1963 was the year of 'the Flying Scot', Jim Clark. On his way to his first World Championship, Clark scored seven victories from the season's ten Grands Prix, with one second place, one third and a single retirement, in Monaco, to wrest the title from Graham Hill and BRM. Hill and his BRM team-mate Ritchie Ginther shared second place in the championship, albeit 25 points in arrears of Clark's perfect score of 54, from his best six results. The season began without Porsche, who had retiredatthe end of 1962.
Their top driver, Gurney, joined the newly formed Brabham team, while the withdrawal of Lola from the scene sent John Surtees to Ferrari, alongside Willy Mairesse of Belgium. The Lolas did in fact appear again in 1963 in the colours of the Reg Parnell team and driven by Chris Amon, newly launched on a career to become notorious for its ill fortune. With Clark retiring from a strong lead, when the gearbox of his Lotus broke on the 78th lap, Graham Hill scored the first of his famous series of Monaco victories in the opening round. At Spa, Clark scored the first of four consecutive 1963 victories at 114. 1 mph and by almost five minutes from Bruce McLaren's Cooper.
The race was held in appalling conditions with thunderstorms sweeping the daunting Belgian circuit and it was sheer good fortune that none of many incidents had serious outcomes. After Spa, Clark simply ran away and hid from the opposition at the Dutch Grand Prix, lapping the entire field.' Dan Gurney improved Brabham's standing by taking second place - having scored an encouraging third in Belgium. Surtees raised Ferrari's spirits with a fighting third place, ahead of Innes Ireland's BRM.
Young Italian Ludovico Scarfiotti collected his first championship point for sixth place in this his first Grand Prix. Despite a continual misfire, Clark won at Reims, averaging 125.31 mph and collecting fastest lap at 131.14 mph in the process. Second place, a minute and five seconds behind, went to South African Tony Maggs in a Cooper and third went to Graham Hill - even counting a one minute penalty for a push start. Clark's fourth successive victory was gained with consummate ease at
Silverstone, followed home by a stirring battle for second place between Hill and Surtees, resolved on the last lap when Hill ran out of fuel to coast home third.
Mike Hailwood followed in Surtees' footsteps, turning from two wheels to four for the first time at this race; he finished eighth. It was Surtees who finally broke Clark's winning streak with a hard-won victory at the
Nurburgring, with Clark bringing his ailing Lotus Rome second. Surtees' average speed was 95.83 mph and he set fastest lap at 96.8 mph. Clark was back to form in Italy and won from Ginther and McLaren after early leader Surtees and his strongest challengers, Hill and Gurney, all retired. Clark drove a masterly race to finish third behind the BRMs of Hill and Ginther at
Watkins Glen, having been left at the line with a flat battery. Clark's fastest lap of 111.14mph was not enough to catch Hill who won at 109.91 mph.
Clark rounded off a magnificent season with wins in the first ever Mexican Grand Prix and in South Africa. Brabhams were second in both races, Jack himself scoring in Mexico and Gurney in South Africa, a promising season for the team.
