Jack Brabham's first Formula One victory, also the first World Championship win by an Australian driver and the factory Cooper team.
Key Facts
- Race date
- 10 May 1959
- Laps
- 100
- Circuit length
- 3 km
- Race distance
- 315 km
- Winning margin
- 20 seconds ahead of Tony Brooks
- Championship round
- Race 1 of 9 in 1959 season
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The 1959 Formula One season opened at Monaco, with the factory Cooper Car Company fielding Jack Brabham in the Cooper T51 alongside rival entrants including Ferrari. The circuit, roughly three kilometres in length, demanded 100 laps for a full race distance, setting a demanding test for drivers and machinery.
Jack Brabham drove his Cooper T51 to victory at the Circuit de Monaco on 10 May 1959, finishing twenty seconds ahead of Tony Brooks in a Ferrari 246. Maurice Trintignant, the 1958 Monaco winner, completed the podium a lap down in third, driving a Rob Walker Racing Team Cooper T51.
Brabham's win marked the first World Championship Grand Prix victory for an Australian driver and the first for the factory Cooper team. It launched Brabham toward a future three-time world championship career and helped establish Cooper as a leading constructor in the sport.