Grand Prix Rejects

My idea for this thread is to share when and where you have seen F1 cars 'in the flesh', whether running or as static displays.

For example, I have seen this late-1990s McLaren that Mika Hakkinen smashed in the Science Museum, South Kensington, London (not my photo):



I have also seen various F1 cars in the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Hampshire and the Haynes Motor Museum in Somerset (including a Hill GH1). Not to mention seeing contemporary cars driving round Silverstone in July 1996 and Monza 2011 (where I saw an HRT sideways in a momentary top-10 position before hitting a competitor or two...). I also seem to recall seeing historic F1 cars going round Brands Hatch, I think possibly at the first A1GP meeting.

But what I wanted to share on this occasion was my most random contact with an F1 car. It was last weekend, and I think the next picture pretty much explains it.



OK, so Rush does feature a McLaren, but of a very different vintage, with a very different livery, with a British driver being one of the few similarities... And F1 in a local supermarket in the suburbs of a city? Doesn't happen too often, and not where you would go looking for contact with the F1 world. But it happened:



And you know the sidepods on the McLaren? The ones that look like this?:



Well, they would always remind me of the airship from the Thunderbird 6 film from the 1960s, the one that looked like this:



So where are the other random or not-so-random places that contact with F1 cars have occurred?

Well, of course, you've got the Grands Prix I've been to, so Malaysia 2005 and Belgium 2008-09. Then there's the demo run by Bruno Senna at the WSR meeting at Spa in 2011, the 2010 Historic F1 at the Spa 6 hours, a Sauber promotional run in Kuala Lumpur in 2005, I recall seeing a McLaren on display at Heathrow once, maybe 2009, you've got the Spa-Francorchamps circuit museum at Stavelot Abbey, where I notably saw an Arrows circa-2001, a Kauhsen, a Maki and a Talbot-Lago, and then finally there's the special exposition about the evolution of motorcars and Belgian motorsport, where there was another Talbot-Lago and, I believe, an Arrows from Thierry Boutsen's days there.

I saw a 2000 Ferrari in a Ferrari shop on a Performing arts trip in Year 10. I know it was the 2000 machine because Tic-Tac sponsorship was on it.

Non-F1 related, but I got to see an old Lotus Formula Junior car from 1962 run in the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix in 2012. It was pretty cool, I'll have to admit, and considering it was probably pretty close to what an F1 car was back then. Some guy near there actually owns it and drives it himself.

If the New Jersey GP ever happens, then I know that I'm going, as it's only about 4 hours and something minutes from my house. I'd like to see an F1 car for real.

One of my cousins went to the Canadian GP in 2013 and has some pictures of the cars flying by between Turn 9 and the hairpin.

As for me, I'm going to the GP this year. As I said before, I can't wait!!!

Only F1 car I've seen up close and personal is Mika's ruined McLaren in the Science Museum. There's a warning sign next to the sidepod stating that photographing the MP4/14 is banned. Not that anyone pays any attention to the rules, mind you.

I am going to the Australian GP this year, but until then I have never seen a real F1 car

I have been to the British GP in 2009. I also saw the Classic Team Lotus display at Autosport International this year. As well as that, I have been to Beaulie and I saw a nice demo at the CSMA Big Weekend at Thruxton in 2012.

When I was about 6, the local Shell garage somehow got to borrow a shiny F2001 (well, I presume it was the F2001. I doubt Ferrari would let grubby commoners near the F2002.) and I managed to smear my paint-stained, primary school hands all over it. Going back a bit earlier, in 2000 my family went on a big outing to a Jaguar run exhibition or somesuch event; anyway, next to all the E-Types and XJ's was a shiny Jaaaaaaggg R1. Finally, one of my earliest memories is attending the Classic F1 race at Silverstone in the summer of 1999, a couple of months before my third birthday. All I remember of the day was being thoroughly pissed off by the noisy cars which gave me a headache, and looking down (we were sat in what could well be the Hospitality Suite near where the old start line was) and seeing a couple of green and yellow cars, which, with my powers of deduction have lead me to believe are early 60's Lotuses.

First time for me would have been the Ferrari F310 at the Haynes Motor Museum...

RonDenisDeletraz wrote:I am going to the Australian GP this year, but until then I have never seen a real F1 car

I too am going to the Australian Grand Prix! I got the chance to take a trip to New Zealand this year and I'm finishing the journey with a weekend in Melbourne. So excited.

First time I saw F1 cars in action was the Silverstone test last year that I went to with dinizintheoven and Faustus. Before that, living near Woking and Brooklands has allowed me to see many McLaren and Mercedes F1 cars on display.

Nice topic.

dr-baker wrote:So where are the other random places that contact with F1 cars have occurred?

When it comes to random places outside of a race track, I have been quite lucky so far.

The pictures I have are on a usb somewhere, which I can't find at the moment.
But here are the locations at least:



The Swedish Royal Castle. Red Bull had a big event just beside the castle, and the Reb Bull DTM of Mattias Ekstrom and the RB6 of Webber were placed
right in front.



At this Shell station, me and my dad happened to drive by one day and Michael's Ferrari F310 or the F300 was parked in the lot.
Can't remember which one.



Inside this shopping mall, me and by brother saw Hakkinen's MP4-16, placed in the store much like the one you saw at Sainsbury's, Baker.
It was really beautiful.



At this auto exhibition or auto fair, where pretty much every maker had a section of their models, I saw
the Ferrari F2001, the Jaguar R3, the Renault R202, the Toyota TF102 and the Williams FW24.
It was here I also fell in love with the PT Cruiser. The design appealled to me, since I like the whole 'Chicago / Capone' era.



This used to be a Honda dealership, and they had Damon's Jordan 199 at display. They advertised they would have an event
where they would start up the engine for everyone to listen. But it never happened, because they claimed there was a
malfunction in some part. I thought then and now that it was bull, I don't think they even had the original engine to begin with, probably a F3000 one.
Total embarrassment.
It was nice to see the chassis, though.
All of these locations above ^, are within 30 minutes of each other. So I guess I have been lucky in this regard.



But the most beautiful F1 I have ever seen 'in the flesh', by far, is the Arrows A23 in the summer of 2002 at a London train station (can't remember which one, might have been King's Cross), just weeks before the team packed it in.
I fondly recall going up the stairs from the platform and just seeing it there, right on the floor surrounded by Orange reps and Orange billboard commercials.
I thought the car was beautiful even before, and after I got to see it for real I thought it was even more beautiful. Orange is such a nice color and the chassis looked great as well.

The Orange Arrows liveries the last three years are my all-time favorites.The Repsol Arrows the year before that was beautiful, as well.
Black and orange are magnificent colors to combine.

At my local Honda dealer, there was once a BAR (I think from 2002). I sat in it, but I was still very young (about 10 years old) and I've been a tall kid. Actually, I was always the smallest person in my age group.
So, I sank into the cockpit and couldn't look above the steering wheel. In fact, I was probably below the steering wheel. I was interested in F1 back then, but not in the technics, so it was quite boring to me. Now I'd really like to do that again, though.

Like quite a few posters here, I've seen a number of cars on display at Beaulieu, as well as a few more being placed on static exhibitions in more unusual locations.

I can recall seeing a BMW-Sauber F1.06 on display in the window of Harrods, a Ferrari F2001 on display in a Ferrari shop in the middle of Venice and the McLaren in the Science Museum, along with a static show car Ferrari (possibly 2006 vintage) in the foyer of the Mechanical Engineering department of Imperial College. However, the two highlights would probably be the two cars that I happened to see in the private garage of a classic car dealership - the first one being Gilles Villeneuve's 312T5, whilst the second was a Maserati 250F formerly owned by none other than Sterling Moss.

I forgot the most recent one I've seen. I spent this Christmas at my sisters in Barcelona, and on the 26th we
visited La Pedrera, a famous building designed by Gaudi.


2 streets from this building, at the intersection of Valencia street/Gracia, Alonso's 2011 Ferrari stood in a store window.
It's probably still there today if anyone plans to go to Barcelona.

F1000X wrote:

RonDenisDeletraz wrote:I am going to the Australian GP this year, but until then I have never seen a real F1 car

I too am going to the Australian Grand Prix! I got the chance to take a trip to New Zealand this year and I'm finishing the journey with a weekend in Melbourne. So excited.

My first time at a GP too this year, when I descend on Melbourne.

Where are you guys sitting? I've got a seat in the Senna stand but I'll probably take a deck chair so I can check out all the General Admission spots too...I've got the whole weekend after all

I saw one of Ayrton Senna's MP4/8 chassis from 1993 at a car dealership in Hong Kong once. I've been to the Canadian GP twice, but I've never gotten as close as I did to that McLaren.

AustralianStig wrote:

F1000X wrote:

RonDenisDeletraz wrote:I am going to the Australian GP this year, but until then I have never seen a real F1 car

I too am going to the Australian Grand Prix! I got the chance to take a trip to New Zealand this year and I'm finishing the journey with a weekend in Melbourne. So excited.

My first time at a GP too this year, when I descend on Melbourne.

Where are you guys sitting? I've got a seat in the Senna stand but I'll probably take a deck chair so I can check out all the General Admission spots too...I've got the whole weekend after all

I will be somewhere in general admission, not sure where yet.

I've got hundreds of pictures I could post here, but I'll restrict it to a few. As Dr. Baker has asked for photos of cars in unusual places I'll start with two of a Jordan F1 'show car' which featured in
our local Bury St. Edmunds Motorsport show back in 2010. I always try and get pictures taken with the car, just for the "I was there" stories ... These pictures are of me and my son :





There's photos of us with all manner of cars there, including a Gulf Porsche Le Mans car (possibly a replica) and all kinds of single seaters and race cars, the event was also held the year after and we
got photos with a Pontiac Nascar amongst others - I can post any of those if you're interested ...

Next I'll post some photos from the Lotus Festival held at Snetterton, also in 2010. This event claimed to have every F1 Lotus on display, and most also took to the track for a few laps. One of the Camel
Lotus cars actually spun off which was quite funny! All of the current team (at the time) were there, including Tony Fernandes, Jarno Trulli, Kovy, and Fauzy, and all took various cars out on circuit. This is
of course when the Lotus names were happily together, before all the Danny Bahar business forced Fernandes to take over the Caterham name instead.

Here is that year's F1 car - this did a few laps of the circuit in the hands of Fairuz Fauzy, couldn't get a photo with the car :



All of the historic Lotus cars were on display in a marquee, I managed to get photos of most of them (though it was always very busy), and got my Dad to take this one of me with one of Senna's cars,
also got on with Elio De Angelis's, but will just post the Senna one for now (note : I'm looking a bit rough on this one) :



At one stage of the day, all of the cars were wheeled onto the start straight for a group photo, I'll post my picture firstly, and then an overhead photo, which is not mine, but hopefully ok to post here :





If anyone wants me to upload any more pictures of these beautiful cars then please let me know, as mentioned above I got pictures of nearly all of them, and all are at higher rez than I've posted here.

EDIT : Noticed that Imageshack had messed up the sizes after a period of time for some reason, so I've re-corrected them.

^Wow. Those are some great photos!^
I've seen a few F1 cars at Mercedes Benz World, including the exploded and suspended Mercedes. I've also seen one of Michael Schumacher's Ferraris in the Ferrari shop in Florence (unless it was a replica, I dunno).
A few years ago I was lucky enough to see the Williams conference centre- there's one car from every year Williams has raced in inside, as well as a rather nice hedge in the shape of a pitstop outside. There was also an old Force India I was allowed to sit in at their windtunnel, just casually dumped underneath!
But the highlight for me was touching Timo Glock's gearbox ahead of the 2011 British GP. For that second I like to think we were connected, and that in some way it helped his gearbox not to fail and led to him finishing a respectable 16th.
Okay I know touching it helped in no way whatsoever and they probably cleaned it as soon as I left but don't take this away from me!

RonDenisDeletraz wrote:

AustralianStig wrote:My first time at a GP too this year, when I descend on Melbourne.

Where are you guys sitting? I've got a seat in the Senna stand but I'll probably take a deck chair so I can check out all the General Admission spots too...I've got the whole weekend after all

I will be somewhere in general admission, not sure where yet.

I'll only be visiting the track on Sunday, I have a seat in the Webber grandstand, across from the pits and near one of those giant televisions.

Here's something interesting, from the museum in Monaco with Prince Rainier's car collection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx4IzGC3D00

There's some bits and pieces of the Renaults from 1983 made into a seven league baby's mobile.

Incidentally, of all the 49 videos on this tour, one has only been viewed twice (probably by me while I was checking it had uploaded), while the one about the worst public toilets in France has 294 views, and the one introducing the Millau viaduct has 164. The last of these I can explain (the Top Gear connection, obviously) but... why would the nastiest khazi I have ever encountered be so popular?

dinizintheoven wrote:Here's something interesting, from the museum in Monaco with Prince Rainier's car collection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx4IzGC3D00

There's some bits and pieces of the Renaults from 1983 made into a seven league baby's mobile.

Incidentally, of all the 49 videos on this tour, one has only been viewed twice (probably by me while I was checking it had uploaded), while the one about the worst public toilets in France has 294 views, and the one introducing the Millau viaduct has 164. The last of these I can explain (the Top Gear connection, obviously) but... why would the nastiest khazi I have ever encountered be so popular?

I think you are underestimating the power of the latest niche hobby of filthy rich people putting their very well cared bottoms on the nastiest loo they can find, taking a picture and then comparing to their mates after the mandatory 18 hole Golf course.

There. Now, please forgive me, I must go. I will drive in my billion Euros car just to burn the money surplus from my latest tax cut in front of a mob protesting against another batch of heavy austerity measures. My goal is to survive. I'm already feeling the thrills of it!

Recently I went to Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey and I saw (and took pictures of) some F1 cars powered by Merc engines e.g. the 1999 McLaren and the 2009 Force India. There was also supposedly the 2007 McLaren but judging by the nosecone it looked like the 2005 car. There was also a section where an F1 car in Petronas livery (I presume a 2006 Honda RA106 chassis) was separated into its components.

I was in Central London yesterday (just felt in need of a holiday, so became a tourist in my nearby city), and walked along Regent Street. One of the shops near the Piccadilly Circus end of the street used to sell motorsport/Gulf merchandise. But yesterday, I discovered it has rebranded into a Lotus shop! It had a guy outside in a Romain Grosjean racesuit - wonder how many people thought that the guy standing outside a shop in central London was actually the guy driving the actual car in testing in Bahrain?! And below is the photo of the Lotus that they had displayed instore:



Just noticed the shape of the frame that is surrounding the car - clever...

But there was previously a shop selling Ferrari merchandise opposite Hamleys in Regent Street which had a Ferrari car in, but did not appear to be there yesterday.

I went to the Toronto Auto Show just over a week ago and Infiniti had an F1 car on display:




Oddly enough though, it obviously doesn't have the drooped nose but has Ricciardo's name on the car (it's somewhere near the cockpit, it's too small in the photos). My buddy of mine got confused and thought Ricciardo drove with the team for a couple of years

It also has the number 1, another anachronism for Ricciardo....

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:It also has the number 1, another anachronism for Ricciardo....

Well, it actually had both Vettel and Ricciardo on there...

Anyone in the UK with a desire to see F1 cars up close needs to get to the Donington Grand Prix Collection. Literally tons of cars in there including some classic rejects - a Brabham BT60B and the LEC CRP1. Plus two rooms full of McLaren and Williams cars, a Jordan 191, the Cosworth 4WD car, a special Vanwall display, and countless others. It's a few quid to get in, but more than worth it. I went during the BTCC round in 2012 so only spent an hour or so in there but you could easily spend a whole day in there. There's loads of memorabilia in there too, it's not just all cars.

Another place to visit is the Coventry Transport Museum which has Justin Wilson's Jaguar R4, a Tyrrell P34 and a load of other interesting exhibits, both motorsport and civilian-based.

For me personally, my first ever exposure to an F1 car that I know of was in 1997 as a six year old when I stood next to a Jordan 197 of which I have photo evidence below. It was at the "DHL International Raceday" which was the fancy name given to that year's BTCC round at Silverstone, at the height of Super Touring. I even made a paper Alain Menu flag to take but for some reason was persuaded out of bringing it along...!


Note (a) the horrific 90s page boy haircut, (b) the two-tone trackie bottoms and (c) the ill-fitting jumper! Dear oh dear!

Aside from that, and the two locations above, I've also been to three British Grands Prix (2010, 2011 and 2013) and Autosport International earlier this year.

There's also an Easyfit garage in Weston-super-Mare with a late-90s Jordan suspended over its reception area that I keep meaning to visit but haven't got round to yet (annoyingly my girlfriend drives past it every day on her way to and from work), you can see it on Google Streetview here: http://goo.gl/maps/113dY

I think that's everything. Annoyingly considering I've lived within 30 minutes drive of most of the F1 teams' bases in the last two decades I haven't really seen that much of F1 cars in the flesh, but there we go!

AndreaModa wrote:Another place to visit is the Coventry Transport Museum which has Justin Wilson's Jaguar R4, a Tyrrell P34 and a load of other interesting exhibits, both motorsport and civilian-based.

Oh my - this has to be on my list of places to visit now! I love the Tyrrell P34, I would love to see one 'in the flesh', even if it is stationary in a museum...

AndreaModa wrote:There's also an Easyfit garage in Weston-super-Mare with a late-90s Jordan suspended over its reception area that I keep meaning to visit but haven't got round to yet (annoyingly my girlfriend drives past it every day on her way to and from work), you can see it on Google Streetview here: http://goo.gl/maps/113dY

There is indeed...every time I failed a driving test I had to drive past it. Oh, the shame.

Don't do your test in Weston, kids. It's awful.

Sorry for the resurrection. I observed several F1 cars from the 2021 and 2022 Seasons at this year's Silverstone Classic as well as a display of all 7 of Lewis Hamilton's title-winning cars.