January 26th was a day that the international media as well as countless racing enthusiasts had been waiting for since the 2011 Formula 1 season finished two months earlier.

Caterham launched its new challenger, the CT01, and by the evening everyone was talking about one of the car’s features in particular. Located on the CT01’s nose was what can best be described as an awkward-looking step and the press quickly began referring to the design as the “platypus nose.”

Over the course of the following weeks, almost every team on the 2012 Formula 1 grid launched their own version of the design and it became apparent that the “Platypus nose” was here to stay.

Although the name itself was certainly one of the funniest that I have ever encountered, it is only one of the many nicknames that have been given to various Formula 1 cars throughout the years. It seems as though the uglier a car is, the better the nickname becomes.

The following are some of the ugliest cars in Formula 1 history and the funny nicknames that they inspired:

The Walrus Nose: Williams FW26

There are some car launches that will remain etched in people’s minds for many years to come simply because of their shock value and the launch of the Williams FW26 was one such occasion.

When Formula 1 fans all over the world viewed the British team’s 2004 challenger for the very first time, they gasped collectively in horror as they beheld the monstrosity.

It wasn’t so much the chassis as a whole that offended but more the very strange nose that shocked onlookers. Simply put, the FW26 resembled a beached sea mammal and lead to the car being nicknamed “the walrus” by some members of the media.

Sir Frank Williams was adamant that the design could triumph against competitors such as Ferrari: “I have every confidence that the team has all the elements necessary to win in 2004-we must simply seize the opportunity.”

Unfortunately for Williams, 2004 was not to be their year and the team even abandoned the “walrus nose” design by the Hungarian Grand Prix. After beginning the year with such high expectations, Williams ended up finishing the Championship in fourth position and has languished in the midfield ever since.

Photo Credits: BMW

The Tea Tray: March 711

When Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd created March Engineering in 1969, they quickly became used to criticism. Many did not believe the quartet when they claimed that they were going to run works Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 teams in 1970 and the additional plan to produce customer cars as well seemed overly ambitious.

The squad silenced many of its doubters when a March supplied car helped Jackie Stewart to victory in the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix but March still needed to establish itself in Formula 1 as a works team.

The following year the team certainly made their mark on Formula 1 history, although perhaps not in the way that they had intended to. With its awkward front wing that looked more suited to a waitress than a race car, the March 711 became known at the “spitfire” or “tea tray”.

Although the 711 is generally accepted as one of the ugliest Formula 1 cars of all time, it was at least somewhat competitive taking Ronnie Peterson to second place overall in the driver’s Championship and bringing March Engineering five podium finishes. Not bad for a tea tray.

Photo Credits: Wikipedia

The Lobster Claw: Brabham BT34

In 1971 Ron Tauranac, who had purchased Jack Brabham’s share of the team that the pair founded, signed Graham Hill to drive a car that was decidedly different from its predecessors.

Up until the BT34 was unveiled, Brabham was known for being technically conservative; with the team preferring to use “old-fashioned” spaceframe cars even after others began switching to monocoque chassis.

The BT34, which was nicknamed the “lobster claw”, featured a split front spoiler with integrated radiators and was one of a kind, with Hill’s teammate, Tim Schenken, driving the team’s older BT33 model throughout the season.

Although the double World Champion is rumored to have criticized the car, he did manage to obtain the final win of his career while driving it at Silverstone. Carlos Reutemann and Wilson Fittipaldi would also pilot the BT34 during parts of the 1972 World Championship.

At the end of 1971, Tauranac sold Brabham to a certain Bernie Ecclestone who promoted Gordon Murray to chief designer in 1973. Murray later became responsible for another one of Brabham’s interesting cars that received its own unique name when he designed the BT46B, which is more commonly referred to as the “fan car.”

Photo Credits: Wikipedia

The Snow Plough: Ferrari 312B3

When Ferrari cancelled the launch and shakedown of the F2012 earlier this year, they blamed heavy snowfall for their problems, too bad that the team’s 2012 challenger wasn’t more like the Ferrari 312B3.

The radical car, which was first conceived before the 1973 season, would have been not only capable of making its way around the Fiorano circuit, it probably could have also ploughed the roads that connect Maranello and Modena in record time!

The Mauro Forghieri designed machine was the team’s attempt at closing down rivals such as Lotus and Tyrell and was nicknamed the “Spazzaneve” or snowplough by the Italian press because of its shovel-like front end.

Unfortunately for Ferrari, the first incarnation of the 312B3 would never see a Formula 1 race when Forghieri fell victim to Ferrari politics and left the squad before the first Grand Prix.

After the Italians had a decidedly unsuccessful 1973 season, Forghieri was summoned back to Maranello and a revised incarnation of the initial 312B3 prototype was fielded in the 1974 World Championship.

With Clay Regazzoni and Niki Lauda behind the wheel, the team was able to claim second place in the Championship and moved towards a more positive future.

Photo Credits: Pietro Zoccola / Flickr

The Teapot: Ligier JS5

1976 saw the arrival of the Ligier team onto the Formula 1 grid. Along with the mechanics and driver came a Gérard Ducarouge designed car with an oversized airbox that resembled an obese teapot.

Although the JS5 was one of the most offensive of the 1976 Formula 1 contenders, it was not the first car to feature an overhead airbox. The designs began appearing in the early seventies, with Matra’s MS120B being an early example.

Teams such as McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus were all sporting the look by 1974 and over the course of the next several years the designs of airboxes became even higher and more offensive.

Restrictions were introduced limiting both their size and height in the late seventies and the teapot look that the particularly high airboxes created was banished to the history books.

As for the Ligier JS5, it managed to obtain three podium place finishes and a pole position in the hands of Jacques Laffite, who would earn the team its first Formula 1 victory only one year later.

Photo Credits of 1:43 Scale Model: Racingmodels (see a real life photo here)

Final Thoughts

Not surprisingly, the majority of the cars mentioned on this list are from the seventies; a time when racing vehicles transitioned from the classic shapes of the fifties and sixties to beasts that aimed to exploit every aerodynamic advantage possible.

Looking at pictures of these vehicles definitely puts the apparent repulsiveness of this year’s Formula 1 cars into perspective. Nevertheless, being referred to as a platypus is definitely not a good thing, even if your peers also resemble the semi-aquatic mammals.

By Danielle Blaschuk