Words and Photos: Jathu Thillai
Over the 75-year history of Formula One, countless teams have come and gone, but only a handful have left behind a lasting legacy. Among them, the story of Tyrrell Racing Organisation stands apart. It is a tale of passion, innovation, perseverance, and above all, family. From a modest shed in Surrey to the top step of the Formula One podium, Ken Tyrrell’s team defied the odds and captured the spirit of the sport’s golden era.
Ken Tyrrell began his motorsport journey in 1958 with a Formula Three outfit, quickly realizing that his talents lay not in driving, but in team management. Operating out of a woodshed behind the family home, Tyrrell focused on nurturing young talent and building competitive machines. One of his most remarkable discoveries came in 1963 at Goodwood, where he spotted a young Jackie Stewart and signed him on the spot.
By 1968, Tyrrell Racing had partnered with French manufacturer Matra, who supplied the chassis while Ken managed racing operations. Jackie, now a Formula One driver, rejoined his former team boss as their lead driver and the results were immediate. Stewart won three Grands Prix in their debut season and finished second in the championship. Just a year later, in 1969, he dominated the season, winning both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles. Not bad for a team barely two years into its Formula One life.
At the 2025 Silverstone Festival, Trudy Coughlan, a longtime Tyrrell employee who first joined the team as a receptionist in 1973 and later worked across accounts and marketing, stood among six Tyrrell cars and recalled what made the team unique. She said, "When I first started in 1973, it was just like a family really. Ken was lovely. He was like everybody’s dad and treated us all like family." In an age when small F1 outfits were being swallowed up by corporate machines, Tyrrell held onto a tight-knit, homegrown spirit. "When the team went away, there were about five of us left. One summer we painted the workshop," she added with a laugh.
Tyrrell’s peak coincided with Jackie Stewart’s reign. After splitting with Matra in 1970, the team began designing its own cars, most notably the Tyrrell 003, which carried Stewart to world titles in 1971 and again in 1973. Innovation was always at the heart of the team, best symbolized by the audacious six-wheeled Tyrrell P34. The car stunned the paddock and claimed a one-two finish at the Swedish Grand Prix in 1976, an achievement no other six-wheeled F1 car ever matched.
By the late 1970s, success started to fade. With limited budgets and rising competition, the team made cuts where it could. Trudy, now working in accounts, remembered how "we had to go down to four days a week but Ken never gave up. Sponsors like Elf and Candy kept the team going forward. Ken was confident and determined."
Throughout the decade, Tyrrell remained a launchpad for rising talent, nurturing drivers like François Cevert, Jody Scheckter, and Patrick Depailler. Stewart retired after the 1973 season following the tragic death of Cevert at Watkins Glen, but his presence never fully left. "Jackie never truly left the team. He was always involved with the team even after his retirement," said Trudy. When asked who her favorite driver was, she named Ronnie Peterson, who had a brief stint at Tyrrell in 1977. "The drivers knew most people in the team. They were very chatty and friendly. You did get to know them."
The 1980s were more difficult. F1 had entered a period of rapid technological change and rising costs. Tyrrell tried to keep up, but struggled with resources. By then, many rivals had adopted turbocharged engines, while Tyrrell held onto naturally aspirated ones. In 1984, a controversy struck when the team was disqualified from the championship over accusations of running underweight cars with lead shot ballast hidden in the water system. FIA found them in breach of several rules and stripped them of their points, banning them from the final races of the season.
Despite these setbacks, there were moments of resilience. The high-nose Tyrrell 019, driven by Jean Alesi in 1990, brought new hope and podium finishes. Brief sponsorship from Braun and Honda engines helped, and drivers like Stefano Modena and Mika Salo kept the team visible. But the performance gap continued to grow.
Trudy returned to Tyrrell in 1991, this time with her husband Mike. She worked in merchandise and marketing. "We would go to the races selling merchandise with handwritten signs. It was a different time." By 1997, the writing was on the wall. "Ken would have gone on forever," she said, but his health and the evolving nature of the sport forced the sale of the team to British American Tobacco, which would become British American Racing in 1999.
Tyrrell’s greatest successes came during a time when most teams were evolving from garage-based outfits into global businesses. Theirs remained a true family affair. Trudy recalled how Laura, Ken’s wife, handled travel arrangements, and Bob, Ken’s son, looked after marketing. She was fortunate to have seen Tyrrell at their peak and stayed until the very end when the team changed hands in 1998.
But the legacy did not end there. BAR became Honda Racing, which was bought by Ross Brawn and turned into Brawn GP. In their only season, Brawn GP won both championships before becoming Mercedes AMG F1. That DNA, the people, the lessons, the ambition, still lives in today’s most dominant team. But the essence of what Tyrrell represented is harder to find.
Trudy stood in the paddock at Silverstone, watching five Tyrrell cars, dressed in their historic Elf, Candy, and Benetton liveries, take to the circuit during the Motor Racing Legends historic race. It was emotional. Ken, she said, was a deeply respected figure in the paddock. "He was extremely protective of his team and treated everyone like they mattered."
When asked about her favorite memory, she smiled and said, "I remember going to a race in Belgium. I was quite young at the time and we all went out to dinner. I ordered garlic prawns and they came in their shells, which I’d never had before and had no idea what to do. So Ken very carefully sat there and peeled all the little prawns for me."
In the end, Ken Tyrrell was not just a team boss. He was the heartbeat of an era now lost to carbon fiber and corporate gloss. A true garagista, in every sense of the word.
