1963 French Grand Prix

 1963 French Grand Prix

Racing data
4th of 10 races of the 1963 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	XLIX Grand Prix de l'ACF
Date:	June 30, 1963
Place:	Reims , France
Course:	Circuit de Reims-Gueux
Length:	440.006 km in 53 laps of 8.302 km
Weather:	sunny, later cloudy and rain
Pole position
Driver:	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax
Time:	2: 20.2 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jim Clark (Round 56)	Lotus Climax
Time:	2: 21.6 min
Podium
First:	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax
Second:	Tony Maggs	Cooper-Climax
Third:	Graham Hill	BRM

The 1963 French Grand Prix took place on June 30, 1963 on the Circuit de Reims-Gueux near Reims and was the fourth race of the 1963 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

Second consecutive Grand Slam win - Jim Clark

first entry in the automobile world championship - Peter Arundell

After the French Grand Prix had been held in irregular alternation at different locations, it took place in 1963 for the penultimate time on the Circuit Reims-Gueux before the race was held here for the last time in 1966 .

BRM had again reported the BRM P61 for Graham Hill . In contrast to the Dutch Grand Prix , this time the car was also used in the race, making its debut in the World Automobile Championship. BRM used a semi-monocoque on this vehicle and became the second team to use this design concept after Lotus had dominated with the Lotus 25 in recent races . The Lotus 25, however, had a complete monocoque. Graham Hill's team-mate Richie Ginther continued to drive the BRM P57 . At Lotus, in addition to the Lotus 25 for Jim Clark , the team reported the previous year's Lotus 24 , which was not used. In addition to Clark and Trevor Taylor , Peter Arundell drove in the training sessions for Lotus, but then took part in a frame race instead of the Grand Prix, although he had qualified for the Grand Prix. It was his first entry for a race in the automobile world championship. Reg Parnell Racing registered two cars, a Lola Mk4A for Chris Amon and a Lotus 24 for Maurice Trintignant , who returned after several races off. For him it was the last race for Reg Parnell Racing as well as the last race for Lotus in his career. Ferrari had reported Ludovico Scarfiotti and John Surtees . However, due to an injury, Scarfiotti dropped out and did not return to the World Automobile Championship until the 1964 Italian Grand Prix , again at Ferrari. By pausing ATS , Phil Hill drove a race for the Ecurie Filipinetti . For him it was the only Grand Prix on Lotus, after which the team withdrew from the World Automobile Championship. Lorenzo Bandini also returned to Scuderia Centro Sud , for which he last drove in 1961 . He drove the old Graham Hill BRM P57 on loan from BRM to Scuderia Centro Sud. It was his first race of the season, as well as for Masten Gregory , who was registered for Tim Parnell . Team owner Tim Parnell was the son of Reg Parnell , also team principal with his own team in this Grand Prix. Also Scirocco-Powell was reported after a pause again with a vehicle driven by Tony Settember .

Carel Godin de Beaufort , who had been recognized by the other drivers as the best driver with a private vehicle a few days before the race weekend, was refused permission to start at the French Grand Prix by the organizers. His car, a Porsche with a four-cylinder engine, was not modern enough for the organizers and they wanted a field consisting exclusively of cars with six or eight-cylinder engines. Then some other teams offered de Beaufort their replacement cars free of charge, but this project failed because of the weight and body dimensions of de Beaufort, which did not fit into the narrow British cars from Lotus, Cooper and BRM.

With Jack Brabham and Dan Gurney , two former winners took part in the race. Ferrari had previously been successful with the designers six times, Cooper once. In the drivers' championship, Clark was seven points ahead of Richie Ginther and eight points ahead of Bruce McLaren and Dan Gurney. Lotus led the constructors' championship with 19 points, ahead of BRM with 14 points and Cooper with ten points.

training

For the second time in a row and for the third time in the season, Clark took pole position and was once again superior to the competition. His time was seven tenths of a second faster than runner-up Graham Hill . Gurney, who qualified third, was 1.5 seconds slower than Clark. With Surtees, Ginther and Brabham, three drivers drove the same time and started in the order Surtees - Ginther - Brabham from positions four to six. Cooper finished seven and nine on the grid, Clark's team-mate Taylor finished eighth. Innes Ireland completed the first ten, the best driver with a private car was Joseph Siffert with a Lotus 24. The cars of the designers Lola and Scirocco-Powell qualified in the rear field.

Scarfiotti had a serious accident with his Ferrari and sustained injuries that left him out for the rest of the season. On a wet track, he lost control of his car and hit two telephone poles off the track. He was rushed to the hospital with injuries to his leg and face. Ferrari only had Surtees as a driver, as Willy Mairesse was also absent due to an injury.

run

The race started chaotically when Graham Hill stalled his engine on the grid and had to be pushed by his mechanics. Normally, according to the regulations, he would have had to start from the end of the field for this, but those responsible decided differently and instead gave him a one-minute penalty and the deduction of all points after the race. In addition, the race started by waving a red flag. Clark won the unusual start, Ginther moved up three positions to second.

Clark dominated again and steadily increased his lead over the competition, aided by the retirement of Ginther on lap four, whose radiator was damaged by a rockfall. Just one lap later, Settember was also out. Behind the leading Clark a duel for second place developed, which Brabham won against Taylor. The subsequent duels for points and victory were also mainly characterized by technical failures and problems. Surtees retired on lap twelve with a defective fuel pump, Gregory also did not reach the finish line, the cause of the failure was a gearbox damage. Brabham caught up with Clark when his engine misfired, which however only occurred sporadically. However, Brabham's car had problems with a loose electrical wire that had to be repaired in the pits, so that it dropped to fourth after a short catch-up on Clark. The new runner-up was Graham Hill, who had problems with the clutch and was therefore overtaken by Tony Maggs .

Clark won the Grand Prix by over a minute over Maggs. In addition to the pole position, the victory and the fastest race lap, he led all the laps of the race, making it a Grand Slam for the second time in a row . Only Alberto Ascari in the 1952 Automobile World Championship did this before, and it wasn't until the Formula 1 World Championship in 2013 that Sebastian Vettel again achieved two Grand Slams in a row. For Clark it was the third victory in a row, and thus he further extended his lead in the drivers' championship. As in the 1962 French Grand Prix, Maggs came second. This was his third and final podium finish overall. Graham Hill was classified as third in the race, but did not receive any points for the drivers' classification because he was pushed at the start. Other drivers did not move up in the ranking. Brabham thus classified himself in fourth place ahead of his team mate Gurney. Siffert reached the first point of his career in sixth place; he was already one lap behind Clark. The other places went to Amon, Trintignant and Ireland.

After the race, Clark led the drivers' standings with 27 points, followed by Gurney with twelve points and Ginther with eleven points. In the constructors' championship, Lotus extended its lead over the other constructors and had 28 points. Cooper was the new runner-up with 16 points ahead of BRM with 14 points.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Owen Racing Organization	02	Graham Hill	BRM P61	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
			BRM P57
	04th	Richie Ginther	BRM P57
Brabham Racing Organization	06th	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT7	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	08th	Dan Gurney
Cooper Car Company	10	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T66	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	12	Tony Maggs
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	14th	Ludovico Scarfiotti	Ferrari 156/63	Ferrari 1.5 V6	D.
	16	John Surtees
Team Lotus	18th	Jim Clark	Lotus 25	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	20th	Trevor Taylor
	22nd	Jim Clark	Lotus 24
		Peter Arundell	Lotus 25
Reg Parnell Racing	28	Maurice Trintignant	Lotus 24	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	30th	Chris Amon	Lola Mk4A
British Racing Partnership	32	Innes Ireland	BRP Mk1	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	34	Jim Hall	Lotus 24
Siffert Racing Team	36	Joseph Siffert	Lotus 24	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
Scirocco Powell	38	Tony Settember	Scirocco 01	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
Ecurie Filipinetti	42	Phil Hill	Lotus 24	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
Rob Walker Racing Team	44	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper T60	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
			Cooper T66
Scuderia Centro Sud	46	Lorenzo Bandini	BRM P57	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
Tim Parnell	48	Masts Gregory	Lotus 24	BRM 1.5 V8	D.

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Graham Hill drove the BRM P61 with the number 2 in practice sessions and in the race.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Jim Clark drove the Lotus 25 with the number 18 in practice sessions and in the race. Arundell drove the number 22 Lotus 25 in practice sessions and then took part in a support race.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Joakim Bonnier drove the Cooper T60 with the number 44 in the practice sessions and in the race.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	2: 20.2	213.18 km / h	01
02	Graham Hill	BRM	2: 20.9	212.12 km / h	02
03	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	2: 21.7	210.92 km / h	03
04th	John Surtees	Ferrari	2: 21.9	210.62 km / h	04th
05	Richie Ginther	BRM	2: 21.9	210.62 km / h	05
06th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	2: 21.9	210.62 km / h	06th
07th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	2: 22.5	209.73 km / h	07th
08th	Trevor Taylor	Lotus Climax	2: 23.7	207.98 km / h	08th
09	Tony Maggs	Cooper-Climax	2: 24.4	206.98 km / h	09
10	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	2: 25.1	205.98 km / h	10
11	Joseph Siffert	Lotus BRM	2: 25.2	205.83 km / h	11
12	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper-Climax	2: 25.7	205.13 km / h	12
13	Phil Hill	Lotus BRM	2: 27.7	202.35 km / h	13
14th	Maurice Trintignant	Lotus Climax	2: 28.3	201.53 km / h	14th
15th	Chris Amon	Lola-Climax	2: 30.5	198.59 km / h	15th
16	Jim Hall	Lotus BRM	2: 30.9	198.06 km / h	16
17th	Masts Gregory	Lotus BRM	2: 33.2	195.09 km / h	17th
18th	Tony Settember	Scirocco BRM	2: 36.7	190.73 km / h	18th
19th	Lorenzo Bandini	BRM	2: 37.8	189.40 km / h	19th
20th	Ludovico Scarfiotti	Ferrari	no time
21st	Peter Arundell	Lotus Climax	no time

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	53	0	2: 10: 54.3	01	2: 21.6
02	Tony Maggs	Cooper-Climax	53	0	+1: 04.9	09
03	Graham Hill	BRM	53	0	+1: 13.9	02
04th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	53	0	+ 2: 15.2	06th
05	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	53	1	+ 2: 15.2	03
06th	Joseph Siffert	Lotus BRM	52	0	+ 1 lap	11
07th	Chris Amon	Lola-Climax	51	0	+ 2 rounds	15th
08th	Maurice Trintignant	Lotus Climax	50	0	+ 3 rounds	14th
09	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	49	0	+ 4 rounds	10
10	Lorenzo Bandini	BRM	45	0	+ 8 rounds	19th
11	Jim Hall	Lotus BRM	45	0	+ 8 rounds	16
12	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	42	0	+ 11 rounds	07th
13	Trevor Taylor	Lotus Climax	41	0	+ 12 rounds	08th
-	Phil Hill	Lotus BRM	34	0	NC	13
-	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper-Climax	32	0	NC	12
-	Masts Gregory	Lotus BRM	30th	0	DNF	17th		transmission
-	John Surtees	Ferrari	12	1	DNF	04th		Fuel pump
-	Tony Settember	Scirocco BRM	05	0	DNF	18th		Wheel bearings
-	Richie Ginther	BRM	04th	0	DNF	05		cooler
-	Peter Arundell	Lotus Climax	00	0	DNS			Participation in a Formula Junior race
-	Ludovico Scarfiotti	Ferrari	00	0	DNS			Training accident / injury

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  Jim Clark Lotus Climax 27 02  Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 12 03  Richie Ginther BRM 11 04th  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 10 05  Graham Hill BRM 9 06th  Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax 8th 07th  John Surtees Ferrari 7th

Item driver constructor Points 08th  Innes Ireland BRP-BRM 3 09  Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 3 10  Joakim Bonnier Cooper-Climax 2 11  Joseph Siffert Lotus BRM 1 12  Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 1 13  Trevor Taylor Lotus Climax 1 14th  Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  lotus 28 02  cooper 16 03  BRM 14th 04th  Brabham 13 05  Ferrari 7th 06th  BRP 3 07th  Porsche 1

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: French GP, 1963 at grandprix.com
• Clark makes it a hat-trick at espnf1.com