"The Limit" - Michael Cannell

The tragedy of the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, in which Wolfgang von Trips and 15 spectators lost their lives, is the subject of this new book by American author Michael Cannell.

Unfortunately, I didn’t receive a copy early enough to include it in F1 Fanatic’s season gift guide.

Cannell calls himself “an unlikely person to write a book about car racing” but adds, “I believe that dedicated reporters can write on any topic if willing to do the legwork”. He has done the legwork with this book, and it shows.

“The Limit” serves as twin biographies of Phil Hill and von Trips, the two Ferrari drivers who contested the 1961 world championship.

These were contrasting characters. Hill, restrained and thoughtful, mechanically sympathetic and occasionally gripped by fear at the prospect of racing. Von Trips, with his aristocratic background, was more of a playboy figure and somewhat accident-prone, though often very quick.

Of the two, Hill receives a fuller and slightly more sympathetic treatment. Cannell says after the fateful race: “The newspapers buried Hill, if they mentioned him at all. The insinuation was that von Trips was the rightful winner.”

We tend to see team patriarch Enzo Ferrari through Hill’s eyes – especially Hill’s disdainful view of Ferrari’s ostentatious mourning for several of his predecessors and, later, von Trips. “La Scala might have lost a star when Ferrari went into tears,” observes Hill.

Cannell paints a vivid picture of the times, relying on a mixture of contemporary accounts, recent memoirs and some new interviews.

The author has an eye for the kind of curious detail that conveys a point: after winning the 1961 championship Hill appeared on a television gameshow the following December which was “predicated on the obscurity of the guest’s achievement”. Whether F1′s profile has improved in America in the intervening 50 years will surely be a point of interest when the United States Grand Prix returns to the calendar this year.

That the intervening five decades has seen a revolution in attitudes towards safety in motor racing can hardly be overstated. After von Trips’ car cut its deadly swathe through the Monza crowd and hurled the lifeless body of its driver on the floor, the race continued.

Cannell’s book seems to draw particular inspiration from Robert Daley’s contemporary works The Cruel Sport and Cars at Speed, both of which have been republished in recent years and should be your first port of call if you’re looking for information on this time. If you enjoyed those, you’ll lap up “The Limit”.

F1 Fanatic rating

Buy The Limit: Life and Death in Formula One’s Most Dangerous Era (UK)

Buy The Limit: Life and Death in Formula One’s Most Dangerous Era (UK, Kindle edition)

Buy The Limit: Life and Death in Formula One’s Most Dangerous Era (USA)

Buy The Limit: Life and Death in Formula One’s Most Dangerous Era (USA, Kindle edition)

The Limit: Life and death in Formula 1′s most dangerous era
Published by Atlantic Books
2011
ISBN: 9781848872226

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Reviews

• "Grand Prix Heroes" DVDs reviewed
• "Team Lotus: My view from the pit wall" by Peter Warr - review
• "The Limit: Life and death in Formula 1's most dangerous era" - review
• "He's done it again" - official 2011 F1 season DVD reviewed
• F1 2011: The F1 Fanatic review
• F1 2011: Checklist
• Red Bull Racing RB6 F1 car Haynes Manual reviewed
• The Making of Senna part 9: The response in Brazil
• The Making of Senna part 8: The Death of Ayrton Senna
• The Making of Senna part 7: Imola 1994

Jack Brabham showed F1 the future was rear-engined when he won two world championships with Cooper in 1959 and 1960.

At that time Phil Hill was on the other side of the technical divide and scored the final Grand Prix victory for a front-engined car, before going on to succeed Brabham as champion.

Hill drove for Ferrari’s sports car team but was eager to make the switch to F1 – so much so that he borrowed a Maserati belonging to Jo Bonnier to make his debut at Reims in 1958.

Ferrari took note and gave him a shot in the race team. Hill paid that back by helping Mike Hawthorn to the 1958 title by pulling over for him in the last race of the season.

Brabham spent the early part of his career developing the rear-engined Cooper. By 1959 the writing was on the wall for the front-engined Ferraris as Brabham won the first of his titles. He made it back-to-back championships the following year after a string of five consecutive wins.

Hill scored his first F1 win at Monza that year in a last hurrah for Ferrari’s 246, though it came as several rival entries boycotted the race, including Brabham’s Cooper.

Ferrari were well-prepared for the switch to smaller-capacity engines in 1961 and Hill finished on the podium six times out of seven as he and team mate Wolfgang von Trips challenged for the title. Sadly, it was decided when von Trips was killed at Monza.

Both drivers made ambitious career changes after winning their titles – with radically different results.

Hill and a group of mechanics left Ferrari en masse to set up a new team, ATS, for the 1963 season. This was a disastrous move for his career – the car was uncompetitive and unreliable, and after a further season with Cooper his Grand Prix career was effectively finished.

Brabham took the ambitious step of setting up his own team. Through the 1.5-litre engine era the car picked up points and podium finishes but was plagued by unreliability.

That all changed with the arrival of the Repco-engined BT19 in 1966 in time for the new 3.0-litre engine Formula. Brabham reeled off four wins and made history by becoming the first and so far only driver to win the championship in his own car.

The following year team mate Denny Hulme took the title off him. Now in his forties, Brabham continued racing until 1970. He won the first race of his final season at Kyalami and lost the lead on the last lap of two other races at Monaco and Brands Hatch.

Which of these drivers should go through to the next round of the Champion of Champions? Vote for which you think was best below and explain who you voted for and why in the comments.

	Jack Brabham	Phil Hill
Titles	1959, 1960, 1966	1961
Second in title year/s	Tony Brooks, Bruce McLaren, John Surtees	Wolfgang von Trips
Teams	Cooper, Brabham	Maserati, Ferrari, Yeoman Credit, ATS, Cooper
Notable team mates	Bruce McLaren, Dan Gurney, Denny Hulme	Wolfgang von Trips, Richie Ginther, Tony Brooks
Starts	123	47
Wins	14 (11.38%)	3 (6.38%)
Poles	13 (10.57%)	6 (12.77%)
Modern points per start1	7.63	7.77
% car failures2	34.96	27.66
Modern points per finish3	11.74	10.74
Notes	Back-to-back titles for Cooper in 1959 and 1960	Won championship in tragic circumstances when team mate von Trips was killed at Monza
	Then becaqme only driver to win a championship in his own car	Left Ferrari to join breakaway ATS team
	Runner-up in 1967 to team mate Denny Hulme	Never won another race after his championship season
Bio	Jack Brabham	Phil Hill

¹ How many points they scored in their career, adjusted to the 2010 points system, divided by the number of races they started
² The percentage of races in which they were not classified due to a mechanical failure
³ How many points they scored in their career, adjusted to the 2010 points system, divided by the number of starts in which they did not suffer a race-ending mechanical failure

You need an F1 Fanatic account to vote. Register an account here or read more about registering here.

Read the F1 Fanatic Champion of Champions introduction for more information and remember to check back tomorrow for the next round.

Have you voted in the previous rounds of Champion of Champions yet? Find them all here:

Champion of Champions

• Ayrton Senna voted Champion of Champions by F1 Fanatic readers
• Champion of Champions in stats
• Champion of Champions Final: Senna vs Schumacher
• Ayrton Senna vs Juan Manuel Fangio
• Michael Schumacher vs Alain Prost
• Ayrton Senna vs Jack Brabham
• Juan Manuel Fangio vs Jackie Stewart
• Alain Prost vs Niki Lauda
• Jim Clark vs Michael Schumacher
• Jack Brabham vs Lewis Hamilton

Images ©

F1 drivers have a long history of winning at Le Mans

This weekend sees the 77th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The great race has been won by 117 different drivers and over half of them – 62 – also competed in the Formula 1 world championship at some point in their career.

Many of them were race winners in F1, some were even champions – and a few made only brief appearances, usually for rather obscure teams.

Here is a complete list of the 62 F1 drivers who won the Le Mans 24 Hours.

1923-1949

Raymond Sommer – 1932, 1933
Philippe Etancelin – 1934
Eugene Chaboud – 1938

Our first three drivers all won the Le Mans 24 Hours in the inter-war years before the created of the world championship which today we call Formula 1. Sommer’s 1932 win saw him cover 218 laps at an average speed of 123kph (76.4mph). Last year’s winners did 381 laps (of a substantially similar circuit, albeit with two slow chicanes inserted) at an average speed of 216.3kph (134.4mph).

1950-1955

Louis Rosier – 1950
Peter Walker – 1951
Peter Whitehead – 1951
Hermann Lang – 1952
Tony Rolt – 1953
Duncan Hamilton – 1953
Jose Froilan Gonzalez – 1954
Maurice Trintignant – 1954
Mike Hawthorn – 1955
Ivor Bueb – 1955, 1957

Mike Hawthorn, F1 world champion in 1958, won the 1955 running of the race on a dark day for motorsport. Over 80 spectators were killed when Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes struck the car of Lance Macklin and was launched into the crowd.

Despite the horror, the race continued. Mercedes withdrew its cars, effectively handing victory to Hawthorn’s Jaguar team. In the aftermath the French, Spanish, German and Swiss Grands Prix were all cancelled. The ban on motor racing in Switzerland remains to this day.

1956-1961

1956: Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson win in a Jaguar D-Type

Ron Flockhart – 1956, 1957
Olivier Gendebien – 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962
Phil Hill – 1958, 1961, 1962

American Phil Hill, who passed away last year, won the Le Mans 24 Hours on three occasions, including his F1 title-winning year of 1961. In all three of his victories he partnered Olivier Gendebien in a Ferrari – first a 250 TR58, then a 250 TR59/60, and finally a 250 TRI/61.

Gendebien only made 14 F1 starts and never won a race, though he did lead his home event at Spa-Francorchamps in 1961. But he was one of the most prolific Le Mans winners, with four victories to his name.

1959-1965

Carroll Shelby – 1959
Roy Salvadori – 1959
Ludovico Scarfiotti – 1963
Lorenzo Bandini – 1963
Nino Vaccarella – 1964
Jochen Rindt – 1965
Masten Gregory – 1965

Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori gave Aston Martin their only win in the race 50 years ago. The team is returning to the top class at Le Mans this year after much success in the lower categories.

From 1960 to 1965 Ferrari enjoyed uninterrupted success. But in 1966 it finally met its match in the form of Ford. The American company had been in negotiations with Enzo Ferrari to purchase its company, and after Ferrari nixed the deal, Henry Ford vowed revenge on the race track. The Ford GT40 duly won the next four runnings of the race.

1966-1969

Bruce McLaren – 1966
Chris Amon – 1966
Dan Gurney – 1967
A.J. Foyt – 1967
Pedro Rodriguez – 1968
Lucien Bianchi – 1968
Jacky Ickx – 1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982
Jackie Oliver – 1969

On board for the last of the GT40′s four wins was Jacky Ickx. He went on to take six victories in the race, a record that stood until Tom Kristensen surpassed it in 2005.

Ickx won eight times in Formula 1, and was championship runner-up in 1969 and 1970. On the latter occasion he was beaten by another Le Mans winner, Jochen Rindt, though the Austrian had been tragically killed earlier that year at Monza.

1970-1972

Richard Attwood – 1970
Helmut Marko – 1971
Gijs van Lennep – 1971, 1976
Henri Pescarolo – 1972, 1973, 1974, 1984

Helmut Marko’s F1 career was cut short when he was partially blinded by a flying stone during the 1972 French Grand Prix He is now Red Bull’s motorsport consultant.

1972-1977

Graham Hill – 1972
Gerard Larrousse – 1973, 1974
Derek Bell – 1975, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987

Graham Hill added his name to the roster of F1 champions to win at Le Mans, triumphing in 1972 alongside Henri Pescarolo in a Matra-Simca MS670. That was the first of four wins for Pescarolo, whose team competes in Le Lans today. He started 56 Grands Prix from 1968-1976, his best result a single podium finish.

1978-1987

1978: Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud win in a Renault Alpine A442B

Didier Pironi – 1978
Vern Schuppan – 1983
Paolo Barilla – 1985
Hans-Joachim Stuck – 1986, 1987

It was at the start of the 1980s that active F1 drivers started to become a rarer sight at Le Mans. Colin Chapman explained why to Nigel Mansell when the British driver asked to compete in the race:

When I asked Colin, he immediately refused permission. I said: “In the contract you can’t unreasonably withold permission” and he replied: “I haven’t just invested £2.5 million in you this past year, just for you to get yourself wiped out at Le Mans.”

Whether it was sincere or not, the perception that Le Mans was more dangerous than F1 was not entirely accurate. At the time both disciplines occasionally witnessed terrible accidents that left drivers badly injured or worse. What is clear is that F1 teams were becoming more protective of their drivers, and today it is very rare for active Formula 1 drivers to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

1988-1990

1990: Martin Brundle, John Nielsen and Price Cobb win in a Jaguar XJR-12

Jan Lammers – 1988
Johnny Dumfries – 1988
Jochen Mass – 1989
Martin Brundle – 1990

Often hailed as one of the best drivers never to win a Grand Prix, Martin Brundle often raced sports cars during his F1 career. He won the world championship for sports cars in 1988 for Jaguar, and two years later saw victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours. However, it came after he had been drafted into the leading car when his original car had developed a problem.

1991-1992

1991: Johnny Herbert, Bertrand Gachot and Volker Weidler win in the Mazda 787B

Volker Weidler – 1991
Johnny Herbert – 1991
Bertrand Gachot – 1991
Derek Warwick – 1992
Yannick Dalmas – 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999
Mark Blundell – 1992

The all-F1-driver trio of Volker Weidler, Johnny Herbet and Bertrand Gachot won Le Mans in Mazda’s radical, rotary engine-powered 787B.

The following year another all-F1 driver trio won, this time for Peugeot in their 905. The team was run by Jean Todt, who was in the process of moving their motor sport focus from rallying to F1 by degrees. Ultimately, however, Peugeot failed to keep up with Todt’s ambition. He moved to Ferrari in 1993 and, well, you know the rest…

After an unsuccessful foray into F1 as an engine supplier from 1994-2000, Peugeot returned to Le Mans in 2007. It has several past F1 drivers on its roster this year (and one active Formula 1 driver – Sebastien Bourdais).

1993-1997

Geoff Brabham – 1993
Mauro Baldi – 1994
J.J. Lehto – 1995, 2005
Alexander Wurz – 1996
Michele Alboreto – 1997
Stefan Johansson – 1997

Michele Alboreto was one of the most experienced F1 drivers of all time, making 194 starts from 1981 to 1994, placing him 12th on the all-time list. He won five Grands Prix and was championship runner-up to Alain Prost in 1985.

He won the Le Mans 24 Hours for Joest Racing in 1997, then finished second and third on later appearances for Audi. Tragically, Alboreto was killed testing Audi’s Le Mans car at the Lausitzring in Germany in 2001.

1999: Pierluigi Martini, Yannick Dalmas and Jo Winkelhock win in a BMW V12 LMR

1998-2008

Allan McNish – 1998, 2008
Pierluigi Martini – 1999
Joachim Winkelhock – 1999
Emanuele Pirro – 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007

The last time the Le Mans 24 Hours was won by a team of ex-F1 drivers was in 1999, when Pierluigi Martini, Yannick Dalmas and Joachim Winkelhock won in BMW’s V12 LMR. The car, a joint project with Williams, was a stepping stone into Formula 1 for the team. It was demonstrated by Robert Kubica at last year’s BMW World Final in Mexico.

This decade has seen fewer Le Mans winners with F1 credentials than any other – just three. Former Benetton driver Emanuele Pirro has benefitted from Audi’s steamrollering of the opposition to rack up five wins.

Last year’s race was won by Audi again, with Tom Kristensen increasing his record tally of victories to eight. He was partnered by Rinaldo Capello and former Toyota F1 driver Allan McNish.

McNish is one of several former F1 drivers in the field this year. We’ll take a look at the full line-up and their Formula 1 pedigree later this week.

More on the Le Mans 24 Hours

• How quick would F1 lap at Le Mans?
• Which Formula 1 drivers would you put in a Le Mans 24 Hours team?
• Robert Kubica drives LMR V12 Le Mans winner at BMW World Final (Pictures)
• F1’s missing engine – the Wankel
• F1 drivers in the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours

Mario Andretti was world champion for Lotus in 1978

Last world champion: Mario Andretti, Lotus, 1978
Last Grand Prix winner: Mario Andretti, Lotus, Zandvoort, 1978
Last Grand Prix starter: Scott Speed, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Nürburgring, 2007
Last Grand Prix: Indianapolis, 2007

Although F1 has never been hugely popular in America, and probably never will be, it has a small but dedicated following in the USA. Unfortunately the last period of F1 racing in America showcased some of the sport’s very worst moments.

America’s F1 history

As with many sports, America’s domestic motor racing series have always attracted more interest among home fans than their drivers’ efforts to achieve success on the international stage. America has a long tradition of oval racing, from the once-great Indy Car series, which tore itself apart in the 1990s, to stock car racing which dominates the US racing scene today.

But Phil Hill was drawn to the international scene. He was the first American-born driver to win the Le Mans 24 Hours, and won the world championship for Ferrari in 1961. He left the team the year after, and retired from racing altogether in 1967. He died of Parkinson’s Disease last year.

Mario Andretti, whose family emigrated from Italy after World War Two and settled in Pennsylvania, took the title for Colin Chapman’s Lotus team in 1978. In a tragic parallel with Hill, he too won the championship on the day his team mate was killed.

Andretti last raced in F1 in 1982 and since then very few Americans have competed in the world championship. Once of them was Mario’s son Michael, whose 1993 effort was memorable only for being an unmitigated disaster.

Efforts to find a home for an American Grand Prix have been thwarted by more than just the public’s preference for Indy Car and NASCAR. F1’s promoters have shown no willingness to make concessions to secure a foothold in the world’s most lucrative market. Popular events at classic tracks such at Watkins Glen (1961-1980) and Long Beach (1976-1983) fell by the wayside for these reasons. But losing unloved venues like Las Vegas (1981-2) and Phoenix (1989-91) was easier to accept.

F1’s latest attempt to establish itself in America ended in 2007 and several of the manufacturer-backed teams voiced their displeasure that Bernie Ecclestone had been unable to agree terms with Indianapolis boss Tony George. Worse, F1 shot itself in the foot twice at the Brickyard: in 2002 the race ended in a contrived farce as the Ferrari drivers swapped positions on the final lap, and in 2005 only six cars took the start after Michelin discovered problems with its tyres.

America’s F1 future

America has never been short of good racing drivers – the problem has usually been that they aren’t interested in Formula 1, or they are, but can’t find any sponsors who would rather be on an F1 airbox than a NASCAR fender.

Marco Andretti, son of Michael, had until recently been tipped for a future F1 drive. But the team that showed the most interest in him, Honda, is up for sale and Andretti’s efforts are now focused on his Indy Car career.

Another up-and-coming America driver to keep an eye out for in the future is Alexander Rossi. Rossi won the BMW World Final in Mexico at the end of last year (pictures here), aged 17. He beat Mexican Esteban Gutierrez, who won the F1-supporting Formula BMW Europe championship last year.

As for America returning to the F1 calendar, I hope it happens soon. But with NASCAR and Indy Car ticket prices so much lower than what is charged in F1 I can’t see how an American race promoter could afford Ecclestone’s prices. And although America has many fine road racing circuits – Road America, Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta to name just three – few are up to F1′s safety and facilities standards.

Do you think we’ll see another American in F1 soon? Will F1 go back to the USA soon? Have your say in the comments.

American F1 driver biographies

• Mario Andretti
• Michael Andretti
• Phil Hill
• Scott Speed

Formula 1′s lost nations

• Formula 1’s lost nations: Argentina

Alexander Rossi in the BMW World Final 2008, Mexico

Ferrari's F60 - not the F2009 - broke cover yesterday

Ferrari’s new 2009 F1 car launched yesterday may mark another change in the team’s somewhat esoteric approach to naming its cars.

Here’s a brief guide to how Ferrari have named their F1 cars from 1950 to 2009.

The early Ferraris: 1950-1965

125, 166, 275, 375, 166T, 212, 500, 166C, 375S, 553, 625, 555, D50, 801, 246, 156, 246P, 156/63, 156 Aero, 158, 1512

There were no Ferraris on the grid for the first round of the new world championship at Silverstone in 1950. But four 125s, with V12 engines, were entered for the second round at Monaco eight days later. The following year Jose Froilan Gonzalez gave the team its first world championship victory at Silverstone in a 4.5-litre V12 375.

Ferrari’s first drivers’ titles came in the next two seasons as the championship switched to Formula Two regulations, Alberto Ascari dominating in his Ferrari 500. In 1955 Ferrari bought six D50 models from Lancia, which had fallen into severe financial problems, and entered the ‘Lancia-Ferraris’ in the 1956 and 1957 championships.

Another change of regulations arrived in 1961 with the introduction of 1.5-litre engined cars. Once again Ferrari was far better prepared than its rivals for the new era. Phil Hill won the championship in a ‘sharknose’ 156, but it came in tragic circumstances as team mate Wolfgang von Trips was killed at Monza. John Surtees was champion in another 1.5-litre car in 1964.

Three litres, 12 cylinders: 1966-1980

312, 312/69, 312B, 312B2, 312B2-72, 312B3, 312T, 312T2, 312T3, 312T4, 312T4B, 312T5

After Surtees’ title win Ferrari entered one of its barren spells. From the end of 1964 until the beginning of 1970 the team only won three races. The pace of improvement was slow in the early 1970s as well, until Luca di Montezemolo arrived in charge of the race team. Mauro Forghieri took over as designer, and Niki Lauda was recruited to race the cars. The team had hit on a winning formula. Without Lauda’s notorious crash at the Nürburgring, and the row with Enzo Ferrari it led to, the 312T and its successors might have won more than two championships.

The 312T (for transversale, referring to the tranverse-mounted gearbox) generation of Ferraris continued until 1980. Jody Scheckter won the drivers’ championship with the 312T4 in 1979 but it successor, the T5, was an utter disaster – Scheckter failing even to qualify at Montreal.

The turbo Ferraris: 1980-1988

126CK, 126C2, 126C2B, 126C3, 126C4, 156/85, F1/86, F1-87, F1/87-88C

The designation 126 was used to refer to Ferrari’s first 1.5-litre turbocharged cars. The first of these, 126C, was driven by Gilles Villeneuve in practice for the 1980 Italian Grand Prix (the only one to be held at Imola) but not raced. The 126CK was powerful but unwieldy, yet Villeneuve somehow dragged it to two wins in 1981. Villeneuve perished in a 126C2 the following year at Zolder – the last F1 driver to be killed in a Ferrari – and team mate Didier Pironi suffered terrible injuries in a similar crash in the same model at Hockenheim. Despite this the team won the constructors’ champinship, and followed it up again in 1983 with the 126C2B and 126C3, its last title for 16 years. Ferrari’s later turbo models picked up year-based designations. That ended in 1988, which was also the year Enzo Ferrari died.

Post-Enzo: 1989-1993

640, 641, 642, 643, F92A, F92AT, F93A

The 640, introduced in 1989, was revolutionary: the first F1 car to feature a semi-automatic gearbox controlled by paddles on the steering wheel. Nigel Mansell won the car’s debut race at Jacarepagua in Brazil, but unreliability meant the car only won two other races. Alain Prost took its 1990 successor (641) to the brink of the championship, but failed, and was so critical about the 642 he was thrown out of the team. He had a point though – it failed to win a race, as did its two successors…

From V12s to V10s: 1994-1999

412T1, 412T1B, 412T2, F310, F310B, F300, F399

The 1994 412T1 ended Ferrari’s three-year winless drought as Jean Todt swept away the political chaos and instilled a badly-needed discipline in the team. The 1995 412T2 was the last 12-cylinder Ferrari, robbing F1 of one of its most distinctive and romantic engine notes. Its successor, the F310 of 1996, heralded change not just because it marked the team’s switch to V10 engines: it also saw the arrival of Michael Schumacher. He had to wait until the ‘F3′ designations were done with before claiming his first title for the team, but they won the constructors’ championship with the F399 in 1999.

The 2000s: 2000-2008

F1-2000, F2001, F2002, F2003-GA, F2004, F2004M, F2005, 248 F1, F2007, F2008

In the new millennium Ferrari began the practice of using the year in its cars’ titles. The exception was 2006, when the designation 248 F1 was chosen – referring to the 2.4-litre V8 engines that became mandatory that year. In 2003 the letters ‘GA’ were appended onto the model name in memory of the late Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli. The F2004M was a modified version of the F2004 used in the first two races of 2005. The first five all won both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. The F2007 did the double as well, and last year’s F2008 added a 16th constructors’ title.

A new beginning, or another one-off?

F60

Ferrari’s 2009 F1 car is called the F60 to mark 60 years of Grand Prix participation. Whether next year’s car will be the F61, F2010, or something completely different, who knows?

NB. the lists do not include cars which did not race.

Read more: Ferrari F1 team information

Hill, from Santa Monica in California, was the only native-born American to win the Formula 1 world championship. (Mario Andretti, champion 17 years later, was an Italian emigree).

He joined Enzo Ferrari’s F1 team in 1958 – the year Mike Hawthorn became champion – having previously driven for Maserati.

In only his third race, at Monza, he set fastest lap and finished on the podium. Two years later he won his first Grand Prix at the circuit, starting from pole position and setting fastest lap on the way.

The following year Hill was champion but not in the sort of circumstances he would have wished. Team mate Wolfgang von Trips, a talented German driver and Hill’s closest contender for the title, lost his life when his Ferrari crashed into the crowd, in an accident that also killed 13 spectators.

Over the following seasons Ferrari fell into one of its periodic lapses. After that fateful day in Monza he never won another Grand Prix – in fact, he only finished eight out of 24.

Hill achieved success in other motor racing disciplines and was the first American to win the Le Mans 24 Hours. He took a total of three victories in the French sports car race.

Hill continued to visit Grands Prix long after his retirement. However in his later years he developed Parkins’ disease, medical complication from which eventually claimed his life.

He is survived by his wife Alma, three children Derek, Vanessa and Jennifer, and four grandchildren.

Read more about Phil Hill: Phil Hill biography

Bruce McLaren in the car that bore his name in the 1966 Mexican Grand Prix

Part three of our look at Formula 1′s 100 Grand Prix winners. This part looks at the careers of champions such as Jack Brabham, Phill Hill and Graham Hill.

21. Jack Brabham

First win: 1959 Monaco Grand Prix, Monte-Carlo
Total wins: 14
Nationality: Australian

Jack Brabham was one of the greatest driver-engineers – if not the very best. He persevered with the rear-engined Cooper and drove it to consecutive championship titles in 1959 and 1960. After that, front-engined cars were history in F1.

After that he formed his own team and, in 1966, became the first and only driver to win the championship in his own car. Barbham had a remarkably long career through some of the sports’ most dangerous periods, and in his retirement year of 1970 he was still wining races.

Read more about Jack Brabham: Jack Brabham biography

22 Rodger Ward

First win: 1959 Indianapolis 500
Total wins: 1
Nationality: American

Ward was twice a winner of the Indy 500 but it only counted towards the F1 championship when he first won it in 1959, the other win following three years later.

23. Jo Bonnier

First win: 1959 Dutch Grand Prix, Zandvoort
Total wins: 1
Nationality: Swedish

Swede Bonnier started out as an ice racer and made his first F1 start at Monza in 1956. He ran is own Maserati in 1957-58 before joining BRM and scoring his maiden – and only – Grand Prix win in 1959.

Bonnier remained in F1 until 1971, racing for the Porsche works team for two years, then Cooper and McLaren before entering his own cars once again. Towards the end of his career he had fallen some way off the pace of the leaders but he played an important role in the development of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Assoication.

24. Bruce McLaren

First win: 1959 United States Grand Prix, Sebring
Total wins: 4
Nationality: New Zealander

Bruce McLaren would create one of the most famous and successful Formula 1 teams of all time. But he enjoyed many successes as a driver before losing his life in a Can-Am crash at Goodwood.

McLaren’s first victory came at his eighth attempt, in the one-off F1 race at Sebring in 1959. It made him the youngest winner of all time – a record that stood until Fernando Alonso won the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2003.

McLaren learned a lot from team mate Brabham at Cooper and formed Bruce McLaren Motor Racing in 1964. He entered cars in F1 using his own team from 1966, and in 1968 scored his only win in his own car, at Spa-Francorchamps. The same year he took a memorable win in the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch.

Jim Rathmann

First win: 1960 Indianapolis 500
Total wins: 1
Nationality: American

Jim Rathmann won the last Indianapolis 500 that counted towards the world drivers’ championship in 1960.

26. Phil Hill

First win: 1960 Italian Grand Prix, Monza
Total wins: 3
Nationality: American

Phil Hill won many races in large-engined sports cars so it was ironic that he should win the first F1 championship run to 1.5-litre engine specifications in 1961. He made his F1 debut at the wheel of one of Bonnier’s Maseratis in 1958 before Ferrari promoted him to their race team.

He scored his first victory at Monza in 1960 in dominant fashion with pole position and fastest lap. He was champion the following year scoring six podiums from seven starts, though the achievement was marred by the death of team mate (and title rival) Wolfgang von Trips at Monza.

Read more about Phil Hill: Phil Hill biography

27. Wolfgang von Trips

First win: 1961 Dutch Grand Prix, Zandvoort
Total wins: 2
Nationality: German

Von Trips spent most of his career with Ferrari and could have been Germany’s first world champion. His F1 career got off to a rocky start, failing to make the grid on his debut at Monza in 1956 after crashing in practice, then breaking his leg at the same venue two years later.

In 1961 he was in contention for the world championship with two wins and two second places, but his two engine failures meant he was trailing team mate Phil Hill. At the penultimate round at Monza von Trips crashed again, this time with terrible consequences. His car was launched into the crowd and he perished along with 14 spectators.

28. Giancarlo Baghetti

First win: 1961 French Grand Prix, Reims
Total wins: 1
Nationality: Italian

Italian Giancarlo Baghetti remains the only driver to have won his maiden F1 race (aside from the winner of the first ever world championship event, Giuseppe Farina). There was an element of fortune about Baghetti’s win, however, and he never ran at the front of a Grand Prix again.

Read more about Giancarlo Baghett’s win in the 1961 French Grand Prix

29. Innes Ireland

First win: 1961 United States Grand Prix
Total wins: 1
Nationality: British

Innes Ireland impressed Colin Chapman enough for the Lotus boss to give him an F1 drive in 1959. With the rear-engined Lotus 18 in 1960 he had a strong, though win-less, year.

The following year he was injured at Monaco but bounced back to win the season finale at Watkins Glen. Despite that he was dropped by Chapman and spent the rest of his career in lesser teams.

30. Graham Hill

First win: 1962 Dutch Grand Prix, Zandvoort
Total wins: 14
Nationality: British

Graham Hill’s career spanned 18 seasons from 1958-1975 and a then-record of 175 start – an impressive achievement in itself given how dangerous that cars were at the time.

Hill was with Lotus when they entered F1 in 1958 and bore the brunt of their unreliability for two years – finishing only four times. He moved to BRM and scored his first win at Zandvoort season opener in 1962, adding three more wins that year to claim the championship.

The next season began with his first of five victories at Monte-Carlo – a record that would stand until Ayrton Senna won his sixth in 1993. He lost the 1964 title at the final round in Mexico when he was hit by Lorenzo Bandini – the team mate of eventual champion John Surtees.

Hill was runner-up for a third consecutive season in 1965 and left BRM after his 1966 season was blighted by mechanical failures. Returning to Lotus, he helped the team bounce back from the shock death of Jim Clark in 1968 by winning the title for them that year.

After that final championship he only won once more, and gradually fell down the grid before forming his own team backed by Embassy. He retired in 1975 after failing to qualify for the 1975 Monaco Grand Prix. Tragically, Hill was killed when his light aircraft crashed in fog that November, along with his promising young driver Tony Brise and four team members.

Read more about Graham Hill: Graham Hill biography

This is part three of a ten-part series: join us tomorrow for part four. To make sure you don’t miss it you can subscribe to F1 Fanatic by RSS or email.

Kimi Raikkonen achieved Ferrari’s 200th pole position in qualifying for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix.

The Italian team are far ahead of their rivals in terms of total pole positions, with McLaren on 135 and Williams on 125.

Here’s a complete breakdown of their achievement including every driver who scored a pole position for Ferrari.

Ferrari’s landmark pole positions

First pole position: Jose Froilan Gonzalez, 1951 British Grand Prix
50th pole position: Jacky Ickx, 1970 German Grand Prix
100th pole position: Patrick Tambay, 1983 South African Grand Prix
150th pole position: Michael Schumacher, 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix
200th pole position: Kimi Raikkonen, 2008 French Grand Prix

Top three teams with the most pole positions

Ferrari have the most pole positions and the most per race start with 26%. McLaren are second overall but Williams still have a better strike rate.

Who scored Ferrari’s 200 pole positions?

58 Michael Schumacher
23 Niki Lauda
13 Alberto Ascari
12 Felipe Massa
11 Rubens Barrichello
11 Jacky Ickx
7 Gerhard Berger
6 Juan Manuel Fangio
6 Phil Hill
5 Kimi Raikkonen
4 Rene Arnoux
4 Patrick Tambay
4 Clay Regazzoni
4 John Surtees
4 Mike Hawthorn
3 Nigel Mansell
3 Jose Froilan Gonzalez
3 Chris Amon
3 Giuseppi Farina
2 Gilles Villeneuve
2 Carlos Reutemann
2 Didier Pironi
2 Tony Brooks
2 Michele Alboreto
1 Wolfganf von Trips
1 Jean Alesi
1 Jody Scheckter
1 Lorenzo Bandini
1 Mario Andretti
1 Mike Parkes

Where have Ferrari’s 200 pole positions got them?

One of the finishing positions is unknown because tomorrow’s race hasn’t been run yet.

There is only one starting position a Ferrari has appeared in more often than pole position, which is third place (204 times).

Most pole positions: all teams

1 Ferrari 200
2 McLaren 135
3 Williams 125
4 Lotus 107
5 Renault 50
6 Brabham 39
7 Benetton 15
8 Tyrrell 14
9 Alfa Romeo 12
=10 Cooper 11
=10 BRM 11
12 Maserati 10
13 Ligier 9
14 Mercedes 8
15 Vanwall 7
16 Kurtis Kraft 6
17 March 5
18 Matra 4
19 Shadow 3
=20 Lancia 2
=20 Watson 2
=20 Jordan 2
=20 BAR 2
=20 Toyota 2
=20 Honda 2
=26 Stevens 1
=26 Lesovsky 1
=26 Ewing 1
=26 Lola 1
=26 Porsche 1
=26 Wolf 1
=26 Arrows 1
=26 Toleman 1
=26 Stewart 1
=26 BMW 1

The great Italian team is the only outfit that was present in the first ever championship Grand Prix still competing in Formula One.

Until 1988 the team was headed by founder Enzo Ferrari. But it has won more races since the death of Commendatore in August that year.

Ferrari’s 200 wins

Ferrari’s first win came in the 1951 British Grand Prix at Silverstone when Jose Froilan Gonzalez beat his country Juan Manuel Fangio, in an Alfa Romeo, by over 50 seconds. While celebrating the team’s when Enzo was also moved to feel sadness that they had beaten Alfa, who he had worked for for many years.

The following year Alberto Ascari won six of the eight Grands Prix and became Ferrari’s first world champion. He repeated the feat the following year.

The constructors’ championship was not formed until 1958, and Ferrari were runners-up that year, winning it for the first time in 1961. That year Phil Hill was champion for the team, but only after his team mate Wolfgang von Trips died along with 14 spectators during the season finale at Monza.

Ferrari’s 50th win came in 1974 and it was a pivotal victory for the team – it saw the first victory for Niki Lauda, who under Luca di Montezemolo’s stewardship would win championships for the team in 1975 and 1977. He left following a row with Enzo, who was furious at Lauda’s withdrawal from the season finale at Fuji in 1976.

Ferrari endured a winless 1986 but bounced back at the end of 1987, Gerhard Berger winning twice. His victory in Adelaide that year was the last in Enzo’s lifetime – he died in August 1988, a season dominated by McLaren. But when the teams arrived at Monza that September fortune smiled on Ferrari, both McLarens failed to finished, and Berger led home a Ferrari 1-2. It was the only race McLaren failed to win that year.

It wasn’t until 1999 that Ferrari won its first championship for 16 years, taking the constructors’ title once again. The following season Michael Schumacher won the drivers’ title – the first for a Ferrari driver since Jody Scheckter in 1979. Making up for lost time, he won the next four in a row.

Schumacher’s name is write large in the annals of Ferrari history. Of their 200 wins, 72 are his – over one third.

Ferrari race winners

1 Michael Schumacher 72
2 Niki Lauda 15
3 Alberto Ascari 13
4 Rubens Barrichello 9
=5 Jacky Ickx 6
=5 Gilles Villeneuve 6
=7 Carlos Reutemann 5
=7 Alain Prost 5
=7 Gerhard Berger 5
=7 Felipe Massa 5
=7 Kimi Räikkönen 5
=12 John Surtees 4
=12 Clay Regazzoni 4
=12 Eddie Irvine 4
=15 Juan Manuel Fangio 3*
=15 Mike Hawthorn 3
=15 Peter Collins 3
=15 Phil Hill 3
=15 Jody Scheckter 3
=15 René Arnoux 3
=15 Michele Alboreto 3
=15 Nigel Mansell 3
=23 José Froilán González 2
=23 Tony Brooks 2
=23 Wolfgang von Trips 2
=23 Didier Pironi 2
=23 Patrick Tambay 2
=28 Piero Taruffi 1
=28 Nino Farina 1
=28 Maurice Trintignant 1
=28 Luigi Musso 1*
=28 Giancarlo Baghetti 1
=28 Lorenzo Bandini 1
=28 Ludovico Scarfiotti 1
=28 Mario Andretti 1
=28 Jean Alesi 1

*Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Musso shared victory in the 1956 Argentinian Grand Prix.

Ferrari statistics

F1′s longest-running team have started 757 of the 784 world championship Grands Prix. That dwarfs McLaren (629) and Williams (498) the sport’s two other active long-runners.

Two hundreds wins in 757 starts gives Ferrari a 26.4% hit rate – over one in four. McLaren’s is 24.8% (156 wins) and Williams 22.6% (113 wins).

Here are the rest of Ferrari’s achievements at 200 Grands Prix wins:

Pole positions – 194
Fastest laps – 204
Races with at least one podium finisher – 440
Laps raced – 86470
Distance raced – 445401km
Races led – 355
Laps led – 12419
Distance led – 64862km
Championship points – 4735.27

Constructors’ championships – 15:
1961, 1964, 1975-7, 1979, 1982-3, 1999-2004, 2007

Drivers’ championships – 14:
Alberto Ascari 1952-3, Juan Manuel Fangio 1956, Mike Hawthorn 1958, Phil Hill 1961, John Surtees 1964, Niki Lauda 1975 & 1977, Jody Scheckter 1979, Michael Schumacher 2000-4

Photos: Ferrari Media

Related links

• Ferrari win 2007 constructors’ championship
• Debate: Will Ferrari surge to the titles?
• Chinese GP 2007 review: Raikkonen win blows title open
• Championship standings after Chinese GP

Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

There were no American drivers in F1 at all from 1994 to 2005. But the country has given F1 two champions and a host of Grand Prix winners. Here’s ten of the most memorable.

Mario Andretti

Surely the greatest American racing driver although, of course, he was a Cold War Italian immigrant. Took pole for the first race he started and, after dabbling with the sport while mainly racing in America, hooked up with Lotus’s Colin Chapman.

Andretti helped Chapman get the team back together and refined the devastating Lotus 79 which he won the 1978 title with. But team mate Ronnie Peterson died at the race where Andretti became champion.

Lotus struggled in ’80 and Andretti moved the Alfa Romeo, who were hopeless. He made a few appearances for Williams and Ferrari in ’82, before quitting his F1 career years too early.

His son Michael made an infamously fraught F1 attempt in 1993, which was cut short, but grandson Marco is showing great promise.

Eddie Cheever

A forgotten man of the eighties who too often had lacklustre machinery at his disposal. He got his hands on a Renault in 1983, but Alain Prost comfortably beat him with it.

Cheever often shone at home though, finishing second at Detroit in 1982 and third at Pheonix in 1989. That was his final season in the sport, however.

Scott Speed

Last year Speed became the first American in F1 since Michael Andretti in 1993. The results haven’t come his way yet but don’t underestimate his toughness – he battled ulcerative colitis in his younger years but kept his racing career together.

Plus, he’s got a great name.

Mark Donohue

A star in the States, Donohue finished third on his F1 debut in Mosport, Canada, in 1971. Four years later he attempted his first full F1 season with Penske and showed signs of great promise, running fifth at Anderstorp in Sweden.

But tragedy struck at the Austrian Grand Prix. Donohue crashed heavily in practice and, although he seemed fine in the aftermath, he fell unconscious and died of a brain haemorrhage on the way to hospital.

Bill Vukovich

A curious statistical footnote for F1 fans. Vukovich was never a full-time F1 driver, but five of his Indianapolis 500 starts in the ’50s counted towards the championship.

He won two, in 1953 and 1954, giving him a 40% win rate beaten only by fellow 500 winner Lee Wallard (50%), Juan Manuel Fangio (47.06%) and Alberto Ascari (41.94%).

Richie Ginther

Ginther’s fourth Grand Prix came at Monaco in 1961 where he chased Stirling Moss hard for second place. He left Ferrari at the end of the season and spent three years with BRM, finishing equal second with team mate Graham Hill behind the dominant Jim Clark.

He is best known for his single F1 win, which was Honda’s first Grand Prix victory, at Mexico in 1965. Ginther abruptly quit motor racing while practicising for the 1967 Indianapolis 500, and died in 1989 of a heart attack.

George Follmer

Follmer was 39 when he made his Grand Prix debut with Shadow in 1973. The car was frequently off the pace, and Follmer never built on the promise of his fine third place at Montjuich Park in his second Grand Prix.

He continued to race in Can-Am and Trans-Am, but his career was badly disrupted by a serious crash at Laguna Seca in 1978.

Dan Gurney

Often regarded as one of the best drivers never to win the championship, Gurney blessed F1 with the gorgeous Eagle-Weslake V12 car in 1967.

His F1 career spanned 12 seasons in which he won four times and scored 133 points – more than any American in F1 bar Andretti – but usually frustrated by unreliability. He best championship placing was fourth in 1961 and 1965, and perhaps his best years were lost to the Eagle project.

Peter Revson

He was an heir to the Revlon cosmetics fortune, but had to make his way into motor racing without the support of his family.

Nonetheless, after an abortive start in 1964 and a one-off appearance for Tyrrell seven years later, he entered F1 with McLaren in 1972 and scored four podium finishes. The following year he won twice at Silverstone and Mosport.

Squeezed out of McLaren by the arrival of Emerson Fittipaldi, Revson turned to Shadow in 1974. In practice for his third race with the team at Kyalami he crashed heavily and was killed.

Phil Hill

America’s ‘other’ champion. Hill won the 1961 title in dire circumstances – he took the title from Ferrari team mate Wolfgang von Trips who was killed at Monza along with 14 spectators.

Hill won three Grands Prix during his career and battled internal politics at Ferrari – eventually leaving with a crowd of mechanics to form ATS. But his F1 career petered out over the following seasons.

Related links

• “Mario Andretti: A Driving Passion” (Gordon Kirby, 2001)
• “Mario Andretti World Champion” (Nigel Roebuck, 1979)

Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport