Ferrari dominated the 1961 British Grand Prix, and the race featured both the first four-wheel drive and last front-engined car in a World Championship Formula One event.
Key Facts
- Race date
- 15 July 1961
- Circuit
- Aintree Circuit, near Liverpool
- Race winner
- Wolfgang von Trips (Scuderia Ferrari)
- Championship round
- Race 5 of 8
- Notable car
- Ferguson P99-Climax (first 4WD in F1 WC)
- Grid position of winner
- 4th on the grid
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The 1961 Formula One season was contested under new regulations that favoured Ferrari's rear-engined cars. A wet weekend at Aintree, with torrential rain disrupting qualifying and the race start, shaped conditions for the fifth round of the World Championship of Drivers and the International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.
Scuderia Ferrari dominated the race, with Wolfgang von Trips winning from fourth on the grid, Phil Hill finishing second, and Richie Ginther third. The experimental Ferguson P99-Climax, driven partly by Stirling Moss after Jack Fairman started, became both the first four-wheel drive and last front-engined car entered in a World Championship race, though it was ultimately disqualified for receiving on-track assistance.
Von Trips's victory was his last; he died two races later at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix. Phil Hill went on to win the Drivers' Championship that season. No German driver won a full-length Grand Prix again until Michael Schumacher's first victory at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix. The 1961 British Grand Prix was also the final World Championship race on home soil for Stirling Moss before a career-ending accident in 1962.