Tyrrell

Ken Tyrrell’s famous Formula 1 racing team will forever be associated with Jackie Stewart and the three World Championship titles they won together. But the Tyrrell story is far bigger than that, embracing nearly 40 action-packed years, from initial forays as an entrant in Formula Junior in 1960 to eventual demise in 1998.

Along the way, the team with its larger-than-life proprietor was always universally respected in the world’s Formula 1 paddocks, often as the plucky underdog. In compiling this comprehensive history, the author has interviewed dozens of surviving team members — including most of the drivers and many mechanics — to gather their memories and present an energetic, touching, compelling and above all entertaining narrative.
 

• Ken Tyrrell’s career as a racing driver in the 1950s, moving on to become an entrant of Formula Junior and Formula 3 single-seaters in the early years of the following decade.
• Establishing himself in Formula 2 with his star driver, Jackie Stewart, and also claiming the European title in that category with Jacky Ickx in 1967.
• Onwards to Formula 1 in 1968, linking up with French constructor Matra, then remarkably winning the 1969 World Championship with Jackie Stewart.
• Achieving almost immediate success as a constructor in a golden era that brought two more Formula 1 titles for Jackie Stewart, in 1971 and 1973, but ended in tragedy with the death of François Cevert.
• The extraordinary six-wheeler: Tyrrell sprung one of Formula 1’s biggest surprises with a radical design that won a race but ultimately proved to be a blind alley.
• Falling down the grid as turbos took over, although Tyrrell achieved final victories in glitzy city races in America, in Las Vegas (1982) and Detroit (1983) — and brief notoriety for technical chicanery in 1984.
• Extended twilight: amidst occasional flashes of excellence, notably from Jean Alesi in 1990, the Tyrrell team’s latter years were difficult as Formula 1 also-rans, and ended in 1998 after takeover by BAR.