Top 10 F1 cars of the 1960s
An innovative decade in F1, as shown via the cars ranked below
Autosport Retro
Telling the forgotten stories and unearthing the hidden gems from years gone by.
The 1960s featured huge advancements in Formula 1, with some of the decade’s innovations still being a part of motorsport well into the 21st century.
For the second top 10 F1 cars of each decade, we look at the era that included the rise of British teams and Lotus becoming the benchmark.
As before, we have looked at each car’s level of achievement, how innovative they were, the quality of the opposition, and their impact on grand prix racing. In this era, longevity is also a factor.
10. Lotus 18
A sign of what was to come for Lotus?
Photo by: Motorsport Images
- Wins: 4
- Poles: 5
- Titles: 0
It didn’t win a championship, but the type 18 was the first successful F1 Lotus. Colin Chapman’s early attempt at a mid-engined grand prix car was light and rapid. Innes Ireland won three non-championship races with it in 1960, including the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone ahead of reigning world champion Jack Brabham.
Stirling Moss’s Rob Walker-run Cooper T51 had taken pole for the Argentinian season opener, but Ireland was alongside him and the Lotus looked set to usurp the 1959 pacesetter. Even after the arrival of Cooper’s improved T53, Moss used a Lotus 18 to win the Monaco Grand Prix – scoring the first world championship win for Lotus in the process – and then the Briton pipped Brabham’s T53 to pole at Zandvoort.
Brabham won that race but still trailed Moss by three points – and team-mate Bruce McLaren by six – when they headed to Spa. Moss’s crash during practice when a wheel came off the Lotus put him in hospital and out for three GPs.
The Team Lotus squad was unable to step up to challenge Cooper, and Brabham steamrolled to his second crown. John Surtees, making the switch from two to four wheels, took his Lotus 18 to pole in Portugal, but it wasn’t until Moss returned that Cooper was defeated again, at the United States GP finale.
F1 switched from 2.5-litre to 1500cc regulations for 1961 and the 18 continued with the smaller Climax powerplant. In a season dominated by Ferrari, Moss scored brilliant wins at the Monaco and German GPs, the latter with uprated 18/21 spec.
Lotus finished second in the constructors’ championship in both 1960 and 1961 (when the works team also ran the 21), but one wonders what the car could have achieved had Moss contested the full 1960 campaign.
9. Ferrari 158
The 158 returned Ferrari to winning ways with John Surtees
Photo by: Motorsport Images
- Wins: 2
- Poles: 2
- Titles: 2 (1964 drivers’ and constructors’)
Its record is relatively modest but Mauro Forghieri’s 158 brought Ferrari back to the forefront of F1 and pipped two of the great cars of the 1500cc era to a title double.
Ferrari had gone into freefall after dominating in 1961, going winless in 1962 and losing key members of staff to the nascent ATS operation. Motorcycle racing legend Surtees, having served his F1 apprenticeship in Lotus and Lola machinery, was ready to lead a revival and the 1964 158 was a semi-monocoque car, following Lotus’s innovation.
Aside from a second place at Zandvoort, reliability was poor early on and Lotus’s Jim Clark raced into an early points lead with three wins, chased by BRM’s Graham Hill. After five of the 10 rounds, Clark was on 30 points (nine were then awarded for victory) and Hill had 26, with Surtees only on 10.
But the fortunes switched and Clark hit reliability problems just as Ferrari came on strong. Surtees took pole, set fastest lap and won the German GP at the Nurburgring, then team-mate Lorenzo Bandini won a race of attrition for Ferrari in Austria, with a modified 156.
Surtees took pole at Monza by 0.8 seconds and won the Italian GP after a fierce duel with Brabham’s Dan Gurney, on a day that Clark and Hill both retired for the second race in a row. When Hill led Surtees home at the US GP after poleman Clark hit yet more trouble, it set up a three-way title shootout in Mexico.
There, Bandini controversially clashed with Hill and, when Clark’s Lotus famously slowed with a split oil line, Surtees went by Bandini on the final lap to take the second place he needed to secure the title by one point over Hill. Ferrari also beat BRM to the constructors’ crown.
Surtees scored two more podiums with the 158 early in 1965 before switching to the 1512, a similar chassis fitted with a flat-12 engine instead of a V8. It proved rapid but unreliable and there were no more wins for a design that probably deserved more.
8. Cooper T53
Cooper dominated the 1960 season
Photo by: Motorsport Images
- Wins: 5
- Poles: 3
- Titles: 2 (1960 drivers’ and constructors’)
The T51 had kick-started the rear-engined revolution but even Jack Brabham reckoned the lowline T53 was the first ‘proper’ grand prix Cooper. Stung by the pace of the Lotus 18 at the start of 1960, Brabham and Bruce McLaren had to get proactive to bring the T53 to fruition, but it was instantly competitive.
Brabham battled eventual winner Moss’s Lotus at Monaco, where McLaren finished second. Brabham then went on a winning streak of five consecutive victories to easily take his second crown.
With Moss (who reckoned the T53 was easier to drive if potentially not quite as fast as the Lotus) recovering in hospital following his serious Spa crash, Cooper was left relatively unopposed. McLaren took three podiums during his team-mate’s winning run, and in France cars made by Cooper – the two factory T53s and two T51s – finished 1-2-3-4.
Even though a recovered Moss won the US GP finale, McLaren still finished second in the standings and Cooper beat Lotus and Ferrari to constructors’ championship success.
As with several cars on this list, the T53 raced on for a couple of years in private hands, now with 1500cc power instead of the 2.5-litre Climax FPF engine. Though there were no more major successes, Surtees helped establish his F1 reputation with his performances in a Reg Parnell/Yeoman Credit Racing T53 in 1961.
7. Brabham BT19
Jack Brabham took his third title in 1966
Photo by: Central Press / Getty Images
- Wins: 4 (+1 for BT20)
- Poles: 3 (+2 for BT20)
- Titles: 2 (1966 drivers’ and constructors’)
The BT19 is the car in which Jack Brabham managed the unique feat of winning the world championship in a car bearing his own name. The Ron Tauranac design was not a groundbreaker, even using a spaceframe chassis when others had moved to monocoques, but the rugged Repco-engined BT19 was a pragmatic solution to the new three-litre rules in 1966.
While others tried to find suitable power or reliability (or both), Brabham racked up the points. He’d already fired a warning shot by beating Surtees’s hotly tipped Ferrari at the non-championship BRDC International Trophy and the Briton’s challenge would later falter when he fell out with the Italian team and headed to Cooper.
After a retirement in Monaco (gearbox) and fourth at a chaotic and wet Spa, Jack won four consecutive GPs – in France, Britain, the Netherlands and Germany – putting him into an unassailable lead in the championship.
The BT19 had originally been built to take the aborted 1500cc Coventry Climax flat-16 engine and was joined by the BT20 during 1966. That model was similar but had various developments, including chassis revisions and a wider track.
Denny Hulme used it for much of 1966 and scored four podiums, while Jack switched to one for the final two rounds, scoring a pole at Watkins Glen and finishing second in Mexico. Brabham took both titles, with the BT19 having done the lion’s share of the work.
Both cars raced on into 1967. Brabham took pole with the BT19 (now with the Repco 740 series engine instead of the 620) at Monaco and finished second at Zandvoort, while Hulme won at Monaco in the BT20. Brabham also scored a pole with the BT20 in South Africa, where Hulme dominated until brake problems struck.
An honourable mention here goes to the BT24, which soon became the team’s main car in 1967. It was considerably lighter, neater and more compact than its predecessors, scored three wins and helped take both the constructors’ crown and drivers’ title with Hulme. It was a better car but misses out on this list because of the BT19’s special place in history and the fact that the BT24 was so comprehensively outpaced by the Lotus 49.
6. BRM P261
Autosport once ranked the P261 as the third best car to not win an F1 title
Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images
- Wins: 6
- Poles: 5
- Titles: 0
Tony Rudd’s P261 was BRM’s monocoque answer to the Lotus 25. It was a consistent frontrunner across 1964-65, twice taking BRM to second in the constructors’ standings.
The P261 made its world championship debut at Monaco, where Hill and Richie Ginther scored a 1-2. Fortunes swung back and forth between Lotus, Ferrari and BRM, with Hill winning the US GP to head a three-way fight for the title at the 1964 finale in Mexico.
In a dramatic showdown, Bandini’s clash with Hill limited the Briton to a delayed 11th. Surtees took second and beat Hill to the title by one point, the ‘best six results counting’ rule costing the BRM man the crown.
Clark and Lotus dominated in 1965 but Hill took two more wins on his way to second in the table, including arguably his finest drive at Monaco. The P261 also helped rookie team-mate Jackie Stewart star, the Scot taking third in the points and a first GP win at Monza, as well as victory in the non-championship BRDC International Trophy.
The car still wasn’t done in 1966. BRM was one of many teams not to be ready with a full three-litre car for the new F1 regulations and the P261 ran with a two-litre engine in several races. Stewart won the Monaco GP – completing the car’s hat-trick around the principality – and even took third at the French GP in a P261 as late as 1967, albeit in a race of attrition.
The P261 looked and sounded great, had good longevity and was very reliable for the era. The only thing it didn’t do was win an F1 crown.
It’s worth noting that the two-litre version of the P261 was also successful in the Tasman Series in Australia and New Zealand, Stewart leading Hill in a ‘winter world championship’ 1-2 in 1966.
5. BRM P57
Graham Hill took his maiden world title with the BRM P57
Photo by: David Phipps
- Wins: 6
- Poles: 3
- Titles: 2 (1962 drivers’ and constructors’)
The V16 was a glorious-sounding failure and the P25 made BRM a winner, but it’s the P57 that helped the British team reach its ultimate goal and landed a championship double.
Once BRM moved from the Coventry Climax FPF four-cylinder engine to its own 1.5-litre V8 it became a force in the 1500cc era. The P57 won the 1962 season opener, the Dutch GP, in the hands of Hill, but the car that would be its biggest problem appeared that weekend: the Lotus 25.
Clark and the monocoque Lotus tended to set the pace – Clark won 6-1 on poles and was 5-3 ahead of Hill on fastest laps – but reliability was suspect. By contrast, BRM’s engineering was now solid and Hill finished all but two races in the top four.
When leader Clark suffered an oil leak in the South African GP decider, Hill swept by to beat his rival 4-3 on wins and take the crown by 12 points. BRM also took the constructors’ crown and managed something Lotus didn’t: a 1-2, Ginther following Hill home at Monza.
The Lotus 25 was more reliable in 1963 and Clark dominated, but the P57 still took 1-2s at Monaco and Watkins Glen. Ginther’s astonishing finishing record also secured a 2-3 in the drivers’ standings, ahead of Surtees.
The P57 continued being used in privateer hands to the end of the 1500cc era in 1965, long since having done its job of establishing BRM as a true F1 frontrunner.
4. Matra MS80
One of Jackie Stewart's personal favourites
Photo by: Motorsport Images
- Wins: 5
- Poles: 2
- Titles: 2 (1969 drivers’ and constructors’)
One of the great F1 cars that is often overlooked, the stiff Matra MS80 was one of Stewart’s favourites. That’s reason enough to make it a candidate, but it was also highly effective during its brief time at the top.
Having learned from the successful MS10, Matra built the brand-new MS80 for 1969. Stewart and team-mate Jean-Pierre Beltoise used the old MS10 for the season-opening South African GP, which JYS won, before the MS80 arrived for the Spanish GP. Beltoise was third, while Stewart won by two laps…
Stewart and the MS80 were almost unbeatable for the first half of the season, the car proving fast both with and without the high wings that were banned mid-event at Monaco. Had the driveshaft not failed while Stewart was leading at the principality he would have won the first six GPs of the year.
The only consistent challenge to the Ken Tyrrell-run Matra International equipe came from Jochen Rindt’s Lotus 49B, but the Austrian was struck by unreliability and misfortune. A titanic battle at the British GP only ended when a rear wing endplate came loose on the Lotus and threatened to cause a puncture, leaving Stewart to win again.
The canny Stewart clinched the title in style by winning the Italian GP slipstreamer by 0.08s from Rindt with a long fourth gear, with Beltoise third.
Luck deserted Stewart over the final three rounds, but the MS80 easily secured both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles before Tyrrell and Stewart parted ways with Matra.
3. Ferrari 156 ‘Sharknose’
Phil Hill powered this car to glory in 1961
Photo by: David Phipps
- Wins: 5 (+2 wins for later, non-Sharknose 156s)
- Poles: 6 (+1 pole for later, non-Sharknose 156)
- Titles: 2 (1961 drivers’ and constructors’)
The legendary 156 ‘Sharknose’ probably wasn’t the finest chassis ever but Ferrari had done its homework, while the British teams argued about the impending switch to 1.5-litre engines and had a clear power advantage in 1961.
Ferrari lost the championship opener at Monaco thanks to a combination of Lotus agility and Moss virtuosity, but still scored a 2-3-4. Zandvoort was more representative: Ferraris were 1-2-3 in qualifying and Wolfgang von Trips led Phil Hill in a 1-2.
Things were even more emphatic at the high-speed Spa. This time Ferrari finished 1-2-3-4, Hill narrowly leading von Trips across the line. There was almost a hiccup in France, where the leading runners retired, but Ferrari was saved by rookie Giancarlo Baghetti, running an older version of the V6.
Ferrari’s only other defeat came courtesy of Moss at the Nurburgring in changeable conditions, but tragedy struck at Monza. When championship leader von Trips clashed with Clark, his Ferrari went into the crowd, killing 15 spectators as well as the German.
Hill won the race and clinched the title, before Ferrari – with its first constructors’ crown also wrapped up – decided to skip the final round in America.
Hill started 1962 with three straight podiums, but BRM and Lotus now had V8 power and had moved the game on. Ferrari was also in turmoil thanks to several key figures walking out; development stalled.
The 1963 156 was substantially revised, with new bodywork and suspension, plus more power. Surtees won the German GP, while Bandini took the V6’s final success with the 156 Aero at the gruelling 1964 Austrian GP after all the frontrunners retired.
2. Lotus 49
Hill's 1968 title for Lotus was clouded by Jim Clark's tragic death
Photo by: David Phipps
- Wins: 12 (11 in 1967-69, 1 in 1970)
- Poles: 19
- Titles: 2 (1968 drivers’ and constructors’)
The significance of the Lotus 49 nearly gets it to the top of this list. It made the engine a stressed member of the chassis and introduced the Ford Cosworth DFV, surely the most important engine in F1 history. It only really misses out due to the more impressive record of one of its predecessors.
The Lotus 49 arrived at the 1967 Dutch GP and, in terms of pace, made all other F1 cars of the early three-litre era obsolete. Graham Hill qualified fastest and Clark won the race. It would be 11 months before any other car took pole for a world championship GP and yet both titles slipped through Lotus’s grasp…
Clark won more races than anyone else and Lotus led more than 50% of the laps in 1967 (despite the 49 missing the first two GPs), but reliability was poor. Hill only finished two races in the 49 that season and Clark repeatedly lost probable wins, limiting him to third in the standings behind consistent Brabham pairing Hulme and Jack Brabham.
The following season began with a 1-2 in South Africa, but then two things happened. Lotus lost talisman Clark in a fatal F2 accident and the Stewart-Tyrrell-Matra combination came on strong. The team’s domination ended, but Hill stepped up to take the title with three wins, while Lotus secured the constructors’ championship.
Rindt’s 49B was the closest thing to a challenger for Stewart and Matra in 1969, taking five poles. But reliability was again suspect, Lotus being limited to a win for Hill at Monaco and Rindt’s breakthrough success at the Watkins Glen finale. There were also the infamous crashes in Spain when the high wings failed on both cars.
Lotus was pushed down to third in the standings but there was still time for one last hurrah for the 49C. While the team perfected the Lotus 72, the old design was pressed into service in several 1970 races and Rindt sensationally won the Monaco GP when leader Brabham slid off at the final corner.
The 49 also gets a bonus point for having won GPs in the hands of four drivers, more than any other car on this list: Clark, Hill, Rindt and Walker-run privateer Jo Siffert.
PLUS: F1's great Lotus landmarks - the 49
1. Lotus 25/33
The first Lotus title winner
Photo by: Motorsport Images
- Wins: 19 (14 + 5)
- Poles: 24 (14 + 10)
- Titles: 4 (1963 drivers’ and constructors’, 1965 drivers’ and constructors’)
It’s a close-run thing between the top two, remarkable Lotus F1 designs. The 25/33 edges it partly on its greater achievements but also because it was the first Lotus to win an F1 championship – it laid the groundwork for what was to come, including the 49.
Chapman caused a sensation – and not a little controversy – when the 25 appeared at the Dutch GP, Lotus already having sold the new spaceframe 24 to customers. The monocoque 25 had a lower frontal area and paved the way for greater rigidity.
Clark duly set the pace in 1962, leading six of the nine championship races at one point or another, but unreliability allowed Graham Hill and BRM to take both titles. There was no stopping the Coventry Climax V8-engined 25 in 1963, however, Clark scoring seven poles and seven wins from the 10 rounds as Lotus swept to a title double.
The 25 continued winning into 1964 before Lotus introduced the 33. That was very similar, with suspension modifications largely aimed at utilising wider tyres, so we’ve put the cars together here.
More misfortune cost Clark and Lotus the 1964 crowns, but they dominated again in 1965. Clark won six GPs, including the French GP with an older 25 chassis after his 33 suffered problems in practice. The final split was 14 wins for the 25 and five for the 33.
With two-litre Climax power, the 33 was still fast enough to take two poles – Monaco and Germany – and a third place in the Netherlands at the start of the three-litre era in 1966. Clark would also use the model to beat Stewart’s BRM to the 1967 Tasman crown.
By then almost all leading F1 cars were monocoque chassis, a development that became virtually ubiquitous across motorsport. Even though the 25/33 only won world championship races in Clark’s hands, its importance, level of success and longevity puts it at the top of this list.
PLUS: F1's great Lotus landmarks - the 25
Jim Clark and Lotus was a legendary combination
Photo by: Autocar / LAT Images via Getty Images
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