1966 British Grand Prix

 1966 British Grand Prix

Racing data
4th of 9 races of the 1966 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XIX RAC British Grand Prix
Date:	July 16, 1966
Place:	Kent , UK
Course:	Brands Hatch
Length:	340.8 km in 80 laps of 4.26 km
Weather:	cloudy, rain
Spectator:	~ 50000
Pole position
Driver:	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco
Time:	1: 34.5 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco
Time:	1: 37.0 min (lap 60)
Podium
First:	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco
Second:	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco
Third:	Graham Hill	BRM

The 1966 British Grand Prix took place on July 16, 1966 at the Brands Hatch Circuit near Kent and was the fourth race of the 1966 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

Jack Brabham reaches a Grand Slam

First point placement for the McLaren team by Bruce McLaren

Chris Irwin's debut race

Alternating annually with the Silverstone Circuit , the Grand Prix of Great Britain took place again in 1966 on the Brands Hatch Circuit, after it was last driven on this track in 1964 . Due to a workers' strike in Italy, Scuderia Ferrari did not take part in the race and paused for a Grand Prix.

Brabham used the same cars for Jack Brabham and Denis Hulme as at the 1966 French Grand Prix and provided Formula 3 driver Chris Irwin with a Brabham BT22 with a Climax engine. For Irwin it was the debut in the automobile world championship , it remained his only race of the season and his only one for Brabham. He moved to Reg Parnell Racing in 1967 . Hulmes Brabham BT20 got a new exhaust system, Brabham's vehicle remained unchanged.

The Team Lotus had before the first day of practice only a Lotus 33 available, the Jim Clark drove. There was a second Lotus 33 for Peter Arundell , but the engine was missing. Team boss Colin Chapman asked Coventry Climax about a second engine, but it was defective and not operational. At short notice, Lotus received another replacement engine from BRM . Since the car had to be tuned for it, Arundell missed the first day of training. BRM also had difficulties preparing two vehicles for the race, as one vehicle was damaged at the Belgian Grand Prix and another was already sold. Thus, BRM only had one vehicle available for Graham Hill , a BRM P261 was brought back for Jackie Stewart , which was already used as an exhibit. Stewart returned after a race break, as did Bruce McLaren , who was again registered with his McLaren team.

A new designer in the automobile world championship was Shannon , this was the renewed attempt by Paul Emery to compete with his own vehicle after the racing teams Emeryson and Scirocco had failed for financial reasons. The Shannon SH-1 had an aluminum monocoque and was powered by a 3.0 liter Climax engine. The driver of the car was Trevor Taylor , who contested his last race in the automobile world championship and drove the rest of his career in Formula 5000 . For Shannon it was the only race in this series, after which the designer competed in Formula 3 until 1969 .

JA Pearce Engineering Ltd. made its debut in the teams with customer vehicles . and used a Cooper T73 with a Ferrari engine. As a driver, Chris Lawrence , who made his debut race, was signed up.

training

The first training session took place on Thursday and lasted 2.5 hours. Arundell and McLaren did not take part, because the car was still being prepared for Arundell and McLaren was missing the engine, which was only delivered from Italy. Clark arrived at the circuit late because he had to pass some medical tests beforehand.

The fastest car of the first practice session was the Brabham, both drivers set the fastest time at the same time, undercut last year's pole time by more than half a second and were significantly faster than the competition. On Thursday afternoon, Anderson did not take part due to an oil leak and Bonnier's training ended after just one lap with engine failure. Both Brabham drove similar lap times as before and were again the fastest cars in the field. For film recordings Bonnier drove a red painted Brabham BRM, which was prepared with special tailpipes.

Training continued for two hours on Friday, with Dan Gurney moving up to third place. At the top the times remained unchanged, so that Brabham secured pole position in front of his team-mate Hulme. For Brabham as a driver it was the first pole position since the US Grand Prix in 1961 and for the designer Brabham the first race in which both drivers were qualified on the first two starting positions. Behind the two vehicles and Gurney, Hill qualified fourth ahead of Clark and Surtees. The other places in the top ten went to Rindt, Stewart, Spence and Anderson. The McLaren, Shannon and Cooper-Ferrari qualified in the back field.

After the training it started to rain, whereupon the track was opened for another hour so that the drivers could adjust their vehicles to the bad weather conditions. Times were not measured.

run

The race took place on Saturday afternoon. Before it had rained heavily, at the start of the race it was still drizzle. Most of the drivers started the race on dry tires. Brabham took the lead in front of Gurney after the start, behind Hill and Hulme collided; both drivers continued the race. Brabham took a lead on Gurney, while his team-mate Hulme fell back into midfield and lost several positions. Anderson stopped at the start and started the race some time later, one lap behind the rest of the field. Taylor retired on the first lap with a defective fuel tank.

The drizzle continued, so the track was still very wet and slippery. Rindt had improved to second, but after a spin fell back behind Gurney, who retired on lap nine with engine failure. Behind them were Surtees, Clark, Hill and Stewart. Stewart also ended the race with an engine failure. Also, Spence dropped out due to an oil leak. When the rain stopped and the track slowly dried out, Surtees got closer to Rindt and finally overtook him. While Brabham extended his lead, the two Cooper drivers dueled for second place, followed by Clark and Hill fighting for fourth place, but caught up with Rindt and Surtees. Hulme improved to sixth due to the retirement of Stewart.

After 30 laps the track was dry. Hill and Clark overtook Rindt one after the other and with a risky braking maneuver Hill also passed Surtees. At this point he was already 23 seconds behind the leading Brabham. One lap later, Surtees dropped back to sixth behind Clark and Hulme. All other drivers in the following positions were already one lap behind. On lap 31, Arundell had a gearbox failure and retired. Bonnier retired on lap 42 with engine failure.

On the dry track, the Brabham was the fastest car in the field. Brabham led superiorly and Hulme continuously improved. He passed Clark on lap 37 and Hill two laps later to finish second. Clark pitted because his brakes were no longer working. After topping up the brake fluid , he continued the race in sixth place, but was also one lap behind Brabham. Siffert was also at the pits because his car was overheating. He also drove to the end of the race, but was not classified as he did not achieve the required number of laps. In the final laps of the race, Surtees had problems with the power transmission and spun off the track. He tried to continue the race for two more laps and then gave up. Clark caught up with Rindt and improved to fourth.

Brabham won the race by nine seconds over Hulme. It was the second victory in a row for Brabham and with the second place from Hulme the first double victory for the constructor Brabham. The two drivers had lapped the entire field. With the race win, the pole position, the fastest race lap and leading the entire race, Brabham achieved a Grand Slam . This was the second and last Grand Slam of his career after the Belgian Grand Prix in 1960 . He won the British Grand Prix for the third and last time after 1959 and 1960 , each on a different route.

Hill was third ahead of Clark and Rindt, with McLaren in sixth place. It was the first point placement of the designer McLaren. In the decades that followed, McLaren became one of the most successful designers in these statistics. Irwin finished seventh ahead of Taylor, Bondurant and Ligier. In addition, Lawrence was rated eleventh, Anderson and Siffert, however, were not classified. In the drivers' standings, Brabham further expanded his position, with Rindt coming second, Hulme and Bandini tied for third. In the constructors' championship Brabham drew level with Ferrari, both had 21 points. BRM remained in third place, eight points behind.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Team Lotus	01	Jim Clark	Lotus 33	Climax 2.0 V8	F.
		Peter Arundell
	02	Peter Arundell	Lotus 33	BRM 2.0 V8
Owen Racing Organization	03	Graham Hill	BRM P261	BRM 2.0 V8	G
	04th	Jackie Stewart			D.
Brabham Racing Organization	05	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT19	Repco 3.0 V8	G
	06th	Denis Hulme	Brabham BT20
	07th	Chris Irwin	Brabham BT11	Climax 2.7 L4
Cooper Car Company	11	Jochen Rindt	Cooper T81	Maserati 3.0 V12	D.
	12	John Surtees
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	14th	Bruce McLaren	McLaren M2B	Serenissima 3.0 V8	F.
Anglo American Racers	16	Dan Gurney	Eagle T1G	Climax 2.7 L4	G
Reg Parnell Racing	17th	Mike Spence	Lotus 25	BRM 2.0 V8	F.
Anglo Suisse Racing Team	18th	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham BT7	Climax 1.5 V8	F.
Guy Ligier	19th	Guy Ligier	Cooper T81	Maserati 3.0 V12	D.
Rob Walker Racing Team	20th	Joseph Siffert	Cooper T81	Maserati 3.0 V12	D.
DW Racing Enterprises	21st	Bob Anderson	Brabham BT11	Climax 2.7 L4	F.
David Bridges	22nd	John Taylor	Brabham BT11	BRM 2.0 V8	G
Aiden Jones / Paul Emery	23	Trevor Taylor	Shannon SH1	Climax 3.0 V8	D.
JA Pearce Engineering	24	Chris Lawrence	Cooper T73	Ferrari 2.9 V12	D.
Team Chamaco Collect	25th	Bob Bondurant	BRM P261	BRM 2.0 V8	G

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Jim Clark drove the number 1 car in practice sessions and in the race

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	1: 34.5	162.29 km / h	01
02	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco	1: 34.8	161.77 km / h	02
03	Dan Gurney	Eagle-Climax	1: 35.8	160.08 km / h	03
04th	Graham Hill	BRM	1: 36.0	159.75 km / h	04th
05	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	1: 36.1	159.58 km / h	05
06th	John Surtees	Cooper Maserati	1: 36.4	159.09 km / h	06th
07th	Jochen Rindt	Cooper Maserati	1: 36.6	158.76 km / h	07th
08th	Jackie Stewart	BRM	1: 36.9	158.27 km / h	08th
09	Mike Spence	Lotus BRM	1: 37.3	157.62 km / h	09
10	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	1: 37.5	157.29 km / h	10
11	Joseph Siffert	Cooper Maserati	1: 38.0	156.49 km / h	11
12	Chris Irwin	Brabham-Climax	1: 38.1	156.33 km / h	12
13	Bruce McLaren	McLaren Serenissima	1: 38.5	155.70 km / h	13
14th	Bob Bondurant	BRM	1: 38.9	155.07 km / h	14th
15th	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-Climax	1: 39.3	154.44 km / h	15th
16	John Taylor	Brabham-BRM	1: 40.0	153.36 km / h	16
17th	Guy Ligier	Cooper Maserati	1: 41.4	151.24 km / h	17th
18th	Trevor Taylor	Shannon Climax	1: 41.6	150.94 km / h	18th
19th	Chris Lawrence	Cooper-Ferrari	1: 43.8	147.75 km / h	19th
20th	Peter Arundell	Lotus BRM	1: 54.3	134.17 km / h	20th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	80	0	2: 13: 13.4	01	2: 11.3
02	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco	80	0	+ 9.6	02
03	Graham Hill	BRM	79	0	+ 1 lap	04th
04th	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	79	1	+ 1 lap	05
05	Jochen Rindt	Cooper-Climax	79	0	+ 1 lap	07th
06th	Bruce McLaren	McLaren Serenissima	78	0	+ 2 rounds	13
07th	Chris Irwin	Brabham-Climax	78	0	+ 2 rounds	12
08th	John Taylor	Brabham-BRM	76	0	+ 4 rounds	16
9	Bob Bondurant	BRM	76	0	+ 4 rounds	14th
10	Guy Ligier	Cooper Maserati	75	0	+ 5 rounds	17th
11	Chris Lawrence	Cooper-Ferrari	73	0	+ 7 rounds	19th
-	John Surtees	Cooper Maserati	76	0	DNF	06th		Power transmission
-	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	70	0	NC	10		unclassified
-	Joseph Siffert	Cooper Maserati	70	1	NC	11		unclassified
-	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-Climax	42	0	NC	15th		Engine failure
-	Peter Arundell	Lotus BRM	31	0	DNF	20th		transmission
-	Jackie Stewart	BRM	16	0	DNF	08th		Engine failure
-	Mike Spence	Lotus BRM	15th	0	DNF	09		Oil leak
-	Dan Gurney	Eagle-Climax	09	0	DNF	03		Engine failure
-	Trevor Taylor	Shannon Climax	00	0	DNF	18th		Fuel tank

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 21st 02  Jochen Rindt Cooper Maserati 11 03  Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 10 04th  Denis Hulme Brabham-Repco 10 05  Jackie Stewart BRM 9 06th  John Surtees Ferrari 9 07th  Graham Hill BRM 8th

Item driver constructor Points 08th  Mike Parkes Ferrari 6th 09  Bob Bondurant BRM 3 10  Jim Clark Lotus Climax 3 11  Richie Ginther Cooper Maserati 2 12  Dan Gurney Eagle-Climax 2 13  John Taylor Brabham-BRM 1 14th  Bruce McLaren McLaren Serenissima 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Brabham-Repco 21st 02  Ferrari 21st 03  BRM 13 04th  Cooper Maserati 11 05  Lotus Climax 3 06th  Eagle-Climax 2 07th  Brabham-BRM 1 08th  McLaren Serenissima 1

Web links

• Results at motorsport-total.com
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: British GP, 1966 at grandprix.com
• 19th British Grand Prix at motorsportmagazine.com
• Brabham heads his first one-two at espn.co.uk