Since the six-wheel concept would greatly reduce the lift effect generated by the front wheels it would not need to run large amounts of front wing, run a reduced frontal area, thus providing a straight-line speed advantage.
However, since the front tires were only 0.625 inch of the rears in diameter, they rotated at a much faster rate, for every turn of the rear tire, the front must travel 1.6 times as far. The problem can easily be understood when you consider that if the rears were travelling at 200mph, the fronts were travelling at effectively 320mph, which caused them to distort at high speeds.
Whilst Goodyear developed the rear and the standard sized front F1 tires throughout the 1976 season, development of the bespoke P34 10-inch tires was sadly lacking. By the end of the season the P34's front tires were almost six months behind in development compared to the rears.
The other main problem for the P34 was keeping the front brakes cool, many different solutions were attempted throughout the season but none fully resolved the problem and all added weight to an already over weight car.
A disillusioned Derek Gardner and the Tyrrell team tried valiantly to resolve the problems by constantly modifying the P34, at almost every race there was something different about the car, but none of the solutions worked enough to get over the two basic problems.
Without the commitment from Goodyear to develop better front tires, the P34 was doomed to fail, realising this Derek resigned from Tyrrell and turned his back on F1 forever.
 |
| Derek Gardner's original freehand sketch of the P34. (Photo: Project34) |
However, since the front tires were only 0.625 inch of the rears in diameter, they rotated at a much faster rate, for every turn of the rear tire, the front must travel 1.6 times as far. The problem can easily be understood when you consider that if the rears were travelling at 200mph, the fronts were travelling at effectively 320mph, which caused them to distort at high speeds.
Whilst Goodyear developed the rear and the standard sized front F1 tires throughout the 1976 season, development of the bespoke P34 10-inch tires was sadly lacking. By the end of the season the P34's front tires were almost six months behind in development compared to the rears.
 |
| Patrick Depailler driving the P34. (Photo: Project34) |
The other main problem for the P34 was keeping the front brakes cool, many different solutions were attempted throughout the season but none fully resolved the problem and all added weight to an already over weight car.
A disillusioned Derek Gardner and the Tyrrell team tried valiantly to resolve the problems by constantly modifying the P34, at almost every race there was something different about the car, but none of the solutions worked enough to get over the two basic problems.
Without the commitment from Goodyear to develop better front tires, the P34 was doomed to fail, realising this Derek resigned from Tyrrell and turned his back on F1 forever.
 |
| Cockpit the P34. (Photo: Project34) |