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Visa Cash App RB or Stake F1 crazy? These were the strangest names in F1
- Ludo van Denderen
Formula 1 is an expensive sport, so sponsors are absolutely essential to keep things running. With Visa Cash App and Stake, AlphaTauri and Sauber, respectively, are choosing to name the team after sponsors. As a result, these teams appear at the start with rather strange names. In the past, there were more teams that came out with remarkable names in Formula 1. We list some of them.
MasterCard Lola
Visa will almost certainly become the namesake of AlphaTauri, but it is certainly not the first time a credit card company has been included in the name of an F1 team. Mastercard, Visa's major rival, preceded the US company. It was unsuccessful: Mastercard Lola competed in only one Grand Prix weekend in 1997. In Australia, the team failed to qualify. The plug was pulled before the second race of the season. The irony: with Mastercard as a sponsor, there were too many financial problems.
Osella
Enzo Osella's team was named after the founder himself, and that's not the strange part. Crazier were the sponsors who attached themselves to the Italian team. This led to the following teams (briefly) appearing on the F1 grid in the 1980s: Denim Osella, Denim S.A.I.M.A. Kelémata Osella, Landis & Gyr Osella, and Fondmetal Osella.
John Goldie Racing with Hexagon
A brilliant name for a team that could not make much of a difference in that one year in Formula 1 (1974). Points were scored in three races, although this was mainly due to John Watson's driving skills. The equally legendary Carlos Pace also made one race for the team. Either way, the team's name lives on forever: John Goldie was a property tycoon who sponsored the team at the time. Hexagon is a car dealership in Britain.
Super Aguri
Aguri Suzuki chose to name his Formula 1 team Super Aguri. It wasn't all that super, by the way: The team raced in Formula 1 for just over two seasons (from 2006 to early 2008), and they scored four points. Bernie Ecclestone, the then-owner of Formula 1, tried to keep Super Aguri afloat (out of his own pocket), but the financial problems were too significant. Before the 2008 Turkish GP, it was the end of the story. Not a super farewell to F1.
EuroBrun
What do you get when Euroracing and Brun Motorsport work together? EuroBrun. Full of expectations, the team started their F1 adventure in 1988, but it was not a success for the Italian team. In three seasons, only seven Grand Prix finishes were seen. They last qualified for a race at the last Grand Prix of the first season. They didn't succeed in the following two seasons. When the pennies ran out, the plug was pulled on the project. But the EuroBrun name remains in our minds!
Trojan
Chances are that when you see street scenes from the 1920s or 1930s, a Trojan car passes by. Trojan was a British car manufacturer between 1914 and 1965. And they once competed in Formula 1. Briefly, admittedly, but still, Trojan entered eight times in 1974 (and six times actually competed). Tim Schenken was the man behind the wheel. The Australian also drove for Williams, Brabham and Lotus.