“We had quite good races overall,” commented the Finn. “The guys would practice pit stops well. There are some races where we had the fastest pit stops and race laps within three or four tenths.
“We had perfect races many times, but the car was so slow it didn’t show up because we were somewhere between P10 and P9. If the car was good we could have won a lot of races. “
A small team like Tyrrell regularly had to think outside the box to get results, and it was this independent ingenuity that brought Salo’s most famous day with Tyrrell as they clinched fifth place on a wet day in Monaco.
“Just before the start of the race, Mike Gascoyne said to me,“ I think we can do it without a [pit] Stop if it rains the whole race, ”he recalls.
“So we filled the car with fuel. Mike said he should just save a little fuel on braking so we can do it. “
Tyrrell’s close working relationships on the team meant that Salo trusted Gascoyne’s alternative approach when he left the field in 14th, but his trust was tested a little as the race progressed.
“Mike knew what he was doing. Of course, at the end of the race I panicked when the track started to dry out, but there was actually some fuel left in the car at the end. Monaco this year was pretty good! “
Although Salo will have to fight tooth and nail to get just one point, the warm words suggest that he thoroughly enjoyed his years there.
“We had a lot of fun and I think that’s part of the success.”
“We had a lot of fun and I think that’s part of the success,” he says. “You have to enjoy what you do to get the results.”
Later on, the Finn would drive for large manufacturing teams in Ferrari and Toyota, but he says there were still advantages to having a smaller outfit in Tyrrell’s later years.
“If I wanted something in this type of team, it happened immediately,” he says. “They didn’t have to go through many levels and then an engineer in the factory would think about what they were going to do – we always had all the engineers with us. The response was quick.
“It was fun because we could do so many things, I really liked that. I didn’t even go to the Tyrrell factory that often because we could do all of the work on the racing and testing days. We always had people there. “
It couldn’t last forever, however. Salo says that his last season the lack of financial clout gradually wore off, which made things even more difficult for the team as they were forced to make do with an unwanted engine change.
“I remember choosing Cosworth,” he says. “It was clear that we would have 100 hp less than everyone else before the start of the season, but it was all they could afford.
Salo left Tyrrell after a disappointing 1997 vintage, but the Finn still has very fond memories of the team
Mike Cooper / Allsport
“Harvey Postlethwaite’s cars have always been balanced [though]. Very easy to drive and they just fit me very well. When it was wet, we were always high up because of their driving behavior. Maybe they were easy to drive because they were so weak! But they were always fun. “
Salo would leave the team after three years in late 1997 to pursue his career at Arrows, convinced of what he describes as “Tom Walkinshaw who manages to get so much shit in my ear”.
Ken Tyrrell sold out to British American Tobacco in late 1997, and the team completely transformed into BAR in early 1999. Salo was sad to see her leave but still fondly remembers her as “all friends together”.
“I have nothing bad to say about this team,” he says. “Some of the guys are still in the paddock now and work in different teams.”
When asked what made the team unique, he answers immediately.
“The size of it. We had to do everything together, including in our free time, not just the race. I could be in contact with key people all the time. Didn’t have to play games, didn’t have to be a politician.
“It made it easy. It was a great time. “
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