David Tomlin driving his 1973, Blue and Red, Motul Rondel M1, during the Derek Bell Trophy for HSCC Formula Libre, at the 2023 Silverstone Festival
Rondel Racing was a British racing team that competed in the Formula Two series between 1971 and 1973. The team was founded by two ex-Brabham mechanics Ron Dennis and Neil Trundle. Rondel won five European Championship races before being forced to close down in 1973 due to a number of factors including lack of money, loss of Motul support and NatWest Bank calling in a £5,000 overdraft over a workshop floor installed by Dennis. The Rondel M1 was usually known as the Motul M1, in deference to Rondel Racing's main sponsor. It was used in F2 in 1973, winning two races, before Motul pulled out and Rondel closed Dennis and Neil Trundle formed Rondel Racing in 1971, running Brabham BT36s in Formula 2 for drivers Graham Hill and Tim Schenken. Later that season, Bob Wollek joined the team in a third BT36, bringing all-important sponsorship from French oil company Motul. Rondel were Brabham's main customer in 1972, running BT38s for Schenken, Wollek, Carlos Reutemann and Henri Pescarolo, with Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Ronnie Peterson and others guest driving at some events. The team was very professionally run and impeccably presented, and results were good, with Hill winning one race in 1971 and both Pescarolo and Schenken winning races in 1972. The team operated out of an equally immaculate base at Feltham, near Heathrow, and Dennis had brought in City of London ship-broker Tony Vlassopulos to chair the had an increasingly difficult relationship with Brabham constructors MRD, which was by now fully owned by Bernie Ecclestone since Ron Tauranac's departure, and for 1973, Dennis and Trundle decided to build their own cars, recruiting Brabham's talented aerodynamicist Ray Jessop to design a Formula 2 car for 1973, which would then be followed by a F1 car for 1974. The resulting 'Motul M1', named after the team's title sponsor, was ready by October 1972 and was tested at Goodwood by Schenken, already smartly turned out in the livery of Motul and Radio Lux
Size: 2689px × 2394px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1973, 1975cc, 2023, action, bell, blue, circuit, david, dennis, derek, festival, formula, hscc, libre, m1, motul, neil, racing, red, ron, rondel, silverstone, spectators, stand, tomli, towcester, trophy, trundle
