In 75 years of the Formula 1 World Championship, an exclusive club of just five American drivers has won grands prix, with two earning an F1 world title. We look at all five in the new RACER, Issue 336. Here we examine the case of one of racing’s true icons.
DAN GURNEY
Grand prix starts: 86 (1959-1970)
Grand prix wins: 4
Best Formula 1 World Championship finish: 4th in 1961, 1965
Daniel Sexton Gurney had 26 grand prix starts to his name by the time he signed with Brabham for the 1963 Formula 1 season. He’d raced the outdated Ferrari 246 Dino to a pair of podium finishes in 1959, then the pathetically unreliable BRM P48 to barely two finishes in ’60, and then spent two years with Porsche in its brief first venture into F1. He earned a clutch of podiums in the 718 of 1961, then took a win (at Rouen) and a pole and third place at the Nürburgring in the jewel-like 804 of ’62. Gurney was fast, brave and technically astute – everything Jack Brabham craved for the team he’d established only two years earlier.
Through 1963, Brabham’s choice of teammate was vindicated: when Gurney’s Brabham-Climax BT7 made it to the finish, it scored well, and Dan racked up three podiums and finished fifth in the championship. The following year, in an updated BT7, Gurney was brilliant. He never qualified lower than fifth, and so spent the season battling with Jim Clark, John Surtees and Graham Hill. But DNFs wrecked his title aspirations. There was the broken gearbox while running second at Monaco, the failed steering wheel at Zandvoort, and running out of fuel on the penultimate lap at Spa after dominating the weekend.
Then it all came right at Rouen (again). Gurney was beaten to pole by Clark, and had to sit behind him for 30 laps, but when the leading Lotus suffered a burnt piston, Dan the Man took over and came home the winner. Clark had benefited from Gurney’s misfortune at Spa, so this felt like karma righting a wrong. And Brabham, who had finished third, couldn’t have been prouder at seeing his marque become a grand prix winner. But then Gurney’s fortunes reverted to type – ignition issues while running second at Brands Hatch, overheating at the Nürburgring, a suspension breakage while leading at Zeltweg, alternator failure while fighting for the lead at Monza, faltering oil pressure while second at Watkins Glen… It was getting preposterous.
Come the finale at Mexico City, Clark led almost all the way, chased by Gurney, but the Lotus had an oil leak and its engine seized with two laps to go. Dan thus came home the winner at his good friend’s expense, but the pair could commiserate with each other, too: Jimmy had led eight grands prix, Dan seven, and yet they wound up only third and sixth, respectively, in the end of year points table.
Lotus would kick again in 1965, and the 33 model left the less technically-advanced Brabham BT11 in its wake, but Gurney wrung the most he could from it, finishing on the podium in the final five GPs and taking fourth in the championship. Yet nothing could quite match the joy of scoring Brabham’s first win at Rouen in ’64. And Gurney would take all the lessons he learned with the team and move on…
Bigger picture
Moving on from Brabham to expand his All American Racers into Formula 1 as Anglo American Racers was very Dan Gurney. A brave adventure with an exquisite car, the Eagle, that in its earliest form was lumbered with a 2.8-liter Climax, but was then blessed and cursed by the powerful yet complicated 3-liter Weslake V12.
Gurney won at Spa-Francorchamps, but departing Brabham probably cost him two world championships, for he was quicker than Jack Brabham and his own replacement, Denny Hulme, who took the 1966 and ’67 titles, respectively.
The F1 Eagles faltered in ’68, so AAR ran a privateer McLaren for the final three GPs. After taking a year out to focus on AAR’s Indy car campaign in ’69, Gurney briefly returned to F1 in mid-1970 to sub for the tragically departed Bruce McLaren, but the allure of F1 had gone. Gurney had fully morphed into a constructor and team owner on this side of the Atlantic.
Read the story of all five American winners in Formula 1 in the new issue of RACER magazine, out this week. Whatever your motorsports and performance automotive passions are, you can choose how you enjoy the RACER experience with RACER magazine, the RACER+ App and RACER All Access. Whether you love flipping through pages or streaming exclusive features, we’ve got the perfect plan for you. CLICK HERE and subscribe now for the ultimate motorsports fan experience.
CLICK HERE to purchase the new issue of RACER. Get 6 print issues of RACER Magazine, unlimited digital access to the RACER archive, and 24/7 motorsports streaming on the RACER+ App for one year at only $8.33/month, two years at $7.71/month, or three years at $7.22/month. CLICK HERE and subscribe now for the ultimate motorsports fan experience.
