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#142 1966 Monaco Grand Prix

2021-12-22 00:00

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#1966, Fulvio Conti, Translated by Alessia Andreoli,

#142 1966 Monaco Grand Prix

On Saturday, January 1, 1966, the South African Grand Prix is held. It is a race that will not count for the Formula 1 World Championship. Mike Spence

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On Saturday, January 1, 1966, the South African Grand Prix is held. It is a race that will not count for the Formula 1 World Championship. Mike Spence finishes first, ahead of the Swiss driver Jo Siffert and the Englishman Peter Arundell. At the Grand Prix, there is only one car that meets the new Formula 1 regulations of 1966, Jack Brabham’s Repco-Brabham. However, after nine laps in the lead, the Australian driver has to retire due to a mechanical failure. The drivers who don’t take part in the Grand Prix are Jim Clark, who has decided to stay in London, close to his father, who is ill, John Surtees, who is still recovering from the crash in Canada, and the Ferraris, which have not yet been developed sufficiently by the technicians. This is just the first of many events that the Grand Prix teams and car constructors will take part in. According to the FIA regulations for 1966, the Formula 2 cars must have an engine derived from standard cars with at least 500 units per year, a number which seems out of reach for Ferrari, which, thus, should have been excluded from the category. To get around it, the previous year Ferrari had delivered Fiat a 6-cylinder engine for the Dino-Fiat coupé Bertone and spider Pininfarina series, and the same engine - which is now recreated in a thousand of units - is now back to Maranello, ready to be fitted on a Formula 2 car. On Thursday, January 6, 1966, Enzo Ferrari starts the meeting by announcing the Formula 2 program, specifying that the car should be ready on time to be exhibited at the Sports Car Show in Turin on Saturday, February 26, 1966. The team would have to build the car in six weeks. However, the group starts protesting: the task is impossible and the project unachievable, because, at first, the design requires time to be developed, and the work requires more time, as well as the assembly and all the rest. Ferrari then starts threatening and swearing at the technical office managers and at the garage workers, who are astounded and keep on repeating that it is impossible. Even working day and night, you cannot stop time. At this point, Enzo Ferrari calms down and replies with a smile:

 

"Listen, my birthday is on February 20. Every year you give me a trophy, a plaque, a foolish present with an inscription engraved expressing your faithful attachment: this year, if you want to make me happy, give me the Formula 2 car by that day".

 

In the end, this wish will come true. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, January 19, 1966, the former world champion John Surtees comes back to Modena to meet Enzo Ferrari and to reach an agreement in view of his comeback to racing. After the incident he was involved in on Sunday, September 25, 1965, in Mosport (Canada), John Surtees is still walking with his cane. The Englishman admits he is back in Maranello to test the new car for the first time and is already thinking about taking part in the first race of the championship. His medical conditions are quickly getting better, and Surtees is thinking about making his return to full efficiency even faster by staying in an English climatic health resort. Enzo Ferrari and John Surtees talk for a long time, but more in-depth agreements on his future will be defined in two weeks from now, when he will be back in Maranello to learn more about the 1966 Scuderia Ferrari models. At the same time, Mike Parkes, the blonde British engineer, driver, and test driver, is the man of the moment in motorsport. Parkes has unleashed the reporters' imagination, and the driver is now considered as Ferrari's new James Bond and Maranello's secret weapon. Mike Parkes is a character who deserves attention, and motorsport actually thrives on such characters. His arrival to the Maranello team caused quite a sensation, because he almost had the young Italian drivers, such as Bandini, Scarponi, Vaccarella and Baghetti sent away, and a heated controversy broke out. But Parkes should not be underestimated, because for many years he has been the key man for the testing of the Maranello cars; furthermore, he has an engineering degree that allowed him to get a job with Stirling Moss. The idea of adding him in the 1966 team was inspired in part by John Surtees’ conditions, who had not yet left the hospital after his Canada crash and, despite the fact that everyone is hoping for a quick recovery, it is also feared that the former World Champion will not immediately get back to his optimal physical condition. Parkes’ degree, obtained in 1955, his working experience in the Rootes factory, his great experience with prototypes, plus a remarkable technical preparation, are enough to get him a promotion. Then, his performance will determine whether the British driver will be equally wild at the wheel of the three-litre engined cars, and whether Enzo Ferrari has been able to choose, once again, the right man to drive his cars. The promotion was a surprise even for the British driver himself, and in an interview, Stirling Moss states that before accepting the job, Parkes discussed the offer with him:

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"Listen, Stirling, tell me the truth: do you believe that I could race with a Formula 1 car?"

 

The answer Moss gave to his British compatriot can be imagined. Besides, Moss, a great champion who abandoned racing prematurely due to bad luck, and for the same reason never got to win the World Champion title that he deserved for years, is certainly capable of judging the skills of a colleague. With these premises, the World Championship for Makes and the World Sportscar Championship kick off on Saturday, February 5, 1966, in the United States, with the 24 Hours of Daytona. Nevertheless, Scuderia Ferrari will not take part in the traditional American race, which in 1966, for the first time, is going to last a whole day, instead of the usual twelve hours. Despite this, there are ten cars produced in Maranello belonging to private teams. The Ford and the Chaparral of Jim Hall and Hap Sharp, destined to give some troubles to their last year’s rivals, will take part in the race instead. Ferrari has to give up the Daytona race due to bad weather, the Apennines roads are covered with snow, which has made impossible to run the final testing of the models prepared for the World Championship. The 24 Hours of Daytona is too demanding a competition to be raced with non-fine-tuned cars. Thus, the debut of the Maranello team is postponed to the end of March, on the occasion of the 12 Hours of Sebring. At Daytona, Ford will try to make Ferrari’s predictions come true and to bring a trophy to the building where they have been working since 1963. In 1965, they got the first good result, imposing themselves in the Granturismo with the Cobras, however, they did not manage to prevail among the prototypes. The 1966 regulations are different from those of the previous years, and some categories are now called with a new name, but the core is the same and the fight continues. Ford will race in Daytona with their latest four Mark II prototypes, which can reach 320 km/h, driven by Dan Gurney-Terry Grant, Lloyd Ruby-Ken Miles, Walt Hangsen-Mark Donohue and Bruce McLaren-Chris Amon. 

 

In the absence of the new Ferraris, two P2 Sports-prototypes will race, making their debut under the colours of the Francorchamps team (Bianchi and Langlois at the wheel) and of the North American Racing Team (Mexican Pedro Rodriguez and Mario Andretti or Bob Bondurant, former Ford Cobra driver, at the wheel). Then there are eight 275 Le Mans models entered, driven by Innes Ireland-Mike Koenig, Victor Wilson-Denis Hulme; at the wheel of the South African team there are Jack Epstein-Paul Hawkins, for the Canadian one, David Greenback-Peter Lurch, and the Belgian duo Jackie Ickx-Léon Eldè, who could be replaced by Willy Mairesse. Chaparral will be driven by Swedish driver Jo Bonnier and former Formula 1 champion Phil Hill. Bonnier visited the Jim Hall and Hap Sharps factory in Texas, and he tried the car several times, namely, the most recent aluminium version. His feeling about it has always been positive, and the Swedish driver is deeply convinced of it, this is not just an expression of curtesy because it would have been rude to say otherwise. Bonnier’s comments concern the road holding and the car handling. At first, the gearbox lack is disconcerting, but then the fatigue decreases, and this allows the driver to focus more on the driving. While everyone is waiting for the Dinos, Porsche goes on track with their Carrera 6, a two-seater racing berlinetta with a six-cylinder engine, placed before the rear end, capable of delivering 210 horsepower at 8000 rpm. Underneath the layered polyester bodywork, there is the multitubular chassis used by Porsche in the European Hill Climb Championship in 1965. An interesting debut, and another element to spice up even more a championship that already looks like one of the most exciting in recent years. Meanwhile, in Maranello the latest creations by Ferrari - the cars that will debut at Sebring, namely, the new sports prototype 275 and the Dino-Ferrari, the first of the 50 planned units - are presented. Enzo Ferrari declares:

 

"We don’t aim at building cars to chase the Americans in the assault on high-powered engines. We remember the critics we received when Gonzales and Trintignant won at Le Mans. We had been accused of racing with tank wagons. Furthermore, we believe that the prototypes must have a close connection with what will be the future granturismo cars, so we do not intend to exceed the four litres capacity".

 

Then, the Modenese constructor adds some further observations:

 

"It is clear that the American attack is massive, so much so that as soon as they begin to impose themselves, we will be done winning not only for that year, but for a couple of seasons".

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The Dino which has just been presented is the first of fifty units, whose homologation will allow Scuderia Ferrari to take part in the Constructors' World Championship. It is a car derived from the model that won the European Hill Climb Championship in 1965, having been redesigned according to the new international regulations. The engine has four camshafts, and the power supply uses three two-barrel carburetors. The chassis is made with a mixed structure of steel and plastic; the suspensions, the braking system, and the wheels, also benefiting from the tests carried out during last season’s races, have been improved a lot. The sport prototype, the third model of the 330/P series, has also been designed and built according to the requirements of the sporting code. It is a completely new car; the engine, compared to the classic 12-cylinders Ferrari, has maintained only the basic bore and stroke dimensions of the cylinders, with the redesigned structure of the base. The supply system is introduced with indirect injection, the type of gearbox (with five gears plus reverse) is the one successfully tested in recent months on Formula 1 cars, the chassis is instead of a mixed type. The maximum speed of this model is 268 km/h, the suspensions are independent, the wheels are cast in light alloy and the Super gasoline at 98-100 octane is used as fuel. With this car, Scuderia Ferrari will have to confront the American Ford and Chaparral in the World Sportscar Championship, a difficult challenge for the small Maranello team. We will have to wait until the Sebring race to see the new cars on track, though. Meanwhile, Ford is preparing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, their cars being driven by John Whitmore, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Jack Sears, and Frank Gardner; the sixth driver has not yet been chosen. It is possible that Ford England, whose director is Alan Mann, will take part in the 1000 kilometres of the Nürburgring, in the 12 Hours of Reims and in the Grand Prix of Spa. 

 

In 1965, in the first race in America, a prototype of the GT 40 PT series had won the 12 Hours of Daytona thanks to Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby, who beat an AC Cobra granturismo, another car of the Ford family, while in tenth place came the GT 40 PT of Bondurant and Ginther. But on Sunday, February 6, 1966, Ford gets a real success in the 24 Hours of Daytona: Miles and Ruby win again, behind them there are Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant at the wheel of the new Sport-Prototype Mark II, followed in turn by Walt Hansgen and Mark Donohue, both driving the Mark II prototypes. Pedro Rodriguez and Mario Andretti’s Ferrari 365-P2 finishes fourth, followed by another Ford prototype driven by McLaren-Amon. A remarkable result which is a reward for the efforts of the American manufacturers, although the absence of the latest Ferrari models cannot be forgotten. The Maranello cars in the race were entrusted to customers or teams such as the American Nart, the English Maranello Concessionaires and the Belgian Francorchamps; they are P2 cars, with an old chassis, equipped with a 4400-cc engine, with single camshaft distribution for each bank, able to develop 380/385 horsepower, which is not enough to challenge the new 7-litres engine Ford and their 450/460 horsepower. The hardest defeat, in this first round of the World Sportscar Championship and the World Championship for Makes, came for the Chaparral Chevrolet of the two Texan drivers Hall and Sharp. Jim and Hap are forced to follow the 24 Hours race from the pits, letting Phil Hill and Joakim Bonnier drive their only car. The car is not able to keep up with the Fords' pace, and on lap seven they stop in the pits already, due to some problems with the front suspension. Hill and Bonnier then go back on track in tenth place, far away from the Ford in the lead. They manage to break the lap record, but during the twelfth hour of the race they have to retire. After the race, Ford driver Ken Miles says:

 

"Yes, Daytona went well, but in Sebring it will be difficult: with the four-litres Ferraris in contention we’ll have to give everything".

 

It is going to be a difficult challenge for Enzo Ferrari, who has repeatedly stated that he does not want to increase the displacement of his engines, but the 330-P3s (400-410 horsepower) reach the speed of 310 km/h. However, the lower weight and the agility of the car could compensate for the speed and acceleration and deceleration qualities of the American Mark II cars, which are clearly superior. Nevertheless, most of the championship races will take place on fast tracks, that seem to be more suitable for the qualities of Ford. In the 24 Hours of Daytona, Porsche showed their strength as well, namely the Carrera 6 model which, at its debut in the race, finishes sixth behind the most powerful Ford and Ferrari; while the three 904 GTS finish in seventh, eighth and tenth place. 

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In ninth place there is another Ford, a GT 40 PT. The Carrera 6, with its six-cylinder engine, 1991 cc displacement, 220 hp at 8000 rpm, has managed to keep a constant pace. The anti-Dino, as it was nicknamed by the Germans, has a good start of the championship, giving Porsche some hope (they are not yet over the defeat suffered in the European Hill Climb Championship). At Sebring, Ferrari is competing with Ford and Chaparral on one side, and with Porsche on the other side. Meanwhile, Ferrari must also work on the development of the new Formula 1 car. There is one month and a half left until the second round of the world championship in Sebring. Hall and Sharp, with their German mechanics, and also German technicians and General Motors experts helping them, will have to work harder if they want to fight for victories, considering also that the 330 P3 will be there at Sebring as well. Chaparral, in order to enter the Sports-Prototypes category, had to undergo many changes, including weight gain, which was probably not distributed in the most appropriate way. The track and the race are the main bench of experience to improve the cars; Ford gave a proof of their quality, they are definitely beginning to see the results of their work, after leaving three years of competitions around the world behind. The new Ferrari that will take part in the Formula 1 World Championship is presented at the Automobile Museum during the first exhibition of racing cars, which takes place in Turin from Saturday, February 26, to Sunday, March 6, 1966. Only Italian brands will be exhibiting their cars in this event. The cars and the racing engines that we can see here are the real pinnacle of automotive technology, they represent the state of the art in this field, and on these units, we can see some constructive solutions that, after the race test, can be used also for the production of standard cars. This is, although with some limitations, technically one of the reasons for the existence of the steering wheel sport; however, the emotions that races can give to the audience is still the most important thing, and it is also one of the reasons for the commitment of specialised constructors. Undoubtedly, this difficult and sometimes dramatic sport, born with the invention of the car itself, whose popularity has had many ups and downs, has had in the 60s a strong revival, which is influencing the same world production. There have never been so many sports versions of standard models as in 1966, and in the short-term programs, many major European and American constructors are studying this kind of cars. For example, the launch of the Fiat Dino, whose engine is the one most directly derived from sports technique. 

 

At the Turin exhibition, in the evocative environment of the Automobile Museum, in an incisive combination between past and present, there are dozens of cars designed for racing. And if it is true that very few shows are as exciting as car races, it cannot be denied that it is exceptionally interesting for the enthusiasts to observe the beautiful, refined mechanics that these models can offer, without a racing pulse. It is not common to have so many cars of such high technical value together. There are over sixty exhibitors, including famous brands such as Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Fiat-Abarth, Iso, Lamborghini, Lancia, Maserati; other minor brands, but known to fans, such as Autodelta, Bizzarrini, Bosato, De Sanctis, De Tomaso, Facetti, Foglietti, Giannini, Moretti, Serenissima, Stanguellini. Also, small constructors of formula 2, 3, 875 Monza' cars and karts, processors, and trainers. Alongside their 3000 cc, 12-cylinder engined single-seater, capable of delivering at least 380 horsepower, Scuderia Ferrari presents the Dino Sport 2000 in the sports version that will be on track at Sebring. There is also the Fiat-Abarth OT 2000 with an 8V, 2000 cc engine, this is still to be set up, and it will be fitted on a new chassis. Among the remarkable cars there are also the Serenissima coupe, the Lancia Fulvia HF coupe, the Fulvia Sport built by Faccetti; the Alfa Romeo Giulia versions, also in the special versions of Autodelta, Conrero and Bosato. The Maserati V12-cylinder transverse engine, the Formula 3 single-seaters of De Sanctis, Foglietti and Stanguellini. The exhibition is completed by the Libreria dell'Automobile [Automobile Bookshop, Translator’s Note], where you can book all the technical and sports reading books, including the book Trent'anni di corse [“30 years of racing”, Translator’s note] by Severo Boschi, which focuses on Fiat’s competitive period. The exhibition was inaugurated by the authorities of the city and representatives of the industrial and sports world. The exhibition also includes accessories, special boxes for the transformation of series engines, anatomically shaped seats, rev counters and aerodynamic mirrors. During the first day of opening to the public there is a large number of visitors, mainly young people, but also technicians, cars and automotive materials dealers and many women. Sports cars are attractive for everyone, may it be for a direct interest or just curiosity. 

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This is the first time that this type of event has been organised in Italy, gathering a lot of cars, engines, and mechanical parts; this is why it is attracting so many people. The accessories sector is really a whole fascinating world opening up to the public, with all those parts to modify engines, gain horsepower, even equip the cars with accessories that give the illusion of driving a sports car. In this field, the special steering wheels made of wood or leather prevail, as the ones used on Formula 1 single-seaters, large capacity oil cups, camshafts, carburetors, intake manifolds and exhaust pipes, anatomically shaped seats. Intake trumpets for carburetors, rev counters, aerodynamic rear-view mirrors, headlamps, complete boxes for the transformation of standard engines and prepared cylinder heads. However, visitors are mainly focusing on the most powerful cars, starting from the 3000 cc Formula 1 Ferrari and Dino Sport, the Fiat-Abarth, derived from the 850 model, but with a two-litre engine and modified chassis, the Lamborghini 350 GT, the Bizzarrini 5300 Strada, the De Tomaso-Ghia Sport. Enzo Ferrari visits the exhibition, too: the famous Modenese constructor wants to observe his exhibited cars. However, Ferrari says that he has to withdraw his Formula 1 car from the exhibition, in order to intensify the preparation for the upcoming start of the racing season. Nevertheless, it will be replaced with another new car, the 330/P3 Prototype, which will take part in the 1966 World Championship for Makes. The regulations of the 24 Hours of Le Mans allow only 55 cars to take part in the race. Since there have been almost one hundred applications, the organisers have to make a selection. 1966 can indeed be considered as Ford’s “great attacking” year, because 86 applications for cars made by the great American brand have been received, including 4736 cc and 7010 cc. The organisers admitted seven cars of the American teams Shelby and Holman, and six belonging to Canadian, Swiss, French and British teams. At the wheel of the formers (Shelby and Holman), there will be Dan Gurney, Hansgen, Bucknum, Foyt, Gardner, and Umberto Maglioli, who will race for the Holman team. Chaparral seems to have given up their seek for a revenge in France for the 24 Hours of Daytona defeat, in fact they enter only one car, driven, as in Daytona, by Phil Hill and Bonnier. 

 

Le Mans promises a great duel between Ford and Ferrari. The Italian constructor has six official cars, four 4390 cc and two 2000 cc Dinos, as well as nine cars of different customers and teams from England, Belgium, the United States and France. Two Bizzarrini, four Alpha Romeo and one ASA are also entered. The list of participants is completed by six Porsche, five Alpine, three CD, two Moira Sport, two Austin Healey and one Marcos. There are 25 cars of over 3 litres capacity (Ford, Chaparral, Bizzarrini and Ferrari), a 2985 cc (Ferrari 250 GT entered by Tavano), and 13 ranging from 1600 cc to 2000 cc. Osca is studying a new type of engine, promoted by Maserati. The company of the Maserati brothers is perhaps about to make its debut as a sports car factory. In fact, during the past two years, the company was bought by Count Agusta, and from that moment they have only presented some prototypes, but they did not have a production. Many technicians have been moved to the Augusta factories, and Osca’s future is very uncertain. Since we are living a moment when there is a huge attempt to give a new boost to Italian motorsport, it would be very sad if a name like Osca disappeared. In the last eighteen years, Osca small-capacity cars have proven to have extraordinary qualities. So much so that the brilliance of the Maserati brothers is far from gone, Ernesto Maserati is designing his four-stroke Maer engine with precompression, which allows to supercharge the engine with an absolute pressure of 1.5 atmospheres and to obtain a much greater specific power compared to previous engines. This is a simple and efficient solution, which could give remarkable results and perhaps decide the destiny of the Emilian brand, which all sportsmen would like to see rising again. Also, in 1966, Italian cars are invited to take part in the Golden Steering Wheel, an event about road safety and knowledge of the Highway Code. In 1965 - which was the second edition - 23.000 competitors took part in this race, and in 1966 the number is even higher. The Golden Steering Wheel prize consists of 30.000.000 liras in the form of cars, flights, abroad stays, televisions, turntables, car radios, cameras, boats, household appliances, books, beauty products. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, March 15, 1966, John Surtees, after about seven months of inactivity due to the consequences of the incident he had on Saturday, September 24, 1965, during the official practice of the Canadian Grand Prix, is back on track in a racing car for the first time. On the track of the Modena circuit, the British driver begins a long test session on a 2500 cc 6-cylinder engined Ferrari single-seater. 

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After a few laps to get familiar with the car, Surtees manages to achieve some remarkable lap times, driving first in 54.9s and then in 54.8s, thus beating the record set last Friday by Lorenzo Bandini. At the end of practice, Surtees declares:

 

"I’m happy, I’ve got the proof that my physical condition is fine".

 

John Surtees’ preparation continues in the following weeks, in Modena. The former World Champion seems to have recovered almost completely from the incident in which he could have lost his life. Now in Modena he managed to get back into the cockpit of the single seater, he held the steering wheel and looked around almost lost. Ferrari thus welcomes back its number one driver, and the drivers’ world championship welcomes back one of its protagonists of all time. In 1966, Ferrari will have to face the debut of the new Formula 1, plus, Ford and Chaparral will use heavy artillery to attack for the constructors' championship, so they really needed their top driver to be back. Enzo Ferrari has hoped for a long time in his recovery, he has had confidence in the Englishman’s physical resources. Although he is still not at his best and needs intense training to rehabilitate his body and reflexes, it is almost a miracle that Surtees managed to get back into shape in a relatively short period of time. In Mosport, Canada, many thought that his career was over because of that crash, which saw him going off track and getting stuck under the chassis of his Lola 70. Surtees had suffered serious injuries to his spine and legs; it was feared that he might be paralyzed. Then this fear passed, he was brought to London, hospitalised, and then began his convalescence period. His wife, Pat, has always been by his side, giving him courage and supporting him, trying to persuade him that, despite everything, he would be able to go back racing. Surtees' goal is to get back on track for the Monaco Grand Prix and, despite he’s still limping a bit, the British driver says:

 

"You don’t need to run to drive well and to win".

 

After the happy announcement of John Surtees’ comeback, Scuderia Ferrari has to deal with a less happy news: only two cars, the 330/P3 prototype and the Dino Sport, can take part in Sebring. Only two cars, against Ford that will race with about twenty cars, Chaparral with at least two cars and Porsche with four or five cars. The difference is clear, and this is not only decided for the American race; in fact, the Modena constructor intends to limit its participation in the World Sportscar Championship and in the world championship to these two cars only. Last month, it had been announced that at least four or five cars would take part, including three new four-litre prototypes. Initially, everyone hoped to be able to set up the cars in time, but then technical and financial difficulties aroused and didn’t allow to fully develop the cars. The 12 Hours of Sebring is held on Saturday, March 26, 1966, and is the second round of the constructors’ world championship and the World Sportscar Championship. Ferrari was expected to go on track with a large number of cars, after not taking part in the Daytona race; instead, in Sebring there is just one Sport-Prototype, consequently, there will be only one Ferrari also in the next races of the above mentioned two sporting events. Enzo Ferrari declares:

 

"There’s nothing left to do against the Americans. Now, a set of different factors forces us to reduce the number of races we are participating in, and we know that sportsmen will believe us when we say that the decision was painful".

 

The constructor says that it is no longer possible to continue building racing cars, training the drivers, pre-ordering tactics, studying strategies, achieving results, and keeping winning championships and titles all at the same time. The reason for this is essentially financial. In fact, to build a 330 P3, you need about ten million dollars, moreover, in order to build the old prototypes, they used good materials also for standard granturismo cars, which are standalone cars. In addition, we must consider the travel costs - which are paid by drivers and mechanics - of Formula 1, plus, everything depends on a small size factory. Enzo Ferrari says:

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"We are not able to defend a national prestige: a disproportionate task that we have been given, and that for many years, probably without being aware of its onerousness, maybe we have fulfilled. But we cannot defend that prestige, that today has become European, anymore".

 

The situation is clear, then, and becomes even clearer by looking at the list of cars entered in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Jim Hall and Hap Sharp put two of their cars on track. Carroll Shelby even enters twenty-one Fords, three new Mark II prototypes, one Roadster XT with automatic transmission, seventeen GT 40 PTs and Cobras. An imposing line-up that shows the power and the wealth of the American team, and opponents of Ferrari. The 12 Hours was expected to be a fight between Ford, Chaparral and Ferrari, but it does not seem that Ferrari is able to face the lineup of such great rivals with just one single car. Ferrari’s decision to limit its participation in the World Championship arouses controversy, especially from those who fear that the Italian drivers will remain without a seat. Eugenio Dragoni, for example, cannot hide his disappointment, perhaps ignoring the reasons behind the Modenese constructor’s choices. The drivers are forced to take turns driving: Baghetti with Bandini, Biscaldi, Starnotti and Vaccarella. The three Ford prototypes are driven by Daytona winner Miles and Ruby, Gurney and Grant, and McLaren and Amon. The British duo Graham Hill-Jackie Stewart is at the wheel of the GT 40 MKI. Chaparral with its constructors Hap and Sharp goes on track with the pair Bonnier-Phil Hill. Hap and Sharp have been focusing on setting up the two cars, the car has proved to have some problems at Daytona, after a series of comebacks, followed by many failures. It seems that the cars are ready for this race, the problems with the suspension and exhaust system seem to have been solved thanks to some checking and tests carried out between one race and another. The Chaparrals, which are lighter than the Fords, have an advantage in terms of the braking system being less stressed. In fact, on the Sebring circuit, which is 8.400 kilometres long, the drivers have to slow down considerably nine times in each lap; this means that the driver who does a lap of the circuit in three minutes has to brake approximately every 20 seconds, or approximately 2000 times in 12 Hours. Ford does not have any problems with road holding. After the experiences of the previous years, the technicians of the Detroit team had the satisfaction, in Daytona, to see the Mark II driven by Miles, Gurney and Hansgen crossing the finish line one after another. 

 

Shelby, however, feared the Sebring race, because it meant a direct and more exhausting fight with Ferrari, but after it was confirmed that only one car from Maranello will take part in the race, the American team are less concerned. During practices, the Ferrari driven by Mike Parkes and Bob Bondurant breaks the lap record in 2'58"6. Teodoro Zeccoli’s Alfa Romeo goes off track and the driver is injured and has to remain under observation in the hospital for 24 hours. In the category of smaller prototypes, the Dino driven by Bandini and Scarfiotti collides with three Porsche Carrera 6, driven by Herrman-Linge, Vögele-Siffert and Mitter-Klass who have already achieved a good result in Daytona. The 12 Hours of Sebring kicks off on Sunday, March 26, 1966, at 10:00 a.m., in the classic Le Mans style, drivers must run to reach the car from the other side of the track. The harshness of the circuit causes many drivers to retire in the first hours. During the third hour of the race, the Canadian champion Bob McLean is unfortunately involved in a fatal accident. At the age of 30, he passes away at the wheel of his Ford GT 40 PT. The car goes off the track on a turn, perhaps after losing a tyre, crashes into an electricity post and catches fire. The car’s tank is still full of fuel, so it bursts. The race continues and the new Ferrari 330 P3, driven by Mike Parkes, which started in second place, is in the lead at the tenth lap, followed by Miles and Lloyd Ruby’s Ford Roadster X-1 and Rodriguez and Andretti’s Ferrari. Ten laps later, Gurney, who had started two minutes late, manages to come back and takes the lead of the race. Parkes and Bob Bondurant’s Ferrari has to retire due to a gearbox failure. Another tragedy takes place in Sebring, when Wester’s Porsche goes off track during a fight with Andretti’s Ferrari and four spectators are involved in the accident: a man, his two sons and a woman. The drivers remain unharmed, while the Porsche is completely destroyed. The dramatic race, that has seen five people losing their lives, is won by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby’s Ford Roadster, while the first Ferrari, driven by Bandini and Scarfiotti, finishes in fifth place. Just a week later, on Saturday, April 2, 1966, at Le Mans, during practices for the 24 Hours, Walt Hansgen’ Ford prototype Mark II goes off track. 

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The American driver suffers severe fractures to his arms, legs, and chest, and a serious head injury. The doctors at the American military hospital in Orléans say that his condition is serious. The crash happens at 10:55 a.m.: the track is wet, Hansgen has just completed the fastest lap, when at some point on the straight the Ford swerves for about 150 metres, then crashes into a protective barrier, gets into an escape route, hits a sandbar, and then flips over and over again. The first ones to rescue the driver are some police officers who are near the crash site, and likely they in turn could have been hit. But neither the officers, nor the firemen, nor the mechanics, who immediately intervened, can do anything at first to extract Hansgen from the wreckage of the car. It takes 20 minutes to free the driver and carry him inside the ambulance. Hansgen, a very experienced driver, who came second in the 12 Hours of Sebring, is quite familiar with the Le Mans track, because, since 1955, he regularly takes part in the 24 Hours. It is difficult to understand how the crash happened, since an initial examination of the wreckage did not reveal any mechanical failure such as to make Hansgen lose control of the car. So, the only hypothesis left is that of a skidding due to the wet track. Shortly after Hangsen’s incident, Ken Miles' seven-litre Ford also slides onto wet asphalt and goes off the track into a sandbar; the driver remains luckily unharmed, but the car is heavily damaged at the front. The official Ferrari cars do not show up at the Le Mans circuit, and it is feared that their absence, already announced two days ago, may be the prelude to a definitive retirement of the Maranello team from the 1966 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Enzo Ferrari keeps saying that Ferrari will not race at Le Mans, but in Maranello they are continuing to work, leaving the development of the new Formula 1 cars aside. It also turns out that the cars already in order for the French competition are three. In addition, Enzo Ferrari himself supervised the Monza tests, which is a proof of how important it is for him to develop these prototypes. Ferrari’s statements can be considered as an attempt to provide fake intentions and confuse Shelby, especially since the news spread that the latter intends to take ten seven-litre prototypes on track at Le Mans. Therefore, Ferrari’s categorical statement could refer to the fact that he personally will not go to the French circuit, even if Ferrari’s lack of competition would certainly not be new. 

 

Meanwhile, the Italians Umberto Maglioli and Giancarlo Baghetti sign with Ford, after Enzo Ferrari himself had left the two drivers without a contract; had they not accepted the offer from the American company, they would have been left without a seat; moreover, Enzo Ferrari has recently signed Bob Bondurant. In the meantime, it has been thought to use some special nylon nets in the most dangerous parts of the French track, such as those used in military airports and aircraft carriers, which are able to stop an aircraft of 150 tons at 300 km/h in a few tens of metres. Traditional straw bales cannot do this, and sand piles are more dangerous than useful. These nets should be placed at the end of the pit straight, at the end of the return straight and at the Dunlop turn, where cars can reach a very high speed. The link of this special barrier is made of a special flexible nylon, which can stretch under stress and does not fear the effects of rain and sun. One of its main characteristics is that it can absorb the crash of the car without making it bounce violently: the return to the equilibrium position takes place at a speed below the kilometre per hour. This avoids the risk of the car being thrown back into the middle of the track. Also, the whole operation is carried out so gently that it does not damage - or at least, the damage is minor - the car. Apart from these attempts to improve the safety of the circuit, it seems that many French organisers, in agreement with their British colleagues, are willing to propose a revision of the regulations. Among other things, a limitation on the engine displacement and an increase of the minimum time between stops for refuelling are suggested. At the same time, teams are starting to send the first entries for the 1000 kilometres of Monza, scheduled for Monday, April 25, 1966. The seven-litre Fords will not take part in the competition, as one car was destroyed in the crash that caused Hansgen’s death and the other car was heavily damaged; moreover, the two new engines have not arrived from the United States yet. Therefore, the sports GT40s will run in Monza, a fine-tuned and efficient model but much slower than the Ferrari 330 P3. The chicanes force the cars to slow down, and this favours the Maranello cars compared to the large American cars. The two deviations also prevent the Fords from fully unleashing their power on the high-speed circuit. Ferrari’s participation in this competition is massive, even if there are only two official cars: a 330 P3 and a Dino. There are twelve other Ferrari cars, including P2, 250LM and four two-litre Dinos. 

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Eight Fords and seven Porsche Carrera 6 are lined up to fight the Ferraris. John Surtees is back on track, for more than a month in Italy after some time off in the Bahamas. The British driver is ready to drive the prototypes and the new Formula 1 car, proving that the Mosport incident is just a bad memory. The Fords GT40 are driven by Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Chris Amon, Innes Ireland, Masten Gregory, Willy Mairesse, Herbert Mueller, Frank Gardner, John Whitmore, and Peter Revson. Stewart and Hill, the two drivers for B.R.M. in Monza in the 1965 Formula 1 World Championship, have imposed themselves, but the British and the Scottish drivers have not been so lucky in the World Championship for Makes so far. As for the Ferrari-Ford duel, we are waiting to see the performances of the Giulia TZ, of the Fiat-Abarth 1300 in the fight against Alpine, and of the two-litre Matra-B.R.M., which is at its debut among the prototypes. The 1000 km of Monza, in which Ferrari and Ford will renew their duel, overshadows the Formula 3 race, which is valid for the Italian championship. Twenty cars take part in the race, which is a sort of revenge for the Imola race. The protagonists, on paper, should be Jonathan Williams and Giacomo Russo, nicknamed Geki. The latter has been the Italian champion of this category for four years and has recently moved to Wainer. Williams, after leaving Lucas British team due to a series of disagreements, was hired by De Sanctis. In the 1000 kilometres of Monza tests, the fastest car is Surtees’ 330 P3, which runs in 2'58"1 at the average of 204.154 km/h. Stewart and Graham Hill did not take part to the official qualifying and therefore will not participate in the race neither. Without Ford, Ferrari seems destined to get the first success of the season, the American four litres cars in the tests were also slower than the Dinos. 

 

The injection Dino berlinetta, at its debut on track, was driven by Bandini and Scarfiotti, who ran in 3'12"5, only two seconds slower than Scott and Revson’s GT40. In fourth place there is Mitter and Colin Davis’s Porsche Carrera 6, with a time of 3’13"1. The 1000 kilometres of Monza is held on Monday, April 25, 1966, and is the first major European car race of the 1966 season. Named after Prince Filippo Caracciolo, the race is valid for the World Sportscar Championship and for the World Championship for Makes, preceded by two races in the United States: the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring; both were won by Fords. The American brand is in the lead in the standings, but the situation is not yet compromised for Ferrari, especially, shall they manage to impose themselves in the fourth round of the championship, the Targa Florio. On a technical level, the 1000 km of Monza will offer an interesting competition between the Dinos and the Porsche Carrera 6, both being cars of extraordinary efficiency, that will eventually reach the top positions even in the overall standings. Having said the importance of the fight between the Italian team and the German factory, one of the four Dinos, the one driven by Bondurant and Vaccarella, goes off the track during practices. The American driver, who this year drives for Ferrari after having raced for Ford, exiting the big curve at 200 km/h, after the grandstands straight, isn’t able to control the car, which crashes into the guard-rail protection. Unfortunately, it is not possible to repair the car during the night. This leaves us with three Dinos driven by Bandini and Scarfiotti, Biscaldi and Casoni, and Attwood and Piper. The Porsches are driven by Herrmann and Glemser, Mitter and Davis, Vogele and Siffert, Wicky and Knorr. John Surtees still has some difficulty standing for a long time, but:

 

"In the car you drive sitting, I’m not even afraid of the 1000 kilometres".

 

Surtees' wife sticks to tradition, climbs the high chair reserved for timekeepers in the pits, holds a pen and a paper sheet to write the lap times down, a stopwatch around her neck, remaining like this for almost all the five hours of the competition. Before the start of the race, a group of Ferrari fans asked her for an autograph, next to her husband’s one, on a curious flag, made up for a half of an Italian flag and for the other half of a Ferrari one, a sign of affection and esteem. The race starts at 1:15 p.m. under a pouring rain. Surtees' Ferrari immediately takes the lead, and in a short time manages to outdistance the Fords by several seconds; Biscaldi is the first driver on a Dino, and for a while he manages to keep up with the Porsches. During the tenth lap (exactly 100 kilometres) Surtees’ lead is remarkable, he’s 44 seconds ahead of Ireland and 1'44"0 ahead of Revson. After 250 kilometres, Surtees goes into the pits to refuel and to give his seat to Parkes: the stop lasts fifty seconds, Gregory’s Ford, in second position, does not have time to overtake him. 

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Ferrari’s supremacy becomes a monologue, with a lead that goes up to four minutes. Behind, there is a fight between the pairs formed by Scott-Revson, Mitter-Herrmann and Muller-Mairesse. Biscaldi-Casoni’s Dino retires on lap 31 due to gearbox problems; instead, Facetti and Vaccarella drive the Ferrari Le Mans, currently in sixth place. The Fords are keeping a consistent pace, but they’re not fast enough to put pressure on Ferrari. During the race, there are a large number of crashes, fortunately all without consequences for the drivers involved. Colin Davis skids and ends up against a guardrail with his Porsche; Pessina goes off the track at the Lesmo turn; Lucien Bianchi loses the control of his car in one of the variants; Mauro Bianchi ends up against one of the elastic barriers, damaging his Alpine. A serious threat is ward off, when at the exit from the southern elevated curve, Noblet’s Ferrari loses the entire rear fairing, which ends up in the middle of the track: the marshals manage to avoid any accidents by dragging the obstacle away. Parkes and Surtees' Ferrari win the 1000 km of Monza under a heavy rain. Surtees and Parkes had to deal with the broken wiper, which broke after a few laps, so the two drivers adapted themselves to turn without it. After the race the English pairing declares:

 

"We don’t even know how we did it...".

 

Ferrari’s victory confirms the high level of efficiency reached with the 330 P3 in view of future fights with Ford. The Fords driven by Gregory and Whitmore and by Muller and Mairesse finish in second and third place respectively, with a gap of one and two laps. Even though they are less powerful than the Ferrari prototypes, the American cars have shown to have excellent consistency and endurance on a long distance. The Porsche Carrera of the Herrmann-Mitter pair (first car of the 2000 class) finishes immediately behind, the duel with the Dinos of equal displacement have been won by the German cars. The Dinos suffered several different kinds of problems, and the best of them, driven by Bandini and Scarfiotti, only finished eleventh because they were forced to do a series of pit stops, already at the end of the first lap, due to a wiper’s failure; they fitted a new external injection engine, which must surely be fine-tuned for future races. After the third round of the championship, Ferrari has 17 points in the World Championship for Makes, Ford keeps the first place, with 27 points, Porsche instead goes from six to ten points. The fight between Ferrari and Ford is still open, despite the Modenese constructor is taking part in the world championship with only one official car, the four-litres 330 P3. The fight is open because the prototype driven by Surtees and Parkes has shown in Monza to have reached a great level of efficiency. The team of Detroit, with a questionable tactical decision, does not intend to take part in the Italian and German races, thus focusing on the Reims, Spa and Le Mans races.

 

The 330/PS is the result of an advanced technique, inspired by aeronautics. The chassis has a trellis structure in steel tubes glued, through riveting and glueing, with plastic and sheet elements that have a partial shell function. The weight of the car is 720 kilos (twenty more than the minimum limit required by the regulation), the shape is very aerodynamic. The engine is a twelve-cylinder V of 60 degrees, 3967 cc, which can deliver 420 horsepower at 8000 RPM. It is placed in a rear-central position, that allows the car to reach a speed of 310/320 Km/h. This speed has never been reached in the 1000 km race, because the asphalt of the track was slippery because of the rain and did not allow to exceed 210/250 km/h. A few days later, the new Formula 1 Ferrari makes its debut on Saturday, April 30, 1966, in the Syracuse Grand Prix. The race is a preview of the world championship that will begin at the end of May in Monaco. Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart, whose new Lotus and B.R.M. will not debut on track until the British Grand Prix on Saturday, July 16, 1966, are not there. The Sicilian race sees the fight between Surtees’s 12-cylinder Ferrari and Bandini’s 6-cylinder Ferrari, Siffert and Ligier’s Cooper-Maserati, and Brabham and Denis Hulme’s Brabham-Repco. The Australian and the New Zealander have previously raced in the Tourist Trophy in England, finishing respectively nineteenth and first, so they cannot get on track for the first round of practice. In the second practice session, the Ferraris set the fastest times, with Surtees completing the fastest lap in 1'42"4, and Lorenzo Bandini running in 1'43"9. Then, the two Ferraris start from the front row, followed by Siffert’s Cooper-Maserati and Bonnier’s Brabham-B.R.M. 2000. 

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The Syracuse Grand Prix starts with a forty-five minutes delay because of all the people who pass the barriers and go to the edges of the track in the most dangerous points, but also because the drivers have appealed so that Baghetti will not have to race with the chassis of his Lotus B.R.M. damaged due to a collision during the first day of testing. Everything is fixed and the start is finally given. On the first lap, Jack Brabham is missing from the lead group and arrives to the pits pushing his car. On the fourth lap, John Surtees takes the lead, followed by Lorenzo Bandini, and a bit behind, by Jo Siffert, who stops in the pits on the tenth lap due to an ignition problem and is then forced to retire on the thirtieth lap. Jo Bonnier also stops in the pits due to some problems, then manages to continue the race, but is lapped by four laps. Halfway through the race, John Surtees is still in the lead, followed by Lorenzo Bandini, Hobbs one lap behind, Wilson and Bonnier two laps behind and Ligier. John Surtees wins the XV Syracuse Grand Prix, ahead of Lorenzo Bandini, who drove a 2400 cc 6-cylinder Ferrari, against the 3000 cc 12-cylinder of the British driver’s car. Surtees’s double victory both in the 1000 kilometres and in the Syracuse Grand Prix seems to have convinced even the most sceptical ones that he is back in shape. The former British World Champion is hoping to achieve the third consecutive victory of the year in the Targa Florio scheduled for May 8, 1966. In the middle, there’s bad news: on Sunday, May 1st, 1966, French driver Jacques Bernusset is involved in an accident during the French Formula 3 race. During the race at the Magny-Cours circuit, his Cooper goes off the track and turns upside down eight times before crashing into a tree and catching fire. The driver unfortunately isn’t able to get out of the car and loses his life. Targa Florio will celebrate its 50th edition this year; the most spectacular fights and duels have taken place on the streets of the Madonie circuit. This race has always had a particular value, both on a technical and human level. For example, a team could not be fully satisfied with its car if it did not win at least once this competition, and a driver could not consider himself truly successful without having won in Cerda. The unpaved roads, the thousands of turns, the ups and downs of the Madonie circuit put a strain on the cars, subjected to the most abrupt stresses in all their parts, engaging drivers in a fight against time and fatigue. Even in 1966 the Targa Florio, although it has some characteristics that may seem outdated in comparison with the modern highway routes, is still a test of great importance. Ettore Bugatti’s opinion is always valid, the great French constructor who won five consecutive editions of the race from 1925 to 1929:

 

"A team that regularly follows the Targa Florio can learn from it a whole series of lessons that it would be impossible to learn otherwise, not even through the testing on track or in the factory".

 

The official Fords are not there, while there are only a few GT40s of private teams. Ferrari presents a 330 P3 and three Dinos. The pairs of drivers who will face the challenge of the Targa Florio have not yet been chosen, but the suitable drivers are Surtees, Bandini, Scarfiotti, Vaccarella, Parkes, Biscaldi, Casoni, and Guichet. There is also the Porsche Carrera 6 driven by Mitter, Herrmann, Colin Davis, Linger and Graham Hill, Bonnier, and Umberto Maglioli. Or at least that is what everyone is expecting on the eve of the race, because - surprisingly - John Surtees is not in the team for the Targa Florio. Scuderia Ferrari doesn’t give any particular explanation for this: they simply took this decision so that the British driver would not tire himself, plus, he does not even particularly love road racing. The pairs are then composed of Casoni-Biscaldi, Guichet-Baghetti and Parkes-Scarfiotti, all at the wheel of Dinos. Vaccarella and Bandini will drive the 330 P3. The Porsches are driven by Bonnier-Colin Davis, Mitter-Herrmann and Graham-Maglioli. The Stuttgart cars have so far prevailed over the Dinos in the World championship for Makes, and in Monza they also benefitted from the problems suffered by the Italian cars. But in Sicily it should not rain, and the Dinos are more suited to dry tracks than the German rivals. In the Ferrari box, the mechanics are working to repair Parkes and Scarfiotti’s car, after it ended up against a curb stone in practice. As for the main category, Porsche is determined to win the fifth edition of the Targa, the cars of the German team have covered many times the 72 kilometres of the circuit, in order to study its characteristics. The Porsche Carrera 6 seems to have been designed for these uneven mountain roads, and seems to be stronger than the Dinos. The most dangerous rival for Porsche is Vaccarella and Bandini’s Ferrari 330 P3, the pair that dominated the race in 1965. 

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Vaccarella was born in these mountains and knows the track better than any other driver, so much so that in the tests he records the fastest time in 39'07"1, while Bandini runs in 40'17"5, and Scarfiotti gets the third time running in 39'13"0. At the start of the race Vaccarella immediately takes the lead, followed by Mitter-Bonnier and Scarfiotti-Parkes. On the second lap, the situation changes, and Colin Davis-Klass’s Porsche takes the lead. During the third lap, Vaccarella hands over to Bandini, who manages to get back to first place: Ferrari’s hopes of success, however, don’t last long. The attack of the Stuttgart cars, in fact, makes the rankings change again. At the sixth lap, the positions are as follows: Colin Davis with the Porsche is in the lead of the race, followed by the other Porsche of Mitter-Bonnier and the prototype Ferrari of Lorenzo Bandini, that is involved in an accident. Bandini tries to overtake on the straight, but the driver in front closes the trajectory and pushes him off the track, the Italian driver’s car flips upside down and crashes against a tree. Scarfiotti and Parkes’s Dino is also forced to retire due to mechanical issues. So, the only Ferrari left in the race is Guichet-Baghetti’s Dino. After the failure of Klass and Colin’s Porsche, the other Porsche, driven by Mairesse and Müller, is set to win the race. Guichet-Baghetti’s Dino finds itself in second place, and Pucci-Arena’s Porsche follows in third. The leaderboard does not change during the penultimate and the last lap. At the beginning of the third lap, there is a serious accident involving Canadian driver Virgilio: his car goes off the track and the driver is seriously injured. Virgilio is carried by helicopter to the Villa Sofia hospital of Palermo, where he is diagnosed with a concussion and traumatic shock, but doctors judge that he can recover, except for complications. Mairesse and Müller’s Porsche wins the 50th edition of the Targa Florio, followed by Guichet and Baghetti' s Dino and Pucci and Arena’s Porsche. Only eleven out of seventy cars managed to complete the entire race distance: nineteen failed to qualify and the remaining forty stopped along the Madonie circuit either due to mechanical failures or because they ended up off-track. Targa Florio saw Ford losing the fight with Porsche because the former did not participate in the race, but it must be admitted that the House of Stuttgart is specialised in this type of competition. At the same time, the experts propose several different explanations for the Ferrari defeat; first of all, they blame bad luck, saying that the prototype 330 P3 could have overtaken the Carrera 6, had it not been for Bandini’s accident. 

 

Nevertheless, this does not take into account that, at that moment, two Porsches were already in the lead, the first one with an advantage of more than two minutes and the second one with a twenty second gap. It is quite useless, however, to talk about what could have happened, but Dinos’ performances were not good enough because they have suffered many anomalies and failures. For the Maranello team, there is not much time to prepare for the next races, in fact, they have to face the first Grand Prix of the Formula 1 season and the 1000 km of the Nürburgring, where probably the seven-litre Ford and the Chaparral will also take part. On May 14, 1966, former World Champion Jack Brabham wins the Silverstone Grand Prix for Formula 1 cars, ahead of John Surtees by almost four hundred metres. The Australian driver races the homonymous car with three-litre Repco engine, derived from the eight-cylinder Ford engines. Brabham sets a new record at an average of 186,780 km/h, the previous one belonging to Graham Hill was 182,624 km/h. On the eve of the race, the victory seemed in contention between John Surtees, Jack Brabham and Jochen Rindt, but then the lead of the race was in contention between Surtees and Brabham only. The Australian took the lead at the start, gradually increasing the gap. The Silverstone Grand Prix is traditionally considered a general test for the first race of the championship, however, in this Grand Prix did not take part Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart, who were all driving in the Indy 500 in the United States. Since the advent of the new Grand Prix Formula where the only interest seems to be for unsupercharged 3-litre engines, everyone has been waiting for the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, as it is felt that this race will really launch the new Grand Prix racing. Since the beginning of the century, Formula 1 cars have had the purpose of promoting important technical progress: they have not always succeeded, sometimes in fact they have proved to be aberrations, but still continue to represent the state of the art of automotive technology. Formula 1, which begins its new cycle in 1966, and whose rules will remain in force for at least four years, imposes a maximum displacement of 3000 cc without compressor or 1500 cc with compressor, and a minimum weight of 500 kg with water and oil but without fuel. 

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Firms who are building new cars or new engines have the Monaco race as their target date and though Brabham, Cooper-Maserati and Ferrari got under way ahead of this schedule, B.R.M. and McLaren made the dead-line with their new cars so that Monaco is full of technical interest as well as interesting motor racing. The only new projects that fail to reach the target date are the new Lotus with B.R.M. H16-cylinder engine, and the Gurney-Weslake American Eagle. For the Monaco Grand Prix Bruce McLaren enters himself and Chris Amon, both with new McLaren cars, but manages to complete only one car for himself; considering that it is a new team, bringing a car to the first Grand Prix of the season is already a very big effort. Jack Brabham has his three-litre Repco-Brabham, Ferrari has produced two 3-litre V12-cylinder cars, Cooper can count on two Cooper-Maserati V12 and two similar cars are driven by Jo Bonnier and Guy Ligier. B.R.M., instead, produces a new H16 cylinder car. For the rest the entry is made up of modified 1965 cars, acting as stop-gaps until further new Grand Prix cars are finished. In view of the twisty nature of the Monaco circuit and its low average speed, the modified 1965 cars are well to the fore and some of them are really well suited to the circuit, in particular the two works Tasman Championship B.R.M.s with 2-litre V8 engines, the works Lotus chassis R11 from last year, with a 2-litre V8 Coventry-Climax engine, and the Dino 246 Ferrari V6. In Monaco, therefore, we have the chance to compare the new Formula 1 cars for the first time, with the usual constructors, Ferrari, Lotus, B.R.M., Cooper, Brabham, but also the debut of new cars, such as the British McLaren and American Eagle. But given that the change of technical regulation will bring inevitably a period of technical crisis, it is unthinkable that the cars will be already fully functioning from the first races on the calendar. In short, it is a kind of shakedown, which favours the better prepared ones, that will immediately get valuable points for the 1966 title. From the two preliminary races of the season, in Syracuse and Silverstone, it is drawn the provisional conclusion that Ferrari and Brabham are the better prepared teams. The Maranello team, with its powerful 12 cylinders (which, however, had some problems with road holding last Saturday in England), Jack Brabham with the car built in his factory, which he will also drive, fitted with a Repco V8 engine of American origin modified in Australia. Cooper also looks quite promising, with its Maserati 12-cylinder engine. 

 

The teams more behind in terms of development are B.R.M. and Lotus; both have the same ambitious 16-cylinder engine, arranged on four opposing horizontal groups (like two 8-cylinder engines with overlapping sole, just to give the idea). It seemed that the debut of the new power unit, developed by B.R.M. itself, would have to be postponed; instead, a model of the two brands will race in Monaco, or at least will take part in the official tests, and according to the results of this, a decision will be made about the alignment of the new British cars in the Monaco Grand Prix. Little is known for now about the car built by the New Zealander McLaren, if not that its engine is derived from the Ford 8V type Indianapolis, and about the Eagle, built by Gurney and Carrol Shelby in California. Sixteen drivers will take part in the race on Sunday. The greatest drivers of motorsport will all be there, starting with the 1965 World Champion Jim Clark (who immediately after the Monaco race will rush to Indianapolis to take part, on May 30, to the 500 Miglia) on the Lotus; John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini on the Ferrari; Graham Hill (winner of the last three editions of this Grand Prix) and Stewart on the B.R.M.; Brabham and Hulme on the Brabham-Repco; Ginther and Rindt on the Coopei-Maserati; McLaren on the McLaren; Gurney on the Eagle. These are the drivers of the official teams, joined by Attwood (B.R.M.), Siffert (Cooper-Maserati) Anderson (Brabham), Bonnier (Cooper-Maserati) and Spence (Lotus). The first free practice session begins on Thursday, May 19, 1966, in the afternoon. McLaren is among the first away as his car is brand new and untried, the Malite-sandwich monocoque chassis with 4-camshaft Indianapolis Ford V8 engine, reduced to 3-litres by means of shorter stroke crankshaft, not only looks very good, but sounds terrific. The engine carries a bit of a weight handicap, and the car appears big for street racing, but undoubtedly has a good development life ahead of it and should be at home on the faster Grand Prix circuits. It is painted white with a green and silver stripe as a sop to Hollywood who are trying to make a Grand Prix film this season, and who do not want a grid full of green cars, the dollars help pay for engine development! Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart drive the 2-litre B.R.M. cars, the latter setting off at a cracking pace, and while they practise, the B.R.M. mechanics prepare the complicated, but exciting, H16-cylinder car for Hill to try. Lotus has received their first 16-cylinder B.R.M. engine a few days previously, and has got it installed in their new chassis, but it is too untried to enter for the race, so Jim Clark is alone in representing Team Lotus. 

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The 2-litre V8 engine of his car is a big-bored, short-stroke 1965 Coventry-Climax engine, with a new longer stroke crankshaft to squeeze another 500cc of capacity from the engine, and the increase in stroke is allowed for by thick aluminium plates between the heads and block, with the liners locating these plates. The Cooper team has the two cars they used at Silverstone, with Richie Ginther driving the newer one, and the overheating problems during the British race have been traced to a badly made water filler neck on which the pressure cap was not seating properly. On this car the oil filter has been relocated alongside the engine, thus doing away with flexible pipes and long pipe runs, as it is on the cars of Jo Bonnier and Guy Ligier. As practice begins, a sprinkle of rain falls and clouds hang low under the mountains, but conditions do not deteriorate and the roads dries. So that Jakie Stewart is soon down to the existing lap record of 1'31"7 and by the end of the afternoon he has got one tenth of a second below this. There are no Ferraris out in this first session, as the transporter has got held up on its way through Italy by heavy traffic, it being a National holiday, and the Brabham team do not arrive to Monte-Carlo in time either. The private-owners who practise are Mile Spence, with the Parnell Lotus-B.R.M. 2-litre V8, Jo Siffert with Rob Walker’s 2-litre Brabham-B.R.M. V8, as they are awaiting the arrival of their repaired V12 Maserati engine, after its Silverstone breakage, Jo Bonnier with his red and white Cooper-Maserati V12 and Guy Ligier with his bright blue Cooper-Maserati VI2. The 16-cylinder B.R.M. proves a little reluctant to start from cold, but after more batteries have been coupled into the system it bursts into life and runs very sweetly, the noise being subdued until about 7.000 RPM, after which it begins to hurt the ear-drums. There is no intention from the team to race the car, its appearance being solely in the nature of an initial public test-run and Graham Hill does a few laps, his best being 1'40"9. The engine is incredibly smooth and runs to 10.500 RPM with no effort at all, and it is an achievement for B.R.M. to get such a splendid piece of mechanism completed and functioning so early in the season. Amongst the cars practising is the Lotus-Climax V8 1 1/2-litre that Giancarlo Baghetti pranged at Siracusa, suitably straightened, it is entered under number 20 and Phil Hill drives it. On the front is a movie camera and he circulates around, trying not to get in the way, and takes action shots. 

 

Certain members of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association open their mouths to complain, but before they can make a sound someone stuffs bundles of dollars into the mouths and that shuts them up! However, the racing-car owners do not seem to be getting any compensation for risking their machinery in this comic-opera stuff. On Friday, May 20, 1966, in the morning, practice is from about 8am to 9am, after the F3 racers have woken the whole town since 5:30am with the roar of their engines, and conditions are warm and dry. The Ferrari team arrives, as do the works Brabhams, and Anderson with his immaculate Brabham-Climax 2.75-litre. John Surtees is driving the V12 Ferrari he has used at Silverstone and Lorenzo Bandini is in the Dino 246 Ferrari V6; the Brabham team of Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme are in their Silverstone cars, the former having a more powerful V8 Repco engine and the latter still with a 2.5-litre 4-cylinder Coventry-Climax engine. The Coopers have removed the detachable front portion of the nose cowlings, in order to get more cooling air to the radiators. Jo Siffert is still using the Brabham-B.R.M., as although his Maserati engine has arrived, there is not time to prepare the car properly, and Jim Clark’s Lotus has been repaired after the gear wheel and pinion failed during the first session. The 3-litre Ferrari is proving quite well suited to the twisty street circuit and Surtees is among the fastest. Graham Hill does a few more exploratory laps in the 16-cylinder B.R.M. and McLaren is making steady improvements with his brand-new car. As practice nears to its end, there is a sudden flurry of high-pressure activity, and Clark begins to make a real effort with the works Lotus, hurling it into corners at ridiculous speeds, and he comes up with FTD in 1'30''8, the only driver to break 1'31''0. Graham Hill and Lorenzo Bandini are not far behind, and Hulme has been lapping in a most impressively smooth and unruffled manner to record 1'31''8 with the 4-cylinder Climax-powered Brabham. The final practice takes place on Saturday, May 21, 1966, in the afternoon, under perfect conditions, with the sun shining but not too hot, and Ferrari has a brand new V12 car for Lorenzo Bandini to try, as well as the V6 car. During qualifying John Surtees and the sports director Eugenio Dragoni argue in front of the team, of the journalists Lorenzo Pilogallo of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and Mario Morganti of Tuttosport, and the public. John Surtees tells Eugenio Dragoni that he is incompetent and a dictator, and Dragoni answers with adjectives such as rude and treacherous. 

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Despite the excellent return to racing by the British driver, the misunderstanding regarding the English driver’s participation in the design of the Lola 70 that had upset Ferrari and Forghieri in June 1965 has never really been clarified, and in the factory and especially in the racing department close alliances were built. Mike Parkes, who also wants to race in Formula 1 with prototypes, has long understood that the sport director Dragoni and Surtees don’t go along well, and has fuelled this suspicion. Meanwhile, B.R.M. has the 16-cylinder car at the pits, but do not run it as Graham Hill is pretty busy keeping his good grid position and cannot continue to test the new car. It is the last chance to get on the front of the grid and everyone is trying hard, for with a two-by-two starting grid no-one can afford to be too far back. The dreaded camera-car is still circulating, and poor Phil Hill is wondering whether he has got too involved in something he cannot get out of. Just how hard everyone is trying can be seen by reference to the final list of practice times in the accompanying table, the only ones not to improve being Rindt (Cooper-Maserati V12) and Brabham, whose new Repco engine has gone sick. The top runners are now down into the 1min 30sec bracket. Jim Clark feels convinced he can get below the 1 1/2-minute mark and, just as practice draws to a close, he goes out for the quick one and makes it by one-tenth of a second. 1'29"9 is recorded as he crosses the timing line, and the chequered flag indicates the end of practice. The last few minutes have been really furious, and John Surtees very nearly equals Clark’s time, while Bandini, Stewart and Hill are not far off. Bob Bondurant makes his first appearance in Team Chamaco-Collect’s ex-works B.R.M. 2-litre V8 and Jo Bonnier has a short try in the Parnell Lotus-Climax 4-cylinder to see if it is any quicker than his Cooper-Maserati V12 round the twisty circuit, and Anderson has been driving hard amongst the works cars and gets himself a very good place on the grid. If Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, and Lorenzo Bandini are among the tipped to win for the Monaco Grand Prix, it is not thanks to their respective lap times, but because they are and will always be the strongest drivers of this season. It should be added that - since the new Formula 1 era will start with this race - (maximum displacement 3.000 cc, twice as it was before, until 31 December 1965), most of the cars are either still being developed or the teams are still using the old single-seaters, just with larger displacement engines. 

 

Basically, on a purely technical level, there is not much to expect from this Monaco Grand Prix. But it is a thing of little importance for the fans, to whom will be in any way assured an exciting show, which only this circuit - surely a bit old-fashioned, but absolutely unique in the world in its natural setting - can offer. The Monaco Grand Prix has always been the race of twists and surprises: in 1965, for example, the race leader changed six times, and in the end, Graham Hill won thanks to the perfect set up of the car and his brilliant physical shape. The race starts at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 22, 1966, in perfectly dry conditions under a hazy sky which is ideal, after a parade of old racing cars driven by various drivers of a past age, including a Fiat of 1899 and a Lancia of 1907. Lined up in pairs on the dummy grid the field of sixteen cars makes a glorious sound which echoes amongst the blocks of apartments, and with everyone ready they move forward to the proper grid. The sixteen cars surge forward when the flag falls (it was Louis Chiron who gave the start), but one by one they overtake Jim Clark and Surtees leads Stewart into the Saint Devote corner. The Team Lotus car is jammed in first gear and by the time the Scottish driver gets it out and into second gear, the fifteen other runners have practically disappeared. John Surtees is leading the race with the 3-litre Ferrari, but Jackie Stewart is right on his tail and the two of them quickly outpace the rest of the field, which follows in the order Graham Hill, Denny Hulme, Jochen Rindt, Bon Anderson, Lorenzo Bandini, Bruce McLaren, Mike Spence, Jo Siffert, Jack Brabham, etc, with Jim Clark right at the back, but starting to make up time now that he no longer has to use the low “starting gear” in his ZF gearbox. It looks as if Stewart is pushing Surtees, and the two of them are way out on their own and both trying very hard, for the rest of the runners are not hanging about, yet they are already out of touch at five laps. Clark has no trouble catching the tail-enders, and is lapping as fast as the leaders, and by ten laps he is in seventh place. Already Bon Anderson has fallen out due to an engine failure during the third lap, Jo Siffert is at the pits and Bruce McLaren is investigating an oil leak at the front of the car. The New Zealand driver will retire during the ninth lap. Jochen Rindt has chopped his way past Graham Hill and is third, and Denny Hulme also gets past the number one B.R.M. driver, as the V8 engine is not working properly. 

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As Surtees and Stewart brake heavily for the hairpin where the gasworks used to be, Rindt is just taking the Tabac corner onto the harbour promenade behind the pits, which gives a good idea of the pace the leaders are setting. There is not much hope of Jackie Stewart getting his Tasman 2-litre B.R.M. past John Surtees' 1966 3-litre Ferrari, but he is not letting it have an easy time and is pressing hard. After they round the hairpin on lap 13, Surtees feels something is wrong in the Ferrari rear axle and he waves Stewart past, and the young Scot soon comes past the pits out on his own. John Surtees tours round for another lap before stopping at the pits to investigate, and later does one more lap before he gives up with the self-locking differential broken. Back in the pits, John Surtees and Eugenio Dragoni, Ferrari’s sports director, argue again. Dragoni accuses the British driver of having caused the failure himself, with his deliberately brutal driving. He assures that once he will be back in Maranello, he will try to convince Ferrari to get rid of his former World Champion. Meanwhile, Surtees’s withdrawal has left Jackie Stewart out on his own, followed by Jochen Rindt, Graham Hill and Lorenzo Bandini, the Italian closing rapidly to take third place. Denny Hulme has dropped out with a broken drive shaft coupling during lap 15, and Brabham is out shortly afterwards with his new heavy-duty Hewland gearbox stuck in one gear during lap 17. Jim Clark is now in fifth place, in sight of the trio ahead of him, and whereas he has previously been lapping at the same speed as Surtees and not gaining on the leaders, he now begins to gain ground because without the Ferrari V12 to goad him on Stewart’s lap times slowed fractionally. Jo Bonnier is the red lamp of the field, already lapped by Jackie Stewart, and he stops at the pits as his Cooper-Maserati seems to be suffering from fuel starvation. Rindt is being given a bad time by Bandini, and Ginther in the other works Cooper-Maserati is lying sixth just ahead of Spence in Parnell’s Lotus-B.R.M. V8. By 20 laps Bob Bondurant (B.R.M.), Guy Ligier (Cooper-Maserati) and Jo Bonnier have all been lapped and at the same time Lorenzo Bandini snatches second place from Jochen Rindt, and these two and Graham Hill seem locked together. Slowly but surely, Jim Clark is gaining on them, and when he has Graham Hill well and truly in his sights the B.R.M. goes a bit better. However, Graham Hill overtakes Jochen Rindt, so that Jim Clark has the Cooper-Maserati in his sights. Spence and Ginther are lapped, and though Jackie Stewart is still driving hard, his position does not look unassailable, for Jim Clark is gaining continuously. 

 

Not that he is gaining an easily measurable amount each lap, but whereas the gap has been 37sec it is now under 36sec, and after a bit it is nearer 35 than 36sec. He gets past Jochen Rindt, whose Maserati engine begins to show slight signs of the power dropping off, and by 45 laps Clark is lining himself up to have a go at passing Graham Hill’s B.R.M., which is not going to be easy. Spence retires when a rear suspension link brakes on lap 43. At 50 laps, which is half-distance, Jackie Stewart is still ahead, but Jim Clark has narrowed the gap to 31sec, and is now patently being held back by Hill, who in turn cannot get past Lorenzo Bandini, the three of them being very close. A remarkable sidelight is that at this point all four Cooper-Maseratis are still running, and the overall order is B.R.M. V8, Ferrari V6, B.R.M. V8, Lotus-Climax V8, Cooper-Maserati V12, all on the same lap. One lap down is the Cooper-Maserati V12 of Richie Ginther, and a long way back come Bob Bondurant (B.R.M. V8), Jo Bonnier and Guy Ligier. By the time Clark is beginning to touch the rear of Hill’s B.R.M. the gap to the leader Jakie Stewart is down to 27sec, and Jochen Rindt goes out with a broken engine during the fifty-sixth lap. The gap remains constant for four laps until Clark decides it is now-or-never and forces his way by on the inside of the B.R.M. as they both brake hard for Saint Devote corner. Hill can do nothing but move over and make room, and Clark is through. At the end of that lap, the sixty-first, Jim Clark is braking for the Gasworks hairpin when the left-rear hub carrier of his Lotus brakes in two and he skates round the hairpin and retires, letting Graham Hill back into third place. Either from relief or tension, Hill promptly spins at the first hairpin after the Casino square and stalls his engine, and loses a lot of time before he gets going again, with a large dent under the nose of the car. Even with Jim Clark out and Graham Hill well behind, Jackie Stewart still cannot relax, for Lorenzo Bandini is no less than 20 seconds behind and being urged on, added to which the B.R.M. driver is having to lap the odd tail-ender and some of them he catches at awkward moments, where it is difficult to get by. Jo Bonnier inadvertently holds Stewart up for a while, and then Ginther has to be lapped again and the Cooper-Maserati takes up a lot of room. He bullies his way past Ginther as they approach the Tabac corner on the harbour front, and the Cooper-Maserati goes all sideways trying to get out of the way of the forcing B.R.M.. 

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The gap between Stewart’s B.R.M. and the pursuing Ferrari is hovering around 18 seconds; not a small enough gap to be dangerous but small enough not to be able to relax. Richie Ginther has stopped at the pits with a broken drive shaft, and has another one fitted, as has Ligier, the universal joints being a weak point, and the only other runners are Bondurant, who has to stop for fuel, and Bonnier who is in and out of the pits. On lap 82, Jackie Stewart laps his team-mate and number one, and Lorenzo Bandini is a bare 12 seconds behind, trying all he knows, and setting up a new lap record on his ninetieth lap in 1'29"8. That seems to be his total effort, for the gap gets no smaller and as the last laps tick by, the gap enlarges, and Stewart is sure of victory. In fact, Jackie Stewart, warned of the danger, reacts and in the last ten laps restores the gap, with the authority of the champion. However, we shall recognise that at this point it would be dangerous for Bandini to insist on a hopeless duel, while the second place - as already happened last year - rewards his magnificent performance, not to mention the valuable points in the standings. Richie Ginther clanks to a stop on the promenade with another drive shaft broken, and Graham Hill has backed off and is touring round in a secure third place, with Bondurant fourth, having driven a very smooth and reliable race. Nothing remarkable happens in the last eighteen laps, and Jackie Stewart wins the Monaco Grand Prix. He has really had to work for his victory and in consequence he has set up a record average speed for the 100 laps of the classic Monte Carlo circuit. Lorenzo Bandini (Ferrari 246) finishes second, Graham Hill (B.R.M.) is third, followed by the American driver Bob Bondurant. Richie Ginther and Guy Ligier finish fifth and sixth but - as they are not classified - they don’t get any points in the standings. Once again this year, one of the tipped to win on the eve of the race wins the Monaco Grand Prix, the first round of the World Championship of motoring, who is, Jackie Stewart, who officially entered the best drivers group only last year, and on the tremendous circuit of the Principality of Monaco, has shown his extraordinary class, technical skills and intelligence. 

 

Stewart has driven an 8-cylinders 2-litres B.R.M., that is an old single-seater with increased displacement, like all the other classified cars, that have been in all four and for all in sixteen races. Lorenzo Bandini’s Ferrari finished second: the Italian driver’s race was great, at times even moving for the commitment and determination of the young man who, towards the conclusion of the Grand Prix, almost seemed to be able to catch up with Stewart. He also took the great satisfaction of setting the new lap record, exceeding the 126 km/h average, the highest speed ever reached on this circuit. Concerning the other great drivers, Graham Hill, in a B.R.M. identical to that of his youngest teammate, finished third, after a calm but overall regular race. The current World Champion, Jim Clark, who started with his Lotus not in perfect mechanical conditions, due to a problem with the first gear, has fought with his usual style. However, he was not able to perform, and his race finished with an unexpected skid in a corner, which forced him to retire. Finally, John Surtees, who did a very good start and put himself in the lead, complained about his differential braking after just thirteen laps. Surtees was at the wheel of the new Ferrari equipped with a 3000 cc 12-cylinder engine, which is probably more suitable for very fast tracks. But the fact is that the cars of the new Formula 1, which debuted just yesterday in a World Championship race, have all delivered a disappointing performance, despite a good start from the Cooper-Maserati. The midfield cars are the ones that have imposed themselves, as a demonstration of how much work is required for developing every technical novelty. Last year Jackie Stewart finished third, behind his teammate Graham Hill and Lorenzo Bandini. Now was the time, but Stewart doesn’t get too upset. At the end of the race, after receiving the trophy from Princess Grace of Monaco, he says to a friend:

 

"You see, everything went as planned".

 

He is referring to something that happened before the race: Jackie was just entering the B.R.M. box, when from the grandstands someone shouted:

 

"What are you going to do today?"

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The Scottish driver exclaimed calmly with a thumb up:

 

"I’m going to win".

 

With Stewart’s victory, B.R.M. wins for the fourth time in a row at Monte Carlo, and this time it is even more outstanding for the British team, as of the four cars classified three are B.R.M.s. They are not using the new three litres engined models yet, instead they are racing with the 1800 cc of the old formula, slightly modified, with a two litres capacity. They deliver 260 horsepower, just enough for the peculiar Monegasque track, where a huge power is, in a sense, a hindrance for the drivers. Once again, Ferrari failed to win the Monaco Grand Prix. After several years with no wins from the Maranello team, Lorenzo Bandini, for the second year in a row, had to settle for second place. However, his performance was exciting; Lorenzo, after Surtees’ retirement, seemed to be even able to catch up with Jakie Stewart with some spectacular chasing; he reduced the gap to 12 seconds (also beating the lap record) then, missing a few laps to the end, he slowed down slightly, limiting himself to keep the lead over Graham Hill. At the end of the race, Lorenzo Bandini is not happy, even though Ferrari mechanics are cheering and congratulating him, and the many Italian fans are applauding him.

 

"How is that possible that I always finish second?"

 

To lift his spirits up, and to make the Ferrari team’s mechanics rejoice, good news comes from Spa-Francorchamps, where the 1000 km race is held, the fifth round of the World Championship for Makes of the World Sportscar Championship. Parkes-Scarfiotti’s 330P3 won, ahead of many Fords. The Italian driver gave up only when the Ferrari box realised that, despite his generous effort, he had no chance of success. It may be that Lorenzo Bandini’s performance has been damaged in a way by the initial lead of his teammate, who, giving his slipstream to Jakie Stewart, ended up giving him a huge advantage, that kept him in a safe position. But it is possible to draw such conclusions only at the end of the race, when the complete overview of it is obvious for everybody. If John Surtees' car had not broken the differential lock, the outcome would have been quite different. However, the memory of Bandini’s bravery and combativeness will remain, as well as the determination of the Milanese driver, who in Ferrari’s original plan this year should have been Surtees’ reserve. The 1966 World Championship thus began once again with the success of a British car and driver. However, it is one single episode, and it gives very little indication on the technical level, since, for now, the new Formula 1 has not yet showed anything definitive. The winning car was one of the “old” ones, while, out of all the cars which were built according to the new regulations entered into force this year, not even one has finished the race. There is no doubt, however, that on Sunday, June 12, 1966, at the Belgian Grand Prix, Ferrari will be ahead of the opposing teams: we will see whether these predictions will come true on the very fast circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. Meanwhile, as just said, the Ferrari Prototype imposed itself with a great performance in the 1000 kilometres in Spa, a race of the World Championship for Makes, with the Parkes-Scarfiotti pair. The Italian driver Ludovico Scarfiotti, paired with the Englishman Mike Parkes, drove the prototype Ferrari to victory in the 1000 kilometres of Francorchamps, at the stunning average speed of 211.917 km/h. The Ferrari PS finished the 1000 kilometres in four hours, 13 minutes and 21 seconds. This is the best average speed ever achieved in an endurance race and bodes well for the next 24 Hours of Le Mans, for which the 1000 kilometres of Francorchamps is a sort of preparation. Ferrari PS also set a new circuit record at an average of 221.201 km/h. British drivers John Whitmore and Gardner (on a Ford GT) finished in second place, a lap from Ferrari; the Ford car has always been in the lead of the race together with the one of Scarfiotti and Parkes. Ferrari, in fact, has won the race since the very first laps. On the fifth lap, after a huge and risky effort, they took the lead, creating a 1m09sec gap approx. over Ford, which seems to be the only car that can fight Ferrari for the record. For the third place in the standings, the fight narrows to a Ford GT SO and the Ferrari P2 of Bianchi-Beurlisse. But the latter is forced to withdraw due to mechanical failure. The Ferrari Dino 200, Porsche, Alpine M 65 and Moira are also expected to perform well. At the start there are forty-six cars entered: 21 prototypes and 22 sports cars. 

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The laps are 71. It is a very fast track, one of the most dangerous of its kind, but no major accidents occur. The best ones in the standings do at least three refuellings and two driver changes. The winning car has Mike Parkes at the wheel upon arrival. The 7-litres Fords were not in the race, but this shall not detract attention from the significance of the victory of the 330 P3, waiting for the great fight against Ford, at Le Mans, on June 18 and 19, 1966.


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