The Rear-Engine Revolution and a Lone Champion (The 1960s)
The 1960s brought technical revolution. British "garagista" teams like Cooper and Lotus proved the superiority of rear-engined cars. Enzo, a conservative engineer, was initially resistant, famously stating, "the horse pulls the cart, it doesn't push it." But he could not deny the results. For 1961, designer Carlo Chiti created the shark-nosed Ferrari 156, a dominant rear-engined car. The title fight came down to Ferrari's two drivers, American Phil Hill and German Wolfgang von Trips. Tragically, at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, von Trips collided with Jim Clark's Lotus, careening into the crowd and killing himself and 15 spectators. Hill won the race and the championship, but the celebration was non-existent.
The team fell into disarray following the "palace revolt" of 1961, where key figures, including Chiti, left to form their own team. Ferrari rebuilt, and in 1964, John Surtees—already a multiple-time motorcycle world champion—achieved the unique feat of winning the F1 world title, clinching it for Ferrari in the final race in North America. The team famously painted their cars in the blue and white of the North American Racing Team (NART) for the last two races as a protest against Italian sporting authorities. The rest of the decade saw Ferrari struggle against the new British powerhouses, Lotus and Brabham, and the mighty new Cosworth DFV engine.
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