The Curious case of missing No.13 F1 car

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Starting with Sebastian Vettel’s No.1 Red Bull car to Charles Pic’s No.25 Marussia, ardent fans may have noticed the jump in the sequence of the 2012 Formula One entry list.

It may sound strange, but those involved in the world’s most technology dependant sport believe in superstition. And thus the unlucky No.13 does not find a place on any F1 machine. The No.13 car raced only twice since the inception of the world championship in 1950.

Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi or Mexican Sergio Perez should have been driving the No.13 car this season as Sauber finished seventh in the 2011 constructors’ standings.

But FIA — the motorsport ruling body — has allotted Nos. 14 and 15 to the Swiss outfit.
The early years of motorsport showed no signs of triskaidekaphobia — fear of the No. 13 – but a backto-back fatal accident in the 1920s forced the Automobile Club de France to ‘ban’ the number. Team Delage’s Paul Torchy died after crashing into a tree during the San Sebastian Grand Prix in 1925, while Italian Giulio Masetti was crushed beneath his No.13 Delage car the next time the team raced.

However, the Formula One World Championship -which began in 1950 -witnessed No.13 cars on two occasions, on the insistence of drivers. During the Mexican Grand Prix in 1963, Moises Solana used the number on a BRM at his home event in Mexico City, but it proved disastrous when he suffered an engine failure with just eight laps to go.

Solana went on to compete in seven more races but never with the `unlucky' number again.
In 1976, Divina Galica's first taste of Formula 1 turned sour when she failed to qualify for the British Grand Prix with her No.13 car. Since then, no driver has expressed an interest in proving the superstition wrong.

The numbering system in F1 has changed over the years. Originally, cars were allocated numbers on a race-by-race basis by lottery or by the order in which teams entries were received. In 1996, FIA i n t r o duced the system of assigning the No.1 car to the champion driver, while No.2 went to his teammate, irrespective of his classification. The rest of the numbers were allocated in pairs to teams in the order they finished in the previous year’s cons t r u c t o r s ’ c h a m p i onship.