1963 Italian GP
Gran Premio d'Italia |
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Monza |
September 8, 1963 |
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Ecurie Maarsbergen |
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Porsche 718 (201) |
No: 28 |
Q: DNQ |
R: |
C: GP |
The organisers of the Italian Grand Prix had decided to include the old banking again and thus use the ten-kilometre version of the circuit. This met with a lot of opposition from drivers and teams alike, especially the British. There was already some talk about a strike or a boycott. But on Friday afternoon, after several smaller incidents on the bumpy banked section and even a more severe crash by Anderson in his Lola, the circuit was cut back to the 5.7 km road section – officially on account of the local police, that declared that the safety of the spectators around the banking was not guarantied, but it was a nice way for the organisers to save their face and meet the demands of everybody, with the tragedy of 1961 still so vivid.
By that time however Gerhard Mitter already decided not to drive the second Maarsbergen Porsche at the dangerous circuit and withdrew. Whether or not the prize money quarrel of the German Grand Prix had anything to do with the hasty decision of the German is not clear. Of the 28 cars that were entered, only 20 were allowed to start the race. Carel did not qualify, he was 24th.
In the end it raised some eyebrows that Baghetti’s ATS was allowed to start the race while he’d been even slower than Carel in qualifying, but the organisers weren’t going to exclude an Italian in an Italian car from their Grand Prix so they called him ‘first reserve’ and after Chris Amon withdrew because of the injuries he sustained after a crash they called him in, leaving the faster Cabral, Raby, Settember and De Beaufort out, but with a little lesson about Italian politics to consider.