How Tyrrell and Stewart forged parallel paths to F1 stardom
The young Ken Tyrrell was barely aware of motor racing – until a trip with his village football team to the British Grand Prix set him on the road to becoming a Formula 1 constructor. MAURICE HAMILTON details the humble beginning of Tyrrell and how Ken linked up with Jackie Stewart…
As a keen and robust sportsman, 27-year-old Ken Tyrrell knew everything about cricket and football, but nothing about motor racing. His heroes were Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney (leading goalscorers for England), along with Len Hutton and Colin Cowdrey, prolific batsmen for the national team. Juan Manuel Fangio and Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina meant little, not because they were ‘foreign’ in the eyes of this intensely patriotic Englishman, but because they were champions of a sport in which Tyrrell felt he could not possibly participate, never mind understand.
When he joined his village football team on a trip to the 1951 British GP, the only connection was that Silverstone, as a former World War II aerodrome, bore similarities to those on which Flight Sergeant Robert Kenneth Tyrrell had served his country as an engineer with the Royal Air Force. Other than that, this would be a bit of a laugh; a fun day out.
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