List of Formula One constructors
The following is a list of constructors which have competed or plan to compete in the FIA World Championship.
This list is accurate as of July 1, 2007. For a list of currently active constructors, see 2007 Formula One season.
| Formula One |
|---|
| Current season summary |
| Related articles |
|
History of Formula One |
| Lists |
|
Drivers |
| Records |
Constructors and teams
The constructor is the person (including incorporated bodies) who owns the intellectual rights to the rolling chassis (the chassis without the engine) or the engine. Hence, McLaren is a constructor, Mercedes is a constructor, and so on. If the name ("make") of the chassis is not the same as that of the engine, the name of the chassis is the one which is used for the constructor's championship title.
The car refers to the combination of chassis and engine names. The chassis name must always precede the engine name as per FIA regulations. Hence McLaren-Mercedes refers to the car.
The team refers to the organization which enters and manages the cars and drivers at each race. Hence McLaren refers to the team.
In modern Formula One teams must own the intellectual property rights to their own chassis, so "team" and "constructor" are usually synonymous. There have been some recent exceptions where a specialist company, not itself entered in the championship, has been commissioned to design and build a chassis for a team: Lola built cars for Larrousse and Scuderia Italia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, for example. Larousse had their points from the 1990 season erased after the FIA decided that they had falsely nominated themselves and not Lola as the chassis constructor. There have been more recent cases with Ligier (1995), Sauber (2004) and Scuderia Toro Rosso (2006 & 2007), where teams have been accused of using a chassis produced by another constructor (respectively Benetton, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing). No action was taken against any of these teams, the sporting authorities being satisfied in each case that the team owned the intellectual property to the chassis they raced.
The limitation on teams using another constructors' chassis has only been in place since the early 1980s. Before then, teams were free to sell their chassis to as many other teams as they liked. Brabham and Lotus chassis were used extensively by other teams during the 1960s and 1970s and several quite competitive teams never built their own chassis. Rob Walker Racing Team was the most successful example, being responsible for the first victories in Formula One for the Cooper Car Company and Team Lotus constructors. The concept of a "works" or "factory" team (i.e. the official team of the company producing the cars, as opposed to a 'customer' team which buys them off the shelf) therefore applied to chassis in the same way as it does to engines in modern Formula One.
As of 2006 it is proposed that starting in 2008 teams will once again be able to buy chassis from other teams.
Active constructors
Defunct constructors
Drv. = Number of drivers; Poles = Number of pole positions; Fst. laps = Number of fastest laps; Podia = Number of podium finishes; Constr. = Constructors
a Automobili Turismo e Sport.
b Auto Technisches Spezialzubehör.
c Anglo American Racers, also known as Eagle.
d Formally known as Footwork from 1991 to 1996.
Indianapolis 500 only
Constructors whose only World Championship participation was in the Indianapolis 500 from 1950 to 1960. All were American-based.
|
|
Privateer teams
The following are teams which never built their own chassis, and thus were not "constructors":
|