Ranked: The 10 best defunct teams in F1 history

Not every Formula 1 team can have the longevity of Scuderia Ferrari, and some of the sport’s most dominant teams can only be known today by consulting the pages of a motorsport history book. We’re paying homage to the very best of those defunct teams today, and ranking them based on their accomplishments. British Racing Motors — better known as BRM — was founded in 1951 by a racer named Raymond Mays.

Funding was initially sourced through British automakers paying into a trust fund, but the whole affair turned into something of a disaster, and backers withdrew after just one year in racing. It reappeared as Owen Racing Organization in 1954 before BRM itself felt equipped to return to the sport. As a team, BRM took a total of 17 victories with a who’s who of motorsport talent: Jo Bonnier, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, and Pedro Rodriguez.



In 1962, it was Hill who led the small outfit to success in both the World Drivers’ Championship and the World Constructors’ Championship. Sadly, financial hardship ultimately led to the team’s dissolution after several challenging years. Maserati’s WCC total is perhaps a little misleading: The Constructors’ Championship was only introduced in 1958, so for much of the team’s existence, it was unable to qualify for that distinction.

And it almost certainly would have secured it, because Maserati’s two WDCs came with none other than the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio. Maserati withdrew its works effort at the end of the 1957 season, though its mighty 4CLT and 250F race cars were successfully used by privateers for several more years. The team had run into financial problems and called it quits.

The French Matra team was one of the stars of the Formula 2 field in the mid-1960s, and in mixed-field races, a Matra F2 could could even outperform a Formula 1 machine. It was the start of something magical. Team owner Ken Tyrrell and his star driver Jackie Stewart were able to convince Matra to field cars full-time in Formula 1 starting in 1968, and the following year, the marque took a World Constructors’ Championship and a World Drivers’ Championship courtesy of the Flying Scotsman.

Its boom period in F1 only lasted a handful of years, though it did provide engines to a few different teams throughout the 1970s, albeit without much success. Alfa Romeo has had three different stints in Formula 1, netting the Italian outfit two WDCs and 10 wins. The initial iteration of the team dominated the first two seasons of Formula 1, with Nino Farino and Fangio taking the bulk of the race wins.

Having dominated the first two seasons of this sport, Alfa Romeo withdrew entirely and forced the FIA into a difficult situation: So few teams had signed up to compete in the F1 1952 season that they had to open up entries to Formula 2 teams. In the 1970s, Alfa engineer Carlo Chiti revived the marque’s F1 hopes, starting by developing an F1 engine before the team returned with Autodelta in 1979. It withdrew with a lack of success, then returned in 2019 after taking over naming rights of Sauber.

Benetton’s story is one of the most incredible in F1 history: In 1983, the eponymous fashion brand entered the sport as a sponsor before buying out the defunct Toleman team ahead of the 1986 season. It is Benetton that introduced the likes of Flavio Briatore, Ross Brawn, Nikolas Tombazis, Pat Fry, and Michael Schumacher to the upper echelons of the sport, forever cementing itself as a hugely influential part of the paddock. During its time as a constructor, Benetton won two WDCs, both with Michael Schumacher, as well as one WCC.

After 2001, the team was fully rebadged as Renault — a team that has also made this list. 👉 Lotus 78: The revolutionary car that changed Formula 1 forever 👉 The first-ever F1 turbocharger that changed the sport forever Tyrrell Racing Organization got its start as a Formula 3 team, slowly progressing up the ranks through F2 and then, finally, to Formula 1. Owner Ken Tyrrell made his F1 dream come true by inking deals with Matra, Ford, and Elf, all of which helped support the progression up the ranks.

When Matra merged with Simca and asked Tyrrell to swap out its Cosworth engines, the team owner declined. He purchased a March to run in the early 1970s, as the original Tyrrell 001 came to life in his woodshed. Tyrrell won one WCC in 1971 and two WDCs, both with Jackie Stewart.

Sadly, the team lost its way a bit after 1973, when team leader Stewart retired and his protegé François Cevert was killed. Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler scored a few wins for Tyrrell, and the outfit experimented with a six-wheeled configuration, but ultimately, the team never again found its winning ways. Having fallen ill, Tyrrell sold his team in 1997, then left the team entirely before the start of the 1998 season.

It was Renault that introduced the transformative turbo engine to the Formula 1 scene, taking two WDCs and two WCCs, both in its second stint as a constructor with Fernando Alonso behind the wheel. But the team has always been fraught. Two days after the 1983 season, Renault fired star driver Alain Prost for criticizing the development of the car, but no equally talented replacement followed suit.

The expense had grown too great, and Renault pulled the plug on the works team. Renault re-emerged in the early 2000s, buying out the Benetton team in hopes of promoting its cars once again. After Alonso’s championships, Renault descended into poor performances that culminated with the allegations that the team had instructed Nelson Piquet Jr.

to crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix in order to give Alonso a win. The team sold a majority stake in 2010, and Lotus Cars took charge in 2011. Then, ahead of the 2016 season, Renault once again bought back a majority stake in the race team, reviving the French name one again.

The team transitioned to the Alpine name in 2021. Charles Cooper and his son John founded Cooper Car Company in 1946, building race cars in a small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, England. Originally a Formula 3 team, Cooper entered the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix with Harry Schell — the first time a rear-engined machine debuted in post-war grand prix racing.

The team retreated from the big leagues for two years, and when F2 cars were invited to enter the Formula 1 championship in 1952, Cooper was ready to join the action. It took the WDC and the WCC in both 1959 and 1960, both with Australian Jack Brabham behind the wheel. Cooper’s cars powered exceptional talents like Stirling Moss, Bruce McLaren, John Surtees, and Pedro Rodriguez to victory as well.

The team was always a small one, and in 1969, when the team failed to find sponsorship to continue into the 1970s. Founded in 1960 by World Champion Jack Brabham, the eponymous team competed in Formula 1 for 30 years, taking two WCCs and four WDCs in the process. Brabham won the team’s first WDC, becoming the only man in history to win an F1 title in a car of his own design.

The subsequent champions were Denny Hulme and Nelson Piquet. And, among its various other distinctions, Brabham was also the first F1 team to use a wind tunnel to design its cars. Jack Brabham sold his share of the team to a businessman named Bernie Ecclestone, who, until that point, had primarily served as a talent manager for the likes of Jochen Rindt.

Ecclestone soon seized control of the entire team and used his influence over the Formula One Constructors’ Association to exert greater control over Formula 1 as a whole. Ecclestone sold the team to EuroBrun for the 1987 team, but it was repurchased by a Swiss financier named Joachim Luthi. Luthi was arrested for tax fraud charges in 1989, and several outfits bought into the team — and one, Middlebridge Group, went into administration.

The team folded after 1992. There truly is no team quite like Lotus. Founded by Colin Chapman in 1952, the team kicked off as a sports car manufacturer before dipping into the world of Formula 2 chassis construction and, ultimately, Formula 1 in 1958.

From there, the team launched into the stratosphere of success. It took seven WCCs in 1963, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, and 1978, alongside six WDCs scored by the likes of Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Mario Andretti. Further, Lotus also proved that rear-engined cars were strong competitors at the Indianapolis 500, which it won with Jim Clark in 1965.

So strong was the team that it continued after founder Colin Chapman’s death in December 1982. His widow Hazel and Peter Warr took over the team, and Ayrton Senna’s performances with Lotus brought a second wind to an outfit that had begun to struggle. In 1990, Peter Collins and Peter Wright arranged a takeover of the team, but debts mounted, and the team went into administration.

Read next: Ranked: The top 10 British drivers in Formula 1 history.