Team · 1970–1998 · United Kingdom
Tyrrell Racing
Ken Tyrrell was a timber merchant, and for many years his team worked out of a wooden shed in a timber yard in Surrey. Before building a car of his own he entered Matra and March chassis for Jackie Stewart, and the Tyrrell 001 made its debut at the 1970 Canadian Grand Prix — straight onto pole. In 1971 Stewart became world champion and the team took the Constructors’ Championship; in 1973 he won his third title and retired, while his team-mate François Cevert was killed in qualifying for that season’s final round at Watkins Glen.
In 1976 Tyrrell lined up with the six-wheeled P34, which had four small wheels at the front, and Jody Scheckter won the Swedish Grand Prix in it, with Patrick Depailler second: the only World Championship win for a six-wheeled car. Michele Alboreto brought the team its last win, in Detroit in 1983 — which was also the last win for the Ford Cosworth DFV engine. In 1984 Tyrrell was excluded from the championship results for breaking the technical rules. The team spent its last season, 1998, under the ownership of British American Tobacco, and in 1999 BAR took its place — the start of the lineage that produced today’s Mercedes.