1964MotorsportVERIFIED

Surtees Wins the World Championship in Blue-and-White Ferraris

25 October 1964

John Surtees finished second in the Mexican Grand Prix to secure the 1964 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship by one point, while Ferrari also took the Constructors’ title. For the final two races, the cars were entered by Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team and wore American blue-and-white colours rather than traditional Italian red.

Wikimedia Commons contributor — Wikimedia Commons — Public domain

John Surtees — representative image. · Wikimedia Commons contributor — Wikimedia Commons — Public domain

Automotive significance

The title combined sporting achievement with an extraordinary institutional dispute. Ferrari was protesting the refusal to homologate the 250 LM as a GT and the lack of support it felt it had received from the Italian sporting authority. The works cars therefore appeared under NART colours at Watkins Glen and Mexico. Surtees’ championship remains unique in another respect: he had previously been a multiple motorcycle world champion. Project Apex separates these facts from the mythology—the blue-and-white cars were a two-race protest arrangement, not a permanent abandonment of rosso corsa.

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