In November 1997, following rumours that founder Ken Tyrell was looking to sell up, British American Tobacco became the first tobacco company to buy a Formula 1 team outright. It was to be a false dawn, however, and after Alesi was snapped up by Ferrari, Tyrell’s results never recovered fully recovered and by the middle of the decade, they were fighting to stay off the back of the grid. Their 1984 campaign was dogged by controversy as the team were excluded from the championship when it was later discovered that they illegally circumvented minimum weight requirements.Ī brief resurgence followed in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s with back-to-back fifth-place championship placings with talented young Frenchman Jean Alesi at the wheel their highest positions since 1979. The 1980s signalled the beginning of Tyrell’s decline, and as Formula 1 evolved to become a more technologically advanced sport, a lack of funding hampered the team’s development. They also garnered a reputation as one of the most innovative outfits too with their eye-catching and controversial ‘six-wheeler’ car that used during the 1976-77 seasons.
With Jackie Stewart at the wheel, the team won three drivers’ world titles and one constructors’ world title, while also winning races with the likes of Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler.ĭuring the 1970s, only Ferrari and Lotus won more grands prix than Tyrell as the British team established themselves as one of the leading teams on the grid. Let’s start at the very beginning, sort of.įounded by former Matra team boss, Ken Tyrell, the team that used his name began competing in Formula 1 in 1970 and enjoyed their greatest period of success later that decade. Few connections are shared with the successful team of the 1950s, and bizarrely, they have closer ties to the likes of Ken Tyrell and err… Craig Pollock. In F1, things change pretty quickly, so a little creative licence is required to trace the true roots of some current teams on the grid. Mercedes are a perfect example of that. It’s not in any way similar to doing the same with a football team as they often keep the same crest, name, colours and even stadium for anything up to a hundred years or more. Tracing the history of Formula 1 teams can be a fairly fractured process. In part two, we're looking back at the origins of the dominant Mercedes AMG Formula 1 team.
We're continuing our series looking back to where it all began for some of the current teams on the F1 grid. From manufacturer buyouts to high profile rebrands, F1 has seen it all.
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