Before Tyrrell became a constructor, before it became a champion, it became a finishing school.

In the early 1960s, Ken Tyrrell’s name was not yet a decal on a Grand Prix car. It was the name on the entry forms of a junior single-seater programme that behaved like a serious organisation long before it had any business doing so.

There is a neat way of telling Tyrrell’s story that begins with trophies. It is the obvious way, and it is mostly true. But it misses the detail that explains how a small, sharply run organisation became capable of winning at the sport’s highest level, and why it would soon have to reinvent itself.

A world championship should have bought Ken Tyrrell peace. Instead, it bought him a problem.

In 1969 he had done what every entrant dreams of and what most never touch: he ran a programme so sharply that, with Jackie Stewart and Matra, he conquered Formula One.