When Ken Tyrrell, the team's owner, became disenchanted with the poor performance of March chassis during the 1970 season, he decided he would design and build his own car.

The resulting car made its debut at Oulton Park at a non-championship race but retired; the car was introduced too late in the season to make any difference in the championship; it competed in the final three rounds of the season in North America.

[3][5] The Mexican Grand Prix was delayed due to the large crowd of 200,000 proving difficult to control, almost forcing the cancellation of the race.

Despite impassioned appeals from Stewart and local hero Pedro Rodríguez they still remained troublesome.

Peter Revson drove the 001's final race in the United States Grand Prix but retired with clutch failure.