Formula 1

About the season

Colin Chapman unveiled the Lotus 25, Formula One's first fully stressed monocoque chassis, which fundamentally reshaped race car design away from the traditional tubular spaceframe. Jim Clark took Lotus's first championship race win in the 25 at Spa, and further victories put him in title contention - but an engine failure while leading the final round in South Africa cost him the championship. Graham Hill won BRM's first drivers' title after a season-long battle with Clark. By now the British constructors - Lotus, BRM and Cooper - had clearly overtaken Ferrari, which struggled to respond to the new rear-engined, monocoque-chassis technology. Graham Hill won the 1962 Drivers' Championship with 42 points (BRM), 12 points ahead of the runner-up. BRM won the Constructors' Championship with 42 points, 6 points ahead of the runner-up. Across 9 completed races this season, there were 104 retirements. 4 different drivers won a race this season. Graham Hill took the most race wins, 4 in total. Hill won the season-opening race, the Dutch Grand Prix. The closest finish of the season came at the Monaco Grand Prix, with a gap of just 1.300 seconds. The season's biggest upset win came from Clark at the Belgian Grand Prix, starting from grid position 13. The Belgian Grand Prix saw the most retirements of the season, with 15 drivers failing to finish. Maggs made the biggest gain of the season at the German Grand Prix, from grid position 23 to finishing 9 (up 14 places). The most dominant win of the season came at the South African Grand Prix, with a margin of 49.8 seconds. Hill won the South African Grand Prix, the final race of the season.