Roger Benoit, a noted F1 journalist, revealed many “quirks” inside the Tyrrell squad, including a sex ban and Martin Brundle’s bedtime.
After racing in Formula 2, Ken Tyrrell felt he wasn’t cut out for top-level motorsport and turned his attention to team management, establishing Tyrrell Racing, which competed in Formula 1 from 1968 to 1998, winning three Drivers’ Championships and a Constructors’ Championship during that time.
Sir Jackie Stewart won three Drivers’ Championships in 1969, 1971, and 1973.
Tyrrell’s pre-race sex prohibition and ‘other peculiarities’ have been disclosed.
In an interview with Blick, F1 journalist Roger Benoit revealed some of the strange regulations that Stewart and other Tyrrell drivers had to follow.
Stewart was the one who told Benoit that Tyrrell drivers were not allowed to have sex the night before a race.
“Sir Jackie Stewart once told me that,” Benoit said when asked if the anecdote was true.
“The drivers were not permitted to have sexual relations the night before the race.” But Tyrrell had other peculiarities.”
Benoit was pressured to reveal some more of Ken Tyrrell’s strange rulings since the “other quirks” couldn’t be left as a cliffhanger.
Among them, it appears, was a tight bedtime, with Benoit relaying the story of how Brundle, who raced for the team from 1984 to 1986, was forced to bed at 10 p.m. sharp while at a dinner with Benoit in attendance.
Benoit also recalled the incident of when Ken Tyrrell hurled famed F1 designer Colin Chapman into a swimming pool at the Argentinian Grand Prix, taking advantage of ex-F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s $100-offer if he did so.
“Ecclestone once offered him 100 dollars at the Argentinian GP if he would throw Colin Chapman, the monsieur among the team bosses, and his clothes into the swimming pool,” Benoit remembered. “He refused.” “Of course, Tyrrell did it.”
Tyrrell’s final F1 appearance came in the 1998 Japanese Grand Prix, when the team was purchased by British American Racing. Ken Tyrrell died tragically in 2001 at the age of 77.
