Porsche's Brief Grand Prix Adventure

Better known for sports cars, Porsche raced its own Formula One cars in the early 1960s and won once, with Dan Gurney at Rouen in 1962.

Porsche reached Formula One by an indirect route. In the late 1950s the rules allowed its small 718 RSK sports car to enter Formula Two races, where it showed promising speed. Porsche moved the seat to the center, then built true single seaters, and these 1500 cc cars had real success. Porsches appeared in World Championship races from the 1957 German Grand Prix, at first as Formula Two entries running alongside the full Grand Prix cars.

In 1961 Porsche moved its former Formula Two cars up to Formula One, but the design was already outdated. Even so, Dan Gurney finished second three times that year. For 1962 the company built the 804, a sleek car with a new flat eight engine, and at the 1962 French Grand Prix at Rouen Gurney won, Porsche's only championship victory as a constructor. A week later he won again before a home crowd at Solitude near Stuttgart, in a race outside the championship.

At the end of 1962 Porsche withdrew because of the high cost, and private teams raced the old 718 until 1964. Porsche cars started 32 World Championship races between 1957 and 1964, with one win and five podium finishes, all of them Gurney's. Jo Bonnier and Carel Godin de Beaufort were among the other regular drivers.

The company came back as an engine maker. Its turbocharged V6, badged as TAG, powered McLaren from 1983 to 1987 and won three drivers' titles. A return with Footwork in 1991 failed to score a point, and talks to join Red Bull in 2022 ended without agreement.

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