It does become a slightly easier exercise as the decade unfolds. The introduction of the popular 1.5-litre unsupercharged F2 in 1957 leaves only a handful of F1 non-title races for genuine consideration.<\/p>\n
![\"Victory](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2230490359-rt.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Victory in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in 1969 was part of Stewart\u2019s win tally on his way to becoming \u2018Motor Racing Sportsman of the Year\u2019<\/p>\n
Photo by: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Of course, the roll-out of the controversial 1.5-litre engine restriction for GP cars in 1961 returned everything to square one. Over the next three years the number of F1 races expanded to unacceptable levels. Colin Chapman was one of those who pushed for an interim formula, writing in 1964: \u201cWhen F2 was first announced I was very much in favour. The F1 calendar has become hopelessly overcrowded. It just isn\u2019t possible to support all the races. My firm view \u2013 and one which seemed to get a lot of support \u2013 is that all existing F1 races, other than Grandes Epreuves, should in future be for F2 cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
And thereafter, Chapman\u2019s argument broadly prevailed. From 1965 the number of F1 races outside the championship shrank to just a few hardy perennials. True, there was a sudden burst of enthusiasm at the beginning of the 1970s but, once the constructors began organising themselves and speaking with one voice, it became ever clearer that Grandes Epreuves were the only game in town. The non-championship race organisers had been put on notice.<\/p>\n
Events at Silverstone in 1978 at the International Trophy certainly did not help. Biblical race-day rainfall soon had the newly resurfaced Northamptonshire track flooded. The shame of it was that a quality grid had been assembled including some shiny new designs. Many would never make it to the next GP in California.<\/p>\n
On the opening lap much of the field aquaplaned at Abbey trying to negotiate the river running across the track. Some rejoined, others slid off at Woodcote and became trussed-up in the catch-fencing. It was the motor racing equivalent of the 1967 \u2018Foinanvon\u2019 Grand National. Ultimately only the freakish car control of Keke Rosberg and that wily old fox Emerson Fittipaldi managed to sidestep the carnage and continue racing. Should the organisers have stopped it sooner, as they did in 1951? Most agreed. The sourest voices came from the constructors who had to pick up the bill for some seriously bent machinery. For them, the 30th running of the International Trophy was one too many.<\/p>\n
Honouring his commitment to John Webb and Brands Hatch, Bernie Ecclestone ensured the Race of Champions staggered on for a little longer before the curtain came down for good in 1983.<\/p>\n
So, who might have emerged with our hypothetical non-championship titles? Our table (below) shows the potential winners with a note of the number of points and races.<\/p>\n
![\"Rosberg](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2164470952.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Rosberg survives the carnage to win the 1978 International Trophy at Silverstone<\/p>\n
Photo by: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Multiple champions<\/p>\n
Underlining his domination of 1.5-litre F1, Jim Clark rules the roost with four titles between 1962 and 1965 \u2013 pipping Graham Hill by just a point in 1964. Jack Brabham, always a factor, annexes three titles as do both Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart, although in the Scotsman\u2019s case only narrowly ahead of his great friend and rival Jochen Rindt in 1969-70.<\/p>\n
Unexpected British champions<\/p>\n
Wins at Goodwood and Aintree, alongside consistent finishes, helps Roy Salvadori\u2019s Gilby 250F finish ahead of fellow Maserati runners Jean Behra and Stirling Moss in 1955.<\/p>\n
De facto Lotus team leader Innes Ireland was often competitive in the shorter-form non-title races and takes our crown in 1960 with victories at Goodwood, Silverstone and Snetterton ahead of Brabham\u2019s Cooper.<\/p>\n
File under \u2018didn\u2019t see that one coming\u2019, our 1975 title winner is none other than John Watson. Although the Surtees TS16 was rarely a match for the pacesetting Tony Southgate-designed Shadow DN5, \u2018Wattie\u2019 could be relied upon to put in a competitive showing. Second at Brands, fourth at Silverstone and fifth at Dijon gives him the title.<\/p>\n
Unexpected overseas champions<\/p>\n
Not christened \u2018Le Metronome\u2019 for nothing, Louis Rosier\u2019s Talbot-Lago was rarely the fastest but he was invariably around at the finish and is our 1951 title winner. His Ecurie Rosier team also provided an important un coup de main to the careers of Legion d\u2019Honneur recipients (and \u2018non-title\u2019 champions!) Maurice Trintignant and Behra.<\/p>\n
Trintignant\u2019s consistency helped \u2018Le Petoulet\u2019 see off the challenges of fellow Ferrari team-mates Jose Froilan Gonzalez and Mike Hawthorn in 1954, while \u2018Jeannot\u2019 Behra \u2013 always unlucky in GP races \u2013 was a serial winner in the non-title events, notching up no fewer than five victories in 1957 with Maserati and BRM machinery.<\/p>\n
Played by Hollywood heart-throb Patrick Dempsey in Michael Mann\u2019s 2023 Ferrari biopic, Piero Taruffi is our 1952 champion by a silver hair\u2019s width from fellow Italian Luigi Villoresi.<\/p>\n
![\"Moss](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2230523344.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Moss fends off Brabham for BARC 200 win at Aintree in 1958<\/p>\n
Photo by: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Standout seasons<\/p>\n
Roman holiday, 1958<\/p>\n
The Ferrari squadron of Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins and Luigi Musso each took a win on their \u2018home\u2019 ground with their front-engined V6 246s, while Juan Manuel Fangio\u2019s Maserati 250F did likewise at a rainy Buenos Aires. The rear-engined Cooper duly stepped up to the plate in Stirling Moss\u2019s hands at both Aintree and Caen for him to become \u2018champion\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my favourites [non-champ] was the BARC 200 at Aintree,\u201d said Moss. \u201cI remember having my hands full there with a challenge from Jack Brabham. My engine was overheating at the end and he made up nearly four seconds on the last lap. But he ran wide on the last corner and I just beat him to the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six races but how about this as a title decider: the Monzanapolis 500? Musso\u2019s bravura performance in his 4.2-litre \u2018bucking bronco\u2019 Ferrari helped net third place. Consider too that Moss, Fangio and Hawthorn were also in the field. If that race counts (very much straying beyond F1 at this point! \u2013 ed) the Roman takes our title with 17.33 to Moss\u2019s 16.5!<\/p>\n
Anzac rules, 1968<\/p>\n
Just three non-championship races but the field for each would have done justice to any GP. For once Ferrari sent along multi-works entries while Lotus, BRM, Matra and Brabham were well represented.<\/p>\n
It was, however, the stylish Robin Herd-designed McLaren<\/a> M7A that hit the ground running, with Bruce McLaren taking a flag-to-flag victory in the opener at Brands Hatch. As McLaren wrote in his Autosport column: \u201cDelighted to win the race and to finish two cars [team-mate Denny Hulme was third]. Mine looked as though we\u2019d only just warmed it up. There wasn\u2019t a drop of oil on it. Once Denny gets used to the car, I\u2019m going to be following him.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed so. A month later Hulme led the \u2018gaffer\u2019 home in an M7A 1-2 at Silverstone\u2019s International Trophy, Chris Amon completing the Kiwi podium for Ferrari. Amon himself would be the star of the show at the Oulton Park Gold Cup, where he relentlessly chased Jackie Stewart\u2019s Matra, equalling the Scot\u2019s lap record in a vain chase of victory.<\/p>\n Missing from Oulton were the papaya pair since the McLaren team was preparing for another assault on the lucrative Can-Am sportscar series. But victory at Brands and second at Silverstone ensured our title went deservedly to Bruce himself with 15 points. Hulme and Amon shared the runner-up spot with 13.<\/p>\n McLaren expressed his delight at taking a flag-to-flag victory in the opener at Brands Hatch in his Autosport column<\/p>\n Photo by: Getty Images<\/p>\n The non-championship races also provided a chance to get new drivers some experience, as Howden Ganley remembers: \u201cBruce McLaren asked me to test their F1 car at Goodwood in 1970. He told me he was going to be stopping at the end of the year and I would replace him for 1971, his protege in effect. His plan was to give me some non-championship races to get used to the power.\u201d<\/p>\n BRM success turns to tragedy, 1971<\/p>\n An expanded number of non-title races brought about by a combination of GP cancellations, the return of Argentina and a novelty \u2018challenge\u2019 event around the Ontario Speedway pitching some of United States Auto Club\u2019s finest against the cream of European F1.<\/p>\n Fastest out of the blocks were the 12-cylinder runners Ferrari and Matra (Chris Amon again proving he could win in F1), picking up four wins between them and leaving the V8 Cosworth runners, headed by Jackie Stewart\u2019s Tyrrell, initially struggling to keep up.<\/p>\n Quickest of the V12s though was BRM, particularly in the hands of Pedro Rodriguez. The Mexican\u2019s Yardley-sponsored P160 recorded fastest lap at Ontario, a dominant win in the Spring Cup at Oulton Park, and only a puncture denied him overall victory at Silverstone.<\/p>\n \u201cThe engine was at its peak then, although reliability was a problem,\u201d recalls BRM designer Tony Southgate. \u201cWe had only ever had about a dozen V12s, most of which were repaired at some point. We were sometimes running five cars and I was designing throughout the week and then engineering Pedro and Jo [Siffert] at the weekend. You certainly didn\u2019t knock off at 5.30 on a Friday!\u201d<\/p>\n Ganley, meanwhile, did his reputation no harm with some impressive BRM outings, particularly at the Gold Cup: \u201cThe bottom link in the wishbone broke. I was actually lucky to finish second as it was only held on by the outer skin at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n The final event of the season was the hastily arranged \u2018Victory\u2019 race at Brands Hatch. Tragically, BRM poleman Siffert was killed when his P160 crashed and caught fire. A following Mike Walker witnessed the tail end of the accident: \u201cJohn Surtees was the last one through \u2013 almost tagging the burning wreckage. Alan [Rollinson] threw up his arm in warning and brought us all to a halt at Hawthorns. One look at the scene, we knew it was hopeless.\u201d<\/p>\n The race was abandoned after 14 of the 40 laps. As it had not reached half-distance it seems only correct to attribute half points \u2013 as would be the case in 1975 with the Spanish and Austrian GPs.<\/p>\n So our 1971 \u2018non-title\u2019 goes to Stewart by just half a point from Surtees in his eponymous TS7, and a point and a half from Peter Gethin, who had replaced the much-missed Rodriguez at BRM.<\/p>\n Perhaps best leave the final word to Southgate and an unexpected legacy, courtesy of the team\u2019s lost leader: \u201cI really only met Jo for the first time at Oulton. During practice I asked him to describe what the car was doing and he said, \u2018It\u2019s \u2018yumping\u2019. I thought, \u2018OK, er what is he talking about?\u2019 He\u2019d actually just coined a new term.\u201d<\/p>\n F1 non-championship title winners<\/p>\n Year 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1983 *events<\/p>\n Notes:<\/p>\n i.) includes Buenos Aires City GP, a libre event to allow local machinery to compete, but included a full European F1 contingent. In 1955, for example, both Mercedes and Ferrari used three-litre sportscar engines in their W196 and 625A.<\/p>\n ii.) includes the Springbok races from 1961 to 1965, which strictly speaking were not F1 events as they were run to local rules allied to F1 regulations that allowed sportscar bodies. These were true internationals, though, and the entries often included top European cars.<\/p>\n iii.) excludes the \u2018Monzanapolis 500\u2019 event, but the Indianapolis 500 was part of the championship during the 1950s even though the Offenhauser-powered cars were not aligned with the F1 rules of the day.<\/p>\n iv.) excludes the \u2018Tasman Cup\u2019 races, which were part of a separate championship and allowed 2.5-litre engines.<\/p>\n v.) excludes the \u2018Intercontinental\u2019 series of races in 1961, which were intended to be part of a separate championship and were run for the 2.5-litre F1 machinery outdated after 1960.<\/p>\n vi.) the same points system is used as applies in the world championship for drivers (8-6-4-3-2 + 1 for fastest lap) for the years 1950-58 and then (8-6-4-3-2-1) for 1959, increasing to nine for victory from 1960 through to 1983. As with the latter years of the Tasman Cup, all \u2018rounds\u2019 count for points.<\/p>\n This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the March 2026 issue and\u00a0subscribe today<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Our 1960 champion Ireland leads Moss in Glover Trophy at Goodwood<\/p>\n Photo by: Getty Images<\/p>\n We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.<\/p>\n![\"McLaren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2230618091.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nDriver
\nRaces
\nPoints<\/p>\n
\nJuan Manuel Fangio
\n17
\n47.5<\/p>\n
\nLouis Rosier
\n13
\n44<\/p>\n
\nPiero Taruffi
\n6
\n23.5<\/p>\n
\nGiuseppe Farina
\n4
\n17<\/p>\n
\nMaurice Trintignant
\n19
\n49<\/p>\n
\nRoy Salvadori
\n14
\n35.5<\/p>\n
\nStirling Moss
\n10
\n31.5<\/p>\n
\nJean Behra
\n11
\n55.5<\/p>\n
\nStirling Moss
\n6
\n16.5<\/p>\n
\nJack Brabham
\n5
\n26<\/p>\n
\nInnes Ireland
\n6
\n25<\/p>\n
\nStirling Moss
\n21
\n75<\/p>\n
\nJim Clark
\n20
\n58.5<\/p>\n
\nJim Clark
\n14
\n53<\/p>\n
\nJim Clark
\n8
\n24<\/p>\n
\nJim Clark
\n6
\n24<\/p>\n
\nJack Brabham
\n4
\n18<\/p>\n
\nJack Brabham
\n7
\n28<\/p>\n
\nBruce McLaren
\n3
\n15<\/p>\n
\nJackie Stewart
\n3
\n13<\/p>\n
\nJackie Stewart
\n3
\n15<\/p>\n
\nJackie Stewart
\n8
\n18<\/p>\n
\nEmerson Fittipaldi
\n7
\n42<\/p>\n
\nPeter Gethin & Jackie Stewart
\n2
\n9<\/p>\n
\nEmerson Fittipaldi
\n3
\n13<\/p>\n
\nJohn Watson
\n3
\n11<\/p>\n
\nJames Hunt
\n2
\n18<\/p>\n
\nJames Hunt
\n1
\n9<\/p>\n
\nKeke Rosberg
\n1
\n9<\/p>\n
\nNiki Lauda
\n3*
\n11<\/p>\n
\nAlan Jones
\n1
\n9<\/p>\n
\nCarlos Reutemann
\n1
\n9<\/p>\n
\nKeke Rosberg
\n1
\n9<\/p>\n![\"Our](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-567807503.jpg\")
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