Team Surtees racing organization

racing car manufacturer Edenbridge , United Kingdom

The Surtees Racing Organization was a British manufacturer of racing cars founded by John Surtees , who produced competition vehicles for formulas 1 , 2 and 5000 in the 1960s and 1970s . Connected with it was called a team Surtees racing team, which used their own cars in these classes factory. The longest - from 1970 to 1978 - Surtees was represented in Formula 1. While the team in 1972 won the European Formula 2 Championship and in the first years to the best racing teams of theBelonged to European Formula 5000 championship , Surtees scored in F1 only few successes.

History 

Founder of the team was the British racing driver John Surtees. Surtees had won seven championship titles in motorcycle sports, before moving to automobile racing in 1960. He drove for the following ten years for Lotus , Ferrari , Cooper , Lola , Honda and BRM . With Ferrari he won in 1964 , the Formula 1 World Championship . In addition, Surtees regularly participated in sports car racing. Since 1966, Surtees maintained its own sports car team, with whom he competed in the North American CanAm series. In the first year, Surtees won with his team and a factory-sponsored Lola T70 the CanAm Championship. This sports car team became the basis for Surtees' development as an independent designer. 

Already during his time as an active racing driver, John Surtees was regarded as a technology enthusiast. He was heavily involved with his teams in the chassis development. This was true for Cooper and Lola, but especially for Honda, whose RA 300 was influenced by Surtees in many details. 

Regardless, John Surtees was only "by chance"  for independent racing car constructor: the end of 1968 gave Surtees between the British designer Len Terry and the American actor James Garner , who in the US Formula 5000 (or Formula A- ) Team wanted to build American International Racing (AIR). Garner wanted to take over two chassis designed by Len Terry and used them in 1969 in the US with an AMC engine for the pilots David Hobbs and Scooter Patrickbring to the start. In parallel, the British team Surtees should report two more chassis in the European Formula 5000 Championship. The US project was initially delayed due to lack of engine supplies from AMC. Then, when the first chassis were tested in April 1969 in Riverside , both suffered a suspension break. Garner, whose budget was already exhausted at that time, then gave up the Formula 5000 project completely. John Surtees, who at that time had a factory cockpit for BRM in F1, took over all of the Formula 5000 cars that received the designation TS5 and continued the project with the team Surtees alone. After some changes, the TS5 became one of the best vehicles in theEuropean Formula 5000 Championship 1969 , so that the Surtees drivers David Hobbs and Trevor Taylor could fight for the title.

From this project developed Surtees' Formula 1 program, which began in 1970 with the TS7 . Unlike in the Formula 5000, John Surtees participated regularly from 1970 to 1972 in his own cars at the Formula 1 World Championship. In 1971, he joined his team with Mike Hailwood , who like him had started his racing career in motorcycle racing. With Hailwood also his manager Rob Walker came to Surtees, who had set his traditional private team Rob Walker Racing in late 1970 after a decade and a half. Walker brought his sponsors, including tea brand Brooke Bond Oxo , to Surtees, and over the next two years, the team occasionally volunteered as Rob Walker Team Surtees, From 1973, John Surtees focused on the management and design of racing cars. During this time, Formula 1 became the mainstay of the company. The Formula 5000 engagement was discontinued in late 1972, and the replacement production of Formula 2 cars produced no gain, despite sporting successes. This also began the sporting decline of Surtees. It was initiated by the Formula 1 model TS14 , which was not competitive, but had to be used for more than one season without significant changes due to weak finances. 

In Formula 1, 40 drivers drove for the Surtees factory team in eight years. Many of them were Paydriver , which undertook Surtees mainly because of the financial support from their sponsors. The Surtees pilots were Alan Jones , Rolf Stommelen , Mike Hailwood , Jochen Mass and Helmut Koinigg . The latter crashed at the US Grand Prix in Watkins Glen in 1974; it was the only fatal accident in a Surtees. In 1978, the racing stable, despite an already completed car for the coming season, was dissolved due to financial difficulties.

Since the mid-1960s, Surtees maintained a workshop in Slough , which was later relocated to the community of Edenbridge in Kent . In it, since the end of the decade, all racing cars constructed by Surtees have been created. Production began in 1968 with a Formula 5000 vehicle, whose construction Surtees had taken over from Len Terry. Over the next ten years, around 80 chassis were created for the formulas 5000, 1, and 2. In the early years, John Surtees, Peter Connew, and Shahab Ahmedthe responsible designers. Connew, however, separated in late 1971 in the dispute of Surtees and put on its own Formula 1 project, which was short-lived and belonged to "the biggest flop in Formula 1 history". Starting with the TS14 responsible Surtees the chassis alone at first, later changing engineers were added, which were mainly advisory role.

Surtees gave his designs continuous model designations that did not indicate the race class for which they were intended. Counting started on the TS5 model and continued until the TS20. Models with the designations TS1 to TS4 did not exist. Previously, however, Surtees had designed four motorcycle chassis, which were referred to as JS1 to JS4. The projects TS6 and TS17 (Formula 5000 models) and TS12 (racing cars) were not realized. A TS21 for the 1979 Formula 1 season was finished in late 1978 designed, however, the team produced only a few components; the car was not completely set up.

Team Surtees in Formula 5000

The racing car designer Surtees had its origins in Formula 5000. Until 1972 Surtees designed three different models for this class. All types were used in both the North American and the European Formula 5000 Championship . In North America Surtees was represented until 1970 and in Europe until 1971 with a factory team; In addition, the cars were regularly sold to customers. At the end of 1972, Surtees completed the Formula 5000 engagement. His cars were still in use until 1973 (USA) and 1974 (Europe) at customers.

European Championship 

Team Surtees debuted in the factory for the first race of the European Formula 5000 Championship in 1969. The Surtees TS5 was one of the best vehicles of the season. However, Team Surtees was only able to win at races, which were dominated by Peter Gethin , who drove a plant-supported McLaren M10 from Church Farm Racing , for other commitments. In direct encounters, however, won, if not both teams had technical problems, Gethin regularly. Surtees works driver Trevor Taylor won four of the twelve races of the year, team-mate David Hobbswon one. In the fall of 1969, Surtees temporarily abandoned factory engagement in the European series; The cars were taken over by Elite Racing , which continued to announce Trevor Taylor as a driver. Taylor finished the 1969 season in second place.

In the 1970 season Surtees joined again with a factory team in the European Championship. Drivers were again Trevor Taylor and David Hobbs. However, the successes were lower than in the debut season. On the one hand, the only slightly redesigned Surtees TS5A brought no improvements; on the other hand, the company's capacities were heavily strained by the development of a Formula One car, which debuted in May 1970. In Formula 5000, Surtees was able to beat the dominant chassis of McLaren and Lola do not enforce. Taylor only won one of a total of 20 races of the season, Hobbs none. Taylor took seventh place in the drivers' standings with 33 points at the end of the year, while Hobbs, who was primarily active in the US, only managed to score two points and was in nineteenth place.

In the 1971 season , Surtees received competition from Lola Cars, who now in turn maintained a factory team. Lola competed with Frank Gardner , who won five of 17 races. For the Surtees factory team, which now used the newly developed TS8 , drove the former motorcycle world champion Mike Hailwood . He won three races. Gardner won the championship title this year and Hailwood finished second.

From 1972 Surtees no longer participated in the factory for the European Championship. The newly developed for this year TS11 went in Europe exclusively to the team organized by Jack Epstein Speed ​​International Racing , which used the car for the Dutchman Gijs van Lennep . Although Lennep won only two races, but was four times and three third place three times and was able to enter more championship points than his competitor Graham McRae , who won four times with his self-constructed race car of the type Leda. Lennep won in the customer Surtees the championship in 1972. In the following years Surtees played no role in the European Formula 5000.

American Championship 

In addition to the European, the American Formula 5000 Championship was temporarily a mainstay of the team Surtees. After the racing team had first established itself in Europe in the first months of 1969, David Hobbs and Andrea de Adamich , who drove in Europe for the Surtees factory team, appeared from August 1969 with their T5 in individual US Championship races. Initially, they still reported the cars under their own name. Hobbs finished second at the Schaefer Grand Prix in Lime Rock , his first North American TS5 race. This was followed by victories at the Minnesota Grand Prix at Brainerd , Le Circuit Continental at Mont-Tremblant and the Thompson Grand Prix at theThompson Raceway . At the last race of the season in Sebring the first mention for the Surtees factory team with David Hobbs and Trevor Taylor took place . Hobbs won both races of the race and was considered overall winner, Taylor was ninth. In the 1969 championship Hobbs finished second behind Tony Adamowicz , who had only one point ahead.

In 1970, several American customer teams drove with TS5 and T5A chassis, among them Fred Opert Racing with John Gunn . The team Surtees entered only from the sixth championship race in Dallas factory. The driver was again David Hobbs. He has won two of the last eight races of the season, finishing third in the championship behind John Cannon and Gus Hutchinson with 86 points .

From 1971, the team Surtees no longer joined the factory in the American series. However, different private teams continued to use Surtees chassis. Sam Posey started with his team Champ Car International at each race with a TS8 (1971) and TS11 (1972). In both years he finished second in the championship. As of 1973, Surtees chassis had no meaning for the American championship. Only a few drivers reported to individual races obsolete Surtees.

Team Surtees in Formula One 

The team Surtees joined from 1970 to 1978 as a factory team with own cars in Formula 1. All cars were equipped with 3.0-liter DFV eight-cylinder engines from Cosworth . The designations under which the team responded usually included the respective main sponsor. They changed repeatedly, sometimes within a season. Occasionally it happened that even the drivers of the factory team were reported to a race under different names. In 1972, for example, the message Andrea de Adamichs for the Ceramica Pagnossin Team Surtees , while Mike Hailwood at the same time for the Brooke Bond Oxo Team Surtees and John Surtees for the team Surtees took.

1970 

The team Surtees debuted in Formula One in 1970. For the first four races an older customer car of McLaren type M7C was reported. His best result with the McLaren reached Surtees in the Netherlands , where he finished in sixth place.

At the Grand Prix of Great Britain , the team's first own car appeared with the Surtees TS7 . Surtees was the third racer after Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren to start a car of his own brand. The TS7 was a "very simple car" without innovations. The chassis was an aluminum monocoque; the total weight was 553 kg. John Surtees drove the car himself at seven Grand Prix. After initial difficulties, the TS7 developed into a midfield car. At the Grand Prix of GermanyJohn Surtees was safely in third place in the race before a four-lap engine crash and Surtees had to retire prematurely. Also in Austria , Surtees, lying in sixth place, dropped out prematurely due to a motor failure. A first success experienced the team at the Oulton Park International Gold Cup in August 1970: In this race, whose starter field consisted mainly of Formula 5000 cars, Surtees came in TS7 before Jackie Oliver in the factory BRM in the first place. However, the race had no World Cup status, so the victory for the championship had no meaning. The first World Championship points in his own car drove Surtees atCanadian Grand Prix he finished fifth. In the subsequent race in the US , a second TS7 for Derek Bell , who finished sixth in the race and thus scored another point for the team, was unveiled once . At the end of the first season, Team Surtees took eighth place in the Constructors' Championship.

1971 

In 1971, the Surtees factory team regularly with two, in some races even with three cars at the start. The regular driver was next to John Surtees, who played here his last full Formula 1 season, the German Rolf Stommelen , which was supported by the caravan manufacturer Eifelland and auto motor und sport . Surtees and Stommelen used the newly developed TS9 . The third car leased Surtees to changing paying drivers, who usually fought only one or two races for the team. These included Brian Redman , Gijs van Lennep , Derek Bell, Mike Hailwood and Sam Posey . When the US Grand Prix of illness missing Stommelen by Gijs van Lennep and the Formula 1 newcomer Sam Posey was replaced. The two took turns in training in a car, in the end, the faster van Lennep was allowed to participate in the race. With the exception of Mike Hailwood, who won the Grand Prix of Italy Fourth, and thus the best single result for the team Surtees imported, came none of the riders on points to the finish.

1972 

In the 1972 season Surtees factory was mostly with three chassis at the start. Regular drivers were Tim Schenken and Andrea de Adamich ; In addition, for most races, the team used a car for Mike Hailwood. At the end of the season also John Surtees drove two more races, so that in Italy and the US four factory Surtees started. Surtees mainly reported the TS9B, a revised version of last year's TS9. The TS14that John Surtees had developed after the departure of his former designer Peter Connew himself, on the other hand appeared only in a few races. Schenken and de Adamich each came once in the points to the finish, Hailwood four times. He reached the second place in the Italian Grand Prix, the hitherto best result of the team in Formula 1 At the end of the season, Surtees took fifth place in the Constructors' Championship with 18 points. It was ahead of March , Matra and Brabham .

Individual cars were sold to customer teams this season as well. South African team Gunston took over a TS9 for John Love , and at the US Grand Prix, Sam Posey drove a TS9B for Champcar Inc.

1973 

The 1973 Automobile World Championship was the team's first season in which the now 39-year-old founder John Surtees was no longer at the wheel of one of his cars. The regular drivers were Mike Hailwood and José Carlos Pacewho participated in all World Championship races. They drove the TS14 and its revised successor TS14B. Both achieved only minor successes. There were many technical difficulties, which were mainly due to the poor interaction of the tires and the chassis. The tires developed vibrations that were so strong during travel that repeated suspension parts or other technical components were damaged by the vibration forces. As Surtees' supplier, Firestone, discontinued tire development early in the year, there were no improvements over the course of the season. Pace finished half of the race but only scored twice. His best result was the third place in the Grand Prix of Austria, Hailwood failed ten times in a row at the beginning of the year, mainly for technical reasons; in Monaco , however, he was due to the distance traveled nevertheless (as eighth) evaluated. In the five races he finished, he never got the points. In South Africa , Hailwood was the victim of an accident. South African racer Dave Charlton collided with Hailwood. Clay Regazzoni ( BRM ) crashed into Hailwood's stalled car and also pulled Jacky Ickx (Ferrari) into the accident. Regazzoni lost consciousness as his car went up in flames. Hailwood hurried to the rescue, loosening Regazzoni's straps and pulling him out of the fire. 

At the start of the season, Surtees rented a TS9 to Andrea de Adamich and to Luiz Bueno , who each ran one race for the factory team. Adamich undertook subsequent to Brabham, Bueno received after its use in the Brazilian Grand Prix no further cockpit in Formula 1. In late summer 1973 debut of the German driver Jochen Mass , with financial support from Ford  at Surtees. He contested three races for the Surtees factory team in the first TS14 produced last year. His best result he scored at the Grand Prix of Germany , which he finished seventh.In 1973 Surtees dropped back to 11th place in the constructors' championship with three world championship points. Customer cars did not exist this year.

1974 

The financial situation of the team was difficult at the beginning of the 1974 season . The sponsor Brooke Bond Oxo had retired in the winter of 1973/74. The other financiers Fina and Matchbox compensated for the losses only partially, and the temporarily acting as a sponsor company Bang & Olufsen ended his support after a few races again. 

In 1974, Surtees started with the newly developed TS16 . The regular drivers were Carlos Pace and Jochen Mass. However, both left the team during the current season because they thought the TS16 was unsafe. Mass also criticized the poor production quality of the cars. After the Grand Prix of Sweden , there was a very public dispute between John Surtees and Carlos Pace. Surtees sanctioned Pace's public criticism of the TS16 by not letting his regular driver start for the upcoming race in the Netherlands.  Pace then moved up for the rest of the season to Brabham where he unsuccessful Rikky von Opelreplaced, and Mass went to McLaren. Both cockpits were reoccupied with changing drivers. Pace's car alternately took over José Dolhem and Derek Bell, while the second car in the fall of 1974 was driven successively by Jean-Pierre Jabouille , José Dolhem and Helmut Koinigg . At the Grand Prix of Austria in 1974, Surtees also reported once a third car for Dieter Quester .

The results of the team decreased compared to the previous year. The weak sporting development was in any case due in part to the tire supplier Firestone , whose withdrawal from Formula 1 at the end of the season was imminent and the further development of its tires had set in the previous year. However, several drivers also felt that John Surtees was not sufficiently aware of their feedback and was in the way of further development of the car. Especially in the second half of the season, the drivers had repeated difficulties with the qualification. Dolhem, Jabouille and Koinigg could not qualify several times. This year, Surtees again scored only three world championship points. Carlos Pace drove her to his home race in Brazil where he finished fourth. Surtees was again ranked eleventh in the Constructors' Championship at the end of the year.

At the last race of the season in Watkins Glen , Koinigg had a fatal accident. In the ninth lap, he came off the road at a slow pace. Upon impact with the guardrail, the lower of the three steel straps broke loose and the car shot through the guardrail. Here, the lower edge of the middle, left standing steel band severed the neck of the driver. Some sources attribute the accident to the breakage of the front suspension. 

The Surtees factory team was only successful in races that did not have world championship status this year . Mass fourth came in the weakly occupied Grande Prêmio Presidente Medici in Brazil in 1974 and finished second in the International Trophy two months later .

The Finn Leo Kinnunen set a customer TS16 for the private AAW Racing Team in the summer . He came to six races, but could only qualify for the Grand Prix of Sweden . In this race, he dropped out after eight laps due to an engine failure.

1975 

In 1975 , the economic situation of the team was even worse than in the previous year. Due to the weak sporting achievements in 1974, many sponsors had withdrawn. Matchbox had stayed with the team, but reduced the payments significantly.  Surtees placed thereupon for 1975 only a very small Formula 1 program. The team was only with a car at the start. As emergency vehicle served as in the previous year, the TS16. A new car was not developed for 1975; there were only a few chassis modifications to adapt the car to the tires of the new supplier Goodyear . The car still developed insufficient grip. 

The regular driver was John Watson . The Northern Irish racer came in any race in the points to the finish. After the British Grand Prix , Watson switched to the Lotus factory team for a race. John Surtees did not have enough money to start his team at the next World Championship race in Germany and skipped the race. Watson returned to the team for the subsequent Austrian Grand Prix before moving to Penske for the remainder of the season . Surtees then ended the season participation prematurely. The team did not participate in the last two races of the season in Italy and the USA .

At the Grand Prix of Great Britain Surtees once used a second car for Dave Morgan , who played his only Formula 1 race here.

1976 

In the 1976 season , Surtees received financial support from the condom maker Durex . For the first time in two years, the team released a new car. The TS19 was a construction by John Surtees and Ken Sears. In 1976 Surtees again started with two cars. The regular drivers were the American Brett Lunger and the Australian Alan Jones . In individual races Lunger was replaced by paying drivers. In Sweden , Conny Andersson drove his car, for the season finale in Japan took over Noritake Takaharathe car. Jones qualified for every race. He reached a fourth and two fifth places. The other Surtees pilots did not score World Championship points. Lunger qualified for ten races and finished seven times. His best result was two eleventh places. Takahara finished ninth in his race, while Andersson dropped out early in Sweden. With a total of seven points Surtees finished the season 10th place in the constructors' championship.

In 1976, several customer teams competed with Surtees cars. Bob Sparshot's team BS Fabrications announced a TS19 for nine races for Henri Pescarolo , who twice missed the qualifying and finished ninth in Austria for the best result of the season. In Austria, the British team Shellsport Whiting announced a TS16 for Divina Galica . It did not come to a race participation, as Galica missed the qualification.

1977 

Season 1977 went again Surtees with the TS19 at the start. The car was now technically outdated. In particular, compared to the Lotus 78 , whose underbody aerodynamics revolutionized Formula One, the TS19 was no longer competitive. Driver side, there was a lot of movement. Although joined Vittorio Brambilla , who brought with Beta Utensili another sponsor in the team at every race. Hans Binder , who had been hired as the second regular driver, left the team in the summer after a dispute over sponsorship payments, to drive in the following years a few races for the starting German license ATS Racing Team . Replacing Binder was Larry PerkinsCommitted. Perkins started twice for Surtees. There was no third mission in France . Although Perkins initially participated in the first training runs in Dijon . However, before the end of the training Surtees replaced him with the Frenchman Patrick Tambay . The Grand Prix of France was the only race that Tambay drove for Surtees. Beginning with the subsequent race in Great Britain , Vern Schuppan took over the second Surtees four times in a row . For the Grand Prix of Italy Surtees gave the car once to Lamberto Leonibefore Hans Binder returned to the team for the last three races. In total, in 1977 six drivers for Surtees at the start. Only Brambilla was successful. He came once each in places four, five and six to the finish and thus entered six world championship points for the team. However, Brambilla drove with high material costs: In 17 races, he caused eight total damage to the Cosworth engines. In addition, there were a number of accidents, which sometimes triggered considerable repair costs. John Surtees wanted to premature the contract with Brambilla in the late summer of 1977; Brambilla's sponsor Beta Utensili, however, demanded continued employment.  Binders best result for Surtees was the ninth place in Spain, Leoni, Tambay and Perkins failed in their missions in qualifying, while Schuppan reached a seventh place in Germany as the best result. Surtees finished eleventh in the Constructors' Championship.

In 1977, Melchester Racing was the only customer team using a Surtees. The team reported a TS19 for Tony Trimmer for the Grand Prix of Great Britain. With the third slowest lap time Trimmer failed here already at the prequalification.

1978 

The 1978 season was the ninth and last for Surtees in Formula 1, the team initially came again with the TS 19 at. In Monaco debuted the newly developed TS20 , which was the first car of the team focused on the Ground Effect . The regular drivers were Vittorio Brambilla and Rupert Keegan . The latter chose Surtees mainly for business reasons: Keegan's father was the president of the airline British Air Ferries . However, Brambilla and Keegan were replaced during the season.

Brambilla failed with the old car in Brazil and with the new one in Monaco at the qualification; apart from that, he got the starting permission for every race. At the Grand Prix of Austria he scored the only World Championship point of the year for his team with the TS20. In Italy , Brambilla suffered a serious accident. In a pile-up in the first round, in addition to him Hans-Joachim Stuck , Patrick Depailler , Didier Pironi , Derek Daly , Clay Regazzoniand Brett Lunger were involved, Brambilla's head was hit by a wheel flying through the air. The impact made Brambilla lose consciousness. He suffered severe head injuries and needed nearly a year for recovery. For the last two races of the season, Surtees gave the cockpit to Beppe Gabbiani , who failed in both qualifying attempts. Rupert Keegan participated with the old car in four Grand Prix at the beginning of the season. He could not cope with the change to the TS20. In six attempts with the new car Keegan failed four times in the qualification. At the Grand Prix of the Netherlands Keegan crashed in training. As a result of injuries, he could not go to the start. In the subsequent race in Italy took over Carlo Franchi ("Gimax") second Surtees, but did not qualify. In the last two races Surtees announced René Arnoux for the second cockpit. As a result, Surtees finished 13th in the Constructors' Championship.

During the winter break of 1978/79 Surtees developed a new car for the 1979 season. However, before the model could be built, the team withdrew from active motor racing. Surtees completed a copy of the TS20 for the Aurora AFX Formula 1 series 1979 , which was brought here with changing drivers at the start.

Team Surtees in Formula 2

After Surtees had given up the plant commitment in Formula 5000 at the end of 1971, the team turned to Formula 2. For this class, the company developed with the TS10 and the TS15 two independent racing cars, which it used in the factory in the Formula 2 European Championship and also sold to customer teams. In Formula 2 Surtees competed with established manufacturers such as March and Brabham.

1972 

The Surtees TS10 was an "effective and reliable" racing car,  powered by a Ford four-cylinder engine with hard- tuning. In its debut season , the T10 was used exclusively by the Surtees factory team; Customer teams with Surtees chassis did not exist. The regulars were Mike Hailwood, who also took part in the Formula 1 factory team this year, as well as the Argentine Carlos Ruesch, John Surtees drove a third car at four events. At individual races cars were also reported for Andrea de Adamich, Dieter Quester, Carlos Pace and José Dolhem. The most successful driver of the team was Mike Hailwood. He finished two races as the winner, finished second four times and also achieved some more results in the points. With 55 points, he was Formula 2 champion ahead of Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, who had retracted 18 points less. After completing the championship, Hailwood won two of the three races of the Torneio Internacional de Formula 2 do Brasil 1972 .

1973 

For the Formula 2 European Championship in 1973 Surtees brought out the TS15, which was an evolution of last year's model. The company was again represented with a factory team in the championship. As in the previous year, the team used a Ford four-cylinder engine. Efforts to get particularly powerful engines from BMW were unsuccessful; Instead, BMW entered into an exclusive relationship with the March factory team at the start of the season. Surtees' regular driver was Jochen Mass. The second factory cockpit was given to changing, often regional drivers, including Derek Bell, Torsten Palm , Willy Braillard and José Dolhem . At the beginning of the season, the TS15 was not reliable, so Mass repeatedly failed. With theHowever, the Swedish Gold Cup started a successful series. Mass won two races, finished third three times and third once. At the end of the season he finished with 41 points in second place of the championship behind Jean-Pierre Jarier, who drove for the March factory team.

In addition to the factory team, there were some private racing teams, the 1973 customer chassis from Surtees used. They usually did not race every race of the season. The most successful Surtees customer this year was Silvio Moser , who scored three points in the previous year's TS10 and finished in 27th place. 

1974 

In the 1974 season , Surtees entered for the last time with a factory team in the Formula 2 European Championship. The drivers were John Watson and José Dolhem. They drove newly built specimens of the TS15. Watson came in the second race of the year, the Germany Trophy in 1974 , in the points. Here he finished second behind Hans-Joachim Stuck in the Werks-March. In the other championship races he was often prematurely. Dolhem, who competed in five races for Surtees, finished third at the Festival Prize of the City of Salzburg . Apart from that, he did not finish in the points. Watson was 11th at the end of the season, Dolhem Fourteenth.

In addition to the factory team appeared again some customer teams with Surtees chassis. The Ortega Ecuador Marlboro Team , led by Ron Dennis and financed from South America, regularly competed with TS15 vehicles. However, none of the drivers achieved finishings in the points.

From 1975, no Surtees chassis in the European Formula 2 Championship were reported more. However, some vehicles went to Japan, where they were used in the Japanese Formula 2000 Championship .