Porsche

Porsche's works Formula 1 effort in the early 1960s is a little-remembered chapter in the history of a marque far better known for sports-car and endurance success. The German manufacturer entered Grand Prix racing as a constructor at the start of the decade.

The high point came in 1962, when Dan Gurney won the French Grand Prix at Rouen, giving Porsche its only victory as a Formula 1 constructor, achieved with a flat-eight engine. Porsche concluded that the costs of a competitive F1 programme were not justified and withdrew to focus on sports cars.

Porsche would later return to Formula 1 with enormous success as an engine supplier, its TAG-badged turbo engines powering McLaren to multiple championships in the 1980s.

Porsche's brief constructor career is a fascinating footnote that produced one famous victory, while its later engine success showed where its true Formula 1 strength lay. The Stuttgart marque's racing pedigree is immense, and even its short Grand Prix chapter carries the weight of one of the sport's most respected names.