Jim Clark driving for Lotus won his first Drivers' Championship with three races to go.[1] He won seven races in the championship, a number that would not be beaten until 1988, when Ayrton Senna won eight, and a win percentage that nearly beat Alberto Ascari's record from 1952. Lotus also won the Manufacturers' Championship for the first time.[2]
Every pole position and race in the 1963 championship were won by British drivers, the first time that this was achieved by any single nation. (Italy is sometimes considered to have achieved this feat in 1952, but this only goes if the Indianapolis 500 is excluded from the statistic.)
The British Grand Prix was moved from Aintree to Silverstone. Aintree had alternated with Silverstone since 1955, but 1962 was the last time that they hosted F1.
The Monaco Grand Prix received the honorary title of European Grand Prix and, more importantly, functioned as the 1963 season opener. With little driver changes in the front-running teams and constructors withholding to introduce new designs to the narrow streets of Monte Carlo, the battle between the 1962 championship protagonists was expected to restart. Only five drivers were guaranteed a starting place: the previous World Champions or winners of the Monaco Grand Prix. The rest had to fight in qualifying over the remaining eleven spaces. 1962's runner-up Jim Clark managed this with ease in his Lotus-Climax. He posted the fastest practice time and started the race on pole position. Reigning champion Graham Hill started second in his BRM, while John Surtees (Ferrari) and Richie Ginther (BRM). Hill and Ginther took the lead at the start, but the first nine cars kept going nose-to-tail. Clark managed to get past Hill on lap 7, but then went wide at the Station hairpin and going down to third once again. He tried again and the lead changes hands multiple times, before Clark went ahead definitively and increased his lead to 17 seconds at three-quarters race-distance. Then suddenly, his gearbox jammed and his wheels locked. Hill was gifted the win, ahead of teammate Ginther and Bruce McLaren in the Cooper.[3]
The Belgian Grand Prix was run at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the fastest circuits of the year, with the 1.5 litre cars running full throttle for some three minutes per lap. Clark was still suffering from gearbox issues, so Hill took pole position, ahead of Dan Gurney (Brabham) and local hero Willy Mairesse (Ferrari). Clark started eighth, but somehow, managed to take the lead before the first corner was reached. Hill followed him and the pair had a 15-second lead after the first lap. The race was run in very wet conditions and Clark had the upper-hand, stretching out a lead of his own to almost 30 seconds at half-distance. Then when Hill's gearbox broke, his win looked sealed, expect the heaviest storm of the day flooded the track. Five drivers crashed and it was discussed to stop the race, but Clark cautiously completed the laps, ahead of McLaren and Gurney.[4]
Moving north some 300km (190mi), Circuit Zandvoort hosted the Dutch Grand Prix. Clark started on pole, ahead of Hill and McLaren. The three arrived side-by-side at Tarzan corner, but the positions were unchanged. Brabham had started fourth but got up to second while his teammate Gurney drew everyone's attention with a heroic recovery drive after a bad start. Hill got back up to second, but his BRM was overheating. Gurney had climbed to fourth, but a strut underneath the car had come loose and a pit stop brought him back down the order. Hill's engine had enough on lap 58 and he was forced to pit, letting Surtees into second and Gurney up to third. The latter had been working wonders again, but Clark, meanwhile, was a lap ahead of everyone else. He won the race to make it a "grand slam", ahead of Gurney and Surtees, a late spin by the Ferrari driver gave Gurney a deserved place as 'best-of-the-rest'.[5]
In the Drivers' Championship, Jim Clark (Lotus) was leading with 18 points, ahead of Richie Ginther (BRM with 11 and Bruce McLaren (Cooper) and Dan Gurney (Brabham), both with 10. Lotus was leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 19 points, ahead of BRM with 14 and Cooper and Brabham with 10.
Rounds 4 to 7
Championship leader Jim Clark scored another pole position at the French Grand Prix, ahead of Graham Hill and Dan Gurney. At the start, Hill stalled his engine, along with Masten Gregory and the unrelated Phil Hill, but they were allowed to be push-started without further consequence, which was a diversion from the normal rules by the French race director. Behind Clark, a group of Brabhams and BRMs were fighting over second place. A couple of laps later, a series of retirements had changed the picture, and Clark's engine was not reaching full rpm either. Jack Brabham was catching the leading Lotus, but when the rain fell, Clark was again the fastest man on track and took the chequered flag to complete another "grand slam" and a hattrick of wins. When an electrical wire had come loose, Brabham's engine died. Although he could restart it, second place was now up for grabs. Hill took first advantage but his clutch slipped and it was Tony Maggs for Cooper that was the first to finish behind the almighty Clark. During the race, the stewards decided to penalise the three drivers that stalled on the grid by adding a minute to their race time.[6] Hill was still classified as third, but at a later point, it was decided to withhold his championship points. No points were awarded for third place.[7]
For the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Clark scored a fourth consecutive pole position, ahead of Gurney and Hill. Clark bogged down at the start, but he was back in front after just four laps. Brabham was the first of a group tightly fighting over second place. Gurney took over when Brabham's engine blew up. The race went on without incidents until Gurney's engine blew up on lap 60 and spread oil across the track. Hill went into second place before he starting running out of fuel, letting Surtees into second and coasting over the line in third place. Clark scored his fourth win in a row.[8]
Clark looked unstoppable going into the German Grand Prix, putting his Lotus on pole once again, ahead of Surtees and Bandini (BRM). Clark held the lead at the start and was expected to run away with it, but sixth-starting Richie Ginther overtook him and so did Surtees, later in the first lap. Surtees and Clark soon passed Ginther, but still, it was a Ferrari in front and not a Lotus. And that remained for a while, with Clark going faster through the corners, but his Climax engine cutting out a cylinder, slowing him down on the straights. Graham Hill retired with a failing gearbox. When Surtees set a new lap record, Clark eased off to at least ensure a second place. Surtees delivered Ferrari's first win in two years. Ginther finished third. There were multiple heavy crashes during the race: Surtees's teamamte Willy Mairesse came off worst with a broken arm.[9]
Clark was now 20 points ahead in the championship, and he would clinch the title if he won the Italian Grand Prix, no matter the results of his rivals. Unlike in 1962, the organisers had planned to use the full 10km (6.2mi)Monza circuit, including the oval. Bob Anderson crashed his Lola in practice and described it the safest accident he could wish to have. However, the police went round the track and noted that there were no fences on the inside of the oval to protect spectators. The organisers quickly agreed, seeing that there was a petition going to refuse the race unless the banking was eliminated, and declared to use the road circuit only for the rest of the weekend. Surtees qualified on pole in front of Ferrari's home crowd, ahead of Hill and Clark. Hill got the best start and was followed by Clark, before the traditional slipstreaming commenced and the lead changes hands multiple times through the next laps. Soon, though, Surtees and Clark were on their own, and then the Ferrari engine blew up. This gifted Clark the lead, but without a slipstream, the Climax engine was not up for it, so Hill and Gurney caught him and they formed a new trio at the front. But Hill's clutch gave out just after half-distance and Gurney's BRM had trouble with its fuel system, so Clark was left alone once more and his pace dropped. By this point, however, he was a lap ahead of second-placed Ginther and he cruised to the finish, to take the win and claim the 1963 championship.[10]
Jim Clark (Lotus) led the championship with 51 points, ahead of Richie Ginther (BRM, 24) and John Surtees (Ferrari, 22). On the basis of points, Ginther could still get level with Clark, but only the six best results in the season would count towards the championship, so on the minute chance that he would win the last three races, a number of third and second-place finishes would be discounted. It marked Clark's and Lotus's first titles, and it was the first time that a driver secured the title with three races to go. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Lotus stood on 51 points, ahead of BRM (28) and Ferrari (22).
Rounds 8 to 10
Even with the title in the pocket, Jim Clark was not easing off and fought for pole position for the United States Grand Prix, but it was 1962 champion Graham Hill that snatched it by a tenth of a second. His rivals in the hunt for second position in the championship, John Surtees and Richie Ginther, started on the second row. At the start, Clark's engine stalled, so Hill was unchallenged into the first corner. The Lotus was pushed to life and the freshly crowned champion started his race over a lap down. On lap 7, Surtees took the lead from Hill and Dan Gurney took third place from Ginther. Hill followed the Ferrari but had had enough of it by lap 30. He tried to overtake twice, but both times, Surtees repassed him on the straight. By lap 80, Hill was falling back with handling problems, but Surtees came into the pits with a failing engine. The BRMs of Hill and Ginther finished 1–2, ahead of Clark in third, whose engine was misfiring but had seen more than ten other drivers retiring.[11]
Clark was back on top for the Mexican Grand Prix, he started ahead of Surtees and Hill. Ginther, second in the championship standings, started fifth. At the start, Hill missed a gear and moved down to eighth. Fourth-starting Gurney moved up to second. Surtees pitted on lap 19 and was disqualified for needing a push-start from his mechanics. Double World Champion Jack Brabham inherited third place and managed to get past Ginther. Clark finished an lonely race at the top, almost a lap ahead of Brabham and Ginther. Hill finished fourth.[12]
Going into the final race, the South African Grand Prix, Ginther (29 points), Hill (25) and Surtees (22) could all still finish runner-up in the championship. The deal would be done if one of them could beat Clark to victory, but the champion started on pole position. Surtees started fourth, was up to second at the end of the first lap, but was back to fourth on lap 5. He suddenly retired on lap 43 when his engine blew up. Brabham had started second but fell back with a loss of power, while teammate Gurney was running a comfortable second, actually keeping up with Clark but not able to do more than that. Ginther's driveshaft failed on lap 44, letting Hill into third place and gifting the Brit second place in the championship.[13]
The Drivers' Championship ended with Jim Clark (Lotus) on 54 points, winning his first title, ahead of BRM teammates Graham Hill and Richie Ginther, both scoring 29 points, but the Brit getting second place on countback. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Lotus gathered 54 points, winning their first title as well, ahead of BRM with 36 and Brabham with 28.
Points were awarded to the top six classified finishers. Only the best six results counted towards the championship.
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 six 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:
1 2 3 Only the best 6 results counted towards the championship. Numbers without parentheses are championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.
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