Tyrrell F1 team

This is the third in a series about successful F1 teams.

Ken Tyrrell who founded the racing team that bears his name, made their debut at the 1970 Canadian GP. The team was successful from the start and in the early 1970's it won three Driver's Championships and one Constructor's Championship with Sir Jackie Stewart. However, the team would never reach such heights again. At the Detroit GP in 1983 it took the final win for the Ford Cosworth DFV. The team was bought by British American Tobacco in 1997 and it competed for the last time in the Japanese GP in 1998.

In all, Tyrrell took part in 433 races, won 2 driver's titles and 1 constructor's title, 23 race victories, took 14 pole positions, a total of 66 podiums, 20 fastest laps, and 8 one/two finishes. Not bad for a racing operation that started out of a woodshed. While gaining experience in the lower formulas, Tyrrell gave single seater debuts to John Surtees and Jacky Ickx.

Ken Tyrrell relied on a staff that included Derek Gardner, Mike Gascoyne, Tim Densham, and Dr. Harvey Postlethwaite. Arguably one of the most radical designs in F1 is the Tyrrell P34 designed by Gardner. Known as the six-wheeler, the car first ran in 1976 in the Spanish GP and though Jody Schekter thought the P34 would only be competitive temporarily, as no new special tires (10-inch-diameter) were being developed by Goodyear, it would take a 1-2 finish at the Swedish GP. On the right a pictures of a P34 taken at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Below the top twenty drivers of drove for Ken Tyrrell:

The P34 under power at Goodwood

- Patrick Depailler (17 podiums)
- Ukyo Katayama
- Mika Salo
- Michele Alboreto (4 podiums)
- Jonathan Palmer
- Jody Scheckter (14 podiums)
- Jackie Stewart (20 podiums)
- Martin Brundle
- Francois Cevert (13 podiums)
- Phillippe Streiff
- Andrea de Cesaris

Jackie Stewart"s  former ride at Goodwood

- Saturo Nakajima
- Didier Pironi (2 podiums)
- Jean-Pierre Jarier (2)
- Jean Alesi (2)
- Stefan Belhof
- Derek Daly
- Ronnie Peterson (1)
- Jos Verstappen
- Toranosuke Takagi


Source: F1-fansite.com, Wikipidia
Photo credit: own files (please do not use them without permission).