WHAT IF CLASSIC TEAMS LIKE BRABHAM, JORDAN AND TYRRELL WERE STILL IN F1?

Many teams have come and gone in the long history of Formula 1.

Sometimes manufacturers pull out, sometimes team owners simply run out of money and the teams fold, and sometimes they get sold on and change their identity.

But what if some of the most classic but now-departed names on the F1 grid never left?

What if the likes of Tyrrell, Jordan and Toleman were still in F1 - and with their classic sponsors and liveries?

We asked racing car designer Sean Bull to see what that would look like, and this is what he's come up with...

1. BENETTON

Mid-nineties style from Benetton

The Italian team morphed into Renault, then into Lotus, and now back to Renault, but this was the livery used during Benetton's most successful era - when Michael Schumacher was winning back-to-back world championships.

And if anything, we reckon it looks even cooler on a 2017 chassis.

2. BRABHAM

Another classic - this is the 1983 era Brabham design transplanted onto a 2017 car.

Nelson Piquet won the title in the original white and blue car, designed by Gordon Murray for Bernie Ecclestone's team.

3. BRAWN

Still looks like a winner...

Brawn was only a team for a single season, famously winning the constructors' title and the drivers' championship with Jenson Button before owner Ross sold out to Mercedes.

4. HESKETH

Hesketh never ran with sponsorship - that would have been far too vulgar

The little team that could. Run by Lord Hesketh as a hobby, the team was said to get through more champagne than they did fuel, but did find time amid all the partying to give James Hunt his F1 debut - who repaid them with a Grand Prix victory: the 1975 Dutch GP.

5. JAGUAR

Probably a good job they're not still going - a shark fin would look terrible on that

The team otherwise known as 'The Money Pit' by executives of the Ford Motor Company, the best thing the ill-fated Jag F1 team had going for them was their fantastic British racing green colour scheme.

6. JORDAN

Jordan - we still miss them

If you watched F1 in the 1990s and you don't miss the yellow Jordan's at every Grand Prix then there might actually be something wrong with you.

Once Eddie's eponymous team settled on the colour scheme they really found their niche. This Benson and Hedges design was from the Damon Hill era of the late 90s - a cracking looking car then and now.

7. LIGIER

Another looker...

This Ligier design looks far better on a 2017 chassis than it did on the original with the huge air intake above the engine.

8. LOTUS

Colin would surely approve

Colin Chapman wasn't just a design genius, he was also a canny commercial operator and was ahead of the game when he signed up Gold Leaf as Lotus' main sponsor.

9. MINARDI

Minardi: A frequent sighting at the back of the grid

Everyone's favourite underdog team. Mostly pointless (in the literal sense), but we cheered them on anyway.

10. TOLEMAN

Senna's first team

The team that gave Ayrton Senna his Formula 1 break - and so nearly his first win in that rain-soaked Monaco Grand Prix in 1984.

11. TYRRELL

"Er guys, Charlie wants a quick word..."

Well it's unlikely this would get past the FIA scrutineers, but we'll let Sean off because this hybrid of the six-wheeler Tyrrell and a 2017 car looks so splendidly bonkers.

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