The 1961 World Championship
Hill's championship was the result of one of the toughest season-long battles in Grand Prix history. In their new mid-engine Ferraris, Hill and his teammate, German Wolfgang von Trips, swapped the title lead from race to race. There were personal triumphs, like Hill driving the first-ever sub-9 minute lap at the difficult Nürnburgring. But also frustrations, as when Stirling Moss knocked him out of contention during the French Grand Prix when Hill was well in the lead. |
| Hill drove the rear-engined Ferrari to victory at Monza, Italy to clinch the 1961 World Drivers title. Kane Rogers painting. |
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| Ferrari Chief Engineer Carlo Chiti and Dan Gurney with Hill immediately after the conclusion of the 1961 Italian Grand Prix. At this moment, Hill and Gurney are unaware that von Trips has been killed. Louis Stanley photo. |
It was not until the penultimate race of the year, the Italian GP at Monza, that the title was settled in Hill's favor. Von Trips was killed in a terrible second-lap accident with Jim Clark that also killed 14 spectators. Hill, by continuing on (to the drivers on the track, the incident looked no worse than other shunts thus far in the season) to finish first, and became the first American Formula One champion.
Hill was frustrated again when Enzo Ferrari decided not to participate in the year's last GP, ostensibly out of deference to the Monza disaster. Hill and others believed that Ferrari simply didn't want the expense of sending the team overseas with the manufacturers championship firmly decided in Ferrari's favor.
Louis Stanley, writing shortly after the season, put it this way, "The absence S.E.F.A.C. Ferrari was regretted. It would have been a timely gesture to send one car for Phil Hill, the first American to become World Champion, but sentiment has little place in the Maranello setup."
Thus the newly crowned World Driver's Champion wasn't able to compete in home Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
The table below shows the season's results race-by-race.
| Name | Date | Circuit | SG | F | Points |
| Monaco | 5/14/1961 | Monaco | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Dutch Grand Prix | 5/22/1961 | Zandvoort | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Belgium Grand Prix | 6/18/1961 | Spa | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| French Grand Prix. | 7/2/1961 | Reims | 1 | 9 | 0 |
| British Grand Prix | 7/15/1961 | Aintree | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| German Grand Prix | 8/6/1961 | Nurburgring | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Italian Grand Prix | 9/10/1961 | Monza | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| United States Grand Prix | 10/8/1961 | Watkins Glen | -- | ||
| Pole Position = | |||||