The 1964 Formula One season was the 18th season of FIAFormula One motor racing. It featured the 15th World Championship of Drivers, the 7th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, and eight non-championship races open to Formula One cars. The World Championship was contested over ten races between 10 May and 25 October 1964.
John Surtees won the Drivers' Championship with Scuderia Ferrari.[1] It was his first and only title. Ferrari were also awarded the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers.[2] It was their second title and the last until 1975.
Maurice Trintignant retired at the age of 46 after 15 seasons in F1. He was the last driver to have competed in the first World Championship season in 1950.
Italian car manufacturer ATS had entered the 1963 season with a self-designed chassis, aiming to compete against Ferrari, but after spending the year battling many technical difficulties, they decided to withdraw from the sport.[6] Their driver, 1961 champion Phil Hill, moved to Cooper, where he replaced Tony Maggs.[7][8]
Privateer Reg Parnell Racing switched from using a Lola chassis to second-hand Lotus cars. This marked Lola's exit from the sport until their collaboration with Honda in 1967.
Mid-season changes
Honda made their F1 debut half-way through the 1964 season.
Honda entered the grid half-way through the 1964 season. They had designed their own chassis and engine, something only Ferrari and BRM were doing at the time. Driver Ronnie Bucknum made his F1 debut in the Honda during the 1964 German Grand Prix.
After a dominant 1963 season with seven wins in ten races, reigning champion Jim Clark was still in form for the first race of 1964, the Monaco Grand Prix. He qualified his Lotus-Climax on pole position, but Jack Brabham (world champion in 1959 and 1960) was just 0.1 seconds behind him in his Brabham-Climax. 1962 champion Graham Hill started in third for BRM and John Surtees fourth for Ferrari. Clark set a blistering pace from the start but went too fast through the harbourchicane and caught some straw bales lining the track. He was lucky to carry on without losing a position. Dan Gurney had started in fifth but overtook Hill and his teammate Brabham on lap 12. Brabham would later retire, as would Surtees. Clark pitted to fix the damage from his first-lap misstep, allowing Gurney and Hill to the front. Just past half-distance, Hill took the lead and Gurney retired with a failing gearbox. Surprisingly, Clark could not match Hill's pace, but it did not matter anyway, since his Lotus developed an oil leak and he retired with four laps to go. Hill took the chequered flag, a lap ahead of his teammate Richie Ginther, awarding BRM a surprise 1-2 finish. Debutant Peter Arundell was third for Lotus, with his team leader being classified fourth to rack up valuable points.[10]
Dan Gurney started on pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix, with the champions Jim Clark and Graham Hill next to him on the front row. Gurney was the first to brake for Tarzan corner, leaving the other two to fight it out side-by-side. It was Clark who just reached ahead and then never looked back. Gurney retired on lap 22, before Hill's BRM developed a misfire. So the order almost automatically became Clark, Surtees, Arundell, and this remained until the finish.[11]
For the Belgian Grand Prix, it was Gurney again on pole, ahead of Hill and Brabham. On the second row stood Arundell, Surtees and Clark. At the start, it was Arundell who reached Eau Rouge first, but after the first was complete, Gurney, Surtees and Clark were the top three. Surtees briefly advanced to the front before his Ferrari engine failed, leading to a second retirement in three races. Clark was now free to challenge Gurney but had to focus more on keeping Hill behind. They traded places a couple of time, allowing Bruce McLaren to join them in his Cooper. Gurney broke the lap record multiple times, growing his lead to 40 seconds, but unknowingly, was running low on fuel. He slowed down so much that Hill overtook him even before he reached the pits. But then on the last lap, Hill stopped with a failing fuel pump and McLaren's car started spluttering heavily. His engine cut out with less than a kilometer to go, but the track went downhill, so the car was rolling towards the finish line at the bottom when Clark streaked by and narrowly took the victory. McLaren was second, Jack Brabham was third. Clark ran out of fuel during his cool-down lap, so he was brought back to the pits, seated on the engine cover of his teammate's car.[12]
The French Grand Prix saw no surprising names on the front and second rows, although due to the many retirements so far, the fastest drivers did not necessarily feature at the top of the provisional standings. Clark put his Lotus on pole position, ahead of Gurney and Surtees. Clark and Gurney quickly streaked ahead of the rest, while Surtees retired again. Clark set a new lap record and edged away from Gurney, until his engine lost a cylinder. He pitted, was sent out again, but then definitely retired. Gurney took an unchallenged victory, while Hill and Brabham fought over second placed, rubbing tires and flicking up dirt all the while. Hill took second place, Brabham third.[13]
In the Drivers' Championship, Jim Clark (Lotus) stood on 21 points, ahead of Graham Hill (BRM) with 20 and both Richie Ginther (BRM) and Peter Arundell (Lotus) with 11 points. The Manufacturers' Championship saw Lotus on top with 25 points, ahead of BRM (21) and Brabham (14).
During practice for the German Grand Prix, Dutch driver Carel Godin de Beaufort crashed his famous orange Porsche 718. He was rushed to hospital but would pass away two days later. Honda made their debut but their chassis and engine were marred by reliability problems. The organisers saw the PR value of the new team and scheduled an extra practice session, so that driver Ronnie Bucknum could reach the minimum of 5 laps required to qualify for the race. This gave local hero Gerhard Mitter the chance to do the same. Surtees qualified on pole, ahead of Clark and Gurney, but it was Surtees's teammate Lorenzo Bandini that took the lead at the start. Surtees and Clark went by on the second lap, before Gurney started challenging the pair and snatched the lead away. The Ferrari and Brabham changed places a couple of times, while still lapping faster than Clark and Hill behind them, until Gurney, almost unsurprisingly at this stage, ran into technical issues. His engine was overheating. On lap 7, Clark retired, leaving Surtees to take the win, ahead of Hill and Bandini.[15]
The first Austrian Grand Prix saw Hill score his first pole position, although he was the championship leader at this point. Surtees and Clark started with him on the first row. Hill and Clark bodged the start, which allowed fourth-starting Gurney to come through into the lead. Surtees overtook him on lap 2 but his rear suspension violently collapsed on lap 8. He became one of many victims of the airfield's rough surface: Hill already on lap 5, the Lotuses of Clark and Spence on lap 40, and then Gurney retiring from the lead on lap 47. Ferrari's Lorenzo Bandini took over at the front, ahead of Richie Ginther (BRM) and Jo Bonnier (Brabham). The latter's engine gave up as well near the finish, the Swede still scoring a point in the end but allowing fellow privateerBob Anderson into third place.[16]
The Drivers' Championship looked set to become a one-on-one fight between the 1962 and 1963 champions: Graham Hill (BRM, 32 points) versus Jim Clark (Lotus, 30 points). John Surtees (Ferrari) was third with 19 points. BRM now also led the Manufacturers' Championship with 36 points, ahead of Lotus (34) and Ferrari (28).
Rounds 8 to 10
For the Italian Grand Prix, John Surtees (Ferrari) qualified on pole position, ahead of Dan Gurney (Brabham) and Graham Hill (BRM). Jim Clark (Lotus) started in fourth and got lucky at the start, because Hill's clutch would not bite. Surprisingly, it was Bruce McLaren (Cooper) that converted his fifth starting position into the lead of the race. Then the traditional slipstreaming commenced: Gurney and Surtees both went by McLaren half-way into the first lap, Surtees took the lead on lap 2, before Gurney was back in front on lap 5. On lap 27, Clark joined Hill in retirement with a broken piston on the Climax, and on lap 68, Gurney's engine began misfiring. He slowed his Brabham down, scoring no points for the sixth time this season, despite his outright pace. It left Surtees to take a comfortable win ahead of McLaren, who settled for 'best-of-the-rest' quite early on. Surtees's teammate Lorenzo Bandini took third, after a race-long battle gave him just half a car length advantage over Richie Ginther.[17]
Surtees's win in Italy, coupled with Hill and Clark's retirements, had suddenly brought him into play for the Drivers' title and it had put Ferrari on top the Manufacturers' standings. The season traditionally ended outside of Europe and Watkins Glen hosted the United States Grand Prix for the fourth time. Clark started on pole, ahead of Surtees and Gurney. The Ferrari cars were not painted in traditional red but in white and blue, the national colours of the United States. This was done as a protest concerning arguments between Enzo Ferrari and the Automobile Club d'Italia regarding the homologation of Ferrari's new mid-engined Le Mans race car.[18] The Ferrari cars were entered by the American privateerNorth American Racing Team. At the start, Clark lost out to Surtees and Lotus teammate Mike Spence, moving up from his sixth place on the grid. Hill had started fourth but, on lap 5, moved past both Spence and Clark, before Clark suddenly found his rhythm and passed all in front to take the lead. It looked like the Brit would run away with the win, but the Climax engine started having trouble picking up fuel. Team boss Colin Chapman called Spence into the pits to switch cars. (Clark would not have scored points in his teammate's car but, under the rules of the time, could at least try to push his rivals a place down the order.) However, that car struck mechanical troubles as well. Hill had snatched the lead and stayed there, finishing half a minute ahead of Surtees and a lap ahead of Jo Siffert in a privately run Brabham.[19]
It was the third time in F1 history that the championship was decided at the final race and, for the first time, no less than three drivers and three manufacturers had a chance of winning the respective titles. For Hill (39 points) and Surtees (34), and for their teams Ferrari (43) and BRM (42), winning the race would be enough, no matter the results of others. Clark (30) and his team Lotus (36) had to win and, at the same time, hope that his rivals finished low enough. He started off well, at least, with a pole position, ahead of Gurney and Bandini. Surtees and Hill started fourth and sixth, respectively, and both had a slow getaway off the line. After the first third of the race, Clark was leading comfortably ahead of Gurney, who in turn was more than 10 seconds ahead of Hill, Bandini and Surtees. Hill and Bandini were busy fighting each other and even locked their wheels. Both spun, letting Surtees through and forcing Hill to pit. With eight laps to go, everyone expected Clark to win, until the race turned around like it had done in Belgium. But while Clark had been gifted an unexpected win at Spa, this time it was him that started losing fluids and had to slow right down. Gurney took the lead and scored his second win of the year. Bandini immediately let Surtees through, and the pair sprinted to the line. If Clark had finished ahead of Surtees, then Hill had become champion, but the Ferraris could relax when they saw the Lotus had ground to a halt on the last lap, gifting Surtees his first Formula One World Championship.[20]
In the Drivers' Championship, John Surtees (Scuderia Ferrari, 40 points) was awarded the 1964 trophy, ahead of Graham Hill (BRM, 39) and Jim Clark (Lotus, 32). In the Manufacturers' Championship, Ferrari racked up 45 points, enough for their second title, ahead of BRM (42) and Lotus (37).
Points were awarded to the top six classified finishers. Only the best six results counted towards the championship.
The International Cup for F1 Manufacturers only counted the points of the highest-finishing driver for each race. Additionally, like the Drivers' Championship, only the best six results counted towards the cup.
Numbers without parentheses are championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points were awarded in the following system:
Eight other races which did not count towards the World Championship of Drivers and the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers were held for Formula One cars during the season.
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