Tyrrell

Tyrrell Racing was the team that proved a small British operation, run from a timber yard in Surrey by a charismatic racing manager, could beat Ferrari, Lotus, and the rest of the F1 establishment to back-to-back Drivers' Championships. Ken Tyrrell founded the team in the mid-1960s as a Formula 3 and Formula 2 outfit running Matra chassis, then graduated to Formula 1 in 1968 with the Matra-Ford. By 1971, Tyrrell was World Champion. Jackie Stewart took three Drivers' Championships with the team (1969, 1971, 1973), and Tyrrell remained an independent constructor until 1998 when British American Racing acquired the team — the precursor of the modern Honda/Mercedes that would become 2014-2021 dominator. Tyrrell is the British constructor whose name should be more revered than it is.

Origins

Ken Tyrrell was a timber merchant who turned his lumber business into a team headquarters in Ockham, Surrey. He had run a Formula Junior team and managed Jackie Stewart's career through F3 and F2. The Tyrrell-Matra partnership began in 1968 with Stewart driving the Matra MS10 powered by Cosworth DFV — a partnership that immediately produced race wins. The 1969 championship came in the Matra MS80, with Stewart taking six wins and the Drivers' title. When Matra demanded Tyrrell use the Matra V12 for 1970, Tyrrell refused (the V12 was uncompetitive against the DFV) and built his own car for 1970 — the Tyrrell 001. The first Tyrrell-built car raced in late 1970. The team's own constructor identity began here.

Golden Era

1971-1973 was Tyrrell's golden era. Stewart won the 1971 championship in the Tyrrell 003 with six victories. He nearly won again in 1972 (lost to Emerson Fittipaldi after Stewart was hospitalized with stomach ulcers). 1973 brought Stewart's third and final championship in the 005/006, with five wins. After Stewart's retirement at end of 1973 (following teammate François Cevert's death at Watkins Glen), Tyrrell never won another championship — but the team continued as a credible midfield constructor for 25 more years. Cevert's death is one of the most haunting losses in F1 history; Stewart had decided to retire before that race but had not yet announced it, planning to ride out his hundredth Grand Prix at Watkins Glen with his protégé.

Legendary Cars

The Tyrrell 001 (1970) was the team's first own constructor effort, conventional but quick. The Tyrrell 003 (1971) won Stewart's second championship. The Tyrrell 006 (1973) was the championship car for Stewart's third title. The most famous Tyrrell ever built is the P34 (1976-1977) — the "six-wheeler" with four small front wheels behind a tiny front wing. Designed by Derek Gardner, the P34 was an aerodynamic and grip experiment that won at Sweden 1976 with Jody Scheckter and earned Tyrrell second in the 1976 Constructors' Championship. The six-wheeler is the most photographed and beloved oddity in F1 history. Subsequent Tyrrells were less spectacular: the 011, 014 (Renault turbo), and the 020 series of the 1990s with Honda and later Yamaha and Ford engines.

Lows & Reinventions

Tyrrell's slow decline began with Stewart's retirement and accelerated through the 1980s as the small budget made it impossible to compete with the big-spending teams. Ken Tyrrell ran the team with characteristic frugality but the gap widened year by year. The team had a brief revival in the mid-1990s with Mika Salo and Ukyo Katayama, then Tyrrell sold to British American Tobacco's BAR project in 1998. Ken Tyrrell himself died in 2001 of cancer, having seen his team's name disappear from the grid. The BAR-Honda transition was painful for the original Tyrrell staff; many were laid off or transferred to the new operation. The Tyrrell factory in Ockham was sold and demolished. The continuous lineage from Tyrrell to BAR to Honda to Brawn to Mercedes is one of F1's most fascinating institutional stories.

Modern Era

Tyrrell does not currently exist as a Formula 1 entry. Its institutional successor — the team that bought the entry in 1998 — became British American Racing, then Honda Racing F1, then Brawn GP (which won both championships in 2009), and finally Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, which won eight consecutive Constructors' Championships from 2014-2021. Mercedes' Brackley factory traces its corporate ancestry to Ken Tyrrell's Ockham timber yard. The Tyrrell name itself is largely commemorated through historical exhibitions, the Goodwood Festival of Speed appearances by P34 demonstration cars, and the periodic re-running of Stewart's championship cars. The Tyrrell family has not pursued an F1 return since Ken's death.