MIKE PARKES
1966 FRENCH GP Started 3rd | Result 2nd
Ferrari’s 312 could, perhaps should, have won the 1966 world championship in the first season of the new three-litre regulations. Team leader John Surtees had won round two, the Belgian GP, but walked away after a fallout at Le Mans. Ferrari’s line-up for round three in France was therefore Lorenzo Bandini and British engineer Parkes, a fine test and sportscar driver who had failed to qualify the obscure F2 Fry at the 1959 British GP. Ferrari even built a longer chassis to accommodate the Briton’s lanky frame!
Bandini took pole at the high-speed Reims circuit, ahead of Surtees – now in a Coopermaserati. Parkes was 1.3s slower, but that was still good enough for third, ahead of Jack Brabham’s eponymous Repco-engined machine.
Surtees’s Cooper failed almost immediately, leaving Bandini to lead Brabham and Parkes.
While Brabham worked hard to stay in Bandini’s slipstream, Parkes had to fend off Graham Hill. When the BRM’S two-litre engine failed, Parkes was left clear of Denny Hulme’s Brabham, albeit well behind the leading duo.
Bandini’s throttle cable broke on lap 32 of 48, leaving Parkes trailing Brabham by 52s. Ferrari now hung out ‘faster’ signals to Parkes, who upped his pace and recorded his best lap on the 35th tour.
His car repaired, Bandini returned to the track to give Parkes a tow. The gap came down but Parkes fell 9.5s short of Brabham, who would win the next three GPS on his way to a third world title.
Autosport felt Parkes could have won had Ferrari played a better team game before Bandini’s problem. “This race showed bad tactics by Ferrari, in letting Bandini and Parkes become separated by such a margin,” wrote Gregor Grant. “When the former broke down, Parkes had all his work cut out to try and get anywhere near the Brabham.”
Parkes wouldn’t complete a full season, but did finish second at the Italian GP and took two non-points victories the following year before a crash at the Belgian GP left his world championship starts at just six.