• Goodwood's the history of F1 - the 1960's

    From a425couple@21:1/5 to All on Mon Apr 24 10:13:06 2023
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    from
    https://www.goodwood.com/grr/f1/the-history-of-f1-the-1960s/

    If one goes to the above citation they can see the pictures.

    Damien Smith
    The history of F1: The 1960s

    Lennon and McCartney, Morecambe and Wise, Jagger and Richards, Pete and
    Dud, Chapman and Clark… sometimes soaring talent always works best in
    pairs. In each case, either were weaker and less effective without the
    other. But Jimmy Clark never even got the chance to strike out alone, to
    find out what life could have been like without the guiding influence –
    and ‘golden handcuffs’ – of Colin Chapman, who kept the Scottish sheep farmer chained to Lotus throughout his too-short racing career.


    Cruelly and senselessly cut off in his prime on 7th April 1968, Clark
    was the quietly charismatic talisman of the Formula 1 World
    Championship’s second decade. In death, he would become a sainted beacon
    for a time many consider to be motor racing’s end of innocence, when
    teams still ran in plain national colours before garish corporate
    sponsorship smothered the cars, and before the awesome power of
    downforce was truly understood and properly harnessed. Some say Clark,
    who died at Hockenheim in a Formula 2 Lotus painted in Gold Leaf
    colours, was growing weary of Chapman’s influence, of the fast but
    fragile cars that left him with a career record that didn’t accurately reflect his true level of dominance in a decade blessed by a host of
    other outstanding talents.

    Would he really have fled the nest? Where would he have gone? What else
    could he have achieved? How devastatingly fast would he have flown with
    wings, in the grip of big, fat slick tyres? We can never know. Instead,
    we can only remain in thrall to what we did see.

    Clark broke through in the first year of the new decade, 1960. But while
    his talent was clear, his talisman status wasn’t immediate. The Cooper
    Car Company was still making hay on the back of the rear-engined
    revolution it had led, Jack Brabham claiming a comfortable title in the
    new ‘lowline’ T53. But as ever, F1 evolution was rapid and the new, boxy Lotus 18 was potentially faster, albeit on a more unsettling knife-edge
    of performance. Stirling Moss had recognised it and convinced Rob Walker
    to make the switch from Cooper to Lotus, the move paying off immediately
    in Monaco. But the gut-wrenching horror of Spa, where in separate
    accidents Moss and Mike Taylor sustained serious injuries and Chris
    Bristow and Alan Stacey lost their lives, ripped the heart from the F1
    season. While Moss recuperated, John Surtees made a stunning transition
    from two to four wheels for Team Lotus, while Graham Hill almost won the British Grand Prix for BRM – but Brabham’s second consecutive title was never in serious doubt.

    F1-1961-Monaco-Stirling-Moss-Lotus-18-Climax-MI-Goodwood-28102020.jpg

    A switch from 2.5-litre to little 1.5-litre engines for F1 briefly
    derailed the new British dominance in 1961, as a potent V6 that had been
    honed in F2 gave Ferrari’s new ‘Sharknose’ 156 serious bite. Only a
    fully recovered Moss, still in Walker’s 18, could offer significant resistance with virtuoso performances at Monaco and the Nürburgring. But Ferrari’s glittering year would become shrouded in tragedy, Wolfgang von Trips inadvertently triggering a collision with a shaken Clark at Monza
    that would cost the German his life – along with 14 spectators. It
    remains F1’s blackest day. Phil Hill’s title, the first for an American, barely registered in such a context.

    F1-1962-Germany-Graham-Hill-BRM-P57-David-Phipps-MI-Goodwood-28102020.jpg

    The British teams, initially angered by the 1.5-litre formula and
    threatening a breakaway series that quickly stalled, were back on the
    ball in 1962, as Chapman’s stunning all-monocoque Type 25 took on the
    neat and initially stack-piped BRM P57. Clark versus Graham Hill. It was
    great, but here was another monumental ‘what if’ following Moss’s dramatic departure after hitting the grass bank at St. Mary’s in a non-championship race at Goodwood. Stirling’s post-accident life still
    had another 58 wonderfully enriching years to run – but on Easter Monday 1962, the world lost the chance to see how a fully evolved Clark versus
    a still at-peak Moss would have played out. It probably would have been
    epic.

    F1-1963-Monaco-Jim-Clark-Lotus-25-Climax-Rainer-Schlegelmilch-MI-Goodwood-28102020.jpg

    Only signature unreliability would rob Clark of a first world title that
    year, handing the crown instead to Hill. But nothing would stand in
    Colin and Jimmy’s way in 1963. As Beatle-mania swept across Britain,
    Clark soared to seven grand prix wins to beat two-time winner Hill by a
    huge (at the time) 25 points.

    F1-1964-Germany-John-Surtees-Graham-Hill-Lorenzo-Bandini-David-Phipps-MI-Goodwood-28102020.jpg

    If the Lotus didn’t fail, Clark tended to win. But during ’64, in four consecutive races, Jimmy failed to add to his points tally. Not all of
    it was down to Lotus – Coventry-Climax’s era-defining V8 let him down
    too. But the fragility allowed an inspired John Surtees to make history
    at Ferrari, galvanising the Italians and riding roughshod through the
    internal political pitfalls (for now) to become the first two- and
    four-wheeled world champion.

    F1-1965-Germany-Jim-Clark-Lotus-33-Climax-MI-Goodwood-28102020.jpg

    But nothing could stand in the way of Clark and Lotus in 1965. The
    greatest season for a single driver in history? Victories in six of the
    first seven grands prix made him champion by 1st August – a new record;
    add in the ground-breaking and dominant victory at the Indy 500, plus
    further title success in F2 (racing drivers weren’t blinkered by F1 back then), surely it has to be. It could have been, on merit and with a
    fairer wind, his fourth consecutive F1 title.

    F1-1966-Mexico-Jack-Brabham-Brabham-BT20-Repco-Jochen-Rindt-Cooper-T81-Maserati-MI-Goodwood-28102020.jpg

    Again, a rule change derailed the form book in ’66, this time wily
    Brabham and his partner Ron Tauranac taking the initiative at the dawn
    of the ‘return to power’ 3.0-litre era, with a sensibly conceived and brilliantly executed car propelled by an engine from little-known
    Australian parts supplier Repco. The solid, trusted engineering that had
    made the Brabham company the most prolific builder of customer racing
    cars in the world now delivered Jack a deserved third world title as a
    driver, and the following year another for his Kiwi team-mate Denny Hulme.

    F1-1967-Germany-Denny-Hulme-Brabham-BT24-Repco-Rainer-Schlegelmilch-MI-Goodwood-28102020.jpg

    Meanwhile, Bruce McLaren took his first steps into F1 team ownership
    having already established his eponymous constructor in Can-Am. And
    Californian Dan Gurney walked away from potential drivers’ titles at
    Brabham to give flight to his beautiful Eagles, Weslake V12 power
    carrying him to an unforgettable victory at Spa in 1967.

    But what was happening at Lotus that same year would carry greater
    significance for F1’s future. Chapman’s energy and sheer force of personality inspired Ford to back a new project, as Cosworth produced an exclusive game-changer: the Double-Four Valve (DFV) V8. Attached to the
    back of the beautifully simple Type 49 as a fully-stressed member, the combination would change F1 for ever through the following decade, and
    in Clark’s hands would win first time at Zandvoort. But again, fragility would be the downfall as costly creases were ironed out. Surely Lotus
    would be back on top in ’68.

    F1-1968-Mexico-Hill-Lotus-Cosworth-49B-Jo-Siffert-Jackie-Stewart-Matra-Cosworth-MS10-David-Phipps-MI-Goodwood-28102020.jpg

    Chapman was furious to lose his DFV exclusivity, but nothing would stand
    in Clark’s way of beating Fangio’s F1 win record with his 25th grand
    prix victory on New Year’s Day. But then, unthinkably, he was gone, lost
    in a still unexplained accident in an inconsequential F2 race. The F1
    world reeled – and then knuckled back down, as it always has. Hill,
    newly returned to Lotus, stepped up, pulled a devasted Team together and delivered the title he knew would probably have been his friend’s. It
    remains one of F1’s most heroic season performances.

    But a new force, in a pale shade of Matra blue, was coming up fast on
    the rails. Jackie Stewart had emerged bright, shiny and more or less
    fully formed back in 1965, winning for BRM at Monza. He’d been checked
    by a serious accident at Spa the following year, and appalled by the
    lack of medical care he received. That sowed a new seed. Stewart’s
    conviction would turn the wheels for a new campaign, and one that would
    prove controversial with the ‘old guard’. If you think it’s too dangerous, don’t do it, they said. Not good enough, said a belligerent Jackie.

    F1-1969-Germany-Jackie-Stewart-Matra-MS80-Ford-Rainer-Schlegelmilch-MI-Goodwood-28102020.jpg

    But Clark’s natural heir – with increasingly long hair, that looked more ‘Abbey Road’ than Silverstone paddock – was more than just a clamouring voice for change. He was also devastatingly fast behind the wheel of his
    Ken Tyrrell-run Matra MS80. As The Beatles recorded their swansong album
    in the summer of ’69 and left the next decade clear for others to
    soundtrack, Stewart became world champion for the first time. Clark’s
    shadow would linger long and lasting, but the new benchmark was adamant
    his dear friend – like too many others around him – would not have died
    in vain.

    Images courtesy of Motorsport Images

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    TAGS
    FORMULA 1

    F1 1960

    F1 1961

    F1 1962

    F1 1963

    F1 1964

    F1 1969

    F1 1965

    F1 1966

    F1 1967

    F1 1968

    JIM CLARK

    GRAHAM HILL

    JACK BRABHAM

    JOHN SURTEES

    STIRLING MOSS

    DENNY HULME

    JACKIE STEWART

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