Tyrrell Racing

The Tyrrell Racing Organisation was a British motor racing team, who acted solely in Formula 1 1970-1998. Founder and namesake was the English timber merchant Ken Tyrrell, who especially at the beginning of the 1970s, scored with his team to the pilot Jackie Stewart considerable success and two Drivers ' and Constructors' Championships won one. The last of 23 Grand Prix successes on a Tyrrell scored the Italian Michele Alboreto 1983. Thereafter, the sport began to decline. The team was not until 1998 before it was acquired by the Anglo-American tobacco company BAT, which the team British American Racing ( BAR) formed from it.

• 2.1 Private Tyrrell in Formula 1
• 2.2 Tyrrell cars in Aurora Series
• 2.3 Tyrrell cars in the Formula 3000

Tyrrell Racing Organisation in Formula 1

The Era Stewart

After the Tyrrell Racing Organisation was started in Formula Junior, Formula 3 and Formula 2 since the 1950s, the team committed in 1968 in Formula 1 Tyrrell occurred in the first six Formula 1 years with Jackie Stewart than regular drivers. These years were the most successful phase of the team: Tyrrell won in this time three drivers championships (1969, 1971, 1973 ), and a Constructors Championship ( 1971). Stewart and his successes shaped the image of the team so strong that chroniclers spoke of it later, Tyrrell had actually been a Stewart team.

In his first two years, Tyrrell was a pure customer team. Chassis supplier was the French manufacturer Matra, which also maintained its own factory team. While Matra however began its own twelve-cylinder engine, Tyrrell Cosworth DFV related to the new eight-cylinder, which was more compact, lighter and stronger than the French unit.

To the debut race of the team at the Grand Prix of South Africa used a 1968 Tyrrell Matra MS9. The car was originally scheduled for Matras twelve-cylinder engine and was equipped for Tyrrell unique with a Cosworth FVA engine. From the second race of the year was awarded the Tyrrell Matra MS10, the Bernard Boyer had designed specifically for Tyrrell Cosworth DFV and the engine. Stewart won with this combination, the third race of the 1968 season, the Grand Prix of the Netherlands. Outstanding was Stewart's ride in the Grand Prix of Germany on the rain-soaked Nurburgring, where he went out with a broken wrist a lead of more than four minutes on the runner-up. Jackie Stewart finished the season with 39 points as runner-up.

1969 Stewart won six out of eleven World Championship races and finished with 63 points drivers world champion. His closest rival, the Brabham driver Jackie Ickx, scored only 37 championship points. The Constructors' World Championship was awarded to Matra. All points on the rating have been run by Tyrrell; Matras factory team was no championship point this year.

1970, parted ways and Tyrrell Matra. The French manufacturer, which had fallen into the sphere of influence of the Chrysler Group, supported the affiliation of its chassis with a Cosworth engine funded by Ford anymore. Matra further delivery of chassis rather under the condition that future Tyrrell used Matras twelve-cylinder engine. Ken Tyrrell, who was convinced of the qualities of light and powerful Cosworth DFV engine, then turned away from Matra. After Tyrrell's attempts to take over chassis from McLaren and Lotus, had failed, he decided to design their own race car, until its completion transitional three customer chassis from March Engineering was used. Jackie Stewart won in 1970 with the March 701 a World Championship race, and not for the World Cup scoring formula 1 race. Stewart's teammate was initially Johnny Servoz - Gavin. The Frenchman played the first three World Cup races for the British team. At the Monaco Grand Prix, he failed to qualify. It was the first non- qualification of the Tyrrell team since 1968. According to this event Servoz - Gavin ended his driving career for health reasons. In May 1970, he stated that he had at some races had anxiety and see no longer in a position to risky to drive. Ken Tyrrell wanted Servoz - Gavin's first cockpit reoccupy with Brian Redman. Tyrrell's main sponsor, the French oil company Elf, but sat by Cevert, although Cevert was bound in the formula 2 to the rival company Motul. Jackie Stewart, who Cevert since the Grand Prix de Reims knew in 1969, supported this decision.

During the year 1970 Derek Gardner for Tyrrell own chassis, which was presented to the public at the Grand Prix of Italy and had his first world use under Jackie Stewart during the subsequent Grand Prix of Canada, Mont Tremblant.

As of 1971, Tyrrell throughout an own car.

The Tyrrell 001-005 were individual pieces; the numbers indicated in each case the chassis numbers. Only from the 006, the term referred to a type of vehicle of which may take several replicas were prepared.

The 1970s

In the second half of the 1970s, when Jackie Stewart had resigned, the team's performance was noticeably. The iconic Sechsradwagen Tyrrell P34, the team made ​​again stir. The P34 was the first and only Formula 1 race cars, the six wheels ( four front, two rear ) possessed and was used in the race. 1976 drove Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler the car, 1977 Depailler and Ronnie Peterson. This model had on each side of two small front wheels one behind the other. The advantages were in better aerodynamics and better traction. In the first year of this concept had achieved some success. So Jody Scheckter won the Grand Prix of Sweden 1976, in which Patrick Depailler was second. After considerable tire problems, the concept of P34 end of 1977, however, found his end. In retrospect, Ken Tyrrell saw the P34 on the wrong track. This experience influenced him sustained, so he mostly conservative, unspectacular and not more competitive vehicles brought in the following decade and a half are used. Victories were rare. Although drove with Ronnie Peterson and Jody Scheckter occasionally even high-class pilots for the team; generally Tyrrell went but about to commit young, inexpensive driver. The team suffered in the transition from the 1970s to the 1980s, repeated financial difficulties. Ken Tyrrell held the team again, with grants from his private fortune in life. At the same time he built from staff. In the 1981 season the team had only 25 employees, 20 fewer than the year before.

Tyrrell in the turbo era

The unsatisfactory experience with the unconventional let Tyrrell P34 long-standing refusal to appear understandable to switch from Cosworth normally aspirated engines on turbo engines. The team already in 1980 the opportunity to turbo engines from Renault to take over. However, Tyrrell rejected this step and also tried at the beginning of the 1980s, as the superiority of the Turbo concept was already clearly evident and even teams like Toleman, Ligier and Arrows inserting long supercharged engines, initially not to corresponding concepts. 1985, Tyrrell, apart from Minardi, the last team that was still driving with naturally aspirated engines. At this time, the lack of competitiveness of the traditional racing team was already very noticeable. The last victory at the Grand Prix of Las Vegas in 1982 and Detroit in 1983, each Michele Alboreto import, came only in the particular circumstances that applied to city courses about. In 1984, Tyrrell was so inefficient that the team with irregular, underweight cars went to the start. When the fraud noticed Tyrrell was excluded from the Formula 1 World Championship in 1984. For some outstanding achievements made ​​only Stefan Bellof, who gave his 1984 Formula 1 debut with Tyrrell. Of particular importance was the Grand Prix of Monaco in 1984, a wet race, in which Ayrton Senna in the Toleman, lying in 2nd place, and third-placed Bellof fought each other and the leading Alain Prost noticeably sat in the turbo -powered McLaren under pressure. Prost won the Grand Prix, the race prematurely as race director Jackie Ickx due to bad weather broke.

The Formula 1 season 1985 was for Tyrrell to a new beginning. Almost without sponsors, the team fought until the summer with two -year-old cars and low-performance naturally aspirated with no prospect of success. In the second half of the season Tyrrell finally received turbocharged engines from Renault, but was next to Lotus and Ligier one of several customer teams to which a special support as they had learned by Porsche two years before the introduction of the turbo -driven MP4/1E example, McLaren, not zugutekam. Tyrrell came with the unpopular turbocharged engine can not cope, and after a difficult 1986 season in which the team only achieved 11 world championship points - Williams had retracted 141 points in the same period - was to Ken Tyrrell in 1987 avowedly glad to return to normally aspirated engines again.

The naturally aspirated era

The change to the Tyrrell Cosworth highly regarded eight- cylinders, which were called now DFR and later DFZ, the team initially brought little luck. In the first three years of the new naturally aspirated era Tyrrell had always problems to pass the qualification, and repeated it seemed that even weak financed newcomers like Coloni or AGS better results obtained than the traditional Tyrrell team. All this had a negative impact on the finances of the team, and in 1989, in the 22nd year of the Formula 1 involvement, the Tyrrell drove in many races with virtually no advertising at the racetracks. The international media drew attention to the seriousness of the situation by reported that Ken Tyrrell spent his 65th birthday in order to control a team truck to Monaco because he had not had enough money for a driver.

Thanks to a skilful personnel policy in 1990 changed the situation. On the one hand Tyrrell had committed the British engineer Harvey Postlethwaite and the Italian aerodynamicist Jean -Claude Migeot, the 019 the team's first innovative design concept bestowed with described as groundbreaking hochnasigen Tyrrell since the P34; the other hand, moved the young, a year earlier discovered Jean Alesi, the compact, handy car with a lot of dedication. As a result, there was a second place ( and another with the modeled after the 019 rebuilt last year's model 018B ), the annual financial statements as fifth in the constructors' championship and a contract with Honda for the purchase of Japanese ten-cylinder engines that were used in the 1991 season.

The Honda engines corresponded to the engines used in 1989 and 1990 by McLaren. The preparation of the engines was - unlike in the case of McLaren - not at Honda itself, but in its subsidiary Mugen. However, the engines were reported exclusively under the name "Honda". Tyrrell's relationship with Honda came into existence about McLaren. After Honda had exclusive supplier since 1988, McLaren, the company saw the opportunity to obtain additional information through the use of the account team, so as to make the engines even more competitive. Similarly proceeded Ferrari from 1991 with Minardi and BMS Scuderia Italia. Tyrrell, in turn, hoped by the more powerful engines to improve their own athletic position.

Ultimately, the expensive alliance with Honda paid for Tyrrell as little like Minardi connection to Ferrari in the same year. A particular problem Tyrrell was the race car of 1991, the Tyrrell 020 The advantages of the highly acclaimed predecessor could not be applied to this model. That the German electric appliance manufacturer Braun sponsored, black-painted car was heavy and unwieldy. In particular, Honda did not meet the ten-cylinder engine Tyrrell expectations: The engine was heavier and considerably larger than the previously used Ford engine. Thus, the weight distribution and the handling of the car was adversely affected. Even the departure of Jean Alesis early 1991 and the Harvey Postlethwaite in the spring of 1991 had a negative impact on the performance of the team from .. At the end of the year, Tyrrell decided against further use of the comparatively expensive and now outdated Honda engines for the 1992 season. Instead took over the team, the ten-cylinder engines from Ilmor, which had previously been used exclusively by Leyton House in the year and were known for small dimensions and low weight.

However, it was not possible Tyrrell, to make the new engine as the basis for a resounding package. The agreement with Ilmor came late - in December 1991 - about. In this regard, Tyrrell's team of engineers did to Mike Coughlan little time to adapt the existing car to the new engine. Therefore, and due to limited financial resources the most effective approaches were not always followed. The lack of money led incidentally to the fact that the team could take a few test drives. Thus it came as regards voting and reliability increasingly behind. Tyrrell finished the 1992 season, drove in Andrea de Cesaris and Olivier Grouillard for the team, finishing sixth in the constructors' championship. However, Ken Tyrrell had hoped for better results. Because the financing of the team was not secured for the future long, he reflected repeatedly in the course of 1992, his team to sell. Interested parties were certainly present; to them was the Italian Formula 3000 team Il Barone Rampante. Ultimately made ​​Ken Tyrrell to your friends.

Yamaha and Ford: the last years of

In 1993, the 020 in its C version the third motor - one funded by Yamaha development of the Judd -GM ten-cylinder engine with the designation Yamaha OX10A - but neither Ukyo Katayama even the experienced Andrea de Cesaris was even a single world championship point for the British achieve team. Also 021, which was briefly used in the second half of the 1993 season, was not successful car. 1993 was the first year in the history of the team, in which no World Championship points were obtained.

1994, the situation improved again. Harvey Postlethwaite had returned to Tyrrell and constructed with the 022 a compact, easy to moving and promising car. However, lacked the financial resources that would have been necessary for adequate maintenance of the parts and for adequate testing. These deficits had a detrimental effect on the reliability of the vehicles. What the 022 and he himself could, showed Tyrrell new driver Mark Blundell at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, ​​when he crossed the finish line in third place. However, it was the last podium finish for the Tyrrell Racing Organisation. In Hockenheim Ukyo Katayama convinced: The Japanese took a long time at second and third and scored on the forest line a top speed that was 2 km / h over that of the Williams - Renault; However, he fell just before the finish of with broken throttle cable.

1995 Tyrrell had finally received a sufficient budget: Ukyo Katayama was to a greater extent than previously supported by Japan Tobacco (with the brand Mild Seven ), and Mika Salo brought with funds from the Finnish telecommunications company Nokia. The initially blue, later white painted Tyrrell 023 was fast but not reliable. Especially in the field of drive engineering, the defect streak continued, so that the first World Championship points could be retracted only in the last race of the year.

1996 left some disappointed sponsors the team again. Tyrrell could not afford a completely new car then; the 024 was therefore no more than a thoroughly revised version of the previous model. In the course of this season Tyrrell increasingly lost the connection to the midfield. End of 1996, finally broke after four years, the alliance with Yamaha. The Japanese company announced that it would supply the engines in the future free of Arrows. Although Tyrrell had the opportunity to continue the use of a paying customer team Yamaha engines. Given the continued lack of reliability of the engines Ken Tyrrell decided to revive the connection with Cosworth again for 1997.

Harvey Postlethwaite's Tyrrell 025 1997 then went with a Cosworth - eight-cylinder engine of the type ED. This was a revised version of the engine used in last Simtek 1995. It was next to the Hart- engine Minardi as the oldest and weakest engine of the year. However, it was light, compact and consumed little fuel. Tyrrell instructed his former pilot Satoru Nakajima with the mediation of sponsors. However, the Japanese lined up only a little; apart from PIAA, one for years associated with Nakajima companies, only a few donors came to the team tradition. The white Tyrrell 025, therefore, was largely sponsorlos in many races of the year at the start. In this difficult year, Tyrrell was the last time innovative: to Argentinean Grand Prix, the cars appeared for the first time with two upstanding spoilers on the boxes, which were soon called Tower Wings or Tyrrell Towers. This unusual concept was copied during the year 1997 by several competing teams of Jordan over Prost up to Scuderia Ferrari and belonged to the beginning of 1998 as standard in many vehicles before it was banned by the FIA because of alleged safety defects, but mainly because of its unattractive appearance. The Grand Prix of Monaco 1997 Mika Salo scored the final World Cup points for the Tyrrell Racing Organisation. They were due to the bad weather on race day as well as the fact that the Tyrrell 025 with his old Cosworth engine was a fuel-efficient engine. Thus it succeeded Salo with rain due leaner mixture setting to deny the entire race without refueling stop and tire change. The obtained thereby gain time enough for fifth place in the race.

The end of 1997 sold Ken Tyrrell, already suffering from cancer, his team at British American Tobacco. The Formula 1 season 1998 should be a year of transition before BAT with Craig Pollock, Adrian Reynard and Jacques Villeneuve in 1999 from the British American Racing team formed. Ken Tyrrell was initially involved in the team, but had to realize early on that Craig Pollock and his partner Adrian Reynard made ​​the major decisions. This also included the driver's choice. Tyrrell had long resisted the obligation of Ricardo Rosset and argued for the retention of Jos Verstappen. His recommendation was not implemented. In February 1998, before the first race of the season, Ken Tyrrell left his team after more than 30 years of continuous Formula 1 involvement. The Tyrrell Racing Organisation finished her last year without a single world championship point.

Tyrrell, the driver Scout

Ken Tyrrell had the reputation of talent scouts or Talentsichters since the late 1970s. So did many young hopefuls and later Grand Prix winner their first attempts in Formula 1 on a Tyrrell, including Patrick Depailler (1972 ), Jean -Pierre Jabouille (1975 ), Didier Pironi (1978), Michele Alboreto (1981 ), Stefan Bellof (1984) and Alesi (1989). Ken Tyrrell saw himself though not as pronounced Player Development. For him, the commitment of young drivers was a mere necessity. In an interview with the magazine motorsport currently he declared the summer of 1996: "Of course I would much rather commit Michael Schumacher. But it is much too expensive. I just have to take what I can afford. "

The heritage

In 1999, British American Racing the place of the Tyrrell Racing Organisation. It began in 2005, the factory Honda team, taken in 2009 by Ross Brawn and under the name of Brawn GP in the same year for the drivers 'and constructors' championship was performed. Since Formula 1 2010 season the team is running as Mercedes Grand Prix.

Overview: Tyrrell as a factory team in Formula 1

Tyrrell as a vehicle supplier

Individual vehicles that were no longer used in the factory team, sold Tyrrell - like Brabham, March or Williams - initially to private customers. Some cars appeared until the late 1970's, again and again at each Formula 1 races, and occasionally in other series.

Private Tyrrell in Formula 1

• The first private Tyrrell in Formula 1 was used for the Grand Prix of South Africa in 1973 by Eddie Keizan for the team Blignaut Lucky Strike Racing. Keizan reported the Tyrrell in 1971 produced 004, which had been replaced in the factory team for quite some time by the models 005 and 006 /1. Keizan went as 22 of 25 drivers in the race and came out with 12 laps to the finish. He was not considered.

• On the occasion of the Grand Prix of South Africa in 1974 repeated Keizan its use. Here he brought the Tyrrell 004 with two laps down in 14th place car to the finish and was two positions better than Niki Lauda in the Ferrari 312B3.

• For the Grand Prix of South Africa 1975, the Lexington Team Racing announced last year produced a Tyrrell 007 for Ian Scheckter. Scheckter qualified before Jacky Ickx in the Lotus T72 for the 17th starting position, but fell in the race due to an accident after 55 rounds.

• The following year Lexinton Racing and Ian Scheckter came again with the Tyrrell 007 Grand Prix of South Africa. Scheckter was the 16th in the race, but fell out in the first round, after he had collided with the plant -Williams by Michel Leclère.

• At the Grand Prix of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Italy, the Formula 1 1976 season the team Scuderia Gulf Rondini reported each a Tyrrell 007 for Alessandro Pesenti - Rossi. Aside from the race at the Circuit Zandvoort is Pesenti - Rossi could qualify regularly and each came to the finish outside the points.

• The ÖASC Racing Team reported to the Grand Prix of Canada and the USA 1976 a Tyrrell 007 for petrol Stuppacher. Stuppacher failed already in the qualification.

• For the Japanese Grand Prix in 1976 reported a Japanese team Heros Racing Tyrrell 007 for Kazuyoshi Hoshino. The Japanese qualified as 21, fell in the race but after a puncture in the 27th round.

• The last message of a private Tyrrell in the Formula 1 World Championship took place at the Grand Prix of Japan in 1977 by the Japanese team Meiritsu Racing. The Japanese Kunimitsu Takahashi qualified with a Tyrrell 007 as 22 and finished the race in ninth. The car used by him was the same car, with the Hoshino was a year previously occurred.

Tyrrell cars in Aurora Series

In the late 1970s, in the UK, the so-called Aurora F1 series held a junior class for young talents, with over arbeiteren Formula 2 vehicles, but alternatively also used Formula 1 cars mostly older date to the ability level of the Grand - Prix ​​racing should be introduced. The series also temporarily fulfilled the purpose of British Formula 1 Championship. Many of the teams were a disused Formula 1 cars. In most cases, it was car of Arrows, March Engineering or Williams. 1979 but also found two Tyrrell their way into the Aurora series: In the second season of the series Melchester Racing put two a year earlier produced Tyrrell 008 for Desiré Wilson and Gordon Smiley one; occasionally also drove Neil Battridge. The best results drove a Wilson. She reached four podium finishes and was seventh with 28 points in the championship.

Tyrrell cars in the Formula 3000

In the first Formula 3000 season tried a few teams to contend with disused Formula 1 vehicles from the specially tailored to the new series of customer cars from Lola and March. The British Barron Racing team was in the first two races of the Formula 3000 season 1985 produced a 1983 Tyrrell 011 for Claudio Langes and in the first four races another 011 for a Roberto Moreno. Both drivers were able to do anything with the vehicles. After the fourth race of the season Barron Racing ended its involvement in Formula 3,000.