Editing History of Formula One (section)

=== "Garagistes" and the rear-mid engine revolution (1958–1961) ===
:''See [[1958 Formula One season|1958 season]], [[1959 Formula One season|1959 season]], [[1960 Formula One season|1960 season]] and [[1961 Formula One season|1961 season]].''
[[File:Mike Hawthorn 1958 Argentine GP.jpg|thumb|[[Mike Hawthorn]] in a [[Ferrari 246 F1]] in the [[1958 Argentine Grand Prix]]]]
Although the basic formula remained unchanged in 1958, races were shortened from around 500&nbsp;km/300miles to 300&nbsp;km/200 miles and cars had to use [[avgas]] instead of various fuel mixtures using [[methanol]] as the primary component. 1958 saw the introduction of an International Cup for F1 Manufacturers,<ref name="FIA_1974">International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, FIA Year Book of Automobile Sport 1974, Grey section, pages 120–121</ref> with points allocated on an 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 basis to the first six cars in the race (i.e. unlike in the Drivers' Championship, there was no point for fastest lap). Furthermore, points were only awarded to the highest placed car of each make, i.e. if a make finished 1st and 2nd they would receive only eight points and the 3rd placed car would receive 4 points. Indianapolis, which was included in the World Championship of Drivers (though no Formula One drivers competed), did not count towards the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers.<ref name="FIA_1974" />

With Fangio retired, [[Mike Hawthorn]] in a Ferrari took the {{F1|1958}} Drivers' Championship{{snd}}becoming the first English driver to earn a title. The British [[Vanwall]] team took the maiden Constructors' Championship that [[1958 Formula One season|season]], but ruined their Drivers' Championship aspirations by taking points off one another. [[Stirling Moss]], despite having many more wins than Hawthorn, lost the championship by one point. It was high sportsmanship that cost Moss the 1958 title. When Hawthorn was threatened with disqualification at the finish of the Portuguese Grand Prix for going in the wrong direction (to restart his car following a spin), Moss argued to stewards on Hawthorn's behalf. The points granted Hawthorn were the difference in the championship. This season also saw a woman driving in Formula One for the first time with [[Maria Teresa de Filippis]] racing a private Maserati at the Belgian Grand Prix.<ref group="note">Women had driven in Grands Prix prior to Formula One, e.g. [[Hellé Nice]].</ref>

1958 was a watershed in another crucial way for Formula One. Against a small field of Ferraris and Maseratis, [[Stirling Moss]] won the [[1958 Argentine Grand Prix|Argentine Grand Prix]] driving a mid-engined [[Cooper Car Company|Cooper]] entered by the private team of [[Rob Walker Racing Team|Rob Walker]], and powered by a 2-litre [[Coventry-Climax]] Straight-4. This was the first victory for a car with [[Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout|the engine mounted behind the driver]] in Formula One.<ref group="note">The mid-engined [[Auto Union]]s had been successful in Grand Prix racing in the 1930s.</ref> It was also the first World Championship GP win for a [[Privateer (motorsport)|private entrant]] (excepting the [[Indianapolis 500]] where all the entries were technically private entrants using bought-in chassis) as well as the first win for a car powered by an engine built by another manufacturer. The next Grand Prix in [[1958 Monaco Grand Prix|Monaco]] was also won by the same Cooper car, this time driven by [[Maurice Trintignant]] and facing more substantial opposition. Powered by undersized engines, the Coopers remained outsiders in 1958 but as soon as the new 2.5-litre Coventry-Climax engine was available, the little British cars went on to dominate Formula One. The [[1959 Formula One season|1959]] season was effectively the start of the mid-engined revolution, and this season saw fierce competition between the works Cooper of [[Formula One drivers from Australia|Australian]] [[Jack Brabham]] and [[Stirling Moss|Moss]] in the Walker team's Cooper. The Getrag-modified [[Citroën]] [[Traction Avant]] transaxle proved to be the Achilles heel of the Coopers, so Walker switched to a transaxle manufactured by ex-Maserati engineer Valerio Colotti. The special transmission turned out to be more unreliable than the standard part, and Brabham took the title with Moss second.

For [[1960 Formula One season|1960]] while Enzo Ferrari adopted a conservative attitude, claiming "the horses pull the car rather than push it." It was probably disinformation: at the same time Ferrari was preparing for 1961 by designing mid-engined F2 and F1 cars. The Italian front-engined red cars were not only being effectively beaten by the British teams but thoroughly outclassed- the British rear mid-engined cars had considerably better road holding than the front-engined cars. Although down on power, the British cars' superior handling and lesser demands on tyres more than made up the power deficit. It was obvious to everyone that rear-mid engined cars were the way to go at that point in time. [[Team Lotus|Lotus]] and [[British Racing Motors|BRM]] introduced mid-engined machines. Walker's team switched to a Lotus 18 chassis. Moss gave Lotus its first Formula One victory at Monaco but his season was ruined by a serious crash at Spa, Belgium. Brabham took a second title with his Cooper, but Moss returned in time to win the final race of the season, the U.S. Grand Prix at Riverside, California.

The mid-engined revolution rendered another potentially revolutionary car obsolete. The front-engined [[four-wheel drive]] [[Ferguson Research Ltd.|Ferguson]] [[Four-wheel drive in Formula One#Ferguson P99 (1961)|P99]] raced in British Formula One races in {{F1|1961}}, winning the non-Championship [[Oulton Park International Gold Cup]]<ref>Christian Moity, La Ferguson P 99 Climax (1961–1964). La preuve par quatre. Auto Passion n°136 May–June 2001 p. 42-49</ref> under heavy rain. The car was too heavy and complex compared to the new breed of mid-engined machines. By 1961, British specialist teams such as Lotus, Cooper and BRM, and later McLaren, Tyrrell and Williams- organizations created purely for producing, developing and competing purpose-built open-wheel racing cars had overtaken the industrial manufacturing powers such as Ferrari, Mercedes, Maserati and Alfa Romeo. The only major automotive manufacturer with a full works effort was Ferrari- which was really a manufacturer that made road cars to fund its racing in F1 and endurance racing. Whereas the big continental manufacturers, with much money to spend, built the whole car including the drivetrain systems themselves, (excluding BRM), the British teams, with only limited amounts of money only built their chassis; they bought their engines and gearboxes from independent manufacturers such as Coventry-Climax and later Ford/Cosworth engines, and Hewland gearboxes. The only British team that was also a manufacturer of road cars like Ferrari was Lotus; but even so, that company grew considerably but never to the size of Mercedes or Alfa Romeo. From 1957 to 1961, Formula One had transformed from a scattershot industrial manufacturer sideshow of technology to a seriously competitive business for team owners and engineers wanting to come up with new technologies to out-do the opposition and also to sell their technology to big manufacturers or other interested parties. People like Cooper and Lotus founders John Cooper and Colin Chapman proved that competitiveness and developing new automotive technology was about fresh thinking, not industrial might. These British teams were regularly beating manufacturer teams like Ferrari, whom company founder [[Enzo Ferrari]] referring to these new British teams as ''garagistes'' – Italian for garage teams, which is effectively how all these British teams operated – their cars were built in small sheds or garages.

In {{F1|1961}}, in an attempt to curb speeds, Formula One was downgraded to 1.5-litre, non-supercharged engines (essentially the then-current Formula Two rules), a formula which would remain for the next five years. Forced induction was still an option, but limited to 750&nbsp;cc, and no one seriously considered the option, as supercharging had proven limiting to fuel consumption. Ferrari could have used its already proven V6 powered mid-engined [[Formula 2]] cars, but preferred to go one step forward by designing a very sophisticated car powered by a 120° V6, which was their first ever rear-mid engined car, the [[Ferrari 156 F1|156]]. The considerably more powerful and efficient engine Ferrari had led to the Maranello outfit dominating the 1961 season as the British teams scrambled to come up with a suitable engine. American Phil Hill won the 1961 title in a works Ferrari. His teammate, Wolfgang von Trips of [[Formula One drivers from Germany|Germany]], died along with 14 spectators in a horrific crash on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Formula One World Championship was merely the tip of the iceberg when it came to races run to Formula One regulations. The total number of races run to Formula One regulations remained about the same as it had been before the introduction of the World Championship. Many famous races, such as the [[Pau Grand Prix|Pau]] and [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]] Grands Prix, the [[BRDC International Trophy]], the [[Race of Champions (Brands Hatch)|Race of Champions]] and the [[Oulton Park Gold Cup]], were not part of the World Championship, but nonetheless continued to draw the top drivers and teams to compete.