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| Full name | R.R.C. Walker Racing Team |
|---|---|
| Base | Dorking,Surrey, UK |
| Founder(s) | Rob Walker |
| Noted drivers |  Stirling Moss Jack Brabham Maurice Trintignant Jo Bonnier Jo SiffertGraham Hill Jochen Rindt |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| First entry | 1953 British Grand Prix |
| Races entered | 124 |
| Constructors | Connaught Cooper Lotus Ferguson Brabham |
| Race victories | 9 |
| Pole positions | 10 |
| Fastest laps | 9 |
| Final entry | 1970 Mexican Grand Prix |
Rob Walker Racing Team was aprivateer team inFormula One during the 1950s and 1960s. Founded byJohnnie Walker heir Rob Walker (1917–2002) in 1953, the team became F1's most successful privateer in history, being the first and (along withFISA team) only entrant to win a World Championship Formula One Grand Prix without ever building their own car.
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Born in 1917, the 35-year-old Rob Walker founded his team in 1953, debuting in theLavant CupFormula 2 race, entering aConnaught for driverTony Rolt, where he achieved a third place. The next race, atSnetterton,Eric Thompson was the first winner with a Rob Walker car. Between Rolt and Thompson, the Rob Walker Racing Team had an auspicious debut season, with eight wins in British club racing series. Their international debut was at theRouen Grand Prix, a mixed F1/F2 race, withStirling Moss'sCooper-Alta, who managed to take 4th place among the F2 cars. The1953 British Grand Prix was Walker's first World Championship outing, but Rolt's Connaught did not last the full distance.
Walker, who entered his cars inScottish national colours (blue with a white stripe, instead of the more commonBritish racing green), continued to race in British club events in the following years. From 1954 to 1956, Walker made a few scattered appearances, only winning a Formula 2 race atBrands Hatch in 1956 withTony Brooks. Walker returned full-time in 1957 with an F2 Cooper-Climax. Tony Brooks, who shared driving duties during the season withJack Brabham and Noel Cunningham-Reid, won theLavant Cup, but the team failed to finish most of its races.
In 1958, Rob Walker abandoned club racing and concentrated only on the large international events. Pre-WWII veteranMaurice Trintignant was signed full-time, with Moss and Brooks racing when they were free from theirVanwall commitments. The season started well enough for the team, with Moss and Trintignant winning atArgentina andMonaco, the first wins for aCooper chassis. Those would be the only World Championship victories, but Trintignant also triumphed atPau and Auvergne, while Moss took the victory at the BARC 200, Caen Grand Prix and Kentish 100.
Moss and Trintignant remained with the team for 1959, with the British driver winning at theGlover Trophy in Goodwood, but for theFrench and British GP races, he left Walker for his father'sBritish Racing Partnership outfit, where he failed to score. Moss returned in theGerman Grand Prix, where he retired, but returned to winning form inPortugal,Italy andInternational Gold Cup. Trintignant's best score was second place at theUS Grand Prix.
Walker decided to concentrate solely on Moss and switched to aLotus in 1960, starting from Monaco, which Moss won, the first time a Lotus won a Formula 1 race. Moss would triumph only at the non-championship International Gold Cup inOulton Park and the US GP atRiverside, but still managed to finish the season in third place overall, as had happened the previous year. After the end of the season, in December, Walker took Moss to two South African races, which he won.
In 1961, F1 adopted the new 1.5 L engine regulations, and Walker flirted with the idea of building his own chassis,[1] but retained the Lotus 18 for the season. Moss won the non-championship races at Goodwood in the 2.5 LIntercontinental Formula andVienna, as well as theMonaco andGerman Grands Prix. At the1961 British Grand Prix, Rob Walker Racing became the first team ever to enter afour-wheel drive car for a World Championship Grand Prix, when they entered theFerguson P99 on behalf ofFerguson Research. Moss later won that season'sOulton Park International Gold Cup race in the same car; to date, this is the only win ever recorded by a four-wheel drive car in a Formula One event.
The 1962 season started well enough, with the returning Trintignant winning at Pau, but Walker's plans were shaken when Moss had an accident at the Goodwood Glover Trophy meeting driving aBRP-enteredLotus, finishing his career.[2] Walker had planned to enter aFerrari for the British driver in the World Championship, but was forced to retain Trintignant, the elder French driver becoming increasingly uncompetitive, not scoring a single championship point. The year's misfortunes continued in Mexico and South Africa, where Walker saw driversRicardo Rodriguez andGary Hocking die at the wheel of his cars.
Rob Walker changed strategy for 1963, employingJo Bonnier and returning to the Cooper chassis (the Swede had raced for Walker at Oulton Park the previous year), but once more results were sparse and mechanical failures frequent. Still, the team beefed up its operations for 1964, first with a newCooper (with which Bonnier was second atSnetterton) and then with aBrabham-BRM, with Bonnier and other guest drivers driving at several World Championship events. From the Italian GP, Walker had decided to run two cars, aBT11 chassis withBRM power, and aBT7 chassis with Climax power. In 1965,Jo Siffert partnered Bonnier, and although the more experienced Swede was fastest, it was the Swiss who managed to score 5 championship points. With constant mechanical failure plaguing him, Bonnier's best result was a third place at the non-championshipRace of Champions.
With the new 3.0 L regulations starting in 1966, Bonnier left Walker to restartEcurie Bonnier, and Siffert remained alone with Walker, with theMaserati-enginedCooper T81. The car was uncompetitive in 1967, and in 1968 Walker, now partnered with entrepreneurJack Durlacher, purchased aCosworth-poweredLotus 49. That year, Siffert won the British Grand Prix through attrition, after the works Lotuses retired, and Siffert overpoweredChris Amon to take what would be Rob Walker's final win.
Siffert left the team at the end of 1969, after finishing the year in 9th place, and Rob Walker Racing Team competed for the last time in 1970, entering aLotus 72 for driverGraham Hill, who was now 40 years old, and refused to retire after a major accident in the previous year with Lotus. Hill's best score was a 4th placement at theSpanish GP, but he left to join Brabham at the end of the year.
Instead of continuing with the team, Rob Walker took hisBrooke Bond Oxo sponsorship toSurtees for the 1971-73 seasons, and took to managingMike Hailwood's career. The last vestiges of Rob Walker Racing Team ended in 1974 when he retired from active participation in motorsports at the age of 57.
Rob Walker also gained some measure of recognition as a motorsports journalist, covering Formula 1 events forRoad & Track magazine. Beginning with a report on the Italian Grand Prix in 1967, Walker wrote race reports, annual reviews, and historical articles forRoad & Track well into the 1990s.
Considered one of the elder statesmen of Grand Prix racing, Walker died at the age of 84 in 2002, ofpneumonia.[3]
(key) (Results inbold indicate pole position; results initalics indicate fastest lap; † indicates shared drive.)
£ Formula Two car
‡ Formula Two cars occupied fifth to tenth positions on the road in the 1969 German Grand Prix. However, as the Formula Two cars were technically competing in a separate race drivers of these cars were not eligible for championship points. The points for fifth and sixth were awarded to the drivers of the eleventh and twelfth placed cars.
