The Tyrrell 025 was the car with which the Tyrrell team competed in the

1997 Formula One World Championship The 1997 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 51st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It commenced on 9 March and ended on 26 October after seventeen races. The Drivers' Championship was won by Jacques Villeneuve and the Constru ...

. It was driven by Finn Mika Salo, who was in his third season with the team, and Dutchman Jos Verstappen, who moved from Footwork.

Development

The 025 was an evolution of the previous year's

024 4 (four) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is tetraphobia, considered unlucky in many East Asian c ...

, with Ford V8 engines instead of

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V10s in the interests of reliability. However, this came at the expense of power against the V10 cars. As ever, the team used a fair degree of technical innovation. The 025 eschewed a double support front wing for a single plane unit aimed at cleaning up airflow under the car. On high- downforce circuits (such as

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), two additional wings were installed on either side of the cockpit. To distinguish between the drivers, Verstappen's were painted yellow and Salo's dark orange. These "X-wings" would be banned during 1998 after safety concerns in the pitlane, by which point other teams had begun using them.

Race history

The year was largely disappointing for the team. The chassis was well-balanced, the drivers were quick and the strategy was good but the increase in competitiveness in the sport saw them restricted to a battle with fellow V8 runner

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal followin ...

for much of the season. The team's frustration came from the cars often being closer in terms of raw pace to the front-runners than in , but further away on the grid and in the race results. The team's two points came from an inventive non-stop run from Salo at the

1997 Monaco Grand Prix The 1997 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the LV Grand Prix de Monaco) was a Formula One race held on 11 May 1997 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo. It was the fifth race of the 1997 Formula One World Championship. The 62-lap race was won by Mic ...

to finish fifth, despite a damaged front wing. They would prove to be Tyrrell's last points in F1, as Ken Tyrrell subsequently sold the team to

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, England. As of 2019, it is the large ...

, becoming

British American Racing British American Racing (BAR) was a Formula One constructor that competed in the sport from 1999 to 2005. BAR began by acquiring Tyrrell, and used Supertec engines for their first year. Subsequently, they formed a partnership with Honda which l ...

for the season. Paul Stoddart, later owner of

, became one of the principal sponsors. He almost bought the team and indeed had offered Ken Tyrrell a three-year plan to completely overhaul the team's technical department which included an in-house wind tunnel and use of his

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company's aircraft for the team's transportation but the deal with BAR had already been done. The team eventually finished tenth in the Constructors' Championship, thanks to the two points earned by Salo at Monaco.

Complete Formula One results

(

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) (results in bold indicate pole position)

References

* Tyrrell Formula One cars 1997 Formula One season cars {{F1-stub