Rob Walker founded his team in 1953 at the age of 35, debuting in the Lavant Cup Formula 2 race with a Connaught entered for Tony Rolt, where Rolt achieved a third-place finish. Eric Thompson then secured the team’s first win at Snetterton. Walker entered his cars in Scottish national colours – blue with a white stripe – rather than the more common British racing green. The team’s first international outing was at the Rouen Grand Prix, a mixed F1/F2 race, where Stirling Moss’s Cooper-Alta finished 4th among the F2 cars. The 1953 British Grand Prix marked Walker’s first World Championship attempt, but Rolt’s Connaught did not finish.
From 1954 to 1956, Walker made sporadic appearances, achieving a Formula 2 race win at Brands Hatch in 1956 with Tony Brooks. Walker returned full-time in 1957 with an F2 Cooper-Climax. Tony Brooks, sharing driving duties with Jack Brabham and Noel Cunningham-Reid, won the Lavant Cup, though the team experienced frequent retirements.
In 1958, Rob Walker abandoned club racing, focusing solely on international events. Maurice Trintignant was signed as a full-time driver, supplemented by Moss and Brooks when their Vanwall commitments allowed. Moss and Trintignant won at Argentina and Monaco, the first wins for a Cooper chassis. Trintignant also triumphed at Pau and Auvergne, while Moss secured victories at the BARC 200, Caen Grand Prix and Kentish 100. Moss and Trintignant continued with the team in 1959, with Moss winning at the Glover Trophy in Goodwood. He then raced for his father’s British Racing Partnership outfit for the French and British GPs, failing to score. Moss returned in the German Grand Prix, retiring, but regained winning form in Portugal, Italy and the International Gold Cup. Trintignant achieved a second-place finish at the US Grand Prix.
For 1960, Walker concentrated on Moss and switched to a Lotus, beginning at Monaco, which Moss won – the first Formula 1 victory for a Lotus. Moss also won the non-championship International Gold Cup at Oulton Park and the US GP at Riverside, finishing third overall in the championship, as he had the previous year. Following the season, Walker took Moss to two South African races, both of which Moss won.
The 1961 season saw the introduction of new 1.5 L engine regulations, and Walker considered building his own chassis but retained the Lotus 18. Moss won non-championship races at Goodwood (in the 2.5 L Intercontinental Formula) and Vienna, as well as the Monaco and German Grands Prix. At the 1961 British Grand Prix, Rob Walker Racing entered the Ferguson P99, becoming the first team to enter a four-wheel drive car in a World Championship Grand Prix. Moss later won the Oulton Park International Gold Cup race in the same car; to date, this remains the only win recorded by a four-wheel drive car in a Formula One event.
The 1962 season began well with Trintignant winning at Pau, but was disrupted when Moss had an accident at the Goodwood Glover Trophy meeting, ending his career. Walker had planned to enter a Ferrari for Moss in the World Championship but retained Trintignant, who became increasingly uncompetitive and failed to score any championship points. The year also saw the deaths of drivers Ricardo Rodriguez and Gary Hocking while driving for Walker in Mexico and South Africa respectively.
Walker altered his strategy for 1963, employing Jo Bonnier and returning to the Cooper chassis (Bonnier had raced for Walker at Oulton Park the previous year), but results remained limited and mechanical failures frequent. In 1964, the team expanded, first with a new Cooper (with Bonnier finishing second at Snetterton) and then with a Brabham-BRM, with Bonnier and guest drivers participating in several World Championship events. From the Italian GP, Walker ran two cars: a BT11 chassis with BRM power and a BT7 chassis with Climax power. In 1965, Jo Siffert partnered Bonnier, with the Swiss driver scoring 5 championship points despite constant mechanical issues. Bonnier’s best result was a third-place finish at the non-championship Race of Champions.
With the introduction of 3.0 L regulations in 1966, Bonnier left to restart Ecurie Bonnier, and Siffert remained with Walker, driving the Maserati-engined Cooper T81. The car proved uncompetitive in 1967, and in 1968, Walker, partnered with entrepreneur Jack Durlacher, purchased a Cosworth-powered Lotus 49. That year, Siffert won the British Grand Prix after the works Lotuses retired, overpowering Chris Amon to secure Rob Walker’s final win.
Siffert left the team at the end of 1969, finishing the year in 9th place, and Rob Walker Racing Team competed for the last time in 1970, entering a Lotus 72 for 40-year-old Graham Hill, who was reluctant to retire after a major accident the previous year with Lotus. Hill achieved a 4th-place finish at the Spanish GP before joining Brabham at the end of the year.
Instead of continuing with the team, Rob Walker took his Brooke Bond Oxo sponsorship to Surtees for the 1971-73 seasons and managed Mike Hailwood’s career. The last vestiges of Rob Walker Racing Team ended in 1974 when Walker retired from active participation in motorsports at the age of 57. Walker also worked as a motorsports journalist, covering Formula 1 events for Road & Track magazine from 1967 well into the 1990s. Considered one of the elder statesmen of Grand Prix racing, Walker died in 2002 at the age of 84 from pneumonia.
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