1966 Mexican Grand Prix

 1966 Mexican Grand Prix

Racing data
9th of 9 races of the 1966 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	V Gran Premio de Mexico
Date:	October 23, 1966
Place:	Mexico City , Mexico
Course:	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
Length:	325 km in 65 laps of 5 km
Weather:	dry, sunny
Pole position
Driver:	John Surtees	Cooper Maserati
Time:	1: 53.18 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Richie Ginther	Honda
Time:	1: 53.75 min (lap 58)
Podium
First:	John Surtees	Cooper Maserati
Second:	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco
Third:	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco

The 1966 Mexican Grand Prix took place on October 23, 1966 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez near Mexico City and was the last race of the 1966 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

John Surtees achieved the last pole position in the history of the Cooper team

Ferrari did not compete in the last race of the season as the team was already focused on the next season and the development of the new car. Cooper registered three cars. In addition to regular drivers John Surtees and Jochen Rindt , Moisés Solana became a driver for the team. For him it was the only race of the season after having only participated in the races in North America in previous years. Surtees drove his last race for Cooper, he then moved to Honda , where he replaced Richie Ginther . Ginther qualified for a race for the last time at the Mexican Grand Prix. Another attempt for the former Grand Prix winner to qualify at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1967 failed. Ronnie Bucknum , Ginthers team-mate at Honda, also said goodbye to the automobile world championship after the race and then drove to sports car races. For Peter Arundell it was also the last race in the automobile world championship. The following year, Graham Hill became Jim Clark's new teammate , and Arundell retired two years later. For Hill it was the last race for BRM after driving for the team for six years. He won a world title and was second three times in the drivers' world championship. Pedro Rodríguez was again registered for Lotus as the third driver , also for the last time. He switched to Cooper and became the new regular driver there. Bob Bondurant drove his last Grand Prix at Eagle . He switched to the CanAm series . Joakim Bonnier was registered for the Anglo-Suisse Racing Team . The team withdrew after the season, Bonnier then drove his own team in the automobile world championship. The drivers 'world championship and constructors' world championship had already been won by Jack Brabham and his team. With Clark, Ginther and Dan Gurney , three former winners took part in the race. In the constructors' category, Lotus won twice, Brabham and Honda once each.

training

Before the first training session, on Friday morning, the course was opened for testing for a short time. This gave the teams the chance to do a few laps to adjust the settings of their cars. The training started at 1 p.m. and ended at 5 p.m. McLaren again had problems starting his car and therefore pitted several times to investigate the cause. Solana had problems with the transmission of his car, this was fixed by his team. At Surtees, the gasoline pump pressure was initially too high, then the display had to be replaced and the water pressure was also too high. Innes Ireland collided with one of the stray dogs on the track that had been a risk to the riders at the Mexican Grand Prix in previous years. He damaged the steering lever and the nose of his car.

The Brabham drivers used the first hour of training to slowly run in the new engines of the cars. Pedro Rodríguez drove the first fast lap and was already faster than the previous lap record that Gurney held. Brabham was then the first driver to finish below 1: 55.0. At Honda, the noses of the cars were removed and further adjustments made because they were severely oversteering. Other teams like Eagle and BRM also tried this to get more air into the cooler. However, this worsened the aerodynamics and thus the lap times, so that the changes were reversed by everyone. Clark improved the best time of the training to 1: 54.06, but had to break off the training session afterwards due to an engine failure. Brabham improved Clark's time shortly before the end and was first with 1: 53.95.

The second training session on Saturday took place in the same time frame as the day before. In many vehicles, the nose has been adjusted and the air intake enlarged. At Surtees, problems with a cylinder head gasket were found, as well as low pressure in the cooling circuit. The team first considered changing the engine, but Surtees drove a few more laps and improved the fastest lap time to 1: 53.18. For Brabham, the training was over after a short time, an engine change was also necessary on his vehicle. Many other drivers had technical problems, so only a few lap times were improved. Shortly before the end of the training session, Spence had an accident after a bolt broke near his braking device. Spence survived the accident unharmed, but the car was so badly damaged that he was unable to take part in the race.

Surtees secured his second pole position of the season after starting first in the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix , there, however, for Ferrari. It was not until the Italian Grand Prix in 1968 that Surtees returned to pole position again, there for the last time in his career. For the designer Cooper it was the only pole position of the season and the eleventh and last in team history. Clark started from second place in front of Ginther, Brabham and Rindt.

run

The start of the race took place under dry, sunny conditions. Ginther took the lead after the start of the race and held this lead after the first lap of the race. It was followed by Rindt, Brabham and Hulme. Surtees and Clark, who started the race from the front row of the grid, lost many places and were in fifth and sixth after the first lap. Stewart, Rodriguez and Bucknum drove on the next seats. Surtees and Hill had engine problems, Clark had technical problems with the transmission. After the second lap, Brabham took the lead after overtaking Ginther and Rindt and built up a lead over the pursuers. For the Honda team it remained the only lead laps of the season. Rodriguez lost two places after a spin and fell behind Bucknum and Siffert. Bondurant had problems with the fuel line and was in last place, but drove on until lap 23 when he parked the car.

After 3 laps, Surtees' engine problems disappeared. He had the full power of his engine available again and overtook everyone in front of him to take the lead on lap seven. Stewart also continuously improved, overtaking Clark, Ginther and Hulme. On lap eight, Clark gave up the race, his gear lever was broken. Solana stopped at the pits because his bolide overheated and the water temperature was too high. He drove another lap, then also parked his vehicle. In addition to overheating, the oil pressure dropped too much. Hill retired on lap 17 after his engine problems worsened from lap to lap. Gurney improved four places in midfield.

On lap 24, the first four drivers were within sight. Stewart and Rindt dueled for third place, the duel won Stewart. However, an oil leak ended his race two laps later after he had caught up with Brabham. Behind him Rodriguez overtook Hulme after several attempts and held his position as Hulme spun off the track. Since he was having trouble restarting his car, he fell back one lap. Ireland retired on lap 27 with a gearbox failure. A few laps later, Rindt and Siffert also pitted; the suspension of both Cooper drivers was broken. At halftime of the race, Stewart was just ahead of Brabham, half a lap behind Rodriguez was in third place, ahead of Ginther and Gurney. A total of ten cars were still in the race.

McLaren improved from last place to ninth, then retired with an engine failure. At Bucknum a cable fire caused smoke to develop. He still had to drive half a lap to reach the pits. On the way his seat caught fire, but Bucknum managed to push the cable aside. The fire was extinguished, the car's cable and battery replaced and Bucknum continued the race in last place, several laps behind. Hulme was fifth after an overtaking maneuver against Gurney. He then caught up with Ginther when Rodriguez came into the pits and gave up due to a gearbox failure. Arundell came to the pits because the water temperature was too high. It turned out that only the display was defective; he finished the race four laps behind.

Surtees crossed the finish line first and safely secured victory. He became one of the few drivers who managed to win races in different teams with different constructors within one season. It was the only victory at the Mexican Grand Prix for both Surtees and Cooper. Brabham crossed the finish line seven seconds behind Surtees. He crossed the finish line just ahead of his team-mate Hulme. Hulme was one lap behind Brabham and passed Ginther shortly before the end of the race to finish third. Ginther set the fastest race lap, the last of his career, having previously achieved it twice in the 1961 season. For Honda it was the first of two fastest race laps in team history, followed by another at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix . It was also the only points finish of the season for Honda. The other points went to Gurney and Bonnier. At the end of the season, Surtees secured the runner-up world championship with victory. Cooper scored more points than Ferrari among the constructors, but was one point behind Ferrari in third place due to the deletion results.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Team Lotus	01	Jim Clark	Lotus 43	BRM 3.0 H16	F.
	02	Peter Arundell	Lotus 33	BRM 2.0 V8
	11	Pedro Rodríguez	Lotus 33	Climax 2.0 V8
Owen Racing Organization	03	Graham Hill	BRM P83	BRM 3.0 H16	G
	04th	Jackie Stewart
Brabham Racing Organization	05	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT20	Repco 3.0 V8	G
	06th	Denis Hulme
Cooper Car Company	07th	John Surtees	Cooper T81	Maserati 3.0 V12	F.
	08th	Jochen Rindt
	09	Moisés Solana
Bernhard White Racing	10	Innes Ireland	BRM P261	BRM 2.0 V8	D.
Honda R&D Co.	12	Richie Ginther	Honda RA273	Honda 3.0 V12	G
	14th	Ronnie Bucknum
Anglo American Racers	15th	Dan Gurney	Eagle T1G	Weslake 3.0 V12	G
		Bob Bondurant
	16	Dan Gurney		Climax 2.7 L4
		Bob Bondurant
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	17th	Bruce McLaren	McLaren M2B	Ford V8 3.0 V8	F.
Reg Parnell Racing	18th	Mike Spence	Lotus 25	BRM 2.0 V8	F.
Rob Walker Racing Team	19th	Joseph Siffert	Cooper T81	Maserati 3.0 V12	D.
Anglo-Suisse Racing Team	22nd	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper T81	Maserati 3.0 V12	F.

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dan Gurney drove the car with a Weslake unit in training, Bondurant the vehicle with a Climax engine. After the training, they both exchanged the vehicles and the numbers on the cars.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	begin
01	John Surtees	Cooper Maserati	1: 53.18	01
02	Jim Clark	Lotus BRM	1: 53.50	02
03	Richie Ginther	Honda	1: 53.56	03
04th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	1: 53.95	04th
05	Jochen Rindt	Cooper Maserati	1: 54.19	05
06th	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco	1: 54.21	06th
07th	Graham Hill	BRM	1: 54.61	07th
08th	Pedro Rodríguez	Lotus Climax	1: 54.78	08th
09	Dan Gurney	Eagle-Weslake	1: 54.93	09
10	Jackie Stewart	BRM	1: 55.90	10
11	Joseph Siffert	Cooper Maserati	1: 55.99	11
12	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper Maserati	1: 56.49	12
13	Ronnie Bucknum	Honda	1: 56.59	13
14th	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	1: 56.84	14th
15th	Moisés Solana	Cooper Maserati	1: 57.44	15th
16	Innes Ireland	BRM	1: 57.46	16
17th	Peter Arundell	Lotus BRM	2: 00.79	17th
18th	Bob Bondurant	Eagle-Weslake	2: 02.88	18th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	John Surtees	Cooper Maserati	65	0	2: 06: 35,340	01
02	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	65	0	+ 7.88	04th
03	Denis Hulme	Brabham-Repco	64	0	+ 1 lap	06th
04th	Richie Ginther	Honda	64	0	+ 1 lap	03	1: 56.75
05	Dan Gurney	Eagle-Climax	64	0	+ 1 lap	09
06th	Joakim Bonnier	Cooper Maserati	63	0	+ 2 rounds	12
07th	Peter Arundell	Lotus BRM	61	0	+ 4 rounds	17th
08th	Ronnie Bucknum	Honda	60	0	+ 5 rounds	13
-	Pedro Rodríguez	Lotus Climax	48	0	DNF	08th		transmission
-	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	39	0	DNF	14th		Engine failure
-	Joseph Siffert	Cooper Maserati	32	0	DNF	11		suspension
-	Jochen Rindt	Cooper Maserati	31	0	DNF	05		suspension
-	Innes Ireland	BRM	27	0	DNF	16		Power transmission
-	Jackie Stewart	BRM	25th	0	DNF	10		Oil leak
-	Bob Bondurant	Eagle-Climax	23	0	DNF	18th		Fuel system
-	Graham Hill	BRM	17th	0	DNF	07th		Engine failure
-	Jim Clark	Lotus BRM	08th	0	DNF	02		transmission
-	Moisés Solana	Cooper Maserati	08th	1	DNF	15th		Overheating
-	Mike Spence	Lotus BRM	00	0	DNS			accident

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 42 (45) 02  John Surtees Ferrari / Cooper Maserati 28 03  Jochen Rindt Cooper Maserati 22 (24) 04th  Denis Hulme Brabham-Repco 18th 05  Graham Hill BRM 17th 06th  Jim Clark Lotus-Climax / BRM 16 07th  Jackie Stewart BRM 14th 08th  Mike Parkes Ferrari 12 09  Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 12 10  Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari 9

Item driver constructor Points 11  Richie Ginther Cooper Maserati 5 12  Dan Gurney Eagle-Climax 4th 13  Mike Spence Lotus BRM 4th 14th  Bob Bondurant BRM 3 15th  Joseph Siffert Cooper Maserati 3 16  Bruce McLaren McLaren-Serenissima / Ford 3 17th  John Taylor Brabham-BRM 1 18th  Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 1 19th  Peter Arundell Lotus Climax 1 20th  Joakim Bonnier Cooper Maserati 1

Constructors' championship

Item	constructor	Points
01	Brabham-Repco	42 (49)
02	Ferrari	31 (32)
03	Cooper Maserati	30 (35)
04th	BRM	22nd
05	Lotus BRM	13
06th	Lotus Climax	8th
07th	Eagle-Climax	4th
08th	Honda	3
09	McLaren-Ford	2
10	Brabham-BRM	1
11	McLaren Serenissima	1
12	Brabham-Climax	1

Web links

• Results at motorsport-total.com
• Photos at f1-facts.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "1966 Mexican Grand Prix race report: Scintillating Surtees" (motorsportmagazine.com on May 28, 2020)