Phil Hill is an underrated F1 champion | Thank Frankel it’s Friday

What I think perhaps gets lost is that at the time of his death. von Trips was on course to be the World Champion; and as we shall see, Phil Hill was quite fortunate to take the title, at least at Monza.

For more than anything, Enzo Ferrari wanted to win on home turf. His record at the top level of racing had actually been quite patchy in recent years. Caught out by the mid-engine revolution, his cars were nowhere in 1960 and well beaten by Cooper in 1959. Yes, Hawthorn has won the title in ’58 but with only a single win, and it was Vanwall who took the inaugural Constructors Title. Before that? Well Fangio in 1956 obviously, but that was really a Lancia wearing a Ferrari badge. Indeed you had to look back to the 1952-53 seasons when F1 was run to F2 regulations to find a period when Ferrari had last dominated.

But now Grand Prix racing was once more running to the regulations of a lower Formula and Ferrari having grudgingly accepted the cart was better when placed before the horse, the 1961 season was his. Hobbled by humble four-cylinder motors for the bulk of the season, the British garagista teams had no answer to Enzo’s aristocratic, V6-powered type 156 ‘Sharknose’ Ferraris. Only twice were they beaten, and on both occasions, the victories of Stirling Moss at Monaco and the Nürburgring in a private Lotus said far more about the talents of the Boy Wonder and the unique challenges presented by those most particular circuits than any lack of competitiveness from Ferrari.

As the trucks rolled into Monza the championship looked like this. Moss could be champion but only if he won both remaining rounds which given the power requirement of Monza, never looked likely. So it was down to von Trips versus Hill. And it was the German who was leading the title chase with 33 points compared to Hill’s 29. Moreover, he had already won twice, Hill just once and were points tied at the end of the season, the number of wins would be the determining factor. The maths gets complicated now because only the best five results from an eight-race season were allowed to count to driver’s total points score, but the fact remains that von Trips was on pole, not only in the title race, but also for the Italian Grand Prix. Phil Hill was down in fourth place, almost a second off his rival’s pace.

Ferrari’s desire to win on home soil is not difficult to deduce. In addition to regular drivers Hill, von Trips and Richie Ginther he drafted in the brilliant teenager Ricardo Rodriguez and Giancarlo Baghetti, the latter having already won the French Grand Prix in a Ferrari on his World Championship debut, but while racing for a group of Italian car clubs with a car loaned to them by Ferrari.

Five Ferraris then, the five most powerful cars on a circuit more demanding of power than any other. No surprise then that five of the six top qualifying spots were all taken by red cars. The only eyebrow raise was Rodriguez in second place next to von Trips, despite being hobbled by an older 65-degree engine while his four team-mates had more powerful 120 degree motors.

The race started and we don’t need to dwell on the rest. The accident, which appears to have been triggered by von Trips making a mistake and moving over to line up the corner without realising he was not clear of Jim Clark’s Lotus, happened as the field approached the Parabolica for the second time and that was that.

Except of course it wasn’t. Staggering though it is to contemplate today, they kept racing. But one by one, cars starting to wilt in the Italian sunshine. Rodriguez and Baghetti retired on laps 11 and 12 with mechanical maladies, three of the five Ferraris already gone with barely a quarter of the race run. Ginther only just made it past the half way mark before engine gave up too. Which left Phil Hill out on his own pursued by a pack of Lotus, Coopers, BRMs and Porsches. He held on, to win from Dan Gurney’s Porsche by a reasonably comfortable 31 seconds.

Was Hill lucky his car lasted? Well maybe, but I believe you make a lot of your own luck in racing and the fact Hill would end his career with three Le Mans wins, three at the even more arduous Sebring 12 Hours and one in the Daytona 24 Hours is not a coincidence. He was never the fastest driver in Formula 1, but if you wanted to make sure your car got home, he was the bloke to have in it.

With victory in Italy and von Trips no more, the championship was his. Ferrari didn’t even bother turning up for the final round at Watkins Glen, won in its absence by Innes Ireland, taking Team Lotus’s first World Championship win.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.