Robert Kenneth Tyrrell (3 May 1924 – 25 August 2001) was a British Formula Two racing driver and the founder of the Tyrrell Formula One constructor. Biography Born in East Horsley, Surrey, Tyrrell served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. After the war he became a timber merchant; as a result, he was sometimes known as "Chopper". In 1952, at 28, he began racing a Norton-powered Cooper in Formula 3. In 1958, he advanced to Formula Two in a Cooper-Climax, joining Cecil Libowitz and Alan Brown. He achieved a number of good placings and the occasional win. Realising, however, that he was not going to reach the top and recognising that his talents were better suited to team management, Tyrrell stood down as a driver in 1959 and began to run the works Cooper Formula Junior team, using the woodshed owned by his family business, Tyrrell Brothers, as a workshop. By 1961 he was also managing the Mini Coopers, as well as deputising for an injured John Cooper in Formula One. Tyrrell was responsible for discovering Jackie Stewart, whom he contracted to race for his Formula Junior team, after a test in 1964. Along with numerous lesser lights, he also approved Jody Scheckter and motorcycle racing ace John Surtees. Recognizing the value of the new Cosworth DFV, after a Lotus win at Zandvoort in its debut in 1967, with financial help from Elf, Dunlop and Ford, Tyrrell achieved his dream of moving to Formula 1 in 1968, as team principal for Matra International, a joint-venture established between Tyrrell's own team and the French auto manufacturer Matra. He persuaded Matra that a DFV was good insurance against the possible failure of Matra's V12 and thus the Matra MS10 was the result. Stewart helped the new team to place second in the Constructors' Championship for 1968. The success led to Matra's Gérard Ducarouge and Bernard Boyer creating the DFV-powered Matra MS80 for 1969, driven by Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Stewart, who won his first World Drivers Championship. Matra insisted on focusing on their V12, leading Tyrrell to secretly employ Derek Gardner, then at Ferguson (whom he had encountered in trials with a four-wheel drive Matra) to build what became the Tyrrell 001. It was quick, if a trifle unreliable, and spawned the much better Tyrrell 003 for 1971. This, in the hands of Stewart and newly hired François Cevert, took