Goodwood pays special tribute to Ken Tyrrell

Today, the bases of some Formula 1 teams amaze with architectural feats, such as the McLaren Technology Centre, and scale, such as the new Aston Martin F1 campus, construction of which is still ongoing.

And 60 years ago, the team was quite content with a completely ugly-looking hangar, which most resembled a barn, and this did not prevent it from winning races and even championships. This is exactly what happened to Tyrrell at that time, and today a very interesting event took place at the Goodwood Revival festival dedicated to the history of this once glorious team.

Let’s not forget that it was on this basis that BAR was founded in the late 1990s, which then evolved into the Honda factory team, which in turn was transformed into Brawn GP in 2009 and acquired by Mercedes in the autumn of the same year. But now we are interested in the early days of its history, when it was based in a small wooden hangar in the courtyard of a former sawmill in the village of Oakham, in Surrey in the south-east of England.

This historic building still stands today, but from its original location, where it stood for over 70 years, it was moved to Goodwood this year, underwent a meticulous restoration and has now reopened its gates to special guests, including Tyrrell veterans.

Among them were Jackie Stewart, the legendary Scottish driver who won all three titles driving cars for the team, and Martin Brundle, who drove for Tyrrell in the mid-1980s.

In the 1960s, Ken Tyrrell’s team used chassis from other manufacturers, and Stewart won his first championship in a Matra with a Ford Cosworth engine. But in the 1970s, Tyrrell cars were already being built in this hangar, and this continued until 1976. Incidentally, the unique six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 was also born there, which also left a very bright mark on the history of Formula 1.

The team then moved to a new base built next to this hangar, which everyone called the Tyrrell Shed. Shed can be translated as “hangar”, as well as “garage”, as well as “barn”, and one of the production areas was located there for a long time, after which the building was used as a warehouse.

Surprisingly, the Tyrrell Shed was rescued, reassembled at a new location and today its new life begins.

“There are few other examples in the history of motorsport where a Formula One team would be based in a wooden house,” Sir Stewart said today. “This is where Ken Tyrrell’s F3 team was first based, and it was the base of his Formula One team until the end of my career. All the work was done in this wooden hangar, and today I see several of the mechanics here that I know from that time.” Incredibly, the Tyrrell Shed will now always be here at Goodwood!

In May this year, the world of British motorsport celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ken Tyrrell, and perhaps the Tyrrell Shed can be seen as a fitting memorial to this famous man.