British Racing Partnership

The team's founding arose from a conversation at a Brands Hatch board meeting in late November 1957. Alfred Moss agreed to provide the capital; Ken Gregory committed to manage the operation. Their first chassis was a Formula Two Cooper, purchased alongside orders placed by Rob Walker, Reg Parnell, Bruce McLaren, and Jack Brabham. The team's first chief mechanic was Tony Robinson, who had been with Stirling Moss since 1953. Their first choice of driver was Stuart Lewis-Evans, already under Vanwall contract, with Tommy Bridger as a second driver.

Lewis-Evans's death in the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix ended BRP's first season in shock and contributed to Vanwall's withdrawal from Formula One, leaving Stirling Moss without a works seat and reorienting the entire landscape of the team's future.

By the end of 1959 Gregory had entered discussions with Yeoman Credit Ltd., a hire-purchase finance company owned by the Samego-Turner brothers, who were enthusiastic motorsport supporters. The resulting arrangement established something new in the sport: BRP sold its entire identity and equipment to Yeoman Credit for £40,000, and agreed to operate the team for £20,000 per year under the Yeoman Credit Racing banner. No Formula One team had previously transferred its identity wholesale in exchange for sponsorship income. The arrangement transformed BRP from a privateer operation into a commercially sponsored entity, a model that would define professional motor racing within a decade.

The Yeoman Credit period (1960) was marked by tragedy. Harry Schell, the appointed number-one driver, died in a practice accident at the International Trophy at Silverstone. Chris Bristow, the number-two driver, was killed at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Combined with Ivor Bueb's death the previous year during the BRP's pre-Yeoman period, three drivers associated with the team had died within a single year. The Samego-Turners, unsettled by the association, approached Reg Parnell to take over the operation at the end of 1960.

Having anticipated the Yeoman Credit separation, Gregory had arranged a parallel sponsorship with United Dominions Trust, whose holdings included Laystall Engineering. Under the UDT Laystall Racing name in 1961 and 1962, the team ran Lotus 18s and Lotus 24s, with Innes Ireland and Masten Gregory as the primary drivers. Ireland had been controversially dismissed by Colin Chapman immediately after delivering Lotus their first championship race victory at Watkins Glen in 1961; his arrival gave BRP an experienced and fiercely motivated driver. The UDT period produced respectable but not exceptional results.

With UDT's sponsorship lapsed and Colin Chapman unwilling to supply the monocoque Lotus 25 to non-works customers, Tony Robinson designed BRP's own car for the 1963 season. The BRP Mk1 — also known as the BRP 1/63 — was a monocoque constructed in the manner of the Lotus 25 but with a thicker aluminium skin, powered by a BRM V8 engine rather than the Coventry Climax unit of the Lotus original, and fitted with a Colotti gearbox. It was not, as critics claimed, a simple copy; the structural decisions differed, but the visual resemblance was undeniable.

Ireland brought the car to fourth place at Zandvoort on its second outing, an exceptional result for a new constructor. A podium at the Solitude non-championship race and another fourth at Monza followed in 1963. A second chassis, car 2/64, was produced for 1964. The team reverted to its original British Racing Partnership name for these constructor seasons. Notable non-championship wins included the 1964 Daily Mirror Trophy at Snetterton in rain-affected conditions — Ireland's last significant victory.

Trevor Taylor drove alongside Ireland in both constructor seasons, scoring a sixth place in the 1964 United States Grand Prix for BRP's final championship point.

When BRP submitted its application for membership of the newly formed Formula One Constructors Association, it was rejected. The stated grounds — that BRP did not manufacture sufficient components to qualify as a constructor — were disputed by the team, but with only Cooper and Brabham supporting their application and Ferrari, Lotus, and eventually BRM opposed, there was no realistic path to admission. FOCA membership determined eligibility for start money from race organisers; without it, the economics of Formula One became unworkable. After the 1964 Mexican Grand Prix BRP offered its cars for inspection by the Association. No one came.

The team subsequently built two cars for George Bryant — stepfather of Masten Gregory — for the 1965 Indianapolis 500, but the project achieved little. BRP did not return to Formula One. Among the drivers who had raced for the team across its various identities: Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Cliff Allison, Masten Gregory, Innes Ireland, Trevor Taylor, and Jim Hall.