1963 Belgian Grand Prix

 1963 Belgian Grand Prix

Racing data
2nd of 10 races of the 1963 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XXIII Grote Prijs van Belgie
Date:	June 9, 1963
Place:	Spa , Belgium
Course:	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Length:	451.2 km in 32 laps of 14.1 km
Weather:	Rain, cloudy
Pole position
Driver:	Graham Hill	BRM
Time:	3: 54.1 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jim Clark (Round 16)	Lotus Climax
Time:	3: 58.1 min
Podium
First:	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax
Second:	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax
Third:	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax

The 1963 Belgian Grand Prix took place on June 9, 1963 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps near Spa and was the second race of the 1963 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

Debut race of the Scirocco 01

Winner Jim Clark

Three new vehicles, which were previously not operational at the Monaco Grand Prix , made their debut in the World Automobile Championship. After British Racing Partnership had been driving cars from other manufacturers such as Lotus since 1958 , the team reported its own vehicle for the first time, the BRP Mk1 . The car had a BRM engine, was painted light green and, apart from a few changes, was identical to the Lotus 24 . He was driven by Innes Ireland , but his team-mate Jim Hall continued to drive a Lotus 24. Scirocco-Powell , whose driver Tony Settember drove a Scirocco 01 , was new to the automobile world championship . This car had a simple tubular space frame and was painted white with a blue stripe running through the center. It also ran with a BRM engine. The third new car in the field was the ATS 100 from the newly founded Automobili Turismo e Sport team . After major internal difficulties at Ferrari in the previous year, many employees left the team and founded the new Italian racing team. With Phil Hill , winner of the 1961 Automobile World Championship , and Giancarlo Baghetti , two former Ferrari drivers were also committed. The ATS 100 was similar in structure to the Ferrari 156 and also painted red. However, the front of the car was different from that of the Ferrari and was significantly flatter.

There were no changes for the other works teams, only at Brabham Jack Brabham drove the previous year's Brabham BT3 instead of the Lotus 24 . His teammate Dan Gurney was still registered on the Brabham BT7 . Reg Parnell Racing registered two Lola Mk4s for the Grand Prix, with Lucien Bianchi driving alongside Chris Amon . For Bianchi it was the only race of the season, for Amon the first one he started after Maurice Trintignant had taken over his car for the race at the Monaco Grand Prix .

With Brabham, Phil Hill and Jim Clark , three former winners took part in the Grand Prix, with the constructors Ferrari had previously been successful four times, Cooper and Lotus once each. In the drivers' championship, Graham Hill led his teammate at BRM, Richie Ginther . Third was Bruce McLaren on Cooper. In the constructors' championship, BRM was five points ahead of Cooper and six points over Ferrari.

training

After four consecutive pole positions across the seasons , Clark had problems with the transmission during training and only qualified eighth. This fact gave his rival Graham Hill the opportunity to qualify for first place on the grid, with a nine-tenths of a second lead over the competition. Gurney started from second place. For Brabham, this was the best starting position in team history to date. Ferrari was also competitive again, with Willy Mairesse finishing third in practice, ahead of the two Cooper works drivers Tony Maggs and McLaren. Brabham started behind from sixth.

Of the three new cars in the field, the BRP was the best, Ireland qualified the car in seventh place. The ATS from Phil Hill and Baghetti and the Scirocco, on the other hand, were only in the back of the field. Also on the rear starting positions and several seconds were slower than the competition, the two Lolas and the Porsche of Carel Godin de Beaufort . The best driver of a private car was Hall on Lotus.

Clark's teammate Trevor Taylor had a serious accident during practice . The cause was a broken rear suspension, but Taylor survived the crash with only relatively minor injuries.

run

The weather conditions changed on race day. After it had been dry and sunny the days before, it got more changeable on Sunday and some rain showers fell over the track in the hours before the race. The track was also wet at the start of the race and a light drizzle turned into a heavy rain shower on the first laps. Clark did better than the competition at the start and overtook all seven drivers in front of him. He had to swerve several times to avoid collisions, but he took the lead before the first corner. Behind him, Graham Hill prevailed against Mairesse and Gurney, who had started the race with him from the front row. Gurney was third but was then overtaken by Brabham, Mairesse and Surtees.

While Clark pulled out a lead on Graham Hill in the lead, his teammate Taylor gave up the race. The injuries he sustained in the training accident earlier forced him to quit the race after five laps due to excessive pain. Brabham, Mairesse and Surtees fought for third place behind Graham Hill, Surtees won this duel, while Mairesse was eliminated on lap seven with engine failure. The two ATS did not reach the finish line either and fell out with technical problems, as did the BRP from Ireland and the Lola from Amon.

Halfway through the race, the rain got even heavier and made the track almost impassable. Under these conditions, Clark drove several seconds per lap faster than his rivals and steadily increased his lead. The battles for position behind it were mainly characterized by technical problems. Both Brabham and Graham Hill were eliminated, and Surtees also failed to finish. As a result of the heavy rain, Hall and Bianchi also had an accident. Siffert spun off the track and also retired. Settember and Maggs also lost control of their cars and had an accident, but were still classified in seventh and eighth. Shortly before the end of the race, the conditions became so bad that Colin Chapman , Lotus team principal, asked the officials to abandon the Grand Prix. But they decided against it. Sometimes the drivers hardly saw anything and the speeds were greatly reduced in the final laps. After the race, Clark said the conditions on the final laps of the race were terrible, he had to drive very slowly in top gear, the other cars even spun off the track on the long straights and it was very dangerous to continue the race.

Of the remaining six drivers, Clark dominated the racing action and lapped the entire field except for McLaren. At the finish he had a lead of almost five minutes on McLaren and won his first race of the season. This victory marked the start of a winning streak of four races in a row for him and Lotus and was also his second success of four in a row at the Belgian Grand Prix. McLaren was still fourth with two laps to go, but then passed Gurney and Ginther. In second place, McLaren took the lead in the Drivers' Championship and held it for the last time in his career. Gurney prevailed in a duel against Ginther and achieved the first podium for the Brabham team with third place. In addition, Bonnier and de Beaufort crossed the finish line in fifth and sixth and thus also achieved the points.

In the drivers' standings, McLaren was one point ahead of Clark, Graham Hill and Ginther with the same points. BRM retained the lead in the constructors' championship, Lotus improved to second ahead of Cooper and Brabham.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Team Lotus	01	Jim Clark	Lotus 25	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	02	Trevor Taylor
British Racing Partnership	04th	Innes Ireland	BRP Mk1	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
			Lotus 24
	05	Jim Hall	Lotus 24
Owen Racing Organization	07th	Graham Hill	BRM P57	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	08th	Richie Ginther
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	09	John Surtees	Ferrari 156/63	Ferrari 1.5 V6	D.
	10	Willy Mairesse
Rob Walker Racing Team	12	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper T60	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
			Cooper T66
Cooper Car Company	14th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T66	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	15th	Tony Maggs
Brabham Racing Organization	17th	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT3	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	18th	Dan Gurney	Brabham BT7
Reg Parnell Racing	21st	Chris Amon	Lola MK4A	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	22nd	Lucien Bianchi	Lola Mk4
Scirocco Powell	24	Tony Settember	Scirocco 01	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
Automobili Turismo e Sport	26th	Phil Hill	ATS 100	ATS 1.5 V8	D.
	27	Giancarlo Baghetti
Siffert Racing Team	28	Joseph Siffert	Lotus 24	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
Ecurie Maarsbergen	29	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche 718	Porsche 1.5 B4	D.

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Innes Ireland drove the BRP with the number 4 in practice sessions and in the race.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Joakim Bonnier drove the Cooper T60 with the number 12 in practice sessions and in the race.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Graham Hill	BRM	3: 54.1	216.83 km / h	01
02	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	3: 55.0	216.83 km / h	02
03	Willy Mairesse	Ferrari	3: 55.3	215.72 km / h	03
04th	Tony Maggs	Cooper-Climax	3: 56.0	215.08 km / h	04th
05	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	3: 56.2	214.90 km / h	05
06th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	3: 56.6	214.54 km / h	06th
07th	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	3: 56.9	214.27 km / h	07th
08th	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	3: 57.1	214.09 km / h	08th
09	Richie Ginther	BRM	3: 57.6	213.64 km / h	09
10	John Surtees	Ferrari	3: 57.9	213.37 km / h	10
11	Trevor Taylor	Lotus Climax	3: 58.1	213.19 km / h	11
12	Jim Hall	Lotus BRM	4: 00.1	211.41 km / h	12
13	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper-Climax	4: 00.1	211.41 km / h	13
14th	Joseph Siffert	Lotus BRM	4: 02.3	209.49 km / h	14th
15th	Chris Amon	Lola-Climax	4: 04.9	207.27 km / h	15th
16	Lucien Bianchi	Lola-Climax	4: 06.5	205.92 km / h	16
17th	Phil Hill	ATS	4: 06.7	205.51 km / h	17th
18th	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	4: 14.6	199.37 km / h	18th
19th	Tony Settember	Scirocco BRM	4: 25.2	191.40 km / h	19th
20th	Giancarlo Baghetti	ATS	4: 33.6	185.53 km / h	20th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	32		2: 27: 47.6	08th	3: 58.1
02	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	32		+ 4: 54.0	05
03	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	31		+ 1 lap	02
04th	Richie Ginther	BRM	31		+ 1 lap	09
05	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper-Climax	30th		+ 2 rounds	13
06th	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	30th		+ 2 rounds	18th
07th	Tony Maggs	Cooper-Climax	27		+ 5 rounds	04th
08th	Tony Settember	Scirocco BRM	25th		+ 7 rounds	19th
-	John Surtees	Ferrari	18th		DNF	10		injection
-	Lucien Bianchi	Lola-Climax	17th		DNF	16		accident
-	Graham Hill	BRM	17th		DNF	01		transmission
-	Jim Hall	Lotus BRM	16		DNF	12		accident
-	Joseph Siffert	Lotus BRM	14th		DNF	14th		Lathe operator
-	Phil Hill	ATS	13		DNF	17th		Power transmission
-	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	12		DNF	06th		injection
-	Chris Amon	Lola-Climax	10		DNF	15th		Oil leak
-	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	09		DNF	07th		transmission
-	Giancarlo Baghetti	ATS	08th		DNF	20th		transmission
-	Willy Mairesse	Ferrari	07th		DNF	03		Injection / engine failure
-	Trevor Taylor	Lotus Climax	05		DNF	11		Abandonment / injury from training accident

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. Only the six best results from ten races counted. In the constructors' championship, only the points of the best placed driver on a team counted.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 10 02  Jim Clark Lotus Climax 9 03  Graham Hill BRM 9 04th  Richie Ginther BRM 9 05  Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 4th 06th  John Surtees Ferrari 3 07th  Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax 2 08th  Joakim Bonnier Cooper-Climax 2 09  Trevor Taylor Lotus Climax 1 10  Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  BRM 12 02  lotus 10 03  cooper 10 04th  Brabham 4th 05  Ferrari 3 06th  Porsche 1

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: Belgian GP, ​​1963 on grandprix.com
• Classic Belgian Grand Prix - 1963: Clark's Masterclass at badgergp.com
• Clark masters torrential spa conditions at espnf1.com