Formula One 1961 Season

Send This Page To A Friend
Fade To White
Formula One 1961 Season


Regulations:

Engine: 1300 cc - 1500 cc (normally aspirated)
Weight: 450 kg (minimum)
Points - Driver: 1st: 9, 2nd: 6, 3rd: 4, 4th: 3, 5th: 2, 6th: 1
Points - Constructors: 1st: 8, 2nd: 6, 3rd: 4, 4th: 3, 5th: 2, 6th: 1
Notes: 1961 was the first year the Indy 500 was NOT included in the World Championship

The World Championship of Drivers was again decided during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza before the American event at Watkins Glen the following month, and as Phil Hill (born in Florida, 34 years ago, and in business in Santa Monica, California) acknowledged the congratulations after the race, his delight at achieving an ambition was overcast by the tragedy that overwhelmed his team mate Wolfgang von Tripps on the second lap. "If this had not happened," he said, "the title would have been in doubt until Watkins Glen. I never thought I should win it this way."

In the previous six Grands Prix, von Trips had beaten Hill in Holland, Britain and Germany and had been beaten at Monaco and in Belgium. Honours were equal before the teams turned out at Monza - Hill with 29 points, von Trips with 33. It was another of these collisions that have marred the racing this season in almost all the Formula 1 events - but until 1961 with only material damage - that not only took the life of a brilliant young driver but the lives of 14 spectators, with injuries to twice as many, the worst catastrophe at Monza auto-drome since Ernesto Materassi crashed into the crowd in 1928 and died in the carnage.

Especially in the opening laps (there were 32 starters in this race) and when the suddenly widespread practice of slip streaking by two or even three drivers is in progress, the cars, evenly matched in performance, were within a foot or two of each other, racing in tight groups and fighting for the corners. This terrible crash came on the South Curve, a tight double turn, almost a U-turn, at the end of the road circuit and leading back on to the wide straight past the stands and pits. Eye witnesses were agreed that von Trips, just ahead of Jim Clark's Lotus, pulled his Ferrari across him and although Clark put two wheels on the grass, the Lotus hit the Ferrari a glancing blow when both cars were under the brakes and therefore less stable.

A few laps later Bonnier's Porsche and Surtees' Lotus collided but without driver injury. Never before have drivers held their own lives and those of others in their hands with so little margin of error. Racing collisions were once rarities. By the early 1960s they had become commonplace. It began in April 1961 at the Brussels race. Bonnier and Surtees clashed there and so did Gendehien and his team mate Bianchi. Brooks and Gurney collided at Monaco and Graham Hill hit Gurney at the German race. At Goodwood during the 1961 season there were two multiple pile-ups involving five cars and six cars. Formula Junior, where the performance of the cars was even lower and closer, collisions were notorious.

The FIA thought smaller and less powerful cars would make the sport less dangerous - but detractors had foreseen at the start of the season the probable outcome and unfortunately their predictions proved to have been correct. Ferrari, especially after the early introduction of the then new 120 degree, 190 bhp V6, had been the dominant car. The British opposition was badly handicapped by the compulsory use of the four cylinder obsolescent Coventry Climax with about 50 bhp less in expectation of the quickly designed 175 bhp V8 and, lacking the resources of Enzo Ferrari, the small racing department of the Climax works could not be expected to have the entirely new design ready and race-able for the 1961 season. The first-off engines demonstrated adequate power but the first tests under racing conditions produced obscure overheating problems which showed up badly in practice at Monza. The then new BRM V8 with fuel injection was also used purely for testing during the practice and did not race.

The surprise was the performance of the Porsche, even with revised suspension and improved road holding. Still lacking the flat-eight engine (which also ran too hot) the flat-four did not provide the expected power and their drivers had been hard put to outrace the British. A big disappointment was the Lotus performance after the brilliant start Moss made in winning at Monte Carlo. After that they took third place in Holland, and France, but were not in the first six in Belgium, Britain and at Monza. Moss alone saved the season by his masterly win in the German Grand Prix in the wet. No other Lotus drivers had proved themselves capable of challenging Moss.

Moss had his year (again) ruined by mechanical troubles, usually when in the lead, but it must be emphasised that, although Moss demanded the utmost from his machine in cornering, he never over-stressed his engine and, including minor races, he had won 15 events during the 1961 season. Jack Brabham's year was equally dismal, mechanical defects cropping up all the way, and he finished in the first six in only two Grands Prix - sixth in Holland, fourth at Silverstone. Neither John Surtees, now firmly wedded to four-wheeled racing after his fabulous performance on motor cycles, nor Innes Ireland, were able to fulfil the promise of the previous year. The then new Italian driver, Giancarlo Baghetti, who came into first class racing from Italian Formula Junior proved himself a young man of dash and skill, recording fastest lap in the Italian Grand Prix. It was clear that in winning the French Grand Prix by one-tenth of a second in his Ferrari, beating Gurney's Porsche, he drove a very fine race but, while the top drivers were still on the circuit, was well out of his class. He was not given a place in the Ferrari team but raced an older 60-degree Ferrari sponsored by the Association of Italian Automobile Clubs.

Champion Phil Hill came to Europe after building a big reputation in sports car racing in the States and crowned it with his high placing in the Mexican Pan-American marathon five years earlier. He was once engaged by Enzo Ferrari and showed himself a dedicated driver somewhat apt to attempt too much, but in his determination to drive as fast as the masters, he never had a major accident and his slate remained clean by the end of the 1961 season. He was best remembered for driving in the Ferrari team of 1958 when he helped Mike Hawthorn to win the Championship in the decisive race at Casablanca, Morocco. Hawthorn was unable to pass Hill into the essential second place with Moss securely in the lead; Hill switched his engine on and off to simulate misfiring so that Hawthorn could pass him, after which Hill's engine regained its power.

Hill was a small man, dark, with deep set eyes, remote, aloof. He shunned parties, talked little, rarely smiled and was obviously highly strung and tensed up before a race. In his driving he was courteous, and never hogged the way into corners. And by 1961 he was America's first World Champion. Drivers were agreed that if the Monza authorities had spent more money on spectator safety barriers and less on the concrete banks that everybody loathed, the 14 spectators would be alive today. Italian officials seemed to have no idea of safety precautions until after the accident. Where von Trips went off there was a gently sloping, wide grass bank, topped by wire netting fencing behind which the crowds would gather, it being on the outside of the corner with a good view. Cars often go off on the outside of a bend.

These days it seems plainly obvious that if the outside of a corner is considered a good place for spectators there should be an impenetrable barrier in front of them over which no car would climb. And you only need check youtube to see how easily a race-car can get airborne, especially with a ramp to start the take off. In that terrible accident at Le Mans in 1955, Levegh's Mercedes rode up over Lance Macklin's Austin Healey rear wheel and thus over the barrier into the crowd. At Monza Surtees rode high over Bonnier's rear wheel and went up 6 ft in the air.

1961 Grand Prix Calendar
Date
Grand Prix Circuit
Pole Position
Winner
May 14th, 1961
Monaco
Monaco GP Monte Carlo
Stirling Moss Stirling Moss
May 22nd, 1961
Netherlands
Dutch GP Zandvoort Phil Hill Wolfgang von Trips
June 18th, 1961
Belgium
Belgian GP Spa-Francorchamps Phil Hill Phil Hill
July 2nd, 1961
France
ACF GP Reims
Phil Hill Giancarlo Baghetti
July 15th, 1961
Great Britain
British GP Aintree Phil Hill Wolfgang von Trips
August 6th, 1961
Germany
German GP Nürburgring
Phil Hill Stirling Moss
September 10th, 1961
Italy
Italian GP Monza Wolfgang von Trips Phil Hill
October 8th, 1961
United States
United States GP Watkins Glen Jack Brabham Innes Ireland
 
1961 F1 Drivers
Championship
Position
Driver
Points
C
Phil Hill
34
2
Wolfgang von Trips
33
3
Stirling Moss
21
4
Dan Gurney
21
5
Richie Ginther
16
6
Innes Ireland
12
7
Jim Clark
11
8
Bruce McLaren
11
1961 F1 Constructors
Championship
Position
Manufacturer
Points
C
Ferrari / Ferrari
40
2
Lotus / Climax
32
3
Porsche / Porsche
22
4
Cooper / Climax
14
5
BRM / Climax
7
6
No Constructor
-
7
No Constructor
-
8
No Constructor
-
Latest Classic Car Classifieds


Sell Your Car or Parts Browse the Classifieds It's Absolutely Free! - Find Out More