1960
SEASON

Race 1: Argentina

The teams came down to Argentina from Europe in February to start the 1960 season, having competed at the last round of the 1959 championship in Sebring, Florida, in the United States only two months previously. Stirling Moss was on pole position in Buenos Aires in his Rob Walker Cooper-Climax with Team Lotus driver Innes Ireland alongside, although he had been 1.6 seconds slower in qualifying. Completing the four-person front row were the BRMs of Hill and Jo Bonnier. The Lotus team had come out... At the start, Ireland made a fantastic start and had a good lead at the end of the first lap over Bonnier, Graham Hill, and Phil Hill (no relation to Graham), who had started from the second row in his Ferrari Dino 246. Moss made a poor start and was eighth at the end of the first lap. On the second lap, Ireland spun, and as he was doing this, Moss was driving a blinding lap, passing the Cooper of Carlos Menditeguy, Froilan Gonzalez's Ferrari, Jack Brabham's Cooper, Phil Hill's Ferrari, and Irel...

Race 2: Monaco

There had been a non-championship round at the Goodwood circuit near the southern English coast, the Glover Trophy, won by Innes Ireland in a Lotus. During this time, most drivers were competing in sportscar races, such as the 12 Hours of Sebring in March; and the Targa Florio and the Nurburgring 1000km in May. Moss took pole by a second with Jack Brabham's Cooper and Chris Bristow's BRP Cooper alongside, while Jo Bonnier shared the second row with Tony Brooks's BRP Cooper. Bonnier took the lead at the start, with Brabham second and Moss third ahead of Brooks and Bristow in the BRP Coopers. Moss took Brabham on lap 5 and then shadowed Bonnier until lap 17, when he took the lead. Further back Bristow went out with gearbox trouble. Brabham passed Bonnier on lap 20, but the Swede fought back and, on lap 2...

Race 4: Netherlands

Although there were disputes over prize money and several teams withdrew after qualifying, there was still a decent field for the race with Stirling Moss on pole position in his Walker Lotus-Climax. Jack Brabham was alongside in his Cooper-Climax, and Innes Ireland was on the outside of the front row in his factory Lotus 18. The BRMs of Jo Bonnier and Graham Hill shared the second row. Brabham made the best start and led Moss and Ireland with Team Lotus's Alan Stacey up from the third row on the...

Race 5: Belgium

The Belgian Grand Prix of 1960 was one of the most disastrous races in Formula 1 history, with the weekend claiming two drivers and two others suffering serious injuries in practice. This race, which took place at the second-fastest and perhaps the most dangerous circuit of the year, the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the southern part of Belgium, saw two significant accidents on Friday, with Moss suffering an axle failure at the super-fast Burnenville corner and being thrown from the car in the e...

Race 6: France

Three weeks after the disastrous Belgian Grand Prix, the World Championship contenders gathered at the super-fast straights of Reims. Stirling Moss was out of action. Tony Brooks had switched from the BRP Cooper team to try the new Vanwall VW11, while Team Lotus had hired Ron Flockhart to replace Alan Stacey. BRP had two new drivers in, Henry Taylor and Bruce Halford. In practice, both Scarabs blew their engines, so neither Lance Reventlow nor Chuck Daigh was able to race. Jack Brabham was on po...

Race 7: Britain

Although there was only a fortnight between the French and British GPs, several changes occurred when the F1 circus arrived at Silverstone. The Vanwall VW11 did not re-appear: Tony Brooks went back to his BRP Cooper, and with both Scarabs having blown up at Reims, they were not present, although Chuck Daigh and Lance Reventlow shared a third factory Cooper, Daigh being faster and thus getting to race. Aston Martin showed up with DBR5s for Roy Salvadori and Maurice Trintignant. At the same time, ...

Race 8: Portugal

With the German Grand Prix being cancelled after safety concerns and complaints about the general quality of the AVUS track in Berlin, there was a month between the British and Portuguese GPs. At the challenging and dangerous Boavista street circuit in Porto , Stirling Moss made his F1 comeback after being out of action since the disastrous Belgian GP in June. The only other change of note was that local hero Mario Cabral was found a drive in the second Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper-Maserati. In pr...

Race 9: Italy

With the World Championship settled in favour of Jack Brabham and the Italian authorities deciding that the Italian Grand Prix would be held on the combined road and oval course at the Monza Autodrome near Milan (making it the fastest circuit of the year), all the big British teams boycotted the event, citing the fragility, extreme roughness and poor construction of the concrete banking and the field consisted of the works Ferraris, the Coopers of Scuderia Eugenio Castellotti and Scuderia Centro... The powerful Ferraris dominated, with Phil Hill sharing the front row with fellow American Ritchie Ginther and Willy Mairesse with a couple of Coopers on the second row. In the race, Ginther and Hill led while Mairesse was slowed by team orders to help tow a fourth Ferrari – an F2 car driven by Wolfgang Von Trips – away from the two Porsches. This allowed Giulio Cabianca to run third in his Castellotti Cooper. Mairesse eventually returned to third place while Hill passed early leader Ginther to ...