Italian Grand Prix

Monza, 8 Sep 1968

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

3-litre Formula 1 World Championship events 1966-1985

These 1966 to 1985 results were initially compiled by Allen Brown, but these were in the very basic form required to track individual car histories. Since then further details, such as laps completed, qualifying times and so on, have been added from Rob Ryder's extensive database.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com if you can help with our research.

Individual sources for this event

Autosport 13 Sep 1968 pp8-15. Motoring News 12 Sep 1968 pp12,14-15. Speedworld International 14 Sep 1968 pp16-22.

Spare cars were now becoming the norm, but for the Italian GP, Matra, Ferrari, Honda and Lotus all entered extra drivers. McLaren had a spare M7A; Tyrrell's second Matra MS10 was driven by Servoz Gavin; Beltoise had just the one Matra MS11; there were four Ferraris for three drivers; Brabham brought a spare BT26, the old BT24 having now been sold to Frank Williams; Honda had three cars, including the new RA302 and a second RA301 for Hobbs; Lotus brought three Lotus 49Bs, the third for Andretti; BRM brought three cars for three drivers, including the first of the new BRM P138s with BRM's own gearbox; Cooper were down to one driver but brought two cars; and Eagle had just the one car.

The privateers were Bonnier with his McLaren-BRM, Vogele's Brabham for Silvio Moser, the Walker/Durlacher Lotus, and Bernard White's BRM for Gardner. There had been 26 entries but Cooper withdrew Widdows after he was injured testing a Mirage, and also withdrew Bianchi as the Cooper-Alfa was still not ready. When the USAC stars were not allowed to race, that left only 22, which meant the only non-qualifiers were Moser and Gardner.

The Lotuses had modified noses with the air from the radiator now ducting out of the top of the nose, copying the McLaren. This was designed to reduce lift created by air trapped under the nose, and had been "discovered" by Bruce McLaren while testing a sports car four years earlier. These "nostrils" had already been copied by BRM and had influenced Ferrari ('Wings spur development in Formula 1', Eoin Young, Speedword International 19 Oct 1968 pp26-28), and would also be copied by Cooper on Elford's T86B during practice at Monza. Stewart's Matra now had its rear wing mounted on the uprights, while Ferrari's was now moveable, with control through the gearbox but with an additional lever just behind the steering wheel for manual override. BRM had large new wings designed by the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands which were said to generate 300 lb of downforce despite their lack of end plates. Brabham experimented with an elaborate system that included cockpit control, but it was abandoned. Cooper had a spring-loaded wing which simply didn't work. McLaren meanwhile decided the M7As went better at Monza without wings so removed them, and Hulme won the race, the two McLarens having led for all but ten of the 68 laps.