1966 Formula One season

The 1966 Formula One season was the 20th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 17th World Championship of Drivers , the 9th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers , and four non-championship races open to Formula One cars. The World Championship was contested over nine races between 22 May and 23 October 1966.

Jack Brabham won the Drivers' Championship in a Brabham - Repco . [ 1 ] It was his third and last championship. Brabham was also awarded the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, their first title. [ 2 ] As of the 2025 season, 1966 is the only time the World Championship has been won by a driver in a car of his own construction and bearing his own name.

John Taylor collided with Formula Two driver Jacky Ickx during the German Grand Prix . Taylor was badly burned in the accident and succumbed to his injuries four weeks later.

The season saw "the return to power", with the FIA doubling the maximum allowed engine displacement from 1.5 to 3 litres .

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1966 FIA World Championship .

Dubbed "the return to power", the new formula of 3 litre naturally-aspirated engines was met with enthusiasm. Not all projects were finished in time for the start of the season, however. Coventry Climax had decided to quit their business of building racing engines, despite winning their latest championship in 1965 , so most British teams had to find new contracts: [ 5 ]

Two teams made their debut this year:

The 1966 season started off with the Monaco Grand Prix . The twisty track seemed for a large part to negate the difference in power between the 3 litre Ferrari engines and the 2 litre BRM and Climax engines (used by Lotuses ). 1963 and 1965 champion Jim Clark qualified on pole position in the Lotus-Climax, ahead of 1964 champion John Surtees for Ferrari. On the second row started the two BRMs of Jackie Stewart and 1962 champion Graham Hill . At the start, Clark's car got jammed in first gear and...

At first, Stewart was setting the pace during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix , but on the high-speed circuit, Surtees qualified on pole in his Ferrari, more than three seconds ahead of Rindt in the Cooper-Maserati. Stewart started third, while Clark could only manage tenth. As the flag was waved, rain was falling at the far end of the track. Stewart and Hill crashed in the Masta Kink , already known as the most dangerous corner, and the Scot got trapped under his car in a pool of leaking fu...

When Surtees was not granted a drive with Ferrari in the 24 Hours of Le Mans , he left the Italian team and, with that, gave up his F1 drive as well. He found a seat at Cooper, where Ginther had left to return to his old team Honda . Bandini qualified on pole for the French Grand Prix , with old teammate Surtees and new teammate Mike Parkes beside him on the first row. At the start, Surtees fell back with fuel pick-up issues, before he retired on lap 5. Brabham got up to second place, the only d...

In the Drivers' Championship, Jack Brabham ( Brabham - Repco ) took the lead with 12 points, ahead of Lorenzo Bandini ( Ferrari , 10 points), followed by Surtees , Stewart and Rindt (all 9 points). In the Manufacturers' Championship, Ferrari had the lead with 21 points, ahead of Brabham (12) and BRM and Cooper (both 9).

The British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch saw the Brabham duo of Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme qualify at the front, ahead of Dan Gurney in the Eagle , Graham Hill for BRM and Jim Clark for Lotus . Next came John Surtees in the Cooper , to make it five different constructors in the top six. At the start, it was Brabham and Hill who led away, until it started raining and Jochen Rindt pitted for rain tyres . Rindt got up to second place, pressing Brabham for the lead, while Surtees was third. As the r...

Brabham and Hulme again qualified first and second for the Dutch Grand Prix , ahead of Clark, still driving a 2 litre Climax -powered Lotus. Hulme's engine went wrong on lap 17, eventually retiring on lap 37, and leaving Brabham vulnerable to Clark's offense. While lapping some backmarkers, the Brit passed the Australian and pulled out a substantial lead. At half-distance, Graham Hill was the only driver not lapped by Clark and Brabham, but then, a shock absorber on the Lotus's crankshaft broke ...

The German Grand Prix was run at the Nürburgring Nordschleife . In fear of a dull race with not enough entries, the FIA allowed Formula Two entries to race simultaneously. They would not be eligible for F1 championship points. The lighter 2 litre cars topped the timings in qualifying, with Clark, Surtees and Stewart occupying the front row. But at the start, the more powerful 3 litre cars got away better: Surtees held the lead, but Brabham and Lorenzo Bandini were his nearest rivals. John Taylor...

After winning four consecutive races, Jack Brabham ( Brabham ) had a sizeable lead in the Drivers' Championship with 39 points, ahead of Graham Hill ( BRM , 17 points) and John Surtees and Jochen Rindt (teammates at Cooper , both on 15 points). In the Manufacturers' Championship, Brabham led with 39 points, ahead of Ferrari (23) and BRM (22).

The teams that had had to make due with limited power until now, could finally take delivery of new 3 litre engines for the Italian Grand Prix : BRM introduced H16 engines for the works team and their customer Team Lotus , the Eagle was powered by the new Weslake V12 , and Honda were on the grid for the first time this year with their own V12. Much to the joy of the tifosi , Ferrari teammates Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti qualified at the front, ahead of Jim Clark ( Lotus ), John Surtees (...

As per usual, the championship ended overseas, firstly with the United States Grand Prix . Freshly crowned champion Brabham qualified on pole with last year's champion Clark next to him. Bandini started third but quickly took the lead, before Brabham went back through on lap 10. Bandini later repassed the Australian but then retired with an engine failure. Halfway through the race, Brabham retired as well. Clark had been left behind by the leading duo but inherited the race win. Rindt ran out of...

The last round of the season, the Mexican Grand Prix , saw Surtees back on pole, for the first time in a Cooper, ahead of Clark and Ginther. The Honda driver took the lead at the start, leading fifth-starting Rindt and fourth-starting Brabham. Surtees fell down to fifth but had charged back to first at the half-way point. He won the race, seven seconds ahead of Brabham and at least a lap ahead of Hulme and the rest of the field. [ 23 ]

Jack Brabham had won the Drivers' Championship with 42 points, ahead of John Surtees (28) and Jochen Rindt (22). It was Brabham's third Drivers' Championship (following wins in 1959 and 1960 ), moving him into the second place in the record standings, behind five-time champion Juan Manuel Fangio . He became the first and, so far, only driver to win the championship in a car carrying his own name. The Brabham team also scored 42 points in the Manufacturers' Champions and won the title, ahead of F...

Points were awarded to the top six classified finishers. Only the best five results counted towards the championship. Formula 2 cars were not eligible for Championship points.

The International Cup for F1 Manufacturers only counted the points of the highest-finishing driver for each race. Additionally, like the Drivers' Championship, only the best five results counted towards the cup.

Numbers without parentheses are championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points were awarded in the following system:

Four other Formula One races were held in 1966, which did not count towards the World Championship.

Grand Prix

The film Grand Prix is a fictionalized version of the 1966 season, which includes footage of the actual races edited together with footage of actors in staged racing scenes.