🏎️Cooper

United Kingdom · Surbiton, Surrey

Major honours

2Constructors' Championship
2Drivers' Championship
16Grand Prix wins
1958 Argentine GPFirst mid-engined win

Charles and John Cooper ran the team from a small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, and triggered the most fundamental layout change in Formula 1 history. Cooper pushed the mid-engined concept — engine behind the driver — and Stirling Moss proved it at the 1958 Argentine Grand Prix, winning in Rob Walker's Cooper T43 without changing tyres. Jack Brabham took both drivers' and constructors' titles in 1959 and 1960 with Climax-powered T51 and T53 cars, and by 1961 front-engined cars had effectively vanished from the grid. Bruce McLaren won at Sebring in 1959 aged 22, holding the youngest-winner record until Fernando Alonso in 2003. Once better-funded teams executed the same idea more effectively, Cooper fell away quickly. Pedro Rodríguez's win in South Africa in 1967 was the last; the team withdrew in 1969 with 16 wins in total.

Record comparison

Constructors' titles
2
Drivers' titles
2
Grand Prix wins
16
Seasons entered
20

Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.

Club legends

Jack BrabhamBruce McLarenStirling MossJohn SurteesPedro Rodríguez

Rivalry

In 1959 and 1960 it beat Ferrari, still committed to front engines, and split the era; from the mid-1960s Lotus and Brabham refined the mid-engined idea Cooper had started and left it behind.

More teams

Back to teams →