page_title: BRM P261
section_title: 1964
hierarchical_section_title: BRM P261 / Competition history / 1964
caption_attribution_description: English: Graham Hill Photograph
context_page_description: The BRM P261, also known as the BRM P61 Mark II, is a Formula One motor racing car, designed and built by the British Racing Motors team in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. The BRM P261 was introduced for the 1964 Formula One season, and its design was an evolution of Tony Rudd's one-off BRM P61 car of 1963. The P261 had a relatively long racing career; variants of the car were still being entered for Formula One World Championship Grands Prix as late as 1968. During the course of their front-line career BRM P261s won six World Championship races, in the hands of works drivers Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart, and finished second in both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship standings in 1964 and 1965. Stewart, Hill and Richard Attwood also used works P261s to compete in the Tasman Series in 1966. The BRMs dominated, with Stewart winning four, Hill two, and Attwood one of the 1966 Tasman Series' eight races. Stewart also won the title. The works-backed Reg Parnell Racing team returned in 1967 with Stewart and Attwood, where Stewart added another two wins to his tally.
context_section_description: The BRM P261 made its race debut at the non-Championship Daily Mirror Trophy race, at Snetterton on 14 March 1964. Only one car was ready at the time, and it was entered for long-serving works driver Graham Hill. The car immediately showed its promise, as Hill took second place in qualifying, beaten only by newly crowned World Champion Jim Clark's Lotus 25. Unfortunately for Hill, in the race itself he retired following an accident on only the seventh lap. The early season shakedown races continued well for the BRM team; Hill set fastest lap at Goodwood on 30 March, and was only prevented from winning when the car's rotor arm dropped off two laps from the end. Hill added a further two second-place finishes, at the Aintree 200 and BRDC International Trophy races, before the first race of the World Championship season.
  Despite the rather interim nature of its engine and chassis configuration, on its World Championship debut at the 1964 Monaco Grand Prix the BRM P261 had the best of starts. Although Hill and team-mate Richie Ginther only managed to qualify in third and eighth places, respectively, in the race Hill set fastest lap, and the two P261s finished first and second. It was the first of Hill's five victories on the Côte d'Azure. Hill continued to perform well throughout the first half of the season, and took a string of three back-to-back second places in France, Britain and Germany. Ironically, it was with the introduction of the proper, high-exhaust version of the engine in Italy that the car's reliability began to falter. At Monza Hill qualified on the front row of the grid, but as he sat waiting for the flag to drop his clutch seized open, and his car sat stationary as the rest of the field streamed past him. Hill bounced back to win in the United States, but finished out of the points at the season finale in Mexico following a collision with Bandini. With reasonable results from Ginther, BRM finished the season second in the Constructors' Championship, with Hill also second in the Drivers' Championship.
caption: Chassis designer John Crosthwaite (in the pale duffel coat) oversees BRM mechanics pushing driver Graham Hill out on to the track, during testing of a BRM P261
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