NEW BEGINNINGS AT FERRARI
Walking away from Lotus almost took the 26-year-old Surtees straight into the arms of Ferrari. But, again, he turned away and would spend two years if not in the F1 wilderness, then certainly at its fringes, racing for privateer Reg Parnell. And then, in an uncharacteristic move, Ferrari came knocking ahead of the 1963 season.
“I went to see Enzo in his office. Ferrari’s right-hand man Franco Gozzi was there and his secretary Valerio Stradi, and they said it was a new beginning. [Designer] Carlo Chiti had gone and they wanted to start afresh. They wanted me to come there, be number one driver and do the testing of all the cars. It was a new team at Ferrari. [Designer] Mauro Forghieri was there, Franco Rocchi was sort of the chief project engineer, responsible largely for the engines. There was some depth there.”
It wasn’t enough, though. Ferrari’s strategy of running both sportscar and F1 programmes stretched resources to breaking point, and while the team’s 250P sportscar was a huge success, the tweaked 156, which the team raced in F1, struggled. At the season-opener in Monaco, Surtees raced to fourth and claimed fastest lap, but at the next round in Spa he failed to finish. The Dutch Grand Prix yielded a podium finish but then momentum began to ebb.
“The V6 in that car was a good little engine,” says Surtees. “Probably to get its maximum potential you needed to rev it a little higher but that wasn’t safe. However, before the German Grand Prix we did some development work, largely because Le Mans was over. They finally gave their attention to F1.”
Surtees took the improved car to the Nürburgring and, despite its deficiencies, managed to qualify in second, behind Jim Clark’s Lotus 25. When Clark’s car developed a misfire Surtees saw his chance. He seized the lead and gradually powered away to score his maiden F1 win and Ferrari’s first since 1961.
For 1964, Surtees was given a new machine – the V8-powered, 1.5-litre 158. Once again, though, there were teething problems. From the season’s first four races he managed just one finish – a second place at Zandvoort. Instead, it was Clark, Hill and American Dan Gurney who
“THE OLD MAN SAID TO ME BEFORE HE DIED: ‘JOHN, WE MUST REMEMBER THE GOOD TIMES AND NOT THE MISTAKES’”
took the spoils, with Clark taking three wins from the first five events.
“The season was typically topsy-turvy Ferrari,” Surtees recalled. “Enzo Ferrari had some major things on his mind. There had been a potential takeover by Ford and he turned it down. It didn’t go down well and Ford basically said: ‘If we can’t buy you, we’ll beat you.’ They started throwing money at building sportscars and the Le Mans cars [the GT40]. Then there was a Fiat deal happening on the side.
“At the time, I didn’t really appreciate how difficult it must have been,” he adds. “When
someone has started something and it’s their company… Well, it wasn’t until I had my own team that I understood some of the stresses the Old Man must have been under.”
Development of the new 158 only began in earnest after Le Mans but by the time the championship reached the final round, in Mexico, Surtees was embroiled in a threeway fight for the title. Hill led with 39 points, while Surtees was on 34, two clear of Clark. The mathematics of how each could win were complex, but Surtees went into the race knowing he could be sure of the title only if he finished second or better. He also went to Mexico City knowing that the 158’s V8 engine might suffer in the high-altitude surrounds of the circuit, the Magdalena Mixhuca, later to be rechristened the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Starting in fourth and hampered by a misfire, Surtees soon dropped back to 13th, and was forced to watch as pole-setter Clark raced into a solid lead. Hill, meanwhile, recovered from an early problem to battle Surtees’ team-mate Lorenzo Bandini for third.
The race began to come back to Surtees on lap 31 when Bandini collided with Hill, damaging the BRM’S exhaust. Down on power, Hill began to fade from the picture.
Clark, in the lead, was still in control of the title, however – until the penultimate lap. “I’d had a lot of bad luck in the previous races but this time it was Jimmy’s turn. He had a problem with his engine and he dropped back.”
Surtees, in third, still needed to finish second to take the title. Frantic instructions from the pitwall to Bandini saw the Italian let Surtees past to finish behind the winner, Gurney, and as champion – the first and still the only man to do so on two and four wheels.