Jo Bonnier began entering cars in Formula One under his own name in 1957, first with a Maserati 250F,[1] without much success, recording only two non-points scoring finishes from his six World Championship entries in 1957 and 1958.

The year started promisingly at the season-opening non-Championship 1966 BRDC International Trophy at the Silverstone Circuit, with Bonnier qualifying the Cooper in sixth place and finishing a strong third,[2] but the rest of the season brought little joy.

After the Cooper-ATS did not prove to be competitive in practice Bonnier made a deal with the Brabham team and drove their spare car for the rest of the weekend.

In 1968 Bonnier started the season with the aging Cooper, but this was rapidly replaced by the unique, ex-works McLaren-BRM M5A for the majority of that year's races.

At the final race of the season, the 1968 Mexican Grand Prix, Honda offered Bonnier the use of a spare RA301 when the McLaren's BRM engine failed during practice.

Bonnier made tentative steps to act as an entrant for other drivers in 1971, entering young Austrian Helmut Marko for the 1971 German Grand Prix.

[7] In 1971 Ecurie Bonnier entered a car in the European Formula Two Championship for the young Austrian Helmut Marko.

For 1968 Bonnier purchased a McLaren M6B for use in the North American Can-Am series, and an ex-John Surtees Lola T70 Mk3 GT for use in European races.

Both were finished in the Ecurie Bonnier/Ecurie Suisse Swedish racing yellow, but retained vestiges of the previous year's Anglo-Suisse identity with longitudinal white and red stripes along their centre line.

Rather than just fielding large capacity sports cars such as the McLaren and Lola T70s, the team decided to concentrate on the 2,000 cc (122 cu in) class.

Retaining the Ecurie Suisse yellow livery, but running under the Ecurie Bonnier moniker, the little Lola T210 provided excellent results, with Bonnier taking class wins in the Salzburgring, Anderstorp, Hockenheim and Enna rounds of the European Sportscar Championship (ESC), in addition to second places at Paul Ricard and Spa.

In 1971 Ecurie Bonnier switched entirely to the smaller capacity cars, fielding an updated, T212-specification Lola for Italian driver Mario Casoni.

Ecurie Bonnier limped on into the 1973 season – with the team's new T292 Lolas sporting sponsorship backing from Portuguese property investment company BIP and piloted by a number of Portuguese drivers, including Carlos Gaspar and Jorge Pinhol—but at the end of the season Ecurie Bonnier was wound up for good.