The 1966 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 4 September 1966. It was race 7 of 9 in both the 1966 World Championship of Drivers and the 1966 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The race was the 36th Italian Grand Prix and the 32nd to be held at Monza. The race was held over 68 laps of the five kilometre circuit for a race distance of 391 kilometres.
The race was won by Italian driver Ludovico Scarfiotti driving a Ferrari 312 in his only Grand Prix victory. Scarfiotti led home his British teammate Mike Parkes by five seconds. Parkes only just defeated New Zealand racer Denny Hulme in his Brabham BT20, the pair separated by less than half a second.
While series points leader Jack Brabham stopped with an oil leak in his Brabham BT19 on lap seven, he secured his third world championship, and the unique achievement of becoming world champion in a car of his own make, when his only remaining points rival John Surtees stopped with a fuel leak in his Cooper T81 24 laps later. His championship victory also ended a four-year-streak of British drivers winning the Drivers' Championship.
Scarfiotti's victory was the last time an Italian won their home race in Formula One, until Kimi Antonelli won the 2026 Italian Grand Prix, six decades later.
Race report
Jack Brabham was odds-on favourite for the Championship – only John Surtees could stop him and only then by winning all three remaining races. He was prevented from doing so by an impressive performance from his former employers Ferrari at their home track. Honda had brought a new 370 bhp 3 litre V12 engine for Richie Ginther, whilst Dan Gurney had his Weslake engine and Graham Hill had the BRM H16. Lorenzo Bandini and Mike Parkes led from the start, whilst Hill's engine gave up on the first lap, followed in retirement by Jackie Stewart on lap 5 with a fuel leak, and then Brabham on lap 8 with an engine failure which coated the car in oil. Jim Clark in the H16 Lotus was moving strongly through the field. On lap 17, Richie Ginther had a horrific accident, crashing heavily into the trees and being very fortunate to escape with his life. Once Clark had pitted, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Parkes, Surtees and Hill disputed the lead until Surtees withdrew with a split petrol tank which was pouring it all over his tyres and ending his championship chances. Denny Hulme had fought through the field to third place. But the race was Scarfiotti's, as he became the first Italian to win for Ferrari at Monza since Alberto Ascari in 1952. Parkes completed Ferrari's joy as he pipped Hulme by 0.3 seconds to claim second spot. Amidst all the celebrations, Jack Brabham was crowned champion. Apart from three NART entries in this race was the last time a Ferrari car was entered by a privateer team when Giancarlo Baghetti drove a private car entered by the British Reg Parnell team.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 4 Mike Parkes Ferrari 1:31.3 — 2 6 Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari 1:31.6 +0.3 3 20 Jim Clark Lotus-BRM 1:31.8 +0.5 4 14 John Surtees Cooper-Maserati 1:31.9 +0.6 5 2 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 1:32.0 +0.7 6 10 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 1:32.2 +0.9 7 18 Richie Ginther Honda 1:32.4 +1.1 8 16 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati 1:32.7 +1.4 9 28 Jackie Stewart BRM 1:32.81 +1.51 10 12 Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco 1:32.84 +1.54 11 26 Graham Hill BRM 1:33.4 +2.1 12 38 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Maserati 1:33.7 +2.4 13 24 Peter Arundell Lotus-BRM 1:34.1 +2.8 14 42 Mike Spence Lotus-BRM 1:35.0 +3.7 15 40 Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 1:35.3 +4.0 16 44 Giancarlo Baghetti Ferrari 1:35.5 +4.2 17 36 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati 1:36.3 +5.0 18 48 Bob Bondurant BRM 1:36.9 +5.6 19 34 Dan Gurney Eagle-Climax 1:37.6 +6.3 20 22 Geki Lotus-Climax 1:39.3 +8.0 34 Phil Hill Eagle-Climax 1:40.0 +8.7 32 Chris Amon Brabham-BRM 1:40.3 +9.0 Clark, Geki, and Spence switched numbers for the race when they are driving the same cars. Phil Hill's car was driven by Gurney in practice, but he would drive car #30 of Eagle-Weslake for the race.
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari 68 1:47:14.8 2 9 2 4 Mike Parkes Ferrari 68 + 5.8 1 6 3 12 Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco 68 + 6.1 10 4 4 16 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati 67 + 1 lap 8 3 5 42 Mike Spence Lotus-BRM 67 + 1 lap 14 2 6 40 Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 66 + 2 laps 15 1 7 48 Bob Bondurant BRM 65 + 3 laps 18 8 24 Peter Arundell Lotus-BRM 63 Engine 13 9 20 Geki Lotus-Climax 63 + 5 laps 20 44 Giancarlo Baghetti Ferrari 59 + 9 laps 16 22 Jim Clark Lotus-BRM 58 Gearbox 3 36 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati 46 Engine 17 2 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 33 Ignition 5 14 John Surtees Cooper-Maserati 31 Fuel leak 4 18 Richie Ginther Honda 16 Accident 7 10 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 7 Oil leak 6 30 Dan Gurney Eagle-Weslake 7 Engine 19 28 Jackie Stewart BRM 5 Fuel leak 9 38 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Maserati 3 Throttle 12 26 Graham Hill BRM 0 Engine 11 34 Phil Hill Eagle-Climax 32 Chris Amon Brabham-BRM
Notes
Ludovico Scarfiotti was only the third Italian to win his home Grand Prix, after Nino Farina and Alberto Ascari. This was the Formula One World Championship debut for British engine supplier Weslake.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Jack Brabham 39 2 2 Jochen Rindt 18 1 3 Graham Hill 17 1 4 John Surtees 15 5 Jackie Stewart 14Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Brabham-Repco 40 (43) 2 Ferrari 31 (32) 3 BRM 22 4 Cooper-Maserati 20 5 Lotus-Climax 7Source:
Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 5 results counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.
References