Description

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The subject of this book is Ferrari’s racing history from 1960 to 1965, a period that was one of the most successful in the marque’s history so far.

In this era, which began with completion of the transition from front-engined to rear-engined configuration, Scuderia Ferrari won just about everything with a variety of iconic machinery that included the ‘shark-nose’ 156 and the fabled 250 GTO. Driving Formula 1 Ferraris, Phil Hill and John Surtees delivered two World Championship titles in the space of four years. Ferrari sports cars racked up a string of six consecutive victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours, a feat subsequently surpassed only by Porsche. 

• 1960: A year of transition in F1, struggling with the powerful front-engined Dinos while rear-engined Cooper blew away its rivals; Le Mans yielded five of the top six places with Testa Rossas placed 1–2.
• 1961: F1 supremacy with the all-conquering ‘shark-nose’ 156 — Ferrari’s design for the new 1½-litre formula — saw Phil Hill emerge as World Champion after Wolfgang von Trips’s death at Monza, and brought Ferrari’s first constructors’ title; another Testa Rossa sweep at Le Mans gave Olivier Gendebien his third Ferrari victory in this classic race and Phil Hill his second.
• 1962: After the departure of key engineering brains, F1 fortunes plummeted, with no victories all year; but Ferrari’s onward march in sports car and GT racing continued, enhanced by the arrival of the 250 GTO; Gendebien and Hill won Le Mans yet again.
• 1963: Former motorcycle champion John Surtees began the effort to restore F1 success against Lotus pre-eminence; Ferrari’s rear-engined sports cars finally bore fruit as Lorenzo Bandini and Ludovico Scarfiotti in a 250 P won Le Mans, where Ferraris now took the top six places.
• 1964: With the F1 title chase going down to the wire, John Surtees delivered another pair of drivers’ and constructors’ crowns driving the new V8-powered 158; Nino Vaccarella and Jean Guichet in their 275 P headed yet more Ferrari steamrolling success at Le Mans.
• 1965: The last year of 1½-litre F1 brought a lean Ferrari season while Lotus again dominated; sports car success continued, topped by an unexpected sixth consecutive Le Mans victory, achieved by Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory in a 250 LM.

This book covers this period in detail for the first time and exclusively features the work of one of the greatest racing photographers ever.

About the Author

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William Huon has written two previous books on Ferrari, a biography of Enzo Ferrari titled Enzo Ferrari: Une vie pour la course (French only) and his history of the Ferrari 250 GTO, Ferrari 250 GTO: L’empreinte du légende (in French and English). He met most of the drivers of this period as a young enthusiast at Reims, Albi and Pau, and his passion for motorsport history and all things Ferrari have remained undiminished ever since. He lives near Orléans, France.

David Waldron began a long-time role as English commentator at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1988. That year brought Jaguar’s first ‘modern-era’ victory and for Waldron it formed a pleasing link to childhood in his native Ireland when he followed this classic race on the radio in 1951, the year of Jaguar’s first Le Mans success. Resident in France since 1974, he has written three books about F1, including one about Ferrari, and continues to apply his deep knowledge of motorsport to translations of books.

Once described as the ‘Cartier-Bresson of Motor Racing’ due to his uncanny ability to capture key moments, Bernard Cahier was a renowned photo-journalist. Starting in 1952, he covered both F1 and sports car races for innumerable magazines around the world and sometimes even raced himself, notably at Sebring and in the Targa Florio. He founded the IRPA (International Racing Press Association) in 1968 and remained its president until his retirement in 1985.