Tyrrell P34 - 6 Wheeler F1 car

  The Tyrrell P34, also known as the Tyrrell six-wheeler, is a Formula 1 car entered by the British team Tyrrell Racing in the 1976 and 1977 Formula 1 World Championships.

This car is still, at least visually, the most unconventional Formula 1 car due to its unique look. The only six-wheeled car to have raced in the F1 world championship, even if other teams had prototypes run in private testing like Ferrari or Williams.

The principle of the 4 small front wheels was in theory to gain a better air penetration, at least on the front, because at the rear, the big tires were always there, resulting in a disabling aerodynamic drag. The consequence was that the new 10" tyres have a relatively limited grip, so the logical solution was to add a second wheel axle to regain the lost contact patch.

 

The other advantage on paper was that the 6-wheeler offered both a shorter wheelbase giving more agility in tight corners and twisty circuits and a longer wheelbase ideal for big curves. Precisely, it is on 2 different circuits illustrating these 2 extremes that the P34 collected its best results (the twisty Monaco, with 2 podium places, and the long curves of Anderstorp with a one-two win led by Jody Scheckter).

Tyrrell P34 T-Shirt - 1976 Swedish Grand Prix Victory

Available on MoRoarSport Shop at GPbox

 

Another good unentended side effect was the fact that if one of the front tires deflate or puncture, it almost had no influence on the car behaviour reducing risks of accident and giving drivers the chance to drive back normally almost at normal speed to boxes to change tyre. It proved so efficient to the point that one day, even scheckter didn't realise he had a puncture at the front when driving at high speed.

 

 If the Tyrrell P34 was an exciting toy for the 2nd driver of the team, Patrick Depailler, Jody Scheckter on the other hand did not appreciate it at all. 

 

The car had some unexpected flaws at the beginning. First of them was that the drivers were a bit disoriented by the lack of visibility on the front wheels. So Derek Gardner arranged two strange little windows on both sides of the cockpit  to allow the drivers to see where they were placing their wheels while monitoring the locking difference between the 1st and 2nd rows of tyres, as well as their respective level of wear.

The P34 had its heyday at the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix when its drivers Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler achieved pole position then a one-two. The other promising best performance of the car was the 2nd and 3d places at Monaco Grand Prix a few weeks before theire Swedish success.

Accumulating other podiums and finishing in the points, the team achieved a 3rd ranking at the end of the formula 1 1976 season, making the car one of the most successful debuts in F1 history.

A pity the experience stopped at the end of 1977 season due to many insuperable technical issues mostly due to an impossible development of the small front tires from Goodyear. The front tires could not benefit from the necessary improvement, while the rear tires could, thanks to the joint tests and feedback from all the teams which used the same Goodyear rubber throughout the season. This resulted in a huge difference through time between the P34's front and rear ends making it more difficult to set up and drive, adding to many brake issues and weight distribution problems.

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Some precious advice of Jackie Stewart after driving the 6 wheeler two years after his retiring from Formula 1.

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A beuatiful 3D animation work and presentation to show you how the P34 suspension works and its advantages.

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Getting under the skin of the six-wheeled Tyrrell F1 car.
In this video, the famous Giorgio Piola talks about what it was like working with the help of the Tyrrell P34 designer Derek Gardner to make his drawings of this fascinating car.

 

Interview of the P34 designer, Derek Gardner

 Read more about the Tyrrell P34 here