All Formula One cars have 4 wheels… Right?

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the Tyrrell P34.

Otherwise known as the Six Wheeler.

Born in 1976, the P34 was designed by Derek Gardner who was one of the most innovative designers of the time. His theory was that exposed front wheels caused lift at high speed, and running 4 wheels at the front, which due to a mind boggling suspension set up could all be steered, reduced this, meaning less wing could be used and therefore causing a higher straight-line speed.

Powered by a V8 Cosworth, producing 485Bhp and driven by Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler, the P34 was unveiled at the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix and was quite competitive. Depailler was singing the praises of the car, however Scheckter wasn’t so complementary. He realised that Goodyear couldn’t keep up the production of the special tyres needed for the front.

Scheckter however stays as the only driver to ever win a race in a six wheeled car. This came at the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix. This was infact a one-two for the car.

However, Scheckter couldn’t stand the car anymore, leaving at the end of the season, branding it “a piece of junk”.

He was replaced by Ronnie Peterson for the 1977 season, however the season started badly and went slowly downhill.

Improvements to the body caused more issues than needed, and it was found that the rear tyres were giving 2 seconds better performance than the fronts. Gardner left Tyrrell and F1 altogether and that was that. A new engineer, Maurice Phillipe was brought in but he radically changed the front, thus ruining the advantage that the 4 wheels gave.

At the end of 1977, the P34 was dropped.

Williams,March Engineering and even Ferrari experimented with six wheeled machines, but none of these were ever raced.

In 1983 the FIA introduced a rule, stating that F1 cars had to have four wheels, leaving the P34 the most radical F1 design ever.

Apart from the Brabham BT46/B…