BRM P57
It is the car with which Graham Hill clinches his first World Championship title in 1962. BRM stands for British Racing Motors, a team that competes at the highest levels of motorsport from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s, winning the Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Championship titles in 1962.
In its various configurations, the P57 starts in five Formula 1 seasons. It debuts at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1961 and ends its career with the 1965 Italian Grand Prix. In between, there are 40 Grand Prix races and six victories.
The P57, the 1962 world championship-winning car, is an evolution of the 1961 car powered by the Climax engine. The tubular chassis and the car’s suspension remain the same. In 1962, a longitudinally mounted naturally aspirated 8-cylinder engine of 1498 cm3, manufactured by BRM, replaces the Coventry-Climax engine. BRM is the only British team to build its own engine, a detail that will make it the only British team of approval for Enzo Ferrari, as, just like his company, it builds a car in its entirety.
Drivers:
Graham Hill: At the wheel of the P57, the English driver triumphs at Zandvoort, the Nürburgring, Monza, and East London, in the South African Grand Prix that concludes the 1962 season. He also finishes second at Spa and Watkins Glen in a year that he dominates from start to finish. In the Netherlands, he secures the first victory of his long career with the P57. For Graham, it’s his first world championship title. The only downside of an extraordinary season is his retirement eight laps from the chequered flag at Monaco. But the appointment with the first of his five extraordinary victories on the streets of the Monegasque Principality is only postponed.
Richie Ginther: In what is only his second full season in Formula 1 and the first of three with BRM, the American clinches two podium finishes – third place in the French Grand Prix and second place in the Italian Grand Prix. However, four retirements at Zandvoort, Monaco, Spa, and Watkins Glen prevent him from ever truly being in the spotlight.
Our model cars:
Mounted behind the engine is a brand new 6-speed gearbox designed by Valerio Colotti, a technician from the Ferrari school with a long history at Maserati. It will prove to be too undeveloped to the point that, during the season, the P57 will revert to using the previous 5-speed gearbox.
1962 is the glory season of this extremely long-lived car. In the hands of the two official drivers, Graham Hill and Richie Ginther, it achieves four victories and four podiums.
