Failures of Motorsports - Car Designs, Team Mistakes and More

[prisonermonkeys]

Ah, I come from a rallying family. Fog is to be revelled in.

 

[Legro]

Skoda Fabia WRC

For Skoda Motorsport the early half of the 2003 World Rally Championship season, had been the best one yet. Both cars had had almost consistent point finishes. The introduction of the Fabia WRC in the middle of the season stopped this, as the car was both riddled with different mechanical issues and quite frankly lacked any real speed, so Skoda then decided that taking the 2004 season as a development season was needed, and only entered few rallies, with varying level of low success, with an odd points finish. The 2005 season, which was the first full season for the car that, the team ran Armin Schwartz in all events but Swedish Rally, the other two cars were driven by a list of drivers long enough to form their own World Championship. Skoda then ended the already rather embarrassing WRC programme to a last place of the Manufacturers Championship, with only a fraction of the points the second to last Mitsubishi had gathered.

 

[JR98]

FIA GT Wieth Racing

Wieth Racing participated in the FIA GT in the 2003 season with the 550 Maranello (A car that would win the championship 2 years in a row at the hands of BMS Scuderia Italia) and failed miserably. In their first (and only) season they scored a total of 3 points, which was less than most of the NGT teams. The cars finished 6 out of the 10 races, only 2 of which it managed to score in the points. It was not even classified at Donington Park as it wasn't able to complete 70% of the race winner's total distance (112 Laps)

 

[Tornado]

Might as well reference the 2013 British Grand Prix.

I'd say the 2005 USGP is much closer to the Bristol mess than the 2013 British GP was. That was the sort of perfect storm of idiocy from all sides that I don't think we'll ever bare witness to again.

 

[Panoz]

Bugatti's final Grand Prix car
​

When Bugatti entered their new Type 251 for the 1956 French Grand Prix at Reims, the company was a mere shell from its former glory years eariler. But the 251 was unique compared to the other cars on grid for its transversely mounted straight-8 engine which sat behind the driver.

Maurice Trintignant, a respected driver at the time, was given the task to drive the car at Reims. In the field of 20 cars for the event, Trintignant and the Bugatti only managed 18th place in qualifying and set a time over 18 seconds slower to polesitter Juan Manuel Fangio in the Ferrrari D50. The Type 251's only race lasted 18 laps before retiring from throttle problems and Bugatti disappeared from Grand Prix racing.

 

[GTboyz]

Citroën BX4TC Evolution

To say that this car was half-arsed is an understatement. It was quarter-arsed at best. Not only was it an ungodly eyesore, it was overweight, entirely too wide, underpowered, had the turning circle of an oil tanker and as a result, it was miserably slow. It was rushed through homologation with the bare minimum of forethought and was an embarrassment for all involved. It was a car that rallying never wanted, never needed, and was glad to see the back of.

I actually like it lol

 

[Stiggy]

Thexton Motor Racing

After selling his fruit juice company to Coca-Cola, New Zealander businessman and amateur rally driver David Thexton decided to make the jump to circuit racing. Rather than starting out at club level, he decided to buy the entire Paragon Motorsport V8 Supercars team and enter the full 2003 V8 Supercars season. Thexton finished 33rd in the season, only ahead of some part time drivers and enduro ring-ins, having DNQ'd for 10 of the 17 races he entered with a best result of 16th at the Bathurst 1000. At the Oran Park round, Thexton withdrew his entry from the meeting having been involved in an incident with David Besnard in practice that saw him being labelled a 'safety hazard' by other competitors.

A brand new BA Falcon could not change Thexton's fortunes for the 2004 season, failing to qualify in all of the three races he entered. Following this, the team's licence was transferred to WPS Racing and Thexton stepped back to Porsche Carrera Cup Australia for the remainder of the season with little success.

 

[TDZdave]

Thexton Motor Racing

After selling his fruit juice company to Coca-Cola, New Zealander businessman and amateur rally driver David Thexton decided to make the jump to circuit racing. Rather than starting out at club level, he decided to buy the entire Paragon Motorsport V8 Supercars team and enter the full 2003 V8 Supercars season. Thexton finished 33rd in the season, only ahead of some part time drivers and enduro ring-ins, having DNQ'd for 10 of the 17 races he entered with a best result of 16th at the Bathurst 1000. At the Oran Park round, Thexton withdrew his entry from the meeting having been involved in an incident with David Besnard in practice that saw him being labelled a 'safety hazard' by other competitors.

A brand new BA Falcon could not change Thexton's fortunes for the 2004 season, failing to qualify in all of the three races he entered. Following this, the team's licence was transferred to WPS Racing and Thexton stepped back to Porsche Carrera Cup Australia for the remainder of the season with little success.

Most of Thenxtons DNQ's were because of V8SC' 105% qualifying rule, had it been a 107% like Formula 1 he only would have missed 1 race,

And while 16th place in the Bathurst 1000 isn't so great, it was truly a tremendous effort and wasn't a result based of pure luck,

 

[Earth]

Jacques Villeneuve in NASCAR's 2nd tier Series on Roadcourses

Consistently ran well but made one awful mistake after another ruining both his race and that of others

 

[RACECAR]

What was worst, was that Pescarolo Team decided to use the chassis for their Pescarolo 03 which failed just as bad.

It always amuses me how despite using unproven ideas, all three of Nissan's latest cars (including the one that recycled the AMR-One chassis) all managed to outlast the AMR One in total. Even though both the GT-R LM and the ZEOD RC were entered in one race, both still put in more laps then the AMR-one did in the total two races it did.

 

[Com Fox]

While I'm probably very indifferent in this, but I think the 2014 Bathurst 1000 was a huge failure. Or as I like to call it, 2014 12 Hours of Sebring; Australia Addition.

Though unlike what happened at Sebring, it wasn't really the V8s fault but rather the terrible work of resurfacing the track. Turn 2 pretty much turned into a death trap which caused so much Safety Car cautions you can make a drinking game out of it. I cannot consider Chaz Mostert a deserving winner of this race since so many potential and more deserving winners got screwed over due to an overuse of Safety Car cautions and the death trap that was the tracks resurface.

 

[HKS racer]

Peugeot 908 Le Mans 2010 disaster

Technical issues are nothing new at Le Mans. The Car was considerably faster than Audi, but it's Le Mans 24h you know.
I won't call it a disaster.

 

[TDZdave]

While I'm probably very indifferent in this, but I think the 2014 Bathurst 1000 was a huge failure. Or as I like to call it, 2014 12 Hours of Sebring; Australia Addition.

Though unlike what happened at Sebring, it wasn't really the V8s fault but rather the terrible work of resurfacing the track. Turn 2 pretty much turned into a death trap which caused so much Safety Car cautions you can make a drinking game out of it. I cannot consider Chaz Mostert a deserving winner of this race since so many potential and more deserving winners got screwed over due to an overuse of Safety Car cautions and the death trap that was the tracks resurface.

Most of the accidents in turn 2, started in the braking zone for turn 2, not one crash in turn 2 was caused by the pot hole, and only the potential winners claimed at turn 2 was the Tander/ Luff HRT entry and the Lowndes T8 entry, and I to this day still believe that the only reason car #2 was pulled by the team was because they believed the could get the #22 entry into the top 10 shootout,

You need to remember that the #55 Reynolds/ Canto entry crashed at the grate, and Paul Morris buried the #6 car in to the fence at turn #2, and that car also started from the very back of the grid and was also a lap down at one point,

During the race, the #97 and #55 entries went out with mechanical failure, #22 went into the fence at Reid park, #33 went into the wall at the cutting, and the #1 car was having drive shaft issues prior to the red flag, which had them replaced during the red flag,

So I'm guessing your saying that because the Whincup car didn't win you claim the race was a disaster?

 

[Com Fox]

Most of the accidents in turn 2, started in the braking zone for turn 2, not one crash in turn 2 was caused by the pot hole, and only the potential winners claimed at turn 2 was the Tander/ Luff HRT entry and the Lowndes T8 entry, and I to this day still believe that the only reason car #2 was pulled by the team was because they believed the could get the #22 entry into the top 10 shootout,

You need to remember that the #55 Reynolds/ Canto entry crashed at the grate, and Paul Morris buried the #6 car in to the fence at turn #2, and that car also started from the very back of the grid and was also a lap down at one point,

During the race, the #97 and #55 entries went out with mechanical failure, #22 went into the fence at Reid park, #33 went into the wall at the cutting, and the #1 car was having drive shaft issues prior to the red flag, which had them replaced during the red flag,

So I'm guessing your saying that because the Whincup car didn't win you claim the race was a disaster?

Jamie Whincup deserved to lose after what he did in the final laps, and I actually reckon the 2013 Bathurst 1000 was one of the greatest Bathurst races and that had a Ford beating Whincup.

Obviously I got some of the facts wrong on how the incidents occured but I still think it was completely ridiculous with so many Safety Car that rivalled the 2014 12 Hours of Sebring and still, even though they lost for more variety of reasons, so many potential winners got screwed over in the end.

 

[TDZdave]

so many potential winners got screwed over in the end

That is the lottery of endurance racing

 

[Com Fox]

That is the lottery of endurance racing

True, though normally, the screw overs are because of a mistake in the car or the driver, here some got screwed over because the track resurface was so terrible which caused a lot of safety car cautions, way more than a usual Bathurst 1000. Lets not forget how bad some of the cars got during Practic and Qualifying because of the resurfacing.

It's like in Sebring when the #2 and the #5 got screwed over for a win, they did nothing incorrectly, the cars were smooth but the overuse of Safety Cars (as we as horrific driving from the PC Class) completely made them lose to the #01, which I don't think deserved it.

We should at the 2014 12 Hours of Sebring to the list of failures as well

 

[LumpiestFish]

Most of the accidents in turn 2, started in the braking zone for turn 2, not one crash in turn 2 was caused by the pot hole, and only the potential winners claimed at turn 2 was the Tander/ Luff HRT entry and the Lowndes T8 entry, and I to this day still believe that the only reason car #2 was pulled by the team was because they believed the could get the #22 entry into the top 10 shootout,

You need to remember that the #55 Reynolds/ Canto entry crashed at the grate, and Paul Morris buried the #6 car in to the fence at turn #2, and that car also started from the very back of the grid and was also a lap down at one point,

During the race, the #97 and #55 entries went out with mechanical failure, #22 went into the fence at Reid park, #33 went into the wall at the cutting, and the #1 car was having drive shaft issues prior to the red flag, which had them replaced during the red flag,

So I'm guessing your saying that because the Whincup car didn't win you claim the race was a disaster?

The broken track was the cause of the Scott Pye, Taz Douglas and Paul Morris crashes just before the red flag was called. And while it does sound impressive that Chaz Mostert won the race after crashing, being a lap down and starting from the back row, the only reason that car had a chance was because of being able to work on the car during the 'Race Suspension'

 

[Liquid]

The redesigned first corner at Oschersleben (?)



The video actually cuts off the last part of the commentary:

"The guy who designed that corner should be taken into a dark room and be beaten to within an inch of his life!"

 

[psychoazubi]

The redesigned first corner at Oschersleben (?)



The video actually cuts off the last part of the commentary:

The failure here are the drivers. There are lots of other series driving there and even the 14-16 year olds in Formula 4 (about 30 cars in every race) managed to do that better

 

[Liquid]

The failure here are the drivers. There are lots of other series driving there and even the 14-16 year olds in Formula 4 (about 30 cars in every race) managed to do that better

Even though they are open wheeled, an F4 car is much narrower than a WT car. If I remember, that WTCC race was one of the very first after the corner was reprofiled. Now, yes, it might be known how to negotiate that corner from a standing start but the first few races would have been a mystery.

 

[Peter.]

Technical issues are nothing new at Le Mans. The Car was considerably faster than Audi, but it's Le Mans 24h you know.
I won't call it a disaster.

They were comfortably faster than the Audis and would have won easily had they not decided to fix what wasn't broken. The upgrade caused all their cars that made it that far to retire, handing the 1-2-3 to their rivals.

If that's not a disaster I don't know what is...

 

[twitcher]

Even though they are open wheeled, an F4 car is much narrower than a WT car. If I remember, that WTCC race was one of the very first after the corner was reprofiled. Now, yes, it might be known how to negotiate that corner from a standing start but the first few races would have been a mystery.

A bit of a mystery yes, but I don't think it takes a genius to realize 3 or 4 wide into there was never going to work. Hardly the corner's fault.

The accident is made worse by the back markers just simply not slowing down too, and trying to push their way through people.

 

[OcarinaSteala]

Norberto Fontana
He beat a lot of future successful F1 drivers in F3. Got a drive in F1 replacing an injured Morbedelli at Sauber but they dumped him from their team after half a season. Big waste of talent and his lack of funding cost him. After that he dipped into F3000 and CART but nothing came of it.

Perry McCarthy. Nuff' said.

 

[Holdenhsvgtsr]

Skoda Fabia WRC

View attachment 497129

For Skoda Motorsport the early half of the 2003 World Rally Championship season, had been the best one yet. Both cars had had almost consistent point finishes. The introduction of the Fabia WRC in the middle of the season stopped this, as the car was both riddled with different mechanical issues and quite frankly lacked any real speed, so Skoda then decided that taking the 2004 season as a development season was needed, and only entered few rallies, with varying level of low success, with an odd points finish. The 2005 season, which was the first full season for the car that, the team ran Armin Schwartz in all events but Swedish Rally, the other two cars were driven by a list of drivers long enough to form their own World Championship. Skoda then ended the already rather embarrassing WRC programme to a last place of the Manufacturers Championship, with only a fraction of the points the second to last Mitsubishi had gathered.

Er not really it was a good and fast car just look what McRae did with it.

 

[Legro]

Er not really it was a good and fast car just look what McRae did with it.

It's pretty obvious that the reason why it was a failure is how the team was managed. But aside from occasional promising speed and having a great livery, the car hasn't really achieved anything.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Catalunya 2007....

Dr. Ullrich withdraws all the Audi's from a DTM race because of the conduct of the Mercedes drivers.



Fast forward to Austria 2015

Dr. Ullrich orders one of his drivers to punt off a couple of Mercedes drivers...




Not sure if this belongs in the OMG thread or the conspiracies thread or here....

 

[Earth]

Juan Montoya dominates the 2009 Brickyard 400 before speeding in the pits on the last pitstop which cost him the Race. He went into full meltdown mode and swore on his children and wife that he was not speeding. Montoya should have won 3 or 4 oval races despite having a good car for only 2 years in his NASCAR career but incidents like this would always bite him.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Juan Montoya dominates the 2009 Brickyard 400 before speeding in the pits on the last pitstop which cost him the Race. He went into full meltdown mode and swore on his children and wife that he was not speeding. Montoya should have won 3 or 4 oval races despite having a good car for only 2 years in his NASCAR career but incidents like this would always bite him.

He's a fantastic driver, doesn't matter where he goes though, he should always have won more than he did...

 

[DK]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned the demise of Group C yet.

In 1991, the FIA introduced new regulations for Group C, which required naturally-aspirated 3.5 litre engines, as in F1. For the 1991 World Sportscar Championship season, old Group C cars that didn't conform to this formula were allowed to run alongside the new Group C cars, with the Porsche 962 and Sauber Mercedes C11 putting up a decent fight, scoring several podium finishes.

For 1992, the old cars were no longer allowed to compete. Grid sizes plummeted in that season. Whereas 17 cars entered in the 1991 season finale at Autopolis (and 44 at that year's Le Mans race!), this shrank to 12 for the 1992 season opener at Monza. 30 showed up for the 1992 Le Mans 24 Hours, but this included 14 cars that weren't competing in the World Sportscar Championship. The final race, the 500km of Magny-Cours, saw just 8 entrants. The Peugeot 905 was all-but-untouchable, taking five wins from the six races of that season, and were only denied victory in the 500km of Monza after crashing out two laps from the finish.

It has been widely believed that the new engine regulations were forced on Group C because Bernie Ecclestone feared that they could compete with F1, and to be honest, I agree with this conspiracy theory.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

@MatskiMonk

Roland Dane

There is an expression that only half of the races are won on the circuit; the other half are won in the stewards' room. Nobody embodies this better than Triple Eight Racing team principal Roland Dane. Dane has forged a reputation in V8 Supercars for quibbling over the rules. Any minor infractions are reported to the stewards (and Dane gets a significant amount of air time to voice his grievances), and this quibbling is matched only by his vehement defence when he gets pinged for something (in which case his air time is spent complaining that the fans don't care about minor rules). He might be team principal of one of the most successful teams in the sport, but he has forged a very poor reputation for himself.