- 16 Aug 09, 17:21#143485In my view, the only time I spare car could have been useful was in yesteryears, when teams didn't have to enter all of the Grand Prix or when there were very small outfits competing who could only afford one or two chassis. At the moment, even Formula One's most rudimentary teams are spending tens of millions, so could easily have a spare car sitting. In fact, one could argue not having a spare car is more expensive: For instance, say a driver has a really bad crash and has car has virtually disintegrated. Whereas in the past, he would simply hop into the spare car, nowadays teams would have spend enumerable man hours repairing the driver's old car with their spare parts. And, if the chassis was damaged in the crash, the team would not be able to enter one of their cars into the race, so would have flown out for basically nothing.

Ayrton Senna: WDC 1988,
1989, 1990, 1991
McLaren: WCC 1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998,
1999, 2007McLaren: WDC 1974, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2008