1966 French Grand Prix

 1966 French Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 9 races of the 1966 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XXII Grand Prix de l'ACF
Date:	3rd July 1966
Place:	Reims , France
Course:	Circuit de Reims-Gueux
Length:	400.704 km in 48 laps of 8.348 km
Weather:	sunny, dry, hot
Pole position
Driver:	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari
Time:	2: 07.8 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari
Time:	2: 11.3 min (lap 30)
Podium
First:	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco
Second:	Mike Parkes	Ferrari
Third:	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco

The 1966 French Grand Prix took place on July 3, 1966 on the Circuit de Reims-Gueux near Reims and was the third race of the 1966 World Automobile Championship . The Grand Prix also had the FIA ​​honorary title of European Grand Prix .

Reports

background

Last F1 race on the Circuit de Reims-Gueux

Debut race of the Lotus 43

The Lotus 43's BRM H-16 engine

Winner Jack Brabham on Brabham - first win for a driver in a car of the same name

The last time the French Grand Prix took place on the Circuit de Reims-Gueux, after this track was the venue of the race for the first time in 1932 and was last used in 1963 as part of the World Automobile Championship . The Circuit de Reims-Gueux was one of the longest tracks and, alongside the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, one with the highest average speeds. In the following years the race took place on long circuits with a length of more than five kilometers, e.g. B. on the Circuit de Charade or Rouen-les-Essarts . Reims-Gueux was still used for Formula 2 and Formula 3 races until 1970 , before the track was closed for security and financial reasons.

Lotus reported three vehicles for Jim Clark , Pedro Rodríguez and Peter Arundell . Since Arundell qualified for this race and, in contrast to the Belgian Grand Prix , was able to start earlier, the French Grand Prix became the debut race of the Lotus 43 . The vehicle was a further development of the Lotus 39 with which Clark won the Indianapolis 500 in 1965 and, compared to the Lotus 33, had a shortened monocoque . For the first time, Lotus used a different engine than the Climax unit in the rear of one of their vehicles. The H16 engine from BRM was used , but in the course of the season it turned out to be too heavy and unreliable and did not achieve the promised performance. Clark and Rodríguez drove the Lotus 33 in the race, for Rodríguez it was the first race of the season and the return to Lotus, having last driven for the team in 1963 .

At the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1966 , there were disputes between John Surtees and Ferrari team boss Eugenio Dragoni, which led to Surtees quitting Ferrari and switching to Cooper . He drove alongside Jochen Rindt for the rest of the season . In addition, Chris Amon was registered for Cooper, who contested his only race of the season and only race of his career with Cooper. Ferrari, on the other hand, was forced to find a new driver and replaced Surtees with Mike Parkes , who already drove for Ferrari in the World Sports Car Championship . For Parkes it was the debut in the World Motor Show, having previously entered the 1959 British Grand Prix but not having qualified. McLaren did not compete. In the teams with customer vehicles, Joakim Bonnier changed his vehicle and drove a Brabham BT22 for the next two Grand Prix . John Taylor drove his first race of the season for David Bridges , after he was last entered in the 1964 British Grand Prix in the automobile world championship.

Giuseppe Farina , world champion of the 1950 automobile world championship , wanted to watch the race as a spectator. On the way to the racetrack, he came off the road in his car and collided with a telegraph pole. Farina died in the accident.

With Jack Brabham , Dan Gurney and Clark, three former winners took part in the race, with the designers Ferrari had previously won six times, Lotus twice, Cooper and Brabham once each. In the drivers' championship, Bandini was just ahead of Jackie Stewart and Surtees. Ferrari was ahead of BRM and Cooper in the constructors' championship.

training

Ferrari missed the first practice session on Thursday, but had the fastest cars in the remaining practice sessions. Lorenzo Bandini was more than half a second faster than Surtees and achieved the only pole position of his career. Parkes qualified in third place on his debut. Brabham finished fourth in training, followed by the three Cooper von Rindt, Joseph Siffert and Amon. The first ten were completed by Graham Hill , Denis Hulme and Mike Spence .

During training, Clark was hit in the face by a bird. This resulted in an eye injury and Clark decided not to participate in the race. This was the only race in Clark's career that he was unable to start after being reported.

run

Surtees won the starting duel, but fell behind on the first lap due to problems with the fuel supply and retired on lap five with an overheated engine. Bandini then took the lead in front of Brabham and Parkes. Amon, Rindt and Siffert dueled behind for fourth place. Arundell retired after three laps with a gearbox failure.

Bandini increased his lead over Brabham continuously at the front, behind Hill had improved to third place and attacked Parkes. Hulme also won several positions and was fifth. In midfield, Spence and Siffert were eliminated due to technical defects. On lap 13 Hill followed with engine failure, so that Hulme improved to fourth place.

The positions at the top did not change for a long time until Bandini retired on lap 37 because the cable on his Ferrari's throttle cable tore beforehand. Brabham then took the lead in front of Parkes and Hulme and held it until the end of the race. For Brabham this was the start of a series of four wins in a row and the first win for a driver with a vehicle of the same name. For Repco as an engine supplier it was also the first success in the automobile world championship. Brabham won the French Grand Prix for the second time, having last won the race in 1960 . In the following year he also achieved first place.

Parkes finished the Grand Prix in second place and achieved his first podium finish in his debut race. At the finish he was 9.5 seconds behind Brabham, all other drivers were more than two laps behind. It was also the first place on the podium for Hulme, who came third. The other points went to Rindt, Gurney and Taylor. Eagle received the first points as a designer, Taylor the only one in his career. In addition, Anderson and Amon were classified in ranks seven and eight. Rodriguez retired eight laps before the end of the race due to an oil leak. Ligier and Bonnier were not classified because they had not covered the necessary race distance. Bandini drove the fastest race lap, this was the last of his career.

In the drivers' championship, Brabham took first place for the first time since 1960 . Bandini fell back to second place and was ahead of the tied Surtees, Stewart and Rindt. Ferrari stayed ahead in the constructors' championship and was nine points ahead of Brabham after the race.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Team Lotus	02	Jim Clark	Lotus 33	Climax 2.0 V8	F.
		Pedro Rodríguez
	04th	Peter Arundell	Lotus 43	BRM 3.0 H16
Cooper Car Company	06th	Jochen Rindt	Cooper T81	Maserati 3.0 V12	D.
	08th	Chris Amon
	10	John Surtees
Brabham Racing Organization	12	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT19	Repco 3.0 V8	G
		Denis Hulme
	14th	Denis Hulme	Brabham BT20
Owen Racing Organization	16	Graham Hill	BRM P261	BRM 2.0 V8	D.
			BRM P83	BRM 3.0 H16	G
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	20th	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari 312F1 / 66	Ferrari 3.0 V12	F.
	22nd	Mike Parkes
Anglo American Racers	26th	Dan Gurney	Eagle T1G	Climax 2.7 L4	G
Anglo Suisse Racing Team	30th	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham BT22	Climax 2.5 L4	F.
Reg Parnell Racing	32	Mike Spence	Lotus 25	BRM 2.0 V8	F.
DW Racing Enterprises	36	Bob Anderson	Brabham BT11	Climax 2.7 L4	F.
Rob Walker Racing Team	38	Joseph Siffert	Cooper T81	Maserati 3.0 V12	D.
Guy Ligier	42	Guy Ligier	Cooper T81	Maserati 3.0 V12	D.
David Bridges	44	John Taylor	Brabham BT11	BRM 2.0 V8	G

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Jim Clark injured himself in training, Rodríguez replaced him in the race and drove the car with the number 2.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Jack Brabham drove the car with the number 12 in the practice sessions and in the race.
3. ↑ Graham Hill drove the BRM P261 with the number 16 in practice sessions and in the race.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	2: 07.8	235.15 km / h	01
02	John Surtees	Cooper Maserati	2: 08.4	234.06 km / h	02
03	Mike Parkes	Ferrari	2: 09.1	232.79 km / h	03
04th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	2: 10.2	230.82 km / h	04th
05	Jochen Rindt	Cooper Maserati	2: 10.9	229.59 km / h	05
06th	Joseph Siffert	Cooper Maserati	2: 12.2	227.33 km / h	06th
07th	Chris Amon	Cooper Maserati	2: 12.4	226.98 km / h	07th
08th	Graham Hill	BRM	2: 12.8	226.30 km / h	08th
09	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco	2: 13.3	225.45 km / h	09
10	Mike Spence	Lotus BRM	2: 14.2	223.94 km / h	10
11	Guy Ligier	Cooper Maserati	2: 15.4	221.96 km / h	11
12	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	2: 15.6	221.63 km / h	12
13	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	2: 15.6	221.63 km / h	-
14th	Pedro Rodríguez	Lotus Climax	2: 16.5	220.17 km / h	13
15th	Dan Gurney	Eagle-Climax	2: 17.9	217.93 km / h	14th
16	John Taylor	Brabham-BRM	2: 19.2	215.90 km / h	15th
17th	Peter Arundell	Lotus BRM	2: 19.6	215.28 km / h	16
18th	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-Climax	2: 23.5	209.43 km / h	17th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	48	0	1: 48: 31.3	04th
02	Mike Parkes	Ferrari	48	0	+ 9.5	03
03	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco	46	0	+ 2 rounds	09
04th	Jochen Rindt	Cooper Maserati	46	0	+ 2 rounds	05
05	Dan Gurney	Eagle-Climax	45	0	+ 3 rounds	14th
06th	John Taylor	Brabham-BRM	45	0	+ 3 rounds	15th
07th	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	44	0	+ 4 rounds	12
08th	Chris Amon	Cooper Maserati	44	0	+ 4 rounds	07th
-	Guy Ligier	Cooper Maserati	42	0	NC	11		unclassified
-	Pedro Rodríguez	Lotus Climax	40	0	NC	13		Oil leak
-	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	37	1	DNF	01	2: 11.3	Throttle cable
-	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-Climax	32	0	NC	17th		unclassified
-	Graham Hill	BRM	13	0	DNF	08th		Engine failure
-	Joseph Siffert	Cooper Maserati	10	0	DNF	06th		Overheating
-	Mike Spence	Lotus BRM	08th	0	DNF	10		coupling
-	John Surtees	Cooper Maserati	05	1	DNF	02		Overheating
-	Peter Arundell	Lotus BRM	03	1	DNF	16		transmission
-	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	00	0	DNS			Injury in training

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. Only the five best results from nine 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  Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 12 02  Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 10 03  Jackie Stewart BRM 9 04th  John Surtees Ferrari 9 05  Jochen Rindt Cooper Maserati 9 06th  Mike Parkes Ferrari 6th

Item driver constructor Points 07th  Graham Hill BRM 4th 08th  Denis Hulme Brabham-Repco 4th 09  Bob Bondurant BRM 3 10  Richie Ginther Cooper Maserati 2 11  Dan Gurney Eagle-Climax 2 12  John Taylor Brabham-BRM 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 21st 02  Brabham-Repco 12 03  BRM 9 04th  Cooper Maserati 9 05  Eagle-Climax 2 06th  Brabham-BRM 1

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: French GP, 1966 at grandprix.com
• Brabham makes history with Reims win at en.espn.co.uk