The story behind Ferrari's dominant 'shark'

Anyone who thinks today's Mercedes supremacy is tiresome won't view Ferrari's stranglehold on the 1961 season so fondly.

The Scuderia's performance at that year's British Grand Prix - the last time a team locked out the podium in its entirety - was a paragon of dominance, braving tough weather conditions to clinch a 1-2-3 finish.

But, like Mercedes today, its supremacy was built on the foundations of having interpreted a new set of regulations better than the rest.

The FIA was worried the speeds F1 cars could reach - although modest by today's standards - were too fast for the ensemble of circuits the championship frequented. The decision was made to bring the engine capacity down for 1961, to 1.5-litre engines, a not entirely popular decision.

Regardless, that ruling suited those who had already thrown the smaller engines into the mix.

Ferrari's 'Dino' V6 engine enjoyed an outing in 1960 with Wolfgang von Trips at the wheel, while Porsche and Coventry Climax had already run smaller-capacity units in Formula 2. Conversely, Maserati went in with little experience, while BRM had to use Climaxes, as its own engines weren't ready for the new season.

Ferrari, then, was undoubtedly well prepared for the new formula, but nor did it rest on its laurels.

Instead of persisting with the F2 engine it had experience of, the team's engineering personnel - conducted by the larger-than-life Carlo Chiti - decided to crack open the V-angle of the engine, from 65° to 120°, to increase the balance and lower the centre of gravity. It was also lighter, bringing the car closer to the first ever minimum weight limit - set for 1961 at 450kg.

The result was Ferrari's 156, visually unlike anything else seen on the grid.

Back then, front-mounted radiators were a la mode, but one of Chiti's flourishes was to chisel the nose into a point, positioning two diagonal air vents to feed the radiator. Famously, this became known as the 'sharknose' - a sleek, avant-garde alternative to the more agricultural aesthetic 
of the 156's counterparts.

One of those, the Lotus 18, was a small, boxy design. A year old as it began the 1961 season, it somehow bested the trio of 156s that Ferrari sent to the season opener at Monaco.

There, Stirling Moss put in a terrific drive to clinch victory, minus the side panels on his car. Nevertheless, Phil Hill beat von Trips to third to kick off their burgeoning championship battle.

Next time out the 156 had the room to unlock its searing pace and annexed the front row at Zandvoort - the order Hill, von Trips and Ginther, although Hill barely made it to the start having lost a clutch pin, which required a hasty fix.

Just as Hill's problem abated, Ginther almost stalled off the line and was swallowed up by Jim Clark and Graham Hill. But von Trips hit the front, and the German led throughout to win - Ferrari team-mate Phil Hill resisting Clark for second.

Carrying its irrepressible dominance into Spa, the usual trio was joined by home heroes Willy Mairesse and Olivier Gendebien, and the latter helped the team to Formula 1's 
last ever 1-2-3-4 finish - Hill taking the honours by less than a second from von Trips, with Ginther and Gendebien some way back.

Ferrari almost went from heroes to zeroes at Reims, as the intense heat of the French summer brought out the worst in the 156s.

Asked to slow down, Hill and von Trips - leading the race - did so but von Trips's engine called it a day before half-distance. The nightmare continued; Hill spun where the circuit had begun to break up, stalling and collecting Moss, while Ginther succumbed to oil pressure problems. Thankfully, late entrant Giancarlo Baghetti claimed victory, holding up with an old-spec 65° V6 to win first time out.

Normal service resumed for the next grand prix at Aintree, where the field was greeted by a typical British summer - torrential rain bombarded the outskirts of Liverpool, leading Ferrari to use plastic covers for the engine intakes to protect the carburettor.

Hill and Ginther were on the front row, finding a moment when the track was at its driest, while the qualifying fly in the ointment was Jo Bonnier, who hurled his Porsche to join them on row one - ahead of von Trips.

Off the line, in conditions better suited to powerboat racing, von Trips pipped Ginther and Bonnier to grab second place, with Moss on the American's tail. Hill was determined to forge into a lead, while a mistake from Ginther allowed Moss to pass.

Coming up to lap tail-ender Keith Greene, Hill inadvertently relinquished the lead to von Trips, followed by Moss, who kept close tabs on the Ferrari.

But the Brit, hustling von Trips all the way, sustained fading brakes and eventually pulled into the pits on the 45th lap, bumping Hill and Ginther into the top three. And that's how it remained; von Trips claimed his final Formula 1 victory, with 46s over Hill in hand.

Moss won the next race at the Nurburgring to end Ferrari's winning streak, while von Trips remained in control of the championship - heading to Monza ahead by four points from Hill.

There, the championship fight ended in tragedy. Ferrari locked out five of the top six positions on the grid - von Trips ahead of them all. But the German dropped back in the early stages, which brought him next to Jim Clark's Lotus.

The two made contact on the run to the Parabolica and von Trips climbed the embankment - flying into the crowd.

Sixteen people perished, including von Trips, while Hill reluctantly took the title in the most tragic of circumstances.

A version of the 156 raced after the car shredded its shark-like features at the end of 1962, but was never as successful or as dominant as it was in 1961.

A sad footnote is that all of the chassis were subsequently destroyed by Ferrari so only reproductions of this beautiful title-winning machine remain.

Race record

Starts 48
Wins 5
Poles 6
Fastest laps 5
Other podiums 13
Points 133

Specification

Chassis Tubular steel spaceframe
Suspension Double wishbones, coil springs and telescopic dampers
Engine Ferrari 178 120° V6
Engine Capacity 1477ccc
Power 190bhp @ 9,500 rpm
Gearbox Five-speed manual gearbox
Tyres Dunlop
Weight 460kg
Notable drivers Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips, Richie Ginther, Giancarlo Baghetti, Ricardo Rodriguez, Lorenzo Bandini, Willy Mairesse, Olivier Gendebien