The underperforming Surtees follow-up that thwarted a promising bike-to-F1 union

Time in hospital bookended John Surtees’s life as a Formula 1 team owner. Reflections from his sick bed first fired his ambition to become self-reliant, then nearly 10 years later resigned him to the sad reality that the dream was over. His friends Bruce McLaren, Jack Brabham and Dan Gurney had succeeded in flying under their own steam, and so too did Surtees – on occasion with style.

But too often and for too long team ownership became a graft that paid a heavy physical toll for one of motor racing’s titans. Perhaps he felt too keenly the weight of responsibility and his own high expectations that others found so hard to live up to. It also probably didn’t help that John always took this most demanding of sports so personally.

No, the Team Surtees years are not primarily how we remember the man dubbed Il Grande John by the Italians who so loved him at MV Agusta and Ferrari. And yet it’s also wrong to dismiss the Surtees Racing Organisation as an F1 footnote. Too many good racing drivers were cast and enough near-miss great moments played out between 1970 and 1978 for Surtees the team chief to be forgotten so easily.

The bloody-minded character, the Corinthian belief in fair play and sheer work ethic of the man demands respect. Seven years after his death at the age of 83, the rider/driver forever labelled as the only winner of world titles on two and four wheels remains deeply loved and missed. The tribute at this year’s Goodwood Revival, led by another titan, Giacomo Agostini, 60 years after Surtees’s ascension to F1 immortality at Ferrari, was proof enough of that.

PLUS: John Surtees' 10 greatest F1 drives ranked

By October 1969, Surtees was feeling tired and ill. The pinprick of light provided by an inherited podium third (two laps down) at the United States GP barely flicked the needle as the 35-year-old contemplated his future from hospital following a diagnosis of viral pneumonia.

BRM had been a massive letdown. Much like Honda, much like Cooper and ultimately, much like Ferrari, in the choppy and politically charged wake of his 1964 success that had eventually led him to storm out and away from Maranello in the spring of ’66. There was only one thing for it: to place his fragile trust in the only figure he knew he could rely upon for total commitment – himself.

Surtees first became a constructor with TS5 Formula 5000 machine before branching into F1

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Surtees had already started down the eponymous team route anyway. A car adapted from a Len Terry design dubbed the TS5 had been run in Formula 5000 that season for David Hobbs and Trevor Taylor, so it was logical to take the next step as a fresh decade dawned. In the 1970s John Surtees would be a player/manager in F1.

By the middle of 1970, his own TS7 was ready, built by a small staff from a base near his home in Edenbridge, Kent. After early rounds running a McLaren, the new car took its bow at the British GP and at the Canadian GP in St Jovite Surtees scored its first points, with a fifth-place finish, then Derek Bell added another – the only he’d ever score in F1 – at Watkins Glen. The boss also pulled off a landmark owner-driver-constructor win at the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup. Shades of Bruce, Jack and Dan, then – and in all, a highly promising start.

The first full F1 season for a Surtees, 1971, was again pockmarked by bright moments with the new TS9. An alliance with veteran team patron Rob Walker and sponsorship from Brooke Bond Oxo offered potential for Surtees himself, while German Rolf Stommelen ran a car sponsored by Auto Motor und Sport  and the caravan manufacturer Eifelland. Bell had a one-off crack at the British GP, while later in the season Mike Hailwood entered the story.

Six years after his final mid-1960s grand prix start, Hailwood was back for another crack at F1, with Surtees at Monza. What a story it would have been had he, not Gethin, won that day in 1971

The best bits? Surtees’s third place at the Brands Hatch Race of Champions, behind only Clay Regazzoni’s Ferrari and Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell; points scores in the Dutch and British GP; and another Oulton Gold Cup triumph. Stommelen finished a place ahead of Surtees at Silverstone and was sixth in Monaco, but the highlight was surely Hailwood’s near-miss at the Italian GP. He was among the gaggle that raced for the line at Monza in F1’s closest finish, only to find himself classified fourth, just 0.18s down on Peter Gethin’s winning BRM.

Hailwood should have been the perfect fit for Team Surtees, through the obvious parallels with John. And the partnership did work – to a certain degree.

A motorcycling sensation, Hailwood is revered as among the best ever on two wheels – for some who saw him race, perhaps the best there’s ever been. Their fathers had raced each other in motorcycle sidecars before WWII and, like Surtees, Hailwood progressed from Norton to MV. Like Surtees, he won a lot of world titles. Like Surtees, he made the switch to four wheels simply to race more. Like Surtees, he won quickly in Formula Junior and progressed directly to F1, in 1963. Like Surtees, he didn’t feel entirely at home in the less friendly F1 paddock.

But unlike Surtees, the results didn’t follow. Having bought a share in Tim Parnell’s F1 team, he scored a point at Monaco in 1964 but eventually sold back his stake and returned to motorcycling feeling a little bruised.

Hailwood came close to victory in 1971 Italian GP, but rarely got close to reaching the same heights afterwards

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

Six years after his final mid-1960s grand prix start, Hailwood was back for another crack at F1, with Surtees at Monza. What a story it would have been had he, not Gethin, won that day in 1971.

‘Mike the Bike’ had begun his second quest to become ‘Mike the Car’ because he was at a loose end after Honda’s withdrawal from bike racing. Paid £50,000 not to ride for anyone else, here was a perfect opportunity to try the cockpit again. F5000 was a happier scene for him to settle into, while experience logged with John Wyer’s Gulf-backed team of Ford GT40s also helped the transition.

Surtees loved him, of course. Most people did, especially so when they got to know him. But these kindred-spirit fellow bikers were also entirely different, John being intense, studious and technically astute. Mike was… well, the opposite, hard-living and full of energy to experience every facet of life.

Surtees to his credit quickly realised there was little point in trying to constrain his new muse. He also had faith that Hailwood’s almost supernatural ability on two wheels absolutely could translate to four. The partnership did gel in 1972 – but most tellingly in Formula 2, as Hailwood claimed the European title in a deeply competitive era for racing’s second-tier category. It probably stands as Team Surtees’s greatest achievement.

Also runner-up in the 1972 Tasman series, there were nuggets in F1 to suggest what was ultimately possible: leading Jackie Stewart and setting the fastest lap in the South African GP, only for a bolt in his TS9B’s suspension to break; qualifying on the front row and finishing second to Emerson Fittipaldi in the Race of Champions; passing Emmo for the lead at the bitterly cold Silverstone International Trophy, only for a faulty cooling system cap to cost him dear.

Solid points followed in the heart of the F1 season: fourth in Belgium, sixth in France, fourth in Austria – and then an inherited second place back at newly chicaned Monza, despite a loss of power when the airbox blew off his car. Meanwhile, Surtees was making what would turn out to be his final F1 start as a driver in the car you see below, TS14. He was a footnote retirement: fuel vaporisation, 20 laps in. Still, how Hailwood adapted to his airbox loss to land his best F1 result sweetened the day.

After the race, Surtees and Hailwood mounted a pair of shiny, new Gilera 150cc motorcycles and zoomed off into the darkness towards their Arcore hotel, with cheers from the Italian fans who loved them ringing in their ears. All must have seemed right with the world that evening.

But that was as good as it would ever get for the Surtees-Hailwood partnership. TS14 was expected to carry Hailwood’s forward momentum into 1973 and yet ultimately the model let its hero down. The story of Team Surtees’s life.

The 1973 Surtees TS14 model failed to build on promising second for Hailwood at Monza in 1972

Photo by: James Mann

For a start, conceiving the car early enough to be sent into action for the closing races of 1972 ended up playing against it. Surtees was proud of the fact his new chassis was the first F1 built to new deformable side structure regulations set for introduction from the 1973 Spanish GP – a response to Jo Siffert’s fiery and fatal accident in his BRM at the 1971 Victory Race at Brands Hatch. Although John complained a delay on that Montjuic deadline caused by a general lack of new, stronger fuel tank bladders left TS14 needlessly overweight.

The car featured a ‘sandwich’ monocoque comprised of an outer sheet of aluminium, a layer of compressed foam material and a layer of fibreglass, the three compressed into a solid, but light single layer. This formed the outer skin of the main part of the monocoque and alongside the cockpit, on each side, was the new deformable structure protecting the fuel tanks. The flexible bag fuel tanks in the main monocoque, each side of the cockpit, were fitted through detachable panels in the bulkhead behind the cockpit, designed so that if a tank should leak there was no way the petrol could seep into the driving compartment.

The deformable structures on each side brought the overall width of TS14 almost out to the centrelines of the wheels and contained the twin water radiators. Long, deep ducts on top of the sidepods fed air to the radiators and was expelled out the back. The structures were rigidly attached to the main monocoque, with a full width square-tube frame forming the basis of the rear bulkhead to which the Cosworth V8 engine was attached.

The Race of Champions at Brands in March seemed in the bag when, with just four and a half laps to go and Hailwood's first F1 win in sight, the left-rear suspension suddenly let go

At the front TS14 featured a smooth full-width nose cowling devoid of openings, in an attempt to direct the airflow over the front suspension and along each side of the windscreen and into the radiator ducts. The inelegant airbox and fully exposed engine were a visual sign that, for all of the solid engineering principles Surtees lived by, his cars were a step behind contemporaries such as the McLaren M23 and Brabham BT42 from respective Gordons Coppuck and Murray.

Along with the weight, Surtees also suffered a tyre disadvantage when supplier Firestone withdrew from F1, backtracked, but only made one construction available. Its products never won another GP. John also admitted a lack of budget left him with a tired batch of high-mileage DFVs – and that contributed to the team’s record of chronic unreliability. Upon reflection, poor Hailwood never stood a chance.

But he should have scored at least one victory in TS14. The Race of Champions at Brands in March seemed in the bag when, with just four and a half laps to go and his first F1 win in sight, the left-rear suspension suddenly let go and the car immediately slid out of control, smashing sideways into the barrier as he approached Hawthorn Bend. The car briefly burst into flames but was quickly extinguished. Mike climbed out, then threw his crash helmet to the ground.

He’d already committed the act that came to define his F1 career. A couple of weeks earlier, at Kyalami, Regazzoni’s BRM collided with an already spun Hailwood. The onboard extinguisher doused the fire that had briefly sparked on the Surtees, but as Mike jumped out he realised Regazzoni was in far greater trouble, slumped in the cockpit unconscious with flames licking around him.

Hailwood looked set to win 1973 Race of Champions before his TS14 had a suspension failure

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Without a second thought, Hailwood dived in, undid Regazzoni’s belts and dragged the Swiss from the scene. Deformable structures or not, fire was such a fear back then. Regazzoni was bruised and battered, with burns only to his hands – and thanks to Mike he was still alive. Hailwood received the George Medal for his bravery.

The season rolled on, Team Surtees gathering a litany of retirements. Hailwood rarely finished a race and, when he did, he couldn’t manage a point. It became so dire it’s said he took to tucking a paperback novel into his overalls to give him something to read once the car had inevitably let him down.

The team never lacked ambition, of course. Brazilian Carlos Pace joined Hailwood in another TS14, while promising German Jochen Mass made his F1 debut at the British GP. But Silverstone was the infamous nadir of ’73.

That was the day young Jody Scheckter lost his McLaren M23 at Woodcote early in the race, spun into the pitwall and triggered a nine-car pile-up. All three Surtees were wiped out in the carnage, sending John into despair and on the rampage for Scheckter, who was told to hide in the McLaren caravan. Jody reckons he and John patched things up and actually got along quite well. Eventually.

The sum total for Surtees in 1973? Seven points, all scored by Pace with a third place in Austria, a fourth in Germany and fastest laps in both. So the car was quick, at least. As for Hailwood, with a heavy heart he moved on.

Surtees’s new sponsor, hi-fi specialist Bang & Olufsen, was demanding Mass for 1974, so Hailwood grabbed a drive in a Yardley McLaren instead. Let off the leash, he scored in the first three races with a podium third at Kyalami, only for his flowering F1 career to be cut once and for all by a badly broken leg sustained in a crash at the Nurburgring.

Unhappy in enforced retirement, Hailwood made a heroic return to his first and true love, winning a pair of Isle of Man TTs in 1978 and 1979 – only to lose his life and that of his daughter Michelle in a run for fish and chips, when a truck made an illegal turn through a central reservation.

As for Team Surtees, the post-Hailwood years were largely a struggle. The gruesome death of Helmuth Koinigg, decapitated at Watkins Glen in his second start for Team Surtees, was the stuff of nightmares at the end of 1974. By then, both Mass and Pace were gone, having reached the ends of their tethers – just as Tim Schenken had back in 1972. There were tallying tales of a team owner who always thought he knew best on set-up – and couldn’t resist jumping into the cockpit on occasion to prove it.

John Surtees poured everything into team ownership, but his squad's fortunes dwindled and it bowed out after 1978

Photo by: Motorsport Images

In the years that followed, there were brief ejaculations of hope. Gritty Australian Alan Jones gathered momentum in the TS19 in 1976 (until he too fell out with the boss), as the team courted controversy with its sponsorship from prophylactic manufacturer Durex. The company ran an ad campaign with a fully liveried TS19 and the tag line: ‘The small family car.’ The incongruity of such an, ahem, straight-up figure such as John Surtees causing such a hue and cry will always raise a smile. Banned by the BBC? Today, it’s a badge of honour.

But the financial plight for Team Surtees was never a joke. Vittorio Brambilla, a one-time surprise F1 winner with March in 1975, drove for Team Surtees in ’77 and ’78. When the Italian was injured in the Italian GP crash that led to the death of Ronnie Peterson, Rene Arnoux stepped in. John found the little Frenchman a breath of fresh air, but was never going to stand in his way with a Renault future beckoning.

In November 1978, Surtees found himself back in hospital, admitted for treatment to his legs. The problem was traced back to a blood transfusion he’d had 13 years earlier after his huge Can-Am crash at Mosport. Again, just like in the autumn of 1969, here was time to reflect. He decided to call Autosport’s Nigel Roebuck, who paid a visit to St Thomas’s Hospital – and John simply asked Nigel to break the news to the world that Team Surtees was finished. Imagine such a thing today.

Surtees found Rene Arnoux a breath of fresh air, but was never going to stand in his way with a Renault future beckoning

Surtees sold his Formula One Constructors’ Association membership to Frank Williams (whose team was finally on the cusp of greatness) and with a sense of relief stepped back. Fellow Edenbridge resident Peter Briggs, who had previous with Team Surtees, ran TS20s in the 1979 Aurora-backed British F1 championship, with Gordon Smiley claiming victory at Silverstone in October. That was Team Surtees’s last-ever race.

Thereafter, the patron was free to experience other aspects of life, while motor sport enthusiasts could fall back on happier memories of their hero, to the days when he’d simply been Il Grande John. He’d given it everything.

Race record

Starts: 35
Wins: 0
Pole positions: 0
Fastest laps: 0
Podiums: 1
Championship points: 7

Specification

Chassis: Aluminium alloy monocoque
Suspension: Double wishbones (front), upper and lower parallel links (rear, coil springs over dampers, anti-roll bars
Engine: Ford Cosworth DFV V8
Engine capacity: 2,993cc
Power: 410bhp @ 9000rpm
Gearbox: Hewland FG400 five-speed manual
Brakes: Steel
Tyres: Firestone
Weight: 590kg
Notable drivers: John Surtees, Tim Schenken, Mike Hailwood, Carlos Pace, Jochen Mass

Money was often tight at Surtees, meaning the team had to rely on high-mileage DFVs that proved unreliable

Photo by: James Mann