1960 Formula One season

The teams came down to Argentina from Europe in February to start the 1960 season having competed at the last round of the 1959 championship in Sebring, Florida in the United States only 2 months previously. Stirling Moss was on pole position in Buenos Aires in his Rob Walker Cooper-Climax with Team Lotus driver Innes Ireland alongside, although he had been 1.6 seconds slower in qualifying. Completing the four-man front row were the BRMs of Hill and Jo Bonnier. The Lotus team had come out with an all-new mid-engined car, the 18, and were expected to be competitive.

At the start Ireland made a fantastic start and had a good lead at the end of the first lap over Bonnier, Graham Hill and Phil Hill (no relation to Graham), who had started from the second row in his Ferrari Dino 246. Moss made a poor start and was eighth at the end of the first lap. On the second lap Ireland spun, and as he was doing this Moss was driving a blinding lap, passing the Cooper of Carlos Menditeguy, Froilan Gonzalez's Ferrari, Jack Brabham's Cooper, P Hill's Ferrari and Ireland's Lotus to run third behind G Hill and Bonnier. Moss passed Hill on lap 10 and took the lead from Bonnier five laps later. The recovering Ireland also made dramatic progress, passing Brabham and G Hill to run third on lap 18. Bonnier attacked Moss for the lead and retook it on lap 21 but 15 laps later Stirling was back ahead. On lap 42 he went out with a broken suspension. Bonnier was left nearly a lap ahead of everyone. Ireland was promoted to second but both G Hill and Brabham retired and so Bruce McLaren was third. With 12 laps to go Bonnier suffered engine trouble and Ireland went into the lead only to have his gear-linkage jam and so he too slipped back leaving McLaren to win. Cliff Allison was second for Ferrari while Moss took over Maurice's Trintigant's car to take third.

There had been a non-championship round at the Goodwood circuit near the southern English coast, the Glover Trophy; which was won by Innes Ireland in a Lotus. During this time most drivers were competing in sportscar races, such as the 12 Hours of Sebring in March; and the Targa Florio and the Nurburgring 1000km in May.

Moss took pole by a second with Jack Brabham's Cooper and Chris Bristow's BRP Cooper alongside, while Jo Bonnier shared the second row with Tony Brooks's BRP Cooper. At the start Bonnier took the lead with Brabham second and Moss third ahead of Brooks and Bristow in the BRP Coopers. Moss took Brabham on lap five and then shadowed Bonnier until lap 17 when he took the lead. Further back Bristow went out with gearbox trouble. Brabham passed Bonnier on lap 20 but the Swede fought back and on lap 27 retook the position. The pattern of the race was turned upside down when rain came. Brabham passed Bonnier and Moss to take the lead while Brooks spun back down the order, leaving McLaren in fourth place battling with Phil Hill. After six laps in the lead Brabham spun into the wall at Ste Devote and Moss was back in the lead but he had to pit to replace a plug-lead and so Bonnier was back ahead until Moss caught him. Bonnier went out soon afterwards with a broken suspension and G Hill crashed. This meant that McLaren finished second with Phil Hill third and Brooks the only other survivor. Moss went on to win his 2nd Monaco Grand Prix from McLaren and P Hill.

The Indy 500, on the World Championship calendar for the final time in 1960 was the only race on the calendar not run to FIA regulations. This race, which took place on a holiday-day Monday was won by Jim Rathmann in an Offenhauser-powered Watson chassis after a thrilling battle for the lead with Rodger Ward.

Although there were disputes over prize money and several teams withdrew after qualifying, there was still a decent field for the race with Stirling Moss on pole position in his Walker Lotus-Climax. Jack Brabham was alongside in his Cooper-Climax and Innes Ireland was on the outside of the front row in his factory Lotus 18. The BRMs of Jo Bonnier and Graham Hill shared the second row. Brabham made the best start and led Moss and Ireland with Team Lotus's Alan Stacey up from the third row on the grid and Phil Hill sixth in his Ferrari from the fourth row. Stacey passed Ireland on the second lap but Innes soon took back the place while Bruce McLaren moved ahead of Phil Hill in his Cooper. He would retire early however with a driveshaft problem. Dan Gurney moved into fifth in his BRM but he crashed at the hairpin after a brake failure. A spectator in a prohibited area was killed. Jim Clark had made rapid progress in the early laps and took Gurney's fifth place behind his Lotus teammates Ireland and Stacey. On lap 17 Brabham's car threw up part of a curb and this hit Moss's car and caused a puncture and damage to the wheel hub. Moss had to pit for repairs. He drove a storming comeback. Up front the order remained static until Graham Hill passed Clark who retired soon afterwards with gearbox failure. Stacey would disappear with a similar problem later on leaving Hill to finish third, just ahead of the charging Moss. The Ferraris of Phil Hill and Ritchie Ginther were fifth and sixth but were a lap behind the leaders.

The Belgian Grand Prix of 1960 was one of the most disastrous races in Formula 1 history with the weekend claiming two drivers and two others suffering serious injuries in practice. This race, which took place at the second-fastest and perhaps the most dangerous circuit of the year, the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the southern part of Belgium saw two big accidents on Friday with Moss suffering an axle failure at the super-fast Burnenville corner and being thrown from the car in the ensuing crash. He broke both his legs. Formula 1 debutante Mike Taylor suffered a steering failure in his Lotus at the Holowell corner and crashed into trees beside the track suffering multiple injuries which ended his career. Jack Brabham took pole position for Cooper, two and a half seconds faster than the older BRP-run Cooper of Tony Brooks with Phil Hill's Ferrari sharing the front row. Behind them were the BRP Cooper of local hero Olivier Gendebien and Graham Hill's BRM. Come race day, Brabham took the lead at the start, and he would lead from start to finish. Gendebien made a good start to be second but then faded, while Team Lotus's Innes Ireland moved up into second place, although he would disappear soon afterwards with clutch trouble. On lap 20, British BRP Cooper driver Chris Bristow, who was fighting for sixth with the Ferrari of Willy Mairesse, lost control at Malmedy and crashed. He was thrown from the car, landed in some barbed-wire fencing, and was decapitated. Within five laps Briton Alan Stacey of Team Lotus was also dead, having been hit in the face by a bird near the Masta kink. He crashed, his car was launched off an embankment and it landed in a field some 25 feet lower than the track and burst into flames, with Stacey still in the car, where he burned to death. Brabham won the race while Bruce McLaren in the second works Cooper emerged to finish second, giving the company a 1–2 finish with Graham Hill third but celebrations were muted. It would remain the blackest weekend in World Championship history until the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Three weeks after the disastrous Belgian GP the World Championship contenders gathered at the super-fast straights of Reims. Stirling Moss was out of action. Tony Brooks had switched from the BRP Cooper team to try the new Vanwall VW11, while Team Lotus had hired Ron Flockhart to replace Alan Stacey. BRP had two new drivers in Henry Taylor and Bruce Halford. In practice both Scarabs blew their engines so neither Lance Reventlow nor Chuck Daigh was able to race. Jack Brabham was on pole position by 1.4secs with Phil Hill's Ferrari and Graham Hill's BRM sharing the front row. Behind them were Innes Ireland's factory Lotus 18 and the Ferrari of Willy Mairesse. At the start G Hill was caught unprepared and as he tried to get the BRM off the line he was hit from behind by the Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper of Maurice Trintignant. There was also a collision between Brooks and Lucien Bianchi's outdated Cooper. The battle for the lead involved Brabham and P Hill and the pair switched places lap after lap until Hill began to fade with transmission trouble. A similar problem took out third-placed Ferrari driver Wolfgang Von Trips and so Brabham was left out in front all by himself. Mairesse too retired with a similar problem and Ireland had to stop with a broken front suspension. Also retiring were the two surviving BRMS of Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier disappeared with engine trouble. This left Gendebien in the BRP Cooper to take second with Bruce McLaren third in the second factory Cooper and with Taylor finishing fourth in his BRP Cooper the company could boast 1–2–3–4 finish. The Lotuses of Jim Clark and Flockhart finished fifth and sixth.

Although there was only a fortnight between the French and British GPs there were several changes when the F1 circus arrived at Silverstone. The Vanwall VW11 did not reappear: Tony Brooks going back to his BRP Cooper and with both Scarabs having blown up at Reims they were not present although Chuck Daigh and Lance Reventlow shared a third factory Cooper, Daigh being faster and thus getting to race. Aston Martin showed up with DBR5s for Roy Salvadori and Maurice Trintignant while motorcycle ace John Surtees reappeared in a works Lotus and there was the usual crop of British privateers including Keith Greene in the Gilby Engineering Cooper-Maserati and Brian Naylor in his JBW-Maserati. Qualifying resulted in pole position for Jack Brabham, a second faster than Graham Hill's BRM with Bruce McLaren's Cooper and Jo Bonnier's BRM making it a balanced front row. The start saw three cars stall: G Hill (his second race running) and the two BRP Coopers of Brooks and Henry Taylor. McLaren was second on the first lap but soon dropped behind Bonnier and the factory Lotus of Innes Ireland. Ireland then passed Bonnier to take second place. G Hill drove a storming race from the back of the field and worked his way back, passing Ireland for second after 37 laps and setting off after Brabham. To the delight of the crowd he caught him and on lap 55 took the lead. Further back Surtees displaced Ireland in third place. Hill had been suffering brake problems for some time and on lap 72 he spun at Copse Corner. He was out. Brabham took the lead and five laps later took the chequered flag with Surtees and Ireland second and third for Team Lotus.

With the German Grand Prix being cancelled after safety concerns and complaints about the general quality of the AVUS track in Berlin, there was a month between the British and Portuguese GPs and at the challenging and dangerous Boavista street circuit in Porto Stirling Moss made his F1 comeback after being out of action since the disastrous Belgian GP in June. The only other change of note was that local hero Mario Cabral was found a drive in the second Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper-Maserati. In practice Henry Taylor crashed his BRP Cooper heavily and injured his arm while Jim Clark smashed up his Lotus in a rare crash. Despite the accident pole position went to Team Lotus driver John Surtees, who edged out Dan Gurney's BRM by a few hundredths of a second. Jack Brabham was third quickest in his normally-dominant works Cooper. Moss put his Walker Lotus on the second row alongside Graham Hill's BRM. Brabham took the lead at the start but Gurney quickly found a way ahead and then Brabham went wide at one corner and dropped to sixth place. Moss emerged second with Surtees and Phil Hill in his Ferrari fighting with him. After 10 laps Gurney dropped back with an oil leak and so Surtees took the lead with Moss in pursuit but he had to stop because of spark plug problems and dropped to the back of the field. He was later disqualified for driving against the direction of the race while trying to get going after a spin. Brabham had a lively fight with P Hill until the American crashed and this became the lead on lap 36 when Surtees went off because oil had leaked onto his pedals. Bruce McLaren came through to finish second to give Cooper another 1–2 result with Clark finishing third in his cobbled-together Lotus. Brabham's victory meant that he clinched the World Championship with two races remaining. But this was to be the last Portuguese Grand Prix for 24 years - the race would not return until 1984.

With the World Championship settled in favor of Jack Brabham and the Italian authorities deciding that the Italian GP would be held on the combined road and oval course at the Monza Autodrome near Milan (making it the fastest circuit of the year), all the big British teams boycotted the event, citing the fragility, extreme roughness and poor construction of the concrete banking and the field consisted of the works Ferraris, the Coopers of Scuderia Eugenio Castellotti and Scuderia Centro Sud and a few privateers. To increase the size of the field Formula 2 cars were allowed with Porsche turning up with a pair of 718s for Hans Herrmann and Edgar Barth.

The powerful Ferraris dominated with Phil Hill sharing the front row with fellow American Ritchie Ginther and Willy Mairesse with a couple of Coopers on the second row. In the race Ginther and Hill led while Mairesse was slowed by team orders to help tow a fourth Ferrari – an F2 car being driven by Wolfgang Von Trips – away from the two Porsches. This helped Giulio Cabianca to run third in his Castellotti Cooper. Mairesse eventually made his way back to third place while Hill passed early leader Ginther to win the race. Ferrari finished 1–2–3 but it was an irrelevant result given the competition.

The final World Championship event of the year took place in the United States 10 weeks after the penultimate event and Ferrari did not bother to travel to the Riverside circuit just east of Los Angeles, California but Phil Hill found a ride in a fourth BRP Cooper at his home circuit and Wolfgang Von Trips found a ride in a Cooper-Maserati run by Scuderia Centro Sud. In the sunny and pleasant southern California weather Ron Flockhart turned up in the third factory Cooper and Jim Hall made his F1 debut in a private Lotus 18 and Chuck Daigh reappeared in one of Lance Reventlow's Scarabs. Moss, by now recovered from his early season injuries, took pole by 0.6secs from World Champion Jack Brabham and Dan Gurney in his BRM. Jo Bonnier's BRM shared the second row with Jim Clark's Lotus. Brabham made the best start and led Moss for the first four laps but then he heard an explosion at back end of the car and pitted. He made two stops to try to solve the problem which was traced to overflow petrol hitting the hot exhausts of the Climax engine. Moss moved into the lead when Brabham pitted and he stayed ahead all the way to the chequered flag. Early on he was chased by Gurney but he went out with plug problems and Bonnier followed, retiring from second with engine trouble. This left Innes Ireland to finish second for Team Lotus with the second factory Cooper of Bruce McLaren third. Brabham finished fourth, a lap behind at the finish. Jim Hall drove a good race to run fourth but he dropped to seventh at the end when his transmission failed and he had to push the car to the finish line. This was the only Grand Prix ever held at the Riverside circuit; 12 Hours of Sebring promoter Alec Ulmann had again broken even on this event just as he had at the previous year's American Grand Prix at Sebring. The US Grand Prix was moved to the Watkins Glen circuit in upstate New York on the other side of the country.