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Monza 1967: A Personal View
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Amon's Ferrari 312 F1 sits in the open garages at Monza. No secrets here.
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May 16, 2002
By Alessandro Gerelli
and Pete Vack
Photos by Alessandro Gerelli
In the summer of 1967, September 8th, to be exact, a 19 year old college student by the name of Alessandro Gerelli was lucky enough to have obtained a pit pass to the Italian Grand Prix. Like today, pit passes were extremely difficult to obtain. But Gerelli was determined. He would not listen to the sound of Amon's Ferrari from far behind the fences, he wanted desperately to be where the action was. In what must have been a passionately good letter, he wrote to the organizers, and asked them if a student could obtain a pit pass. He would do no damage, he wrote, wouldn't create problems, and maybe if he could just get a pass for the official test day, he could then take some photos. "The process worked," says Alessandro, "and a very kind lady from the Monza organization called me, and said she had been touched by my letter." The young Gerelli went to the Monza practice on Friday with a pit pass. He had to access a certain gate and mention the name of the lady who responded to his letter.
"The miracle had been done," recalled Gerelli.
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During practice Amon had his choice of four cars. Here he leaves the pits using the new four valve engine.
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Miracles were not, however, due to be performed for Ferrari that weekend. Ferrari was optimistic for the new three-liter formula, which took effect in 1966. But he had lost his team leader John Surtees mid year, and there was no one to follow in the footsteps of Big John. (who was not, nor is not, "Big" in terms of size. The adjective really meant "great"). The team floundered, and despite the horsepower of the V-12, Honda, BRM, and Cosworth engines were superior. Despite a 1-2 finish win at Monza in 1966, Ferrari was a team in trouble. Out of a team of five drivers, four would drop out during the next year. De Adamich dropped out early after an accident, then tragedy struck the team at Monaco as Bandini overturned and perished in the flames. Mike Parkes' accident in Belgium left him out for the rest of the season, and new boy Chris Amon was all that was left of the team after Scarfiotti went into semi retirement following the Belgian GP. At Monza, in 1967, for the Italian Grand Prix, Enzo Ferrari entered one car, to be driven by Amon.
Lotus fielded three cars, number 22 for Clark, 20 for Hill and 24 for Giancarlo Baghetti, whose car experienced engine failure.
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Amon had his choice of four cars, (presumably 312 F1 0001, 0003, 0005 and 0007) and no other team drivers to compete with-a situation that today even Schumacher would envy! The young New Zealander tried all combinations, testing out the new 400 hp four valve head, and experimented with ram pipes on the injection, which seemed to do little good. What did help, however, was the fact that the latest car was now weighing in at only 1140 lb. Chris qualified fourth on the grid with a 1 minute 29.4 seconds. In front of him was Jim Clark, in a Lotus Ford Cosworth, reigning world champ Jack Brabham and fellow Kiwi Bruce McLaren in his McLaren-BRM.
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Mechanics are relaxed in the BRM pits, although the new H-16 was by no means fully developed yet.
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Amon, lucky to have so much to play with and plenty of attention, knew he had to do well, for there was no one else to uphold the team's honor. In addition, Enzo Ferrari was paying a rare visit to Monza; tough on Amon but heaven for the young Alessandro. "My idol, at photographic range", says Gerelli, and his camera didn't fail him.
Which is more than can be said of the 312 F1. During the race, Amon experienced handling problems, and pitted twice to try to have them resolve the problem. Rob Walker reported (in Road & Track) that "The mechanics bounced on the tail of the Ferrari and it kept going up and down like a yo-yo so it looked as though the shock absorbers were to blame." The stops dropped Amon down to seventh, and last place.
Enzo Ferrari, supervising his one-man team. He started the season with five drivers, and by mid-season was down to young Cris Amon.
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The eventual winner, the Honda V-12 of John Surtees. Still popular in Italy due to his years with MV Agusta, the crowd went wild when John pulled off a win with the new car.
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Ironically, the 1967 Monza Grand Prix was won by Big John Surtees in the new Honda V-12, much to the crowd's delight. Not a great day for Maranello, but to Alessandro, it didn't matter. He got the press pass, and recorded for our pleasure those days when, as he puts it, "the garages were open, the mechanics were dirty, the cars were close, the engines were loud and the drivers accessible."
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