The wheeler-dealer moves that secured Tyrrell and Stewart’s F1 union

Ken Tyrrell’s presence at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix had not been deemed significant enough to warrant a mention in the news and gossip columns of Autosport – perhaps no surprise when the magazine’s esteemed founding editor and race reporter was proudly pictured formally and enthusiastically opening a new press bar sponsored by Heineken. 

There was no hint in print – not that the secretive Tyrrell would have given anything away – of Ken’s embryonic plan to start his own F1 team; an ambition fired by the stunning debut at Zandvoort of the Ford-Cosworth DFV engine in the back of Jim Clark’s winning Lotus 49.

The fact that the V8 was not for sale at that point was an irrelevance as far as Tyrrell was concerned. The 3-litre engine was, in Ken’s words, “the future”. And he intended to be a part of it even though there was absolutely nothing F1-related to be found within the modest workshop of the Tyrrell Racing Organisation in a former woodyard in Surrey.

Jackie Stewart had also been impressed by the power and performance of the British-built V8. The Scotsman had enjoyed – if that’s the right word – a ringside seat as his BRM, between three and four seconds off the pace, was lapped by the Lotus. The BRM was handicapped by an H16 engine which, compared with the DFV, was overcomplicated and overweight. If Tyrrell could envisage a bright road ahead, Stewart could only see a gloomy cul-de-sac if he stayed with BRM for a fourth season in 1968.

In the coming weeks, Stewart would hold discussions with Enzo Ferrari and shake hands on a deal – only to discover a few days later that Ferrari was offering the same seat to Jacky Ickx. The timing was perfect for Tyrrell to approach a momentarily vulnerable Stewart with an idea Jackie might have dismissed as fanciful had he not become familiar with Tyrrell’s honesty and pragmatism.

Four seasons spent racing with Tyrrell in F3 and F2 had told Jackie all he needed to know about Ken’s blunt common sense and fundamental desire to do things right. When Tyrrell mentioned stepping up to F1, Stewart was prepared to listen, particularly when Ken said he hoped the DFV (when it became widely available in 1968) would be carried in the back of a Matra chassis. Having raced the F2 Matra, Stewart did not need to be told about the French car’s precision in both design and handling.

Having raced Tyrrell-run Matras in Formula 2 alongside his BRM F1 commitments, pictured at Brands Hatch in 1967, Stewart knew Tyrrell would be a hit in F1

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This was a pivotal moment for Tyrrell. To persuade Matra to supply a bespoke chassis for F1, Ken would need to have a ‘star’ driver. Despite having just two GP wins to his name, Stewart undoubtedly matched that criterion, which was why he had asked Ferrari for £20,000 – a retainer, Jackie made plain, Tyrrell would need to match. Ken didn’t have the money, but he knew exactly where to start looking.

As a former national newspaper editor, Walter Hayes was a streetwise man with an interest in motoring. He had had no hesitation in accepting the challenge of a role as the head of public relations for Ford of Britain and he just as quickly realised a connection with motorsport could transform Ford’s image as the producer of rather mundane motor cars. This led to projects such as the Ford Lotus Cortina, which in turn brought Ford, through Colin Chapman of Lotus, into play as provider of the £100,000 (a tidy sum at the time) funding for the DFV engine.

Knowing this background and Hayes’s patriotic leanings, Tyrrell made his pitch: that by guaranteeing the £20,000 necessary to have Jackie associated with the Ford-Cosworth V8 rather than a Ferrari V12, Hayes could prevent Stewart from going to ‘that’ Italian team. Hayes (by now vice president, Ford of Europe) agreed immediately on the understanding that the money would be repaid once Tyrrell had procured financial support from trade sponsors.

With that substantial box ticked, Tyrrell went to Matra and performed another powerful piece of persuasion. The French aerospace company, itself on the brink of entering F1 with its own car and V12 engine, could see the sense in having a back-up plan. This particular Matra chassis might be powered by a British V8, but it would be driven by Stewart and run by Tyrrell – a combination Matra liked and admired. The team would be known as Equipe Matra International.

Stewart put the MS9, in unimposing khaki primer, on the front row and actually led briefly before a split oil cooler brought retirement. It was an encouraging start by a team represented in South Africa by Tyrrell and his wife Norah, Stewart, Davis and just two mechanics

Tyrrell now had his driver, chassis and engine in place, which left the question of tyres. Ken had been loyal to Dunlop while racing in the junior formulae but the British firm’s dominance in F1 had been badly eroded by the arrival of Firestone and Goodyear.

Stewart and Tyrrell went to Dunlop together and laid out their plans, the subtext being that Dunlop could be returned to its former F1 prominence thanks to a concentrated test and development programme – which would cost money. Dunlop agreed to provide financial as well as technical support. Tyrrell would now be able to repay Hayes. Job done.

With the deal in place, Tyrrell and Stewart shook hands. There was no written contract. And nor would there be during the next six seasons – an extraordinary and revealing act of trust by today’s litigious norms.

Despite unusual livery, Stewart impressed in Tyrrell's first F1 outing at Kyalami in 1968

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There was neither pomp nor ceremony attached to what would be a massive step forward for this small team. The first serious confirmation of the F1 venture received by Tyrrell’s chief mechanic, Neil Davis, was the delivery in late 1967 of a Ford-Cosworth DFV with instructions from Ken to take it immediately to Paris for installation in the first Matra-Ford, the MS9. This would be based on the F2 Matra, the MS7, with which the team was familiar. Nonetheless, it would be a rush job to have the car ready in time for shipment by sea to Cape Town, from where it would be taken by train to Johannesburg and on to Kyalami in time for the South African GP on 1 January 1968.

There had been no time to apply a finishing coat of paint, and the tatty appearance was exacerbated by overheating problems and a butchered nose to allow more air to reach the radiator. Looks mattered little, however, when Stewart put the MS9, in unimposing khaki primer, on the front row and actually led briefly before a split oil cooler brought retirement. It was an encouraging start by a team represented in South Africa by Tyrrell and his wife Norah, Stewart, Davis and just two mechanics.

They may have been small in number but the Tyrrell outfit showed seriousness of intent by remaining at Kyalami for a fortnight as Stewart completed 1,361 miles of testing – with the same engine. 156 of the 534 laps were below the lap record. A two-month gap to the next race allowed the many lessons learned to be incorporated into the design and build of the first proper Matra-Ford F1 car, the MS10.

The car’s debut at the Race of Champions didn’t amount to much as Stewart struggled to tame his MS10 on the bumps and undulations of Brands Hatch. A second, improved chassis was delivered by Matra for the second GP of the season at Jarama in Spain. Unfortunately, Stewart was unable to drive it. A broken scaphoid bone in his right wrist – the result of an accident in an F2 race – meant he would be out of racing for several weeks.

Stewart’s place would be taken by Jean-Pierre Beltoise, who was waiting for Matra’s own contender, the MS11, to be completed. Beltoise ran strongly and had just taken the lead when a pinched oil pipe caused the DFV to issue wisps, and then plumes, of blue smoke. After five laps spent in the pits, he rejoined to finish last. But a point – two, in fact, for fifth place – had been made.

To his great regret, Stewart remained out of action for Monaco. Since Matra had finally wheeled out the MS11 with its wailing V12 for the works team, Beltoise was unavailable, and the Tyrrell seat was taken by Johnny Servoz-Gavin. The young Frenchman with long blond hair proved he had pace to match his dashing looks when he put the blue Matra on the front row, alongside the Lotus 49 of Monaco master Graham Hill.

Tyrrell and Stewart counselled Servoz-Gavin not to squander this opportunity and ruin his F1 debut by trying to win Monaco on the first lap. The novice jumped into an immediate lead, pulled away – and clipped a kerb less than a minute later. Ken Tyrrell’s reaction is not recorded.

In Stewart's absence, Servoz-Gavin flew in the Matra at Monaco but his exuberance got the better of him while leading

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With Spa next, Stewart could barely wait to return to the cockpit and see what this car was capable of. Despite suffering discomfort from a plastic support for his lower arm and wrist, Stewart spent most of the Belgian GP in a fierce fight for fourth with Denny Hulme’s McLaren (also powered by a Ford-Cosworth DFV). When Hulme – along with three cars in front – ran into trouble, Stewart found himself with a 30-second lead. This seemed too good to be true. It was.

To overcome a flat spot in the engine at low revs, the fuel metering unit had been turned up – which proved a notch too far in a hard-fought race when the MS10 ran out of fuel at the end of the penultimate lap. Stewart coasted into the pits (located on the downhill run to Eau Rouge) for a splash and dash, rejoining to finish fourth; a decent result on any occasion other than having come so close to a win. The little team was devastated.

Tyrrell was never a man to make rash predictions – not that there was a social media-inspired pack of journalists hovering in 1968 to probe and predict his every move. But even if the cautious Ken was daring to believe that a win might actually come sooner rather than later, he didn’t say a word. Not even to his team. The forthcoming Dutch GP was simply treated as another race – so let’s get on with it.

Stewart was so far in front that he had vacated the car and was standing on the podium when the third-placed driver crossed the line. Ken would always maintain this was one of the greatest drives 
he had ever seen

In any case, Stewart didn’t hold out much hope of his wrist – badly swollen after Spa – coping with the fast sweeps of Zandvoort. Then came salvation in the shape of rain sweeping in from the North Sea and a superb Dunlop ‘wet’ to deal with it. At the end of the fourth lap, Stewart was in the lead, where he would stay for the next two hours and 46 minutes.

It seemed an excruciatingly long time as the team waited for its car to complete the last of 234 miles. Tyrrell Racing Organisation/Equipe Matra International was a GP winner. And yet, as Stewart would recall, “I don’t remember it being a wild celebration or anything like that. Typical Ken!”

Six weeks later Stewart would win again. On this occasion, however, Tyrrell would be staggered by everything he witnessed during an atrociously wet German GP.

The Nurburgring Nordschleife was difficult enough when the sun shone but the risk to life and limb took on a shocking, almost irresponsible aspect in conditions no race organiser would consider remotely viable today. Stewart would say he had never been more terrified in a race car. But the paradox was he needed to take abnormal risks to move forward quickly from sixth on the grid to become free of blinding spray and have any chance of surviving 14 laps of what he described as “The Green Hell”.

Emerging through the gloom on his way to a crushing victory at the Nurburgring, Stewart's 1968 German GP victory was one of the finest in his career

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By the end of the first lap, he led by eight seconds. Two hours later, after somehow dealing with a sticking throttle, rivers of water and a track surface that changed by the lap, Stewart was so far in front that he had vacated the car and was standing on the podium when the third-placed driver crossed the line. Ken would always maintain this was one of the greatest drives he had ever seen.

PLUS: The 10 greatest races of Sir Jackie Stewart

Almost as a surprising aside, given the Tyrrell team’s modest ambitions in its first year, the nine points moved Stewart into second place in the drivers’ championship.

He seemed to have slipped from contention during the next two races but a win in the US GP in early October put Jackie into a three-way fight for the title in Mexico. A fuel pick-up problem while challenging Hill’s winning Lotus may have denied Tyrrell what would have been an exceptional achievement, but everyone knew the steep learning curve had been perfect preparation for what was to come.

Matra had also received valuable lessons, the toughest being that its attempt to build a chassis and an engine in-house had been over-ambitious. For 1969, the focus would be on Tyrrell and a stunning new car, the Matra MS80. Stewart would later recall this to be the best racing car he had ever driven – and with good reason. He used it to win five times (following victory with the MS10 at the opening round in South Africa) and wrapped up the world championship at Monza with three races to go. 

No one came close to disturbing the Tyrrell hegemony. Typically, the team barely recognised it. Roger Hill, one of six mechanics, summed up the Tyrrell ethos.

“Obviously, we were really pleased to have won the championship,” said Hill. “But I can’t remember anything about a celebration. There was no wild partying or anything like that. We packed up and got on with the job. It was the way Ken worked. He was very, very good at keeping feet on the ground and ensuring everyone pulled in the same direction all the time.

“It was the same with Mrs Tyrrell. She was always worried about us, be it a mechanic, a truck driver or Ken. She kept an eye on everyone. That and Ken’s attitude just kept this feeling of family within the team. Yes, sure it was nice to win. But Ken was always looking round the corner to see what was coming next.”

But not even Tyrrell, for all his reticence and caution, could have foreseen the absurd scenario that was about to unfold. The reigning world champion faced the very real possibility of not having a car to race in 1970.

After romping to the 1969 title, Ken Tyrrell and Jackie Stewart were on top of the world - but faced the prospect of not having a car for 1970 following Matra's buyout by a company itself owned by Ford rival Chrysler

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