When F1 champions started their own teams - Part 1

Graham hill / Embassy Racing with Graham Hill

Statistics

Debut – 1973Factory – UKGrands Prix – 41Best race result – 2ndFastest laps – 4Highest finish in C’ship – 5thLast season – 1975

Unhappy with the atmosphere at Brabham, Graham Hill decided to start his own team for the 1973 season. He bought the Shadow DN1 chassis and assembled the car at Maurice Gomm’s workshops in Surrey. Hill now not only had to drive a car, he had to manage a team as well. The toughest part was, obviously, getting the finances sorted – and for this, he made a crucial deal with Britain’s Imperial Tobacco.

“So I approached a number of people and firms and spoke to and lunched with lots of board of directors and that’s how, eventually, I came to be with Embassy. As I had been approached to become the ambassador of motorsport to help promote it internationally, it seemed obvious that I ought to have an embassy to work from,” Graham Hill wrote in his autobiography.

Hill’s first challenger missed the first three races of the season before making its debut at Spain’s Montjuic circuit with a beautiful white livery, adorned with red stripes. However, with no points in their first season, Hill decided to move to Lola chassis as part of an exclusive deal. The deal also allowed Hill to run a second car alongside him. Initially it was filled by Guy Edwards, who was famous for signing top level sponsorships. However, with Edwards failing to qualify for as many as two races, and not scoring good results otherwise, the team decided to replace him with Germany’s Rolf Stommelen, who was also going to drive for them in 1975.

Meanwhile, Graham Hill scored his team’s first points when he finished 6th at Scandinavian Raceway in Sweden. That remained the team’s only point-scoring finish of the season.

For the 1975 season, Embassy Hill moved from Woking to a larger factory at Feltham. By this time, they had already hired Andy Smallman as technical director and handed over duties of day-to day management to Ray Brimble.

The Lola-Lord T371 made a promising debut at the third round in South Africa, with Stommelen taking a fine seventh place. However, since the team were doing most of the work on the car, they didn’t want to carry the customer car status any more, and they renamed the car ‘GH1′.

At the controversial and tragic Spanish Grand Prix, Stommelen, while in the lead of the race, crashed his car into the barriers, bounced back on the race track, tangled with the Brabham of Carlos Pace and flew into the crowd. Stommelen’s leg and wrist were broken in the accident, and he suffered two cracked ribs. But what was worse was the death of five spectators.

Tony Brise was hired as the German’s replacement and he showed some promising results in the GH1 including his sole point scoring result at the Swedish Grand Prix. There were changes to the other car as well with Graham Hill deciding to say goodbye to Formula 1 as a driver after the British Grand Prix. Alan Jones was signed as his replacement and he took the team’s best result of the season with a drive to fifth at the German Grand Prix.

For the 1976 season, Smallman designed a wonderful car known as the GH2. However, their title sponsor had to cut down their budget amid the economic turmoil. This forced the team to make a single car around Brise and show the door to Alan Jones and Rolf Stommelen, who was now back after his injury.

The team then went to winter testing at France’s Paul Ricard circuit for the first shakedown of their 1976 car. But their return from the French circuit brought news that shook the motorsport world. Graham Hill was flying his plane, Piper Aztec, which he had bought back in 1966 after winning the Indianapolis 500, along with team manager Ray Brimble, driver Tony Braise and two other mechanics. But with heavy fog, the plane crashed into the trees in a golf course near Hill’s house, killing all passengers in the process. The tragic incident also brought an end to the team.

Hill’s GH2, which was planned to be the team’s race car in 1976, is now in Britain’s National Motoring Museum.

In the second part of this feature, we’ll give a run-down on teams started by Emerson Fittipaldi, Jack Brabham and Jackie Stewart.