John Surtees Remains The Only F1 And MotoGP Champion

Valentino ‘The Doctor’ Rossi was recently in the news at the Goodwood Festival of Speed where he was reunited with his old Yamaha MotoGP bike. Ever since he retired from MotoGP, Rossi has been competing in full time GT3 Endurance Racing for BMW M Motorsport. Back home in India, long before Gaurav Gill won the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) titles, he started his racing career on two wheels as a factory rider for TVS-Suzuki. Yet, neither of them was the first of their kind to move from two to four-wheeled racing. The only man in the world to have reached the absolute pinnacle of motor racing on both two and four wheels, remains British racer John Surtees.

The Man Who’s Missing In Ford vs Ferrari

Before we get into Surtees’ career, his is the only character that’s of crucial importance but completely missing from the 2019 blockbuster Ford vs Ferrari. While the reel life story shows old Enzo Ferrari and his driver Lorenzo Bandini and mentions Ludovico Scarfiotti, there is not one shot of what was the most talked about separation of team and driver in the real world in 1966.

By the time the events leading to the legendary face-off happen, Surtees was already a Champion for Ferrari. Old Signore Ferrari, il Commendatore as he was known to all, had actually planned with Surtees and worked out a strategy to defend his honour against the might of Ford. In later interviews, Surtees admits that they had worked out a hare and fox strategy – of the two Ferraris one would try to run away from the pack acting like a hare being chased by a fox. They had hoped that this would make the Ford drivers push their cars harder than they should and break them. Surtees, one of the fastest drivers in the world at the time, was supposed to play the hare. Internal politics at Maranello, however, meant that Surtees was left out of the team at Le Mans. The decision resulted in one of the most scandalous separation between a team (Ferrari) and its top driver (Surtees). Newspapers at the time had compared it to a divorce. No one expected it and everyone was shocked.

Although never once mentioned, Surtees’ departure might have been a crucial element in the historic 1-2-3 win for Ford at the 1966 Le Mans. But what made Surtees so special? Speed and precision.

The Champion Rider

The son of a motorcycle dealer in London, Surtees started his racing career in 1951 when he gave reigning motorcycle World Champion Geoff Duke quite the fight. Surtees was a 17-year-old apprentice mechanic who had turned up on a Vincent motorcycle that he had prepared himself. Duke was riding a works Norton racer. Nobody had the time of day for the young lad, but Surtees took the fight to the champion that day at the Thruxton circuit and put himself on the path to becoming a legend even though Duke eventually won the race.

By the end of the 1956 season, it was Surtees who was the 500cc Premier Class Motorcycling World Champion – that was the precursor to what became MotoGP. At the time he was riding for MV Agusta, the famed Italian motorcycle marque. The year 1957 was a dud year because the bikes weren’t competitive but from 1958 to 1960, Surtees won everything. Not just the World titles in the 500cc class but also the titles in the 350cc class. By 1960 Surtees was the undisputed king of motorcycle racing having become the first man to win the Senior TT and the Isle of Man TT races thrice in a row. In four years, he had racked up an astounding seven motorcycle world championship titles.

To The Top Of The F1 Charts

In 1960, at the height of his motorcycle racing career, Surtees switched from the world of swingarms and fairings to Formula 1. What got him noticed was a test drive he had done with Aston Martin but the team that gave him his F1 break was Team Lotus. Team boss and F1 legend Colin Chapman had an eye for picking out talent (the team has fielded some of the finest drivers in F1 history, including Jim Clark and Ayrton Senna, among others) and realised what potential Surtees had.

At his second ever Formula 1 race, Surtees ended up on the podium in second place. An astonishing result. He then backed it up with a pole position at his third race. He moved through a couple of teams in the interim years before signing up for Ferrari in 1963. The following year, 1964, turned out to be an F1 fan’s absolute delight. Utterly unpredictable, the season saw a dramatic three-way fight for the title between Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Surtees. 

The season began with Clark, driving for Lotus – Surtees’ former team, dominating at first. However, mid-season reliability issues meant that Hill and team BRM could surge ahead. Hill was a precision driver and the go-to man at the world’s toughest and tightest F1 circuit – the streets of Monaco. The championship seemed set to go in his favour. But Ferrari and Surtees put up a spirited late charge in the season. Wins and points, including at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza which was Ferrari’s home grand prix, were acquired. A nail biter to the last, it was Surtees who took the laurel wreath as the F1 World Champion at the close of the 1964 season. And with it, he drove into the history books forever.

Sixty-two years later, Surtees’ feat remains the only one of its kind. A man who rode himself to the top of the world’s peak of motorcycle racing, switched careers and became F1 Champion. A feat that will most likely remain a one-of-one.