Its January 1998 when everything became clear, the Tyrrell Racing team we knew wouldn’t exist anymore after the 1998 Season. The Tyrrell 026 would be the last Tyrrell to appear on the grid. The Tosser Ricardo Rosset would replace Jos Verstappen. While Ken Tyrrell preferred to keep Jos for 1998. Eventually, Ken and Bob Tyrrell left the office with immediate effect the 23th of February 1998. An historical name was on the edge of disappearing form the grid. BAR was looming for 1999. The Tyrrell 026 however, that car survived 1998 and the entire BAR team.
Tuesday the 2nd of December 1997 the news arrives that British American Tobacco had purchased the Tyrrell Racing team from Ken and Bob Tyrrell. Ken owning 51% of the team and Bob 23% while Kenneth owns 10% had made the harsh decision to sell the team. BAT was since the early 1990s looking for opportunities to enter the Formula One. As sponsor, or perhaps with their own team? Via Project de Bono the company was looking for these opportunities.
In 1994, Pacific Grand Prix send BAT their love letter to become their title sponsor. BAT never saw this as a realistic opportunity as the team was new and they, if you read the documents, simply didn’t believe it in. At this point BAT had made the decision to purchase an existing team. In late 1996, the company was looking into Minardi. The team struggled badly financially and could use the money. However, Flavio Briatore came in the picture and purchased a bunch of the Minardi stakes. Only months later Flavio sold his stakes to Rumi. At that point, the summer of 1997. BAT once again came in the picture. Seriously looking into Minardi. Eventually Minardi declined and continued on their own in the Formula One.
The other option for BAT in the Formula One was the Tyrrell Racing team from Ken Tyrrell. After some negotiating in October and November 1997 the deal was concrete. The signatures were sat and it was a matter of time before the press release would be faxed to any news outlet that covered Formula One. That was that Tuesday. The Formula One would chance forever after 1998.
From the start on it was clear that BAT was only doing it for the license Tyrrell Racing had. As well for the travel funds and TB prize money. Most of the infrastructure from the team was sold at the end of 1998, which Paul Stoddart purchased a lot from. While BAT stated at the begin of the season already that there was not much to be expected from the team in 1998. Rosset was chosen as he had a 5 million dollar sponsor budget, which BAT would use to clear the numbers. Rumours went that BAT was even pushing team members to look further.
While the design of the Tyrrell 026 was sleek and seemed to be competitive there wasn’t much done on developing which resulted in poor results during the season. Rosset’s best result was the 8th place during the Canadian Grand Prix, don’t forget he failed to qualify for five(!) races in 1998. Toranosuke Takagi’s best result was twice a 9th place in Silverstone and Monza.The season ended and Tyrrell was no longer on the grid.
Barrell 026
While the season ended, it meant a new start for the Tyrrell 026! Paul Stoddart purchased almost anything from the Tyrrell team in late 1998. Though before that deal was struck BAT used one of the 1998 chassis for their own purpose. The Barrell 026 was born. In 1999 BAR, as the team would be branded, would race with the Supertec V10 engine. The car was fitted with the engine included a new transmission and gearbox. Jean Christophe Boullion was the lucky one to test with the car. He was Tyrrell’s test driver that year. It was the only time the Barrell 026 appeared on the track.
European Formula Racing (M)026T / Minardi F1X2 2-seater
This is the interesting part of the story of the Tyrell 026. In late 1998, Paul Stoddart purchased almost anything from the Tyrrell team that was available. The Tyrrell 026 cars, some older cars, lots of spare parts, equipment and you name it were purchased. In 1996, he purchased his first few Formula One cars. From 1997 on, he would appear with European Formula Racing in the Boss Series. This is a race series were old Formula cars can be seen racing by mostly amateur drivers. The title was won in 1997 and 1998. After he purchased most of Tyrrell’s assets he opened a new headquarters in Ledbury in Gloucestershire. Where European Formula Racing would do it’s preparations. Stoddart already sponsored Tyrrell in 1997 and become more of a technical partner for the team.
In 1999 while sponsoring Jordan Grand Prix, Paul purchased the Edenbridge Formula 3000 team, which drove at that point with Oliver Gavin and Jamie Davis. If that wasn’t enough the work was started to develop the Tyrrell 025 cars he owned into two-seaters. At that point, McLaren had one themselves the MP4-98T. An interesting and lucrative concept.
In the beginning, the Minardi F1X2 or the Minardi 2-seater as we know it now was branded the EFR 026T. In base it were the 1998 Tyrrells several tubes were available. The 2-seaters would become a lifeline for Minardi. Only six weeks prior, the 2001 Australian Grand Prix Paul Stoddart purchased the stakes from Gabriele Rumi and others while Giancarlo Minardi would stay at the team. Within six weeks, Stoddart appeared with the Minardi PS01 at the start of the Australian Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso and Tarso Marques. Having the 2-seater already completed it would become a lucrative business to earn some extra money. It seems at this point that the 2-seater was now named after the Minardi the M026T. However, sources are unsure about it.
From 2002 onwards until the end of 2005 when Minardi was sold to Red Bull there were several events held by Minardi with the 2-seaters. It was normal that they raced with these old Tyrrell 026 cars. The most memorable race is from Thunder at the Park the 21th of August 2001. When Nigel Mansell crashes his car!
After 2005, the 2-seaters appeared on several occasions during Grand Prix weekends to drive around VIPS. The cars also appeared on other race events. While it seems the car disappeared for a while after 2013, the big news came in 2017. The Minardi 2-seaters would return on the grid! They cars would have some facial updates though were still powered by the V10 engines and were in vase still the old cars. For a couple of years the cars appeared in Grand Prix weekends. However, it seems that after 2022 the cars haven’t returned to the grid.
Retired or not, it means that the Tyrell 026 had a lifespan of over 20 years of activity. The only car that comes close is the Arrows A23 that even returned racing as a Super Aguri four years after it’s retirement!
