Snow White and the six wheels
07/04/2020
The year was 1976 and Formula 1 experienced a revolution. For the first time, a car did not start with four wheels but with six.
Everyone was amazed when Jody Scheckter (ZA) and Patrick Depailler (F) took to the track at Silverstone for the first roll-out in a six-wheeled Tyrrell-Ford, the so-called Project 34. All interested parties watched the event in relative disbelief. Nobody really believed in the plan of Derek Gardner, Ken Tyrrell's chief designer at the time. In the end, however, the car's list of results was impressive: In 30 starts over two seasons, there was at least one double victory (Swedish GP in Anderstorp in 1976), one pole position, three fastest race laps, 85 world championship points and 14 podium places.
Today, you can marvel at one of these cars in the Technik Museum Sinsheim. The car is laid out like a Snow White's coffin and still fascinates head-shaking visitors.
Of the thirty or so F1 cars in the hall, the P34 is by far the most unusual. For me, together with the 16-cylinder pre-war Auto-Union Type-C, it is the most fascinating racing car of all. In front of the glass coffin, I was filled with a feeling of great joy that I was able to see this incredible car drive live four times (Austrian GP and Italian GP in 1976 and with Ronnie Peterson at the Swiss GP in Dijon and again at the Italian GP in Monza in 1977).
