This is the sixth entry in our F1 Myths and Madness series. Formula 1 has always attracted engineers willing to try things nobody else would consider. Few ideas were stranger, or more successful, than a Grand Prix car with six wheels.
Why a Team Would Even Think of This
By the mid 1970s, most competitive teams were using the same Cosworth DFV engine and the same Hewland gearbox, which meant the usual paths to finding extra performance were largely closed off. Tyrrell went looking for an advantage somewhere else entirely, in aerodynamics. At the time, regulations limited how wide a car’s front wing could be, and the standard sized front tires ended up sitting outside that width, exposed to the airflow and creating drag the wing could do nothing about. Tyrrell’s solution was almost absurdly simple in concept. Shrink the front wheels down to 10 inches, small enough to tuck neatly behind the narrower wing, and add a second set of front wheels just behind the first to make up for the grip and braking surface lost by going smaller.
How the Six Wheel Setup Actually Worked
The result was the Tyrrell P34, featuring four small 10 inch wheels at the front of the car instead of the usual two. The first set of front wheels connected directly to the steering, turning the car in the traditional way, while the second set behind them was linked through a bell crank arrangement that allowed them to steer in coordination with the first pair. The two rear wheels remained standard sized, driven by the engine as normal. On paper, the design offered less aerodynamic drag at the front, a larger total contact patch with the road for braking, and a genuinely unique look that set it apart from every other car on the grid.
The Win That Proved It Could Work
The P34 was not just a curiosity. At the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix in Anderstorp, the car achieved a genuine, competitive victory, driven by Jody Scheckter, with teammate Patrick Depailler finishing right behind him in second place, giving Tyrrell a full one two finish with a car that looked nothing like anything else on the grid. It remains, to this day, the only six wheeled car to ever win a Formula 1 Grand Prix, a fact that still gets brought up whenever fans debate the strangest cars to ever succeed in the sport.
Why the Idea Eventually Fell Apart
Despite the early success, the concept ran into a problem no amount of clever engineering could fully solve. The P34’s four small front tires were a completely custom size, meaning Tyrrell depended entirely on its tire supplier, Goodyear, to keep developing and improving that specific tire alongside the standard sizes used by every other team on the grid. Goodyear eventually chose to stop investing extra development resources into a tire used by only one team, deciding it made more sense to focus on the sizes that mattered to the rest of the field. Without continued tire development, the P34’s performance advantage faded, and the car’s design grew increasingly complex to maintain relative to the gains it was delivering. Tyrrell abandoned the six wheeled concept entirely by 1978, returning to a conventional four wheel layout.
How the Sport Made Sure It Never Came Back
Tyrrell was not the only team to experiment with unusual wheel configurations during this era, and rather than risk another team finding a genuine performance advantage through a similar approach, the sport’s governing body eventually moved to close the door for good. Cars with four driven wheels were banned starting in 1983, and the regulations were later written more precisely to require that a Formula 1 car have exactly four wheels total, ending any possibility of a six wheeled return regardless of how the design might be configured.
Why the P34 Still Matters
The Tyrrell P34 remains one of the most beloved oddities in Formula 1 history, not because it dominated the sport, but because it actually worked, at least for a while, against competitors who had access to every conventional advantage the era offered. It is regularly cited as proof that genuinely unconventional engineering ideas can still find success in Formula 1, provided a team is willing to accept the risk that the rest of the industry might not support the idea once it is out in the open.
Why We Wrote This
This is the sixth entry in our F1 Myths and Madness series, following whether an F1 car could drive upside down, Crashgate, Spygate, the myth of the fair fight, and Andrea Moda. For the full picture of how the sport works, start with our complete guide to everything you need to know about F1. Learn more on our Brand Guidelines page, or read about what Wolvra stands for on our About Us page.