of interesting and strange ideas for what the next best car would look like from historical designs to predictions for the future these are the 15 most unusual f1 car concepts ever created number 15 mclaren shapeshifter mclaren first began racing in formula one in 1966 and after having won eight constructors championships 12 drivers championships and 182 races since then they're one of the most established teams on the grid even if they haven't been performing well in recent years it's no surprise then that they're continually looking at potential new designs for cars but the most unusual and future facing of them all was the concept they revealed to the world that they think they could give an idea of what race cars in the 2050s will look like created by the team's sister company mclaren applied technologies the car which is called the mcl extreme has a top speed of 310 miles an hour is rear-wheel drive and is completely electric powered from a foldable battery that's fitted within the aerodynamic fixtures according to the designers the car could feature self-healing tires an on-board ai that will continuously be tweaking the hundreds of thousands of different settings and the car would be able to shape-shift to alter its aerodynamic profile to make it as efficient as possible through changing weather conditions and track temperatures if this truly is a sign for the future then formula one will surely be at the forefront of race car designs for decades to come number 14 tyrell p34 the tyrell racing organization took part in formula one between 1968 and 1998 and in many ways were involved in the championship during what purists believe was its heyday these were times when there were far fewer regulations surrounding how the cars could be designed and this let creative forces at the teams pursue virtually any avenue they wanted in order to shave off valuable seconds from their lap times the company was always known for interesting designs but their most radical was undoubtedly the p-34 it was created by derrick gardner the chief designer at tyrell and has become one of the most well known of the historic race cars mainly because it had six wheels there were four custom built ten inch diameter wheels at the front along with two normal sized wheels at the back and while this began life as a concept to show what would be possible tyrell actually built the p-34 and entered the championship in 1976 it proved to be surprisingly successful in that season which led to other manufacturers exploring six wheeled designs of their own but to prevent things from getting out of hand the regulatory body changed the rules to insist that each car only had four wheels and after the p-34's failure to perform well in the 1977 season it went down in history as the sport's one and only six-wheeled car number 13 the 1969 ferrari sigma if there's one car manufacturer that's synonymous with formula one both because of the success the team has had and the way it's been involved in the sport since the very beginning it's ferrari it's the one team every other strives to beat and the one where most drivers dream of having the opportunity to race for with such a huge design department at their facility because of their road car business they've managed to design a number of incredible concept cars one of the ones that stands out the most was actually created by pinaferina an italian coach building company that's often works with ferrari on various projects known as the ferrari sigma it was revealed in 1969 and almost looks as futuristic now as it did then based on the ferrari 312 the designer behind it had seen the dangers involved in formula one at the time and the number of drivers that had died in accidents due to the lack of safety standards the sigma therefore was not only designed to look futuristic but also took advantage of new ideas to make it safer to drive including a driver survival cell multi-layered fuel tanks a unique fire extinguisher system fuel tanks made from plastic protective body work to prevent the wheels getting caught up against other cars and a safety belt system despite being feasible in the 60s some of those ideas still haven't been incorporated into formula one car designs to this day something that shows how far ahead of its time this concept truly was number 12 renault twizy f1 competing in formula one is an incredibly expensive endeavor easily costing hundreds of millions of dollars a year if you want to be in the running to win races so it's only the world's biggest vehicle manufacturers that can commit these funds they still need to get something for this though and publicity isn't enough unfortunately for most of the technologies they develop for race cars can then be adapted to their road car businesses sometimes though this goes a little too far and in 2013 renault revealed a new concept car the twizy f1 the twizy itself was an electric micro car that had originated as a concept car but entered production due to its positive reception and already featured energy harvesting technologies used in formula one the f1 version was a completely different beast though and featured a kinetic energy recovery unit that's one of two electrical energy systems that enhanced the combustion engines used in the f1 cars along with a boosted electric motor that generated 97 horsepower this concept had a top speed of 68 miles per hour but an impressive acceleration that was on par with a renault mcgunn it was hardly going to win a world championship but it was interesting to see what the electric part of an f1 engine could do if it was operating on its own like chassis number 11 lotus 88 one of the aerodynamic abilities that's limited under current formula one design regulations is how much downforce can be created by cars this is essentially how much the cars stick to the road and affects how fast they can travel around corners it was an effect that was harnessed to the maximum during the late 70s however with so-called ground effect cars which exerted their drivers to huge lateral g-forces to try and stop things getting out of control the regulatory body restricted the use of skirts around the cars which were the main way the downforce was being generated so the design team at lotus found a new way around these rules by creating a main chassis inside another chassis and the lotus 88 was born it was incredibly fast and barely had to slow down when it went into turns but there was an uproar amongst the other teams who had designed cars for that season that complied with the intent of the new rules while the lotus 88 was fully built and intended to race in the 1981 season it was banned from the championship and remains nothing more than a concept car and one that would have almost completely won that season if it had been allowed to compete number 10 jamil rizzo's concept in recent years formula one has been taken over by new owners and management teams the man in charge of the technical side of the things is ross brawn he often takes part in interviews to talk about his vision of where car designs will go in the future following a particularly technical conversation in 2018 in which he spoke about the reduction of dirty air that the cars produce to increase the opportunity to overtake a designer called jameel rizza came up with this incredible concept of what the future vehicles could look like it's lacking some of the safety features like the halo that cars have to have now but that's likely so the true beauty of the curves and style of the car can be seen the stunning car is far more streamlined and aggressive than ones that compete today with a front wing that extends upwards far more than any current design and a similar aesthetic at the rear two it definitely looks futuristic but the effects of designing a car like this would also mean that it leaves less dirty air in its wake which in turn means a car approaching from behind would be able to get much closer and have far more chance to try to speed past main criticism of the sport right now is the lack of overtaking so if this can be increased while making cars look this much cooler and who could possibly complain number nine the renault 2027 vision renault's involvement in formula one has been on and off over the past few decades where the company has either simply manufactured the engines for other teams to use or it's used its own team to show its engineering capabilities this means the company is fully clued up on what is and isn't possible when it comes to the design of cars so any concept vehicle that's released from the design department is something to take note of that's why so many fans were excited when renault released details of the 2027 vision car what the company suggests could be completely feasible for racing in that year featuring a fully transparent cockpit which makes it far safer for the driver but also retains the illusion of open top racing each car would be custom designed based on the individual measurements of the driver beneath the wheel made from lightweight and highly resistant materials leds are embedded throughout the body work that can be used to present information to spectators such as the position the car is currently placing in the race and how much fuel or energy it still has with the c-shaped front and rear fin blade it takes inspiration from cars throughout renault's past but brings them roaring into the modern day we are constantly adding more people to the top fives production team to bring you all the best content be sure to subscribe with notifications on and hit the like button number eight williams fw07d nowadays it's rare that independent teams are able to succeed in formula one mainly because they aren't backed by the huge investment that some of the larger teams have but williams has been an ever-present force since first entering the championship in 1977. the team has won nine constructors championships including those in 1981 and 1982 and were looking for the next great design for use in 83. what they came up with was the spiritual successor to the fw07c that had won both those championships but the fw07d was an entirely different beast main change was that it went from being four wheeled to six but unlike other attempts to do this there were four wheels at the rear and two at the front the reason why this was a clever idea is that the rules were introduced to limit how much downforce a car could produce exempted any that was generated within the wheel arches by adding more wheels there was in theory a larger area that could be used to create downforce and so the car would be much speedier around turns than the four-wheel competitors despite being heavy on the track tess showed that the fw-07d concept to be a great race car but one that would never ultimately be entered into the championship after six-wheel cars were explicitly banned number seven the mp4-x concept in 2015 mclaren applied technologies the sister company of the mclaren f1 team released this amazing concept car that they call the mp4 x again with an enclosed cockpit design something there are increasing calls for in order to improve safety this car almost looks like it's built around the canopy of a fighter jet rather than a road vehicle furthermore the wheels are completely enclosed too which is another safety feature to prevent them from making contact with and becoming entangled with the wheels of other cars and would also allow them to be surrounded by sensors that could give real-time data on precisely when they've worn away too much and needed to be changed there's also highly sophisticated aerodynamics principles in play to give the car as much downforce as possible and an active rear wing that the company says would be fitted with charged electrodes that could be used to turn the air around the wings into plasma based around what everyone expects f1 will eventually have no choice about in the future the mp4x would be fully electric powered and this design has the batteries built within the body work where they can harvest energy from the brakes from solar panels across the entire vehicle and potentially even inductive charging that's built into the tracks [Music] number six miele's lilimet's concept while most future car concepts for formula one involve much slicker looking cars this idea created by miles lilamet takes things in a different direction known as the formula e concept it takes design inspiration from f1 cars throughout history particularly the boxy body work that was commonplace in the 70s and 80s and the electric drivetrain that's begun to be introduced in the past decade and is expected to completely replace the combustion engine within the next decade or so it has protectors around the wheels to both protect and monitor the tires which looks unusual compared to modern designs but certainly gives it a futuristic edge this concept too has an enclosed cockpit something that most people expect to become a requirement in f1 soon but this one is transparent and specifically designed without any seams or parting lines to make it feel for the drivers as close as possible to racing in an open cockpit the cockpit is also positioned unusually far forward and this gives room for the battery packs and motors behind it with huge intakes on either side to keep the motor and the brakes cooled with the passing air it's conceivable that a large enough battery pack could be fitted to this car that it could compete an entire race to the same distance being raced today without needing to recharge number five the future ferrari ferrari's road cars are some of the most beautiful and in-demand vehicles on earth and their formula one designs are normally equally as stunning as the team that's been involved in the support of the longest out of all of them and the most recognizable and most supportive of all those on the grid it's in the dna of ferrari to push formula one forward as much as they can and this includes developing future concepts to try to help guide the design principles of this sport the creatives at centro style ferrari the company that's design studio did this by making the car more streamlined and curvy than current regulations permit and one that virtually everyone agrees would be a significant improvement on current designs this wasn't simply a vanity project or ferrari showing off their creative skills but a purposeful political ploy too at the time these images were released the teams and authorities of f1 were in discussions around how technical regulations could be changed for the future and by seeing the overwhelmingly positive response to this concept it was hoped that some of the changes needed to make this possible would be voted through number four mclaren honda closed cockpit concept andreas von overbeak is a car enthusiast serious f1 fan and someone involved in creative vehicle design so who's better to create a concept that would stay true to what the sport's about while providing some serious eye candy for fans covered in mclaren honda livery he was inspired to do this after several accidents involving drivers and open top cars and knew that the cars of the future would almost inevitably feature closed cockpits this is highly controversial in the f1 community with most people holding on to the idea that this would lose an element of excitement and limit the sensations that the drivers experience but if it means it saves lives then surely it's an idea that's worth exploring in this concept the cockpit is transparent so the fans can still see the driver inside and it's heavily inspired by car designs of the past decade the side pods for example are similar to those that were used by mclaren in 2011 and the only main departure from current designs are the curved wings wider rear tires and a slightly increased width of the overall car and a smaller front wing which means the car isn't as sensitive to turbulent air being produced by any cars ahead of it on the track number three brabham bt46 fan car originally starting out as a concept the brabham bt26 fan car will probably go down in history as the most unusual car to have actually entered competition in the formula one championship and arguably shows why the rules are now so strict about the developments teams are able to incorporate into their designs created for the 1978 season at a time when all teams were trying to find the way they could increase downforce gordon murray was the lead designer of the team at the time came up with an unbelievable idea the original a version of the car had some serious design flaws that led to it overheating and as a result becoming prone to failure during the race so to counter this they installed a giant fan at the back or at least that's what they claimed there was a convenient side effect of it being positioned exactly where it was and that was also that it sucked the air out from beneath the car to give it a huge amount of down force things became even more suspicious when it was noticed that when the car was in the trackside garage the team would cover the fan with a dustbin lid so no one could see what it was truly doing it only raced in this configuration once in the championship during the 1978 grand prix in sweden and unsurprisingly it easily beat every other car on the field it was such an overwhelming victory that the other teams complained to the regulatory body and despite them ruling that it was legal to race for the rest of the season probham quickly withdrew this particular design for a fear that it continued use would lead to the collapse of the formula one constructors association where the teams work together to improve the sport number two the mercedes overbig concept mercedes is one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world and over the past decade has become the team to beat in formula one despite being involved intermittently since the 1950s mercedes team only won its first constructors championship in 2014 and has gone on to win every year since then as they're at the forefront of design right now anyone who tries to envisage what formula one cars will look like in the future will inevitably think of how mercedes will design theirs that's why when andreas von overbeak who's a renowned car designer from the netherlands came up with a concept for what he thinks the vehicle will look like in 2025 he took the design approach that mercedes applied to all of their cars taking inspiration from the futuristic aesthetic of fighter jets this concept is also assumed that f1 safety rules will continue to be improved and departs from some of the design features that most people have come to expect from an f1 car the obvious difference is that it has a fully enclosed cockpit something that's a controversial idea with purists but there's no doubt that in this example it's been done in an incredible way beyond the way it looks the other big difference in this car is that most of the parts have been designed so they can be 3d printed which means it would also be cheaper to produce than the cars that are raced today number one the red bull x 2014 red bull is of course best known as an energy drink manufacturer but the company has invested huge sums in extreme and exciting sports around the world and one of the biggest commitments is running not one but two formula one teams for a number of years they were the dominant force in the sport this was mainly thanks to the efforts of their lead designer adrian newey as with all designers involved with f1 it was both a challenge and an annoyance for him that there were so many rules about what can and can't be done to the design of the car they often dream of being able to create something without limitations knew he was given this opportunity in 2013 as a part of the newly released gran turismo 6 video game known as the x-2014 this was a no-holds-barred racing machine that can be used in the game and its stats were incredible with a 3-liter twin-turbo v6 engine it had a theoretical top speed of 249 miles an hour and has a fan installed in the back to give a huge amount of downforce of course as it was never built in real life we can never be sure just how much of an improvement over the same year's redbull f1 car it would have been but there was a way to get an idea the team's lead driver sebastian vettel used the game to drive his actual f1 car around the nurburgring and then the x-2014 and amazingly the x-2014 completed a lap in a massive 30 seconds quicker watch our vehicles playlist for more top 15 videos 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Channel: Top Fives

Views: 2,582,990

Keywords: Unusual F1 Car Concepts, forumula one

Id: 4aQGwXgoC-A

Length: 19min 54sec (1194 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Glum_Term4022]

Tie-rel just killed it for me

[u/Multitronic]

“Tie-rell”

[u/ramachetan]

Insane Aerodynamics

[u/-Tasogare-]

The thing with concept cars for the future is that it just looks cool its not necessarily the fastest

[u/Such_Try4171]

Isn't the narrator/commentator the same guy for Simple History?

[u/[deleted]]

These are all very cool cars. I love seeing the future cars.

[u/Maarte]

Wonder why they picked that specific mcLaren pitstop.