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The last hurrah for a former British F1 superpower

Having tasted drivers' and constructors' success in 1962, the BRM Formula 1 team had fallen on hard times by the end of the decade. But the arrival of fresh faces and new cars gave it one more boost as the 1970s began

Things were not looking good for BRM in 1969. The team that had scored a Formula 1 world title double in 1962 had slumped to fifth in the constructors’ championship in 1968, and hadn’t won a points-paying grand prix since the Monaco GP in 1966. And things were getting worse.

BRM had the services of 1964 world champion John Surtees and rising star Jackie Oliver, and had finally discarded the troublesome H16 engine in favour of a V12, but the squad’s P138 and P139 were a long way behind the pacesetting Matra MS80 of Jackie Stewart.

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