Classified spotlight: Mexico 1966: the favor of Honda that gifted the win to Cooper

Mexican GP, October 21-23 1966.
The Formula 1 circus moved to the country of the Aztecs for the 9th and last race of a season, that its outcome was sealed definitely by the implementation of three-liter engines, rather than the 1.5 liter engines which were in effect last year.
Both Lotus and BRM were half prepared ahead of the rule changes, contrary to Ferrari and Cooper (with the latter signing collaboration with Maserati).

The big surprise came from Brabham, which thanks to the absolutely reliable Repco engine, gave Sir Jack the opportunity to make history, being the one and only driver until today who won the title with a car that carried his last name.
Despite the fact that both Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships had been already won, the finale in Mexico was of great interest.
Apart from the champions Brabham, who wanted to close a dream season with a win, Lotus, Cooper and Honda, winner of the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix had also possibility to win the race and even BRM couldn’t be considered out of contention.



The only team who was surely out of contention to win the race was Ferrari, which had been hit by internal issues, decided not to take part in the last race, in a try to restore the team’s leadership ahead of next season.
The main exhibition of the internal issues of Scuderia was the departure of number 1 driver, John Surtees, before of the Le Mans 24 hour race.
The bad relations between the Briton and team manager Eugenio Dragoni got irreversibly worse, after the latter’s decision to exclude Surtees from the team’s lineup of the most famous endurance race: Surtees asked for explanations, Dragoni answered that considered him unready to take part and then the divorce was inevitable.



Having been the 1964 world champion and one of the best drivers on the grid, he didn’t spend time to find a new drive, when Cooper secured his services for the rest of the season.
2nd place at the German GP and 3rd at the US GP put Surtees on 3rd place of the standings ahead of the Mexican GP, with 19 points, whilst his team-mate Jochen Rindt was 2nd with 22.
Ahead of the last race of the season, the battle between the two Cooper drivers for the 2nd place of the standings was an open case, in which Surtees had a secret “weapon” that the Austrian did not have, a weapon that justifies the name of the article.
After the necessary introduction, it’s time for the main story.



As mentioned above, Surtees had agreed with Cooper until the end of the year.
Before the US GP, Yoshio Nakamura, head of Honda, approached Surtees to offer him a race position for 1967.
The deal closed fast, but included apart from the typical things (contract length, wages) a technical advantage, which Surtees would use at the Mexican GP.



Being at 2.300m above sea level, Hermanos Rodríguez circuit had different oxygen levels compared to other circuits.
Nakamura had special knowledge on the adjustment of the air-fuel mixture on high altitude thanks to his work experience on the creation of aircraft engines and evolved a special mixture adjustment for Honda, which was the decisive factor for the team’s first Formula 1 win, by the hand of Richie Ginther, at the 1965 Mexican GP.
That particular adjustment of the air-fuel mixture was the thing that Nakamura revealed to his future driver and Surtees shared information with his mechanics. The result was a comfortable pole position that the Briton converted to a win which gave him finally 2nd place in the Drivers’ championship.



So, Cooper won the race with crucial help from the technical know-how of the fellow contender Honda, with the great Japanese engineer inaugurating a perfect relationship with John Surtees: contrary to Eugenio Dragoni, he treated him exceptionally during their admirable two-year collaboration (1967-1968).