The
Surtees Racing Organisation was a race team
that spent nine seasons (1970 to 1978) as a constructor in
Formula One,
Formula 2,
and
Formula 5000.
History
The team was formed by
John Surtees, a
three time 500 cc motorcycle champion and the Formula One champion
in 1964. Surtees formed the team in 1966 for the newly-formed
CanAm series (an unlimited
sports car series), winning the championship as
an owner/driver in its first year. He fielded an entry in another
newly formed series in 1969, becoming part of
Formula 5000 after taking over the failed Leda
F5000 project, and his team constructed its own cars for the first
time. His team was successful, winning five races, all in a row,
during a twelve race season.
This inspired Surtees to expand to
Formula
One, and after having had a difficult season with
BRM in '69, John decided to become an owner/driver
again.
Surtees ran the full 1970 season, but John
was forced to run the first four races in an old McLaren
because of a delay in the construction of his
in-house F1 car. The new British Petroleum
sponsored car earned its first (and only) points that year in the
Canadian Grand
Prix
.
Surtees added a second full time car in 1971 for German sports car
ace
Rolf Stommelen, and ran a third
car for various drivers in a number of races. Three drivers,
Surtees, Stommelen, and
Mike Hailwood
(himself a motorcycling champion) earned three points each for the
marque that year.
After the 1971 season, Surtees retired from full-time competition,
and the team ended up with three new full time drivers in 1972.
Hailwood returned to Surtees for a full year, joining him were
Australian
Tim Schenken and
Andrea De Adamich, the latter of whom
brought sponsorship money to the team.
"Mike the Bike"
produced Surtees' first podium finish that year in the Italian Grand
Prix
finishing second to Emerson Fittipaldi. All three
drivers scored points for the team, and Surtees would finish fifth
in the constructors' championship.
Schenken was replaced in 1973 by Brazilian
Carlos Pace, and the team went down to
two full-time cars after de Adamich left following the season
opener.
Pace finished third in Austria
and fourth
in Germany
, but it was
the only points finishes the team had all season, as Hailwood was
left scoreless. Hailwood departed for McLaren after the
year, being replaced by
Jochen Mass in
1974. It was a difficult year for Surtees, as Pace left the team in
mid-season, and replacement
Derek Bell struggled to qualify for
races, capped by Austrian driver
Helmut
Koinigg's fatal crash at the 1974 U.S. Grand Prix. A fourth
place by Pace at his home track were the only points Surtees
managed to get, and they failed to finish in the top ten in the
constructor's championship.
The team struggled to survive in 1975, and ran only a car for
John Watson regularly.
The season was a tremendous struggle for Watson and Surtees, as the
team failed to score points. Desperate for money, Surtees landed a
controversial sponsorship deal from
Durex
condoms in 1976. Australian
Alan Jones drove the Durex car
that year, a second car also ran for American
Brett Lunger. Lunger was uncompetitive, but
Jones ran effectively for the team, finishing in the points three
times.
Jones's success resulted in him leaving the team for the emerging
Shadow team, and money problems
forced Surtees to run one car regularly again in 1977, this time
for
Vittorio Brambilla.
Brambilla's season was effective, also finishing in the points
three times. Still, his good results did not prevent Surtees from
further monetary troubles. In 1978, the team added a second car for
pay-driver, Briton
Rupert Keegan, but
the money problems continued. A lack of decent results caused
further problems.
Unable to get sufficient money, the team left F1 after the 1978
season, despite having a car built for 1979. After racing the car
in the British Aurora series (formerly F5000) briefly that year,
Surtees Racing Organization was closed for good.
Models
Image:SurteesTS7BarryBoor.jpg|John Surtees at the wheel of the TS7
at its
Brands Hatch
debut.
Image:Surtees TS9B Goodwood 2008.jpg|The TS9B
being demonstrated at the 2008 Goodwood
Festival of Speed
.Image:SurteesTS19BarryBoor.JPG|
Brett Lunger entering Hawthorn's Bend at Brands
Hatch during the
1976 British
Grand Prix in a TS19.Image:Surtees TS19 2007.jpg|
Alan Jones' TS19 being driven in
2007.Image:SurteesTS20BarryBoor.JPG|
Vittorio Brambilla renting a ride at the
1978 British Grand Prix in a
TS20.
- TS5 1969-1970 F5000/Formula A.
Based on abandoned Leda prototype. Runner up in the 1969 Guards
F5000 championship. Intended as a customer car, but there were no
takers.
- TS8 1971-1972 F5000. Runner up in Rothmans Championship in
1971.
- TS9 1971-1972 Formula One. A derivative of the TS7 with a
longer wheelbase and wider track. Surtees repeated his Oulton Park
win in 1971.
- TS10 1972 Formula 2. Powered by a
Cosworth BDA engine Mike Hailwood convincingly won the 1972
European F2 Championship in this car. Two independent teams
purchased TS10s but were not contenders in the series.
- TS11 1972-1973 F5000. Based on the TS9 with a Chevy engine. Raced as a single
car team and driven by Gijs van
Lennep, this car won the 1972 European F5000 Championship. A
TS11 chassis with TS8 bodywork was cobbled together to run the 1972
Tasman Cup series after the TS8 intended for the series was wrecked
beyond repair. Hailwood finished second in the series in this
car.
- TS14 1972-1973 Formula One. This car marked the beginning of
the end for Surtees. Firestone was anticipating
leaving Formula One and had little interest in working with Surtees
to cure the TS14's habit of devouring tires. It was the first car
in F1 to fully comply with crumple-zone legislation, incorporating
these into its side pods within which the radiators were mounted,
laying down the floorplan for the vast majority of subsequent F1
designs. It was a very quick car at its introduction but a series
of accidents and lack of development support did not help it reach
its potential. John Surtees drove his last F1 race in the
TS14 at Monza
in 1972.
- TS15 1973 Formula two. With BMW supplying
engines exclusively to March
Surtees was forced to settled for second place in the F2
Championships. A good car, but no match for the BMW engine. A
development of this car, the TS17, was intended to run a Ford Motor Company V8 in F5000, but
nothing came of the plan.
- TS16 1974-1975 Formula One. Based on the TS14, but overweight
and with less than top notch DFV engines. The team also failed to
engage a single major sponsor for 1974 so money was tight to say
the least. Only a single car was run and to cap off a
truly terrible year driver Helmut
Koinigg was killed during the U.S.
Grand Prix at Watkins
Glen
. The car was run again in 1975 and John Watson scored in three
non-Championship events, but no championship points were
scored.
- TS19 1976-1978 Formula One. A fresh car designed by John
Surtees and Ken Sears the TS19 managed to score points for Surtees
in 1976 and 1977, and even ran the opening races of the 1978
season.
- TS20 1978 Formula One. A development of the TS19, the TS20 was
a clean design that promised well, only to be completely
overshadowed by the introduction of ground effects.
Complete Formula One World Championship results
The table below details the complete World Championship Grand Prix
results for the Surtees "works" team. The second table includes
results from privately owned Surtees cars in World Championship
Grands Prix.
(
key)
Results of other Surtees cars
(
key
See also
Compare Brabham Racing
Organisation,
Fittipaldi
Automotive and
Stewart Grand
Prix, three other Formula One teams established by Champion
Drivers.
External links
References
- Hodges, David. A-Z of Formula Racing Cars 1945-1990, MBI
Publishing Company, 1990. ISBN 1-901432-17-3
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