The team achieved their first race win in the 1957 British Grand Prix, with Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks sharing a VW 5, earning the team the distinction of constructing the first British-built car to win a World Championship race.

In the early 1950s he entered a series of modified Ferraris in Formule Libre races under the name "Thinwall Special".

The Goodyear disc brakes (built by Vanwall) proved successful,[4] but the front suspension and fuel and cooling systems were troublesome.

[4] Development continued with a switch to Bosch fuel injection (thanks to Vandervell's "persuading" Daimler-Benz, a major Bosch customer, to allow it),[5] while retaining the AMAL throttle bodies; they were plagued with throttle linkage trouble, due to vibration from the big four-cylinder.

The new 1956[4] cars designed by Chapman (along with the aerodynamicist Frank Costin) were of space frame construction, the De Dion rear axle's unsprung weight reduced and front torsion bar added.

[4] The driving seat was placed above this and could not be reduced below 13 in (330 mm) above the road, making the height very problematic (the top of the driver's helmet was fully 50 in (1,270 mm) from the road surface, while the vertically mounted engine made a reduction impractical in any case),[4] and the handling was suspect despite Chapman's best efforts.

[7] The new car showed early promise in 1956 by winning the non-championship F1 race at Silverstone against strong opposition.

The Vanwall's superior road holding (thanks to suspension changes, new steel wheels, and new nylon-cord Dunlop R5 racing tyres),[7] streamlining, 5-speed gearbox, and disc brakes helped to offset this.

However, Moss lost out to Mike Hawthorn in the Drivers' Championship by a single point to finish second, with Brooks ending the season in third.

Their triumph at the end of the season was sadly marred when, during the final race of the year in Morocco, Lewis-Evans was fatally injured in an accident.

Although showing promise when campaigned by John Surtees in two races, development was stopped short when the formula did not find success in Europe.