50 years ago today: F1’s worst tragedy at Monza

1961 Italian Grand Prix flashback

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On this day 50 years ago, a crash during the Italian Grand Prix claimed the lives of 16 people.

Wolfgang von Trips and 15 spectators were killed on the second lap of the race at Monza after von Trips tanlged with Jim Clark.

However the race continued and von Trips’ Ferrari team mate Phil Hill won the world championship on this bleak day for Formula 1.

Monza’s perilous oval

Fifty years ago, safety was not the paramount concern it is today. But when it came to the daunting banked oval circuit at Monza, some felt it was a risk too far.

In 1960 a group of British teams boycotted the race in protest at the use of the banking. For 1961 engine capacities were cut to 1.5-litres, speeds fell, and while the same teams still objected to the banking they agreed to race on it once more.

The banking pictured in 2011

The race organisers made one concession, reducing the distance from 50 laps to 43. Even so, at 430km (267 miles), this was around a third longer than tomorrow’s race will be.

The first half of the lap took the drivers around the circuit as we know it today, albeit without the chicanes. But on returning to the main straight the cars stayed to the right, the track divided by a line of cones down the middle.

This led them to the first of two 180-degree corners. These were fashioned from slabs of concrete propped up on concrete supports at a steep angle. With time, the surface had become increasingly worn and rippled, causing cars to buck violently on their suspension as they took the corners.

Even so, the drivers were able to tackle the corners without lifting at 255kph (160mph). The second of these bends returned them to the start/finish line and the end of the 10km (6.2 mile) lap.

A championship between team mates

Ferrari had reacted to the reduction in engine capacity for the 1961 season better than anyone. The Scuderia produced the benchmark car in the 156 ‘Sharknose’, powered by its V6 ‘Dino’ engine.

Heading into what would be the penultimate round, Wolfgang von Trips had amassed 33 points to the 29 of team mate Phil Hill.

Hill had won at Monza 12 months earlier, while von Trips suffered crashes in two previous visits to the circuit. Five years earlier his steering had broken at Curva Grande, sending him into the trees at 190kph (120mph). Two years after that he crashed into Harry Schell’s BRM on the first lap.

The championship protagonists were two decidedly different characters. Von Trips, a German Count, was a natural talent but one with a slightly wild streak in his early years that led him to be dubbed ‘von Krash’. Later his rivals referred to him more affectionately as ‘Taffy’.

Hill was more technical in his approach and had great mechanical sensitivity. Earlier that year he won the Le Mans 24 Hours for the second of three times in his career.

Hill was also acutely aware of the dangers of motor racing. It weighed heavily on his mind, and at times caused him to develop stomach ulcers from the stress, which disrupted his racing season in 1954.

Lotus were the only threat to Ferrari in the constructors championship, and a distant one. Stirling Moss had scored two remarkable wins with his Rob Walker-run Lotus at Monaco and the Nurburgring, which gave the team an outside chance of out-scoring Ferrari.

Qualifying

A huge entry of 37 cars was presented and 32 ultimately made it onto the grid. A cut-off limit was imposed on qualifying times, though it was rather less strict than today’s 107% rule: it eliminated drivers who failed to get within 15% of the second-fastest time.

With von Trips on pole the second-fastest time was set not by Hill but their new team mate, Mexican Ricardo Rodriguez. This was despite the 19-year-old having the older 60-degree V6 instead of the 120-degree unit used by his team mates.

While the young arrival dazzled with his speed, Hill later revealed concerns about the newest addition to the Ferrari driver roster, saying: “If he lives, I’ll be surprised.” Sadly, Rodriguez lost his life before the end of the following season, crashing in practice for the first Grand Prix in his home country.

Hill, fourth on the grid behind another Ferrari belonging to Richie Ginther, felt his engine was down on power and had his mechanics change it. A broken valve spring was found and Hill oversaw the repairs and ensured the new installation was to his satisfaction.

The highest non-Ferrari on the grid was Graham Hill’s BRM. During practice he had his first run in the P578, which would take him to the world championship the following year. For the race he switched back to his regular P57.

Stirling Moss also used a new development V8 engine from Climax during qualifying. But he suffered cooling problems and overnight switched to Innes Ireland’s factory Lotus using a four-cylinder engine, while retaining parts from his own machine. This left Moss driving a car he was unfamiliar with in the race, with an unusual livery part Lotus green and part Rob Walker blue.

Starting from pole position, von Trips could clinch the championship the following day. But that evening, sitting in a cafe with journalist Robert Daley, he revealed his own concerns about mortality.

“It could happen tomorrow,” he said, as reported in Daley’s book The Cruel Sport. “That’s the thing about this business. You never know.”

1961 Italian Grand Prix grid

Row 1Wolfgang von Trips 2’46.3
Ferrari
Ricardo Rodriguez 2’46.4
Ferrari
Row 2Richie Ginther 2’46.8
Ferrari
Phil Hill 2’47.2
Ferrari
Row 3Graham Hill 2’48.7
BRM-Climax
Giancarlo Baghetti 2’49.0
Ferrari
Row 4Jim Clark 2’49.2
Lotus-Climax
Jo Bonnier 2’49.6
Porsche
Row 5Innes Ireland 2’50.3
Lotus-Climax
Jack Brabham 2’51.6
Cooper-Climax
Row 6Stirling Moss 2’51.8
Lotus-Climax
Dan Gurney 2’52.0
Porsche
Row 7Tony Brooks 2’52.2
BRM-Climax
Bruce McLaren 2’53.4
Cooper-Climax
Row 8Carel Godin de Beaufort 2’53.8
Porsche
Jackie Lewis 2’54.0
Cooper-Climax
Row 9Masten Gregory 2’55.2
Lotus-Climax
Roy Salvadori 2’55.2
Cooper-Climax
Row 10John Surtees 2’55.6
Cooper-Climax
Nino Vaccarella 2’56.0
De Tomaso-Alfa Romeo
Row 11Lorenzo Bandini 2’57.7
Cooper-Maserati
Maurice Trintignant 2’58.7
Cooper-Maserati
Row 12Henry Taylor 3’00.6
Lotus-Climax
Roberto Bussinello 3’01.7
De Tomaso-Alfa Romeo
Row 13Gerry Ashmore 3’03.0
Lotus-Climax
Jack Fairman 3’04.8
Cooper-Climax
Row 14Tim Parnell 3’05.7
Lotus-Climax
Wolfgang Siedel 3’06.0
Lotus-Climax
Row 15Renato Pirocchi 3’06.5
Cooper-Maserati
Gaetano Starrabba 3’07.9
Lotus-Maserati
Row 16Brian Naylor 3’08.1
JBW-Climax
Roberto Lippi 3’08.9
De Tomaso-Osca

Von Trips’ pole position time of 2’46.3 for a lap of the 10km (6.2 mile) track was 2.7s off the previous year’s lap record set with more powerful cars.

Rodriguez was just a tenth of a second off, setting the 115% cut-off time at 3’11.36. This meant Andre Pilette failed to qualify by less than three-tenths of a second.

The tragedy

Race day dawned hot and activity at the circuit began with a pair of three-hour races for GT cars. At 3pm, the F1 cars were on the grid awaiting the start.

The Ferraris were using long gearing for the high-speed straights, and moved away as the race began. That allowed Jim Clark, who started seventh in his Lotus, to get in among them, briefly holding second.

At Parabolica Gerry Ashmore’s Lotus spun off and hit the grass bank along the track and the driver was badly injured.

A trio of Ferraris led the field as they came off the Curva Sud Alta Velocita for the first time to complete lap one, Hill ahead of Ginther and Rodriguez. Clark lay fourth with Jack Brabham, von Trips and Baghetti behind him.

Halfway around the second lap, Clark had fallen behind von Trips and was trying to re-pass the Ferrari as they sprinted from Vialone to Parabolica.

“I was preparing to overtake him and my front wheels were almost level with his back wheel as he started to brake,” Clark described afterwards.

“Suddenly he began to pull over towards me and he ran right into the side of me. I honestly don’t think Taffy realised I was there. I am sure that, when he passed me earlier, he had decided his was the faster car and I would be left behind.”

Clark was on the left-hand side of the track as von Trips moved across. The contact fired the Ferrari left towards the crowd.

It rode up a 1.5m-high bank and flipped over. With only a chain fence between the spectators and the track, there was precious little to separate car from bodies.

The car gouged into the crowd before flipping back onto its wheels on the track. Following cars braked hard and ducked around the wrecked Ferrari.

Von Trips was thrown from his car and killed, 11 spectators died at the scene, and four others succumbed to their injuries over the following days.

(Different figures have been given for the total number of people who lost their lives. Motorsport Memorial lists those understood to have lost their lives due to the crash by name.)

Only those close to the accident knew what had happened. Many, including the circuit commentators, remained unaware of the scale of the crash. Hill, still leading, could tell from his pit signals that von Trips was out but had no idea of the extent of the carnage.

The video below shows scenes from the race but does not include any of the harrowing footage of the crash and its aftermath:

The race goes on

Despite the carnage, the race continued. Hill and Ginther pulled out a 20-second lead and briefly swapped places. But one by one technical problems claimed the Ferraris: first Baghetti, then Rodriguez and finally Ginther on lap 24. Hill’s was the only one still running at the end of the race.

Brabham pulled over after eight laps, his new V8 Climax engine running low on water. He had witnessed the crash and said: “I don’t think either Jimmy Clark or Taffy von Trips were carving each other up as was suggested at the time.

“Jimmy was always a driver you could drive really hard against and be quite confident that he wasn’t going to do something stupid.”

Moss had worked his way up to second place before the pounding dished out by the banking caused a wheel bearing to fail.

After two hours and three minutes of racing, Phil Hill crossed the finishing line. The muted response from his team and the expression on the face of chief engineer Carlo Chiti told Hill something was wrong.

He went through the motions of the prize-giving. With von Trips dead, Hill’s victory had made him world champion. But there was to be no celebration.

1961 Italian Grand Prix result

No.DriverTeamLapsGap/Reason
12Phil HillFerrari43
246Dan GurneyPorsche4331.2
312Bruce McLarenCooper-Climax432’28.4
460Jackie LewisCooper-Climax432’40.4
526Tony BrooksBRM-Climax432’40.5
640Roy SalvadoriCooper-Climax421 Lap
774Carol Godin de BeaufortPorsche412 Laps
862Lorenzo BandiniCooper-Maserati412 Laps
948Maurice TrintignantCooper-Maserati412 Laps
1016Tim ParnellLotus-Climax403 Laps
1120Henry TaylorLotus-Climax394 Laps
1258Renato PirocchiCooper-Maserati385 Laps
28Stirling MossLotus-Climax36Wheel bearing
6Richie GintherFerrari23Engine
72Gaetano StarrabbaLotus-Maserati19Engine
44Jo BonnierPorsche14Suspension
8Ricardo RodriguezFerrari13Fuel pump
32Giancarlo BaghettiFerrari13Engine
50Nino VaccarellaDe Tomaso-Alfa Romeo13Engine
22Masten GregoryLotus-Climax11Suspension
24Graham HillBRM-Climax10Engine
10Jack BrabhamCooper-Climax8Overheating
14Brian NaylorJBW-Climax6Engine
38Innes IrelandLotus-Climax5Chassis
30Jack FairmanCooper-Climax5Engine
42John SurteesCooper-Climax2Accident
4Wolfgang von TripsFerrari1Accident
36Jim ClarkLotus-Climax1Accident
54Roberto BussinelloDe Tomaso-Alfa Romeo1Engine
52Roberto LippiDe Tomaso-Osca1Engine
56Wolfgang SeidelLotus-Climax1Engine
18Gerry AshmoreLotus-Climax0Accident

Aftermath

The dreadful loss of life was the worst seen in a world championship race. It was one of a series of fatal accidents involving spectators including the 1953 Argentinian Grand Prix (13 killed), 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours (84), 1957 Mille Miglia (11) and 1958 Cuban Grand Prix (seven).

As had happened previously, the crash led to further calls for motor racing to be banned. In response Ferrari withdrew their cars from the last round of the championship, at Watkins Glen.

Hill was unimpressed by what he thought was an insincere gesture. Ferrari, he believed, would have kept racing had they not clinched both championships at Monza. Instead of racing in front of his home crowd Hill toured a lap of the circuit in a convertible.

Although the crash did not happen on the banked circuit, that course was never used again for F1 and was abandoned after 1969.

Some contemporary reports of the race expressed the view that adequately protecting fans from such accidents would be impossible without moving them so far away from the action it would lose its appeal.

Fifty years on, this claim no longer holds up. Today the stretch of track approaching Parabolica is bordered by a double-height debris fence.

But containing an accident at the fastest circuit on the F1 calendar remains a challenge. In 2000 marshal Paolo Ghislimberti was killed when he was struck by debris in a first-lap crash at the Variante della Roggia.

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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33 comments on “50 years ago today: F1’s worst tragedy at Monza”

  1. The idea of splitting the straight in half so they could use the banking is absolutely insane. What an incredible circuit though.

    I would really love to visit the banked oval one day. I’ve been to Monza but wasn’t sure how you got onto it.

    Back to the Von Trips incident, what a tragedy. For it to happen to the championship leader in a Ferrari at Monza too.

    Did I read some time ago that they were going to make this story into a movie?

  2. Under the original configuration, when did the teams pit? Was it mid lap, prior to heading around the banking, or did they cross over again at the end of the lap if needing to pit?

    The former sounds quite unique (then again so is the track); the latter sounds quite dangerous.

    Can anyone enlighten me?

    1. When I race the full circuit on rFactor you come out of the pits and straight into the oval section and the if you want to pit you come in after going round Parabolica.

      So I would say it would be mid-lap!!

      1. i played it years ago on R-Factor. it was an amazing track

      2. It can be played in Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli.

  3. The crash really effected Jimmy Clark too. The Italian police treated it as a road accident and the Italian media really turned on Jimmy. I’m not sure if he went to court over it, but it did get very serious for him.

    Also, I recently read on the Ferrari website that none of the famous sharknose cars survive. Enzo had them destroyed for whatever reason, not sure if it was just because of the accident, shame though.

    1. I think Clark was questioned twice, and the Italian police wanted to question him a third time but he refused to go. As far as I know there were no court sessions.

    2. I remember reading the cars were designed by a designer which left Ferrari the following year, thus “betraying” Ferrari according to Enzo, which didn’t want to keep the cars designed by a betrayer.

      1. I heard that story as well Fixy

  4. Stomach ulcers are now known not to be caused by stress, but thanks for the very interesting article. I do have one question, why doesn’t F1 have just one race on an oval? As you have highlighted, banked ovals have been used in europe in the past, surely the modern American oval would be up to safety spec for a very interesting USGP….

    1. Oval + F1 is a novelty that would wear off quick to be honest..a race on a oval + road circuit, at say, Monza? That would be cool.

    2. Well we raced on part of the oval at Indy. I think it would have to be a roval anyway, and apart from Indy the only decent one I can think of is Daytona.

    3. Stress does not cause ulcers but it can certainly worsen existing ones.

    4. I have had stomach ulcers and they were unequivocally stress-related.

  5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0-9Mls-5E0

    This shows the accident as well. At about 1:10.

    Anybody fancy a similarity between von Trips and Hamilton in the initial movement of their car?

    Passing, having about 90% of a car advantage then pulling left under braking, making contact and heading straight towards whatever is next to the track on the left.

    Hamilton and the Belgian crowd were much more lucky though. Thanks to safety regulations. And don’t forget, Hamilton suffered a brief faint due to the angle he hit the fence. I know you have to hit the barriers at almost the exact same angle for this to occur, but without HANS probably von Trips did not make it through the first impact.

    I don’t know how he died though – on track or in the hospital. I just made an assumption.

    1. Thanks, this is so clear, even if even quite harsh…

    2. Anybody fancy a similarity between von Trips and Hamilton in the initial movement of their car?

      You’re thinking about Hamilton’s collision with Kobayashi at Spa? I must admit, the thought did cross my mind.

      1. Yep, that one.

        Circumstances changed alot, thank God. Even if there had been spectators at the Armco in Lewis’ case they would walk off on their own legs – the Armco was there in the first place. That one marshall who patrolled nearby was not hurt.

        Armco is not a safety newbie nowadays as we know it, but it was back then. I remember Spa getting Armco only in 1970. Nevertheless Monza was in an awful state regarding safety at that time.

  6. The wide start/finish straight at Monza is still reminding us of the days when oval was being used.

  7. Even if there haven’t been many occurances in the last period (luckily!), I still think contact between wheels and “springboard” effect is the hardest danger in open wheeled car races.
    To prevent bad accidents I think FIA should think about something to avoid that (I know every device would appear horrible…).
    Just a feeling, but when two cars struggle wheel to wheel at high speed my worse fear is they touch and one flies to the crowd…it is everything but impossible…
    (Of course I hope I’ve not been a bad predictor…)

    1. Actually Clark and Von Trips didn’t jump on each other’s wheels, I see.

    2. That is why there are fences for debris and run-off ares so the public is protected. The latest fatalities in the sport included track marshall and a fireman which were standing right next to the opening in the fence which is used to wave flags through. Those openings were modified after the death of a fireman in Australia.
      In short, I don’t think there is a danger for spectators on modern F1 tracks – even on a street circuits.

  8. Curious there was a restaurant at the bottom of the main gran stand!!!
    Sixties were incredibly fashioning.

  9. Jochen Rindt and Ronnie Peterson both @ Monza as well. Nice piece Keith.

  10. Brilliantly written and informative article on an absolutely tragic weekend. There was a doc on Clark (along with Hill and Stewart) where I think it said that Jim got a lot of blame for the accident in Italy irrc which I find horrible. It was awful for von Tripps who seemed like a great talent for the sport but it was equally horrendous that fans who loved the sport lost their lives.

    I’m always amazed that when drivers bang wheels and sidepods today (I can’t help but think of one famous incident in the 90s which for me highlights how far safety has come) that the effects are far more tame than what happened here. I guess it goes to show the evolution of safety and the cars as most of the time they can carry on their way without a second thought.

    1. Ditto Steph… F1 was losing drivers at a rate of over 1 a month in the fifty’s, sixty’s and seventy’s …

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_fatal_accidents

  11. Nice write-up Keith.

  12. We british tend to talk alot about Jim Clark. Its undeniable how great he was, fortunately he got the crown before he died. The german, Von Trips was arguably the best Ferrari driver at the moment and maybe the best F1 driver at the time, still is rather unknown and so are a large number of great drivers from the time large number of those deceased racing or testing, I advise anyone to watch the fantastic documentaries about F1, the Grand prix series which analises year by year racing on the golden era 50-60-70, the gentleman era.

    1. Firstly, what documentries? Ive seen the 1hour long ones for the 1970’s but none for the 2 previous decades.

      secondly, its sad to think the majority of fans that dont have a big knowledge of F1 knows about drivers like Von Trips and his contempories, its a fasinating period to look up. Sad as it is Von Trips was killed on the edge of winning the WDC, but prior to his death, he’d established a go-kart circuit that was later leased to a Mr Schumacher whose sons first raced at and thus, Germany got its German WDC winner.

  13. I desperately tried to get on the oval a couple of days ago but we were told to get lost basically. Once you’re there you really do have an appreciation for just how steep it is, oh could not afford to go anything less than flat-out, just to maintain momentum. Obviously, as witnessed in 1961, that carries its own risks.

    These articles are well constructed but are so harrowing at the same time.

    Formula 1 is a world away from what it was 50 years ago but these stories should be heard by all fans, old and new.

  14. It’s in fact very complex in this active life to listen news on Television,
    therefore I just use internet for that reason, and obtain the newest news.

    1. Stefan von Druner
      30th October 2018, 18:30

      Definitely not Clark’s fault. If you slow it down, you can see Taffy move into him. Why did Taffy do that? Maybe to get a racing line, maybe mechanical. We probably will never know now.

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