Credit: Photo by Paul Lannuier, CC BY-SA 2.0
F1 has always been a sport of survival as much as speed.
Big teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren or Red Bull, tend to dominate the headlines, but many other teams have come and cone in F1 in modern era from 2000 and on.
The grid has seen a wave of new names, some faded in a single season, others were bought out and reborn under different banners, while a few left behind unforgettable stories before vanishing.
Here is the tale of the F1 teams that competed after the year of 2000.
Jordan Grand Prix
Jordan was one of the most colorful teams in the late of 90s and early of 2000s.
With striking yellow cars and Eddie Jordan’s flair for promotion they became a cult favorite.
The team’s peak came in the season of 1999, when Frentzen challenged for the title, but by the mid of 2000s, money troubles ended the fairytale.
The team was sold, Jordan Became Midland, then Spiker and then Force India, through a series of transformations is today’s Aston Martin, The Jordan name, however, has been left in the past.
Jordan team in 15 seasons, took 14 podiums, 4 wins, 2 pole laps and 2 fastest laps, their best finish as constructors was in 1999, finishing P3.
It is an iconic team, the most successful driver in history started at Jordan back in 1991, also another champion drove for the team, which was Damon Hill.
Jaguar Racing
Ford’s ambitious attempt to build a British powerhouse began in 2000 with the rebranding of Stewart GP into Jaguar Racing.
Despite heavy investment and the prestige of the Jaguar name, the team underachieved and never managed to score a victory.
Jaguar had two podiums in their stint in F1, they signed Eddie Irvine from Ferrari, also they had drivers like Mark Webber and De la Rossa.
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In 2004, Ford sold the operation to Red Bull, who transformed it into one of the sport’s most dominant forces. Jaguar’s short stay serves as an expensive lesson in how money alone cannot guarantee Formula 1 success.
Prost Grand Prix
Alain Prost, a four-time world champion, dreamed of building his own winning team. What began in 1997 with hope and French national pride quickly turned sour.
Financial struggles and poor results plagued Prost Grand Prix, and by 2001 the team collapsed.
Prost remains one of the most high-profile champions to fail as a team owner in Formula 1’s modern era.
Prost also signed Jarno Trulli, who was at Minardi for the first 7 races in 1997, Trulli surprised everyone by finishing P4 at the German GP that year.
Arrows
Arrows had been around since the late 1970s, but its final years unfolded in the new millennium. The team was a fixture of the midfield, with flashes of promise but never the financial muscle to break through.
In 2002, the money finally ran out, and Arrows shut its doors. It was a quiet end for a team that had once fielded stars like Damon Hill and Jos Verstappen.
BAR (British American Racing)
Launched in 1999 with the backing of British American Tobacco, BAR was loud, brash, and determined to win fast.
Their double-liveried debut car became infamous when the FIA forced them to pick one design. Results took time, but the team eventually became competitive, finishing second in the 2004 Constructors’ Championship.
Honda bought them out in 2006, marking the end of the BAR name in Formula 1.
Toyota
Toyota entered Formula 1 in 2002 with one of the largest budgets the sport had ever seen.
The Japanese manufacturer built a state-of-the-art facility in Cologne and hired top drivers, but results never matched expectations.
Despite occasional podiums, the team never won a race. In 2009, during the global financial crisis, Toyota pulled the plug on its F1 project.
It remains one of the most expensive failures in Formula 1 history.
Midland F1
In 2006, Canadian businessman Alex Shnaider bought the struggling Jordan team and rebranded it as Midland F1.
The project lasted only one season before being sold again, this time to Dutch manufacturer Spyker. Midland is remembered as one of the shortest-lived modern F1 efforts.
Super Aguri
Launched in 2006 with backing from Honda and managed by former driver Aguri Suzuki, Super Aguri became a cult favorite.
Running on limited funds and with adapted Honda machinery, they managed the occasional shock performance, including Takuma Sato famously overtaking Fernando Alonso in Canada 2007. Sadly, debts overwhelmed the team, and they folded midway through 2008.
Spyker
Spyker took over Midland in 2007, painting the cars in a bright orange livery that stood out immediately. But the small Dutch supercar maker could not sustain the costs of F1.
After just one season, Spyker sold the team to Vijay Mallya, who transformed it into Force India.
Honda Racing F1
Honda returned as a full factory team in 2006 after buying out BAR. The project showed flashes of promise but was inconsistent.
In 2008, just as the team had designed a car capable of winning, the global financial crisis struck. Honda withdrew suddenly, leaving Ross Brawn to orchestrate a management buyout.
What followed was the fairytale of Brawn GP.
Brawn GP
Brawn GP competed in only one season, but it was one of the most remarkable stories in Formula 1 history.
With Jenson Button at the wheel and a brilliant double diffuser design, Brawn dominated the 2009 season, winning both championships.
At the end of the year, Mercedes purchased the team and began their own dynasty. Brawn GP’s one-year miracle remains one of the greatest underdog triumphs the sport has ever seen.
Force India
When Vijay Mallya bought Spyker in 2008, he created Force India, a team that would punch above its weight for a decade.
With limited resources, they scored podiums and became known for clever strategy and bold racing. But mounting financial and legal troubles forced Mallya to sell.
In 2018, Lawrence Stroll bought the team, rebranding it as Racing Point and later Aston Martin.
BMW Sauber
BMW ended its partnership with Williams in 2005 and bought Sauber, forming BMW Sauber from 2006. The team became competitive quickly, famously winning the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix with Robert Kubica.
Also we remember that BMW had great drivers also like, Jascques Villeneuve, Nick Heidfeld, and even gave a chance in 2007 to Sebastian Vettel who joined Toro Rosso in 2008, and then became 4-time world champion at Red Bull.
They third second in the Constructors’ standings in 2007.
Yet when the financial crisis hit in 2009, BMW pulled out. Sauber returned to the grid, but BMW’s F1 experiment was over.
HRT (Hispania Racing)
When the FIA opened the grid to new teams in 2010, Hispania Racing was one of the hopefuls. Unfortunately, they were underfunded from the start.
Running outdated cars and struggling to even qualify, HRT never scored a single point. By 2012, the project collapsed entirely, and the team disappeared without much trace.
Virgin, Marussia, and Manor
Richard Branson, he entered in F1 with Virgin Brand, in 2010 with a bold plan to design a car entirely using computational fluid dynamics.
The concept failed and the team rebranded as Marussia and later as Manor.
Jules Bianchi, a great future driver that was wanted by Ferrari, he scored two points at Monaco in 2014, a moment of joy for one of the smallest teams on the grid.
But money was always tight, and by 2016 the lights finally went out for good.
Lotus Team
Lotus entered in 2012, until 2015, then the team was sold to Renault in 2015.
Kimi Raikkonen was announced at the end of 2011 by the team, he had two good years at Lotus team, won two races and also finished 3rd in the championship in 2012.
Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri
Originally Minardi, Toro Rosso became Red Bull’s junior team in 2006. It produced stars like Sebastian Vettel, who won in Monza in 2008.
In 2020, Red Bull rebranded the squad as AlphaTauri, promoting its fashion brand. But that too was short-lived.
By 2024, the team became Visa Cash App RB, or Racing Bulls. Although the operation continues, the Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri identities have already been consigned to history.
Caterham F1
Caterham F1 entered the sport in 2010 as Lotus Racing and became Caterham in 2012.
The team competed until 2014 but never scored a championship point.
Drivers like Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov showed occasional promise, yet the team struggled to break into the midfield and eventually folded due to financial difficulties.
Alfa Romeo
The most recent departure came in 2023, when Alfa Romeo ended its branding deal with Sauber. For five seasons the famous Italian marque returned to Formula 1, but never as a full works team.
Their exit cleared the way for Audi, who will join the grid in 2026.
What can we say more about these forgotten teams?
From Toyota’s billion-dollar gamble to Brawn GP’s fairytale season, these teams tell the hidden story of Formula 1 in the modern era.
Some became stepping stones to today’s giants, others were flashes of color that vanished almost overnight. Each, however, played a part in shaping the grid as we know it today.
Formula 1 is not only about the teams that survive—it is also about those that dared, failed, and left behind stories worth remembering.
