The British Racing Motors (BRM) team has one of the most illustrious, yet often controversial, histories of all great Grand Prix racing marques. Founded in 1945-46 by pre-war British racing driver Raymond Mays and engineer Peter Berthon, the BRM project was launched as a cooperative effort backed by the British motor and motor accessory industry to challenge all international opposition as Grand Prix road racing was revived after World War II.

Their initial design was a staggeringly ambitious V16-cylinder car with two-stage centrifugal supercharging by Rolls-Royce. The scheme proved to be beyond the new BRM team's development capabilities and after years of drama and disappointment the V16 was replaced by a very simple big-valve 4-cylinder Fomrula 1 design, the Type 25. First major victory came to the marque at Caen, France, in 1957, but it would not win its first World Championship-qualifying Grand Prix until 1959, when Swedish driver Jo Bonnier triumphed in Holland.