Quote Originally Posted by D28 View Post
Harry Schell wangled an entry for the Monaco GP, but set no practice time. His Cooper-Jap starting from the back thus was the first Cooper to start a F1 WC race, as well as the first rear engined entry, even though the car was definitely not a F1 car. All for naught as he failed to complete a lap being involved in a 9 car pile up on lap 1. Because he had no practice time, it is difficult to assess his lap times, but he would have been quite a bit off the pace.
The car was definitely not designed to be a Formula 1 car. But the Formula 1 rules were so loose in 1950, with no minimum weight or capacity and no dimensional requirements, that it did comply with the rules so it was a Formula 1 car that day. Likewise, when a Jaguar XK120 sports car ran in the Syracuse Grand Prix,
in that race it was a Formula 1 car.