1966 Formula 1 season

The "Return to Power" created significant upheaval as teams scrambled to find engines for the new formula. Coventry Climax, one of only two engine manufacturers to make their engines widely available to customers, withdrew, leaving only BRM, who decided to make a 3-litre engine by bolting two 1500cc V8s on top of each other to make an H16 for the new BRM P83. Lotus also opted for the BRM engine, for the Lotus 43, and as between them BRM and Lotus had won all the races in the 1965 season, much was expected from this engine. Unfortunately for both teams, it turned out to be underpowered and enormously heavy.

Of the challengers, Brabham were the best prepared, having arranged with Australian company Repco to build an engine based on the Oldsmobile alloy V8. This was first fitted into the Brabham BT19 for Jack Brabham, and then into a new Brabham BT20 for Denny Hulme. Ferrari naturally built their own engine, and had a suitable 3-litre sports car V12 to use as a starting point for the Ferrari 312/66. Cooper Cars' business relationship with Maserati led to an arrangement for an update to the late-1950 Maserati V12 engine to install in the bulky new Cooper T81. Honda also created a V12 engine in-house for the Honda RA273, but it arrived late and was again much too heavy.

Of the newcomers, Eagle commissioned an alloy-block V12 engine from Weslake and would use 2.5-litre Climax engines until that was ready, the interesting new McLaren M2B was let down by its modified Ford quad-cam Indy car engine, and Shannon did not have the funding to develop the 1950s Climax FPE V8 engine. For the privateers, the old 4-cylinder 2.5-litre Climax FPF engine was a viable but uncompetitive option, and 2-litre versions of the BRM and Climax V8 engines remained in use all season.

Monaco was not a representative venue to start the championship, as Jackie Stewart was able to win using one of BRM's 2-litre Tasman BRM P261s. John Surtees won in Belgium in the Ferrari, but then fell out with Ferrari management and moved to Cooper. That left Jack Brabham able to dominate the summer, and the championship was secure before Ferrari, Lotus and Cooper could return to competitiveness.

The races

01 Jan 1966 > South African Grand Prix at East London

01 May 1966 > Gran Premio di Syracusa at Siracusa

14 May 1966 > International Trophy at Silverstone

22 May 1966 > Monaco Grand Prix at Monte Carlo

12 Jun 1966 > Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps

03 Jul 1966 > Grand Prix de l'ACF (French Grand Prix) at Reims

16 Jul 1966 > British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch

24 Jul 1966 > Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort

07 Aug 1966 > German Grand Prix at Nürburgring

04 Sep 1966 > Italian Grand Prix at Monza

17 Sep 1966 > Gold Cup at Oulton Park

02 Oct 1966 > United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen

23 Oct 1966 > Mexican Grand Prix at Mexico City

World Drivers' Championship events shown in bold

1966 World Drivers' Championship table

Next: the 1967 season