Monaco Grand Prix 1964

[DaleCooper]

I found an old copy of "Motor Sport" magazine today which includes a report of the 1964 Monaco Grand Prix. The following is a précis of the most interesting part:

While leading in the Lotus 25 Jim Clark suffered a broken anti-roll bar which, although it didn't slow him down, fell off on the circuit after several laps. After going into the pits to have the remainimg link removed he lost the lead to Graham Hill in the BRM but chased him until the car developed fuel injection problems which slowed him a bit then he lost oil pressure but Colin Chapman told to carry on so he nursed it for a few more laps until the engine seized on the last lap. Can you imagine that happening today?

Don't you think the cars were much prettier then without wings, spoilers and adverts?

 

[DarloRich]

Also much more deadly!

 

[GB]

Personally I like the look with the wings.

With regards to retiring, due to the limited engines and other components teams can change without getting a penalty it seems the drivers and the teams are all to keen on retiring early if problems develop. F1 is supposed to be a spectator sport and this does nothing to help facilitate that.

 

[455driver]

Personally I like the look with the wings.

With regards to retiring, due to the limited engines and other components teams can change without getting a penalty it seems the drivers and the teams are all to keen on retiring early if problems develop. F1 is supposed to be a spectator sport and this does nothing to help facilitate that.

That was/is an attempt to lower the costs to encourage more teams in, obviously the bigger teams have almost unlimited access to all the engines, gearboxes etc that they could ever need and so the engines could be built to last one race and a lap, which a smaller team simply wont be able to afford.

Whether we agree with it or not Formula one had got rather boring with the same teams winning everything.

 

[Darandio]

Whether we agree with it or not Formula one had got rather boring with the same teams winning everything.

And despite the 'cost cutting' measures coming in, such as the aforementioned engine and part limits, nothing actually changed!

 

[DaleCooper]

Another fact I gleaned from the article: some of the entrants were owner drivers and they weren't billionaires.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Most of the private entrants were very wealthy though. The "gentleman racers" were common, though many downplayed their ancestry. Senna's team mate at Lotus in the 80s was the Marquis of Bute, though he used Johnny Dumfries as his name.

 

[Tetchytyke]

As for retirements in F1, cars have never been as reliable. Compare retirement rates now to even what we saw ten years ago. Most of the cars are almost bombproof now. It's certainly not that teams retire cars because they're losing. And you do still see drivers trying to drive round problems- look at Hamilton in Baku last year- it's just that with the complexity it's a lot harder. If you have a dodgy gear on a manual box you just avoid it, but if you've a gremlin in the software you can't.

 

[D365]

Don't forget as well that F1 cars today are a million times more complex. Although it's much the same with road cars.

 

[DaleCooper]

Most of the private entrants were very wealthy though. The "gentleman racers" were common, though many downplayed their ancestry. Senna's team mate at Lotus in the 80s was the Marquis of Bute, though he used Johnny Dumfries as his name.

Of course they were wealthy but not the kind of mega-wealth you would need today.

 

[D365]

Senna's team mate at Lotus in the 80s was the Marquis of Bute, though he used Johnny Dumfries as his name.

Only for one season though? He was also partnered with De Angelis and Nakajima.

 

[Busaholic]

I found an old copy of "Motor Sport" magazine today which includes a report of the 1964 Monaco Grand Prix. The following is a précis of the most interesting part:

While leading in the Lotus 25 Jim Clark suffered a broken anti-roll bar which, although it didn't slow him down, fell off on the circuit after several laps. After going into the pits to have the remainimg link removed he lost the lead to Graham Hill in the BRM but chased him until the car developed fuel injection problems which slowed him a bit then he lost oil pressure but Colin Chapman told to carry on so he nursed it for a few more laps until the engine seized on the last lap. Can you imagine that happening today?

Don't you think the cars were much prettier then without wings, spoilers and adverts?

My father's twin obsessions were steam engines and motor racing, neither of which I inherited in my genes, but I was mildly interested enough to accompany him to the British Grand Prix at Brand's Hatch, quite near our home, in the 1960s/1970s. I remember Jim Clark, when leading in a Lotus(?) breaking down right in front of us, and walking off in one of those Grand Prixs, and then the news about a month later that he'd died in action, as it were. I remember my father was devastated at the news, although Graham Hill was his all-time favourite driver.

Incidentally, anyone who confuses modern motor racing with the old should see the film of the 1955 Le Mans 24 hour race, where the slaughter of numerous spectators was considered no reason to truncate the race.

 

[Western Lord]

Most of the private entrants were very wealthy though. The "gentleman racers" were common, though many downplayed their ancestry. Senna's team mate at Lotus in the 80s was the Marquis of Bute, though he used Johnny Dumfries as his name.

There were not many wealthy gentleman racers by 1964, perhaps the last was Count Carel Godin de Beaufort who raced an elderly Porsche 718 but was killed in a crash during practice for that years German Grand Prix. More common were the enthusiastic one man band types like Bob Anderson, who took his Brabham around on the back of a VW pick up, and Jo Siffert, who was taken under Rob Walker's wing in 1965 alongside Jo Bonnier. One of my favourite stories is of Walker and Bonnier driving to an airport towards the end of 1965 and Walker telling Bonnier that he was only entering one car the next year. "What are you doing with Siffert?" asked JoBo. "I'm having him drive the car" came the reply.

 

[EM2]

Rob Walker was himself a privateer, of course.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Rob Walker was himself a privateer, of course.

Here's his Wiki profile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Walker_Racing_Team. I always remember that the team was sponsored by Brooke Bond Oxo.