Funking up F1 car names
Posted by Nick Trott at 1:25PM on Monday 22 January, 2007 10 Comments
The launch of Ferrari's new F1 challenger got me thinking about the names of Grand Prix cars.
The new Fezza is a stunning piece of kit. The level of engineering brilliance is simply stratospheric and the build quality matched only by the very, very best Swiss watches.
It inspires an emotional response: it's red, it's new, it's from the greatest name in the history of motorsport and it's going to be driven by arguably the fastest driver in F1.
So why the hell has Ferrari called this new 220mph, 850bhp weapon the F2007? Boring or what?
Historically, even the most legendary, beautiful and successful F1 cars have used designations that excite like a 4am episode of Big Brother.
Mario Andretti's knee-wobbling championship-winning black and gold Lotus? The 79. Tyrell's insane 1976 six-wheeler? The P34. Alan Jones' beautiful 1979 Williams? The FW07.
Yawn.
Rightly or wrongly, F1 is often seen as elitist, humourless and a passionless business exercise, but a simple rule change could change all that...
Paragraph 7, sub-section B:
No team is allowed to name their car after a seemingly random collection of letters and numbers, even if they have some relevance to the team owner's name or the year of manufacture.
I have some suggestions...
The Williams PluckyBrit, the Super Aguri Samurai Screamer, the McLaren Silverstarfighter, the Toyota Musttryharder, and the Red Bull Palpitation.
And Ferrari? Well, a couple of years back Ferrari's head of PR told me rather enigmatically that they've never named a car after a driver.
The Ferrari Villeneuve sounds good to me...
Any suggestions?
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How about F2009. Its more futuristic.
The Ferrari Villeneuve might suggest to younger F1 followers that Ferrari have gone crazy and named the car after a certain Jacques...
I read this piece because I was bored. And I thought, what the hell would he come up with. I was just thinking of what 'palpitation' actually means (I'm not a native English speaker) until I saw the name suggestion.
And suddenly all the hairs in my neck stood on end with a salid dose of goosebumps. I actually wanted to go out on the streets of Modena and protest with millions of others that 'Villeneuve' should be the name of the new F1 Ferrari. I wanted to do so until my troath bled and the riot police would drag me off, sedated by the liberal quantities of teargas needed to subdue me.
You know, my stepdad was one of the first people to get to Gilles Villeneuve after the crash that proved to be fatal, in Zolder Belgium, 1982. My stepdad was a marshal there then. I was eleven at the time, too young to be at the circuit yet, but I was just about aware that a hero had died when I saw the crash in the evening news.
Never before I saw a more fitting name forwarded for anything. Ever.
how about the Zipydidayfoudlabin!
How about the Renault Bluebullet?
Really good idea, I love F1, so honestly no sarcasm! I'm quite surprised Red bull haven't done it already, the Red Bull Armageddon, or how about the Super Aguri/STR it's-not-last-years-car-it's-totally-new-honest...
Ronald, thanks for your kind comments. I'll join you in that gathering on the streets of Modena!
Ferrari is such a strange one. They've got a long history of giving their road cars 'proper' names, but not their race cars.
The 1961 'Sharknose' is the exception, but if I'm correct Sharknose was a nickname given to the car by the press/fans, not an official Ferrari name.
But what a name! Sharknose. That gives me goosebumps.
The team who becomes the first to give their F1 car a real name will receive significant media attention.
Especially if, like you say, the name is particularly fitting.
Given that F1 is so media-focused, it's amazing that no F1 team has tried giving their new car a 'proper' name.
Hopefully, an F1 team boss is reading this and have a light bulb moment...
I think that using a name once would ruin any chance of being able to use it again, for something perhaps more special. I would rally and petition against it being called Villeneuve, purely so that the name could be used for something more exciting and availabelt to the public. Ferrari must really have thought the Enzo was a great car to sacrifice the name to it, thus meaning it could not be used for several decades at least. I think that, as no one ever calls an F1 car by its name, it would be a real waste of a great name to throw it away on something that will only be around for less than a year before retiring into a dark museum for the rest of its existance- forgotten, and relegated to the confines of history books.
what about "italian passion" as ferrari are allways talking about or "the cavallino" after the ferrari prancing horse? I think that, as no one ever calls an F1 car by its name, it would be a real waste of a great name to throw it away on something that will only be around for less than a year before retiring into a dark museum for the rest of its existance- forgotten, and relegated to the confines of history books.
Ferrari Cod? Fishing's probably a more interesting 'sport' than F1 nowadays...