The failure of Jim Clark’s Lotus with just over a lap of the Mexican Grand Prix to go, which robbed the Scot of a second consecutive Formula 1 title, could be seen as the defining moment of 1964. That, or the clash in the same race between championship contender Graham Hill and the second Ferrari of Lorenzo Bandini. But both sell John Surtees’s world crown far too short.
Having moved to a beleaguered Ferrari – this was shortly after a team split and dire title defence in 1962 – Surtees had work to do. Not only did he help raise the Scuderia’s game, but he also had to dig deep to recover from a poor start to the 1964 campaign.
