Richie Ginther

I had driven the experimental, rear-engined Dino 246 at Monaco in 1960, and although I only completed 70 of the 100 laps I came away with a pretty good knowledge of the circuit. The '61 race was, of course, the very first championship GP of the new, 1.5-litre formula.

While the British teams had been screaming blue murder about the loss of the 2.5-litre cars, Enzo Ferrari had set about building cars to the new regulations, so we arrived at Monaco with three of the new, shark-nosed Dino 156s for Phil Hill, Taffy von Trips and myself to drive.

Phil and Taffy were given the 65-degree V6 engines, as they had already been proved in a couple of minor races, and I got the new, 120-degree unit, which had never raced before.

In practice I found that it worked very well. It was no more powerful than the 65-degree engines, but it had a lighter crankshaft with a lighter rotational mass, so it attained its maximum power sooner than the others. This was an infinitesimal advantage that didn't show up on the dyno at all, but it really worked for me and I made second fastest practice time, 0.2secs behind Stirling Moss in Rob Walker's Lotus and 0.3secs ahead of Clark in the works car.

At the start of the race I made a perfect getaway and took the lead and after three laps I had 5secs on Moss, who was just ahead of Jo Bonnier in the Porsche. Stirling soon got into his stride though, and after 10 laps my lead was down to 1-second, and even then I was getting threatening pit signals telling me to drop back behind the other two Ferraris and let them try and deal with Moss. They were serious!

Ferrari didn't want me - the new boy in the new car - to be the winner of that race. So I slowed down and Stirling and Jo Bonnier went past and I let Hill and von Trips catch up and go by. In no time at all Moss was 10 seconds ahead, with our Ferraris mixing it with Bonnier's Porsche.

Phil then passed Bonnier and tried to catch Moss, and I got by Trips and set off after Jo, passing him about lap 40. I then began pushing Phil and we got Stirling's lead down to about 7 seconds at the halfway mark. I was sure I could get away from Phil if only I could get by, but I just didn't have the power.

Although I was all over him our team manager, Tavoni, didn't get the message until about lap 70, and finally signalled Phil to let me by three laps later. His idea of letting me by, it turned out, was to wave me past as we went into the tunnel - but not back off at all!

We went in side-by-side but I just didn't have the power to overtake and had to drop back, as there is only one line through there. Then I almost got alongside him going into the hairpin, but he wouldn't back off and I had to hit the brakes and drop behind once more.

Eventually, he made a mistake (also at the hairpin) and I went past and just disappeared. But I had lost a lot of time to Moss because my team-mate just would not let me by. I thought that wasn't nice of Phil at all, and that's putting it kindly! I thought we were friends...

With him out of my way I made up a bit of time on Moss, but then, every time I took a tenth or two off him that delightful SOB found a way of getting it back, and that went on for the rest of the race. Afterwards, much was made of how Stirling in the Lotus beat the more powerful Ferraris, but Monaco was a handling circuit and - compared to the Lotus - the Ferrari didn't handle worth a damn. And, of course, Moss was Moss!

So, Stirling beat me to the chequered flag by just 3.6secs, with Phil Hill over half a minute behind. I was very satisfied with my performance, although to have put so much pressure on Moss and to have him respond so well was a bit depressing.

The race lasted two hours and 45 minutes, and I was so tired afterwards that when I tried to climb out of my car my legs just went from under me.

It had been a marvellous race and it certainly did my reputation a power of good. I was swamped with congratulations afterwards, except from Enzo Ferrari - he never said a word...

I was the number three driver and I was expected to finish third behind Phil or Taffy, keeping the opposition away from them, and in the Belgian GP a few weeks later that also included our new team mate, Olivier Gendebien. Ferrari felt that his knowledge of Spa might give him an advantage, so I was ordered to see to it that his yellow Ferrari did not finish before a red one!

When the time came to renew my contract for 1962 I was offered less money than before, with no guarantee of any racing - only testing - so I joined BRM.

As miserable as he was, I enjoyed working for Enzo Ferrari because his heart was in racing and winning, but he had a strange way of accomplishing that. He was a dictator.