Rob Walker Racing Team

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The Rob Walker Racing Team competed as a privateer team in Formula One during the 1950s and 60s using various chassis and engine combinations including Cooper, Lotus and Coventry Climax.

Started by Rob Walker, the team entered the Formula One World Championship for the first time in 1953, with minor presence in the British Grand Prix in the following years. The team then entered into its first full season in 1958. That year started well, with Stirling Moss winning the team's first Championship race in a Cooper Climax in the 1958 Argentine Grand Prix. A second win came at the prestigious 1958 Monaco Grand Prix with Maurice Trintignant.

In the following years, the team continued to build a historic association with Stirling Moss. Using a Lotus 18 chassis purchased from Lotus, Moss and the team won 6 more victories in 1959, '60 and '61. They also clearly relished their underdog status and were a constant thorn in the side of the larger works teams.

In the mid 1960s the team ran Brabhams for Jo Bonnier and Jo Siffert.

They continued to compete up and until 1970, winning one more race at the 1968 British Grand Prix with a Lotus 49B driven by Jo Siffert. This time in association with Jack Durlacher. In 1970, the team competed for the last time with driver Graham Hill and entered a Lotus 72 for him to drive. Hill, now at 40 years old, refused to retire after a major accident in the previous year with Lotus.

Over the years Rob Walker and his team became F1's most successful privateer, being the first and last privateer team to win a Formula One Grand Prix.

Walker, the elder statesman of Grand Prix racing from the old school, died at the age of 84 in 2002.

[edit] References

• Autocourse Grand Prix Archive. Crash Media Group Ltd.
• Grand Prix Encyclopedia. The Motorsport Company.