Belgian Grand Prix - June 13 1965

The meeting at Crystal Palace on Whit Mon­day was followed by the Belgian Grand Prix the next Sunday, and that didn't give much time. But of course the two meetings were for different cars, and this helped, with preparation for the Fl machinery going ahead separately while we raced the F2s. In fact, work on the GP cars went along quite well, and we were very disappointed that we didn't get an entry for Denny Hulme at Spa. We did try quite hard to get him a drive there, but they just didn't want to know. Earlier attempts to get a third entry had failed elsewhere, and I can only hope that Denny's good showing at Clermont-Ferrand will make some organisers change their minds.

So we took out two cars to Spa, but un­fortunately no four-valve engine (which we had been hoping to use in Dan Gurney's car). After our little incident at Monaco, when the four-valver got all jangled up inside, the engine went back to Coventry Climax to be repaired, but they were unable to get it back to us in time for Spa. They did in fact get it running, but it gave trouble on the brake; it broke a valve or a piston-we're not sure which went first. Anyway, it went bang in a pretty big way, and that was that. A pity, because obviously a four-valver would have been very useful on the Spa circuit, and of course Jim Clark showed that in the race.

 The engine I had used at Silverstone was one of the three we took with us. This unit had gone extremely well at Silverstone, and hadn't given any trouble there (you'll remember it was the gearbox that caused retirement that day), and I was hoping it would produce some good times in Belgium. It was still in my car, but it only managed about five laps during the first practice and then broke, which meant taking it out and putting in another engine which was not giving such good performance. This put us in a tricky position, without any reserve, but luckily the two remaining engines stayed in one piece during the final practice session and we were OK to start the race.

Last year, as you will probably remember, Dan Gurney put on a wonderful show at Spa, setting fastest times in both training periods and then completely dominating the race until he came to a stop on the last lap of all. He really was the moral victor, and I don't think anyone would disagree about that. This year, Dan was doing similar times to last year, but other people were going quicker. In fact Dan had the same engine as last year, giving just about the same amount of power he had in 1964, so in fact there was no good reason why he should have improved on last year's times. It was as simple as that.

Our cars haven't changed much since last year, whereas some of our rivals, like BRM, have more power than they had in 1964. In the paddock at Spa I heard stories that BRM were getting 205 horsepower out of their engines, and I would say that was a minimum figure. But from the way the BRMs were steaming along at Spa I would think that they are getting more power through the range than they had previously. I'd say they're now getting some­thing like the range of the Climax engines. Certainly Graham Hill was going like a rocket in practice, and you don't get those sort of times without plenty of useful and usable power. They're reliable too; look through the results of the first four championship GPs this season, and you'll see that both works BRMs have not only been running at the finish but have each earned title points.

 Spa is the sort of circuit where it is possible for a driver who goes quick at the start of practice to get even quicker later on and assert a sort of psychological superiority over the rest of the field. You've got to feel your car is absolutely right at Spa, and if you're happy with it then you are in a good position to worry the opposition as they try to approach your times. Dan was doing that last year, and Graham was doing it this time during practice.  But the main thing at Spa is to have a car which will handle, plus sufficient power to stay with the opposition, and this I'm afraid we didn't have this year. Dan just didn't have the power to stay with the BRMs or Clark's Lotus.

 The second practice went pretty well mechanically, but our times were a long way from being fast, and although both engines were running nicely they were well down on power. (We had 194-195 horsepower from each engine.)

So far as tyres were concerned, we didn't have any dramas in practice. The only trouble that Hondas had-and they were also on Goodyears-was the result of too much camber. This was no fault of the tyres, but the excess camber meant that all the heat was going to one side of the tyre only while the other side of the tyre was cold. Ferrari had similar trouble at Spa a few years ago when they had too much camber on the rear wheels. The result of this situation was that the tyres were chunking a little because of the temperature rise just on one part of the tyre. If the suspension is right it should spread the heat across the full width of the tyre.  I thought the Hondas were going extremely well. Richie Ginther's fourth fastest practice time was an eye-opener to some people, I think.

On the day of the race we rang up the local aerodrome and got a met report. From past experience on this circuit we regard this as very important! The report sounded pretty grim, and proved to be absolutely dead right. We were promised some light rain between three and five in the afternoon. At times it was a little heavier than that, and the rain was sufficient to keep the circuit well and truly damp throughout the race.

There was one patch at Stavelot where the surface was dry for a lap or two. This was round the Stavelot curve itself, and was mainly because of the slope on it, which meant that the water drained away quickly. But apart from this, the whole circuit was treacherous from start to finish of the race.

It was wet when the flag went down and the whole field had to string out completely. In fact, after a few laps I wouldn't have been surprised if the leader hadn't been lapping the tail-ender. It makes a fantastic amount of difference being in front in those conditions, because if you're behind someone else you just can't see where you're going. Naturally, then, all the cars have to string out to a safe distance between one another. There was usually a few hundred yards at least between the cars, because you can't drive any nearer and still be sensible.

I had a bit of nonsense early on at La Source hairpin, when I caught up with Siffert and Bonnier and felt as if I could perhaps pass them and get in front of their spray on this particular corner. I'm afraid I overdid things a little and instead of getting past them I motored off down the road backwards instead. A trifle disconcerting! But Mike Spence was with me, so I wasn't the only one.

As safety prevailed, as far as being able to see was concerned, I was able to move up a few places, and in fact when the weather eased up around Stavelot I was able to get by Siffert, Bonnier and Dan. The trick was to time things so that you were within striking distance of a car or cars in front just before Stavelot, and then make a big overtaking effort. When the rain really comes down at Spa you can't be inter­ested so far as real motor racing is concerned, because it's just too dangerous.

Having got right out into the lead, Jim Clark ran into a big overtaking problem when he started to lap people. On one of the later laps this was particularly noticeable, when he suddenly dropped a lot of time. This will give you some idea of how difficult it is to get past.

During the race I had no indication that Dan was having trouble in our other car. After the race Dan said that something seemed to be wrong with the car and that it was not handling as well as he thought it might. I think he had a few moments in the first laps and was a little uncertain of things.

Both of our cars were wearing the ordinary Goodyear tyres. There were tyres with a com­position for wet racing available, but we didn't use these because if the track had dried there might have been a doubt about them lasting the distance. Since in fact it was wet for the whole race 1'm sure this was some disadvantage, but Spa is a circuit where tyres are not all that important because you don't drive that close to the limit to really worry about the last few tenths a difference in tyres would make, say, at Silverstone.

My engine ran sweetly, and the car handled well. The main problem was that when I caught up another car I just couldn't see to get by without taking some big risks. For the last two or three laps 1 was closing on Bruce McLaren's Cooper, and was quite close on his tail as we went into our last lap. I was within striking distance, but just had to stay back at a distance which gave me visibility-an average, I suppose, of about 300 yards. There was no way of telling whether the chap in front of you was having a spin or accident until you hit him! It was frightening to see Richard Attwood's car after his crunch. He must have gone off a little time before I went past, but the car was in a dreadful mess and it looked as though the telegraph post which he had hit was coming straight out of the centre of the car. The car was more or less wrapped around it, and it was burning well and truly. I couldn't see whether the driver was out of the car or not. The thought only struck me later that the telegraph post might have been so burnt that it would fall across the road in the path of the other cars.

Summing up that race. I was quite satisfied to finish fourth. Indeed. I was quite happy to finish, let alone finish fourth! I thought that my car had the measure of Bruce's Cooper, but I started so far back on the grid and lost so much time at the beginning because of this that I never had a hope of catching up. The loss of that sort of time can never be made up in a race like that.

Jimmy went like a bomb. I'd say that there's nobody who can touch him in the wet. He's riding right on top of everything at the moment, and just can't go wrong. I also thought that Jackie Stewart went very well at Spa; BRM have certainly got a good capture there.

I think that if the Belgian GP is run under the 3 litre formula next year, it should be post­poned if the conditions are similar to those this year. I think it will be as dangerous as all that. First of all, you wouldn't be able to see, but in addition to that the 3 litre GP cars will have even bigger and wider tyres which will plane across the water too easily. I think that the combination of not being able to see and plan­ing on the water is just more dangerous than anyone should expect of drivers. I know it could be a difficult situation if 50,000 spectators turn up expecting to watch a race, and then find the race is postponed, but I can see some very big accidents coming at Spa if they run the 3 litre formula in those conditions with the big tyres.

This applies to Spa more than any other circuit because speeds are so high and you are taking it very easily going at 120 miles an hour, and that is still too fast to go off the road when there is nothing but telegraph posts, trees and ditches and what-not to run into.