The 1960 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 4 September 1960. It was race 9 of 10 in the 1960 World Championship of Drivers and race 8 of 9 in the 1960 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.
The race on the 10 km long banked oval version was won by American driver Phil Hill driving a front-engine Ferrari 246 F1 in absence of the mid-engine British cars that already had secured the Championships.
The 1960 season had been a frustrating one for Ferrari's Formula One program as they campaigned their obsolete Dino 246, a front-engined car as the rear-mid-engined design established supremacy. The championship had already been decided for Jack Brabham and Ferrari had gone without a victory. Seeing an opportunity, the Italian organizers decided to maximize Ferrari's one advantage âÂÂstraight line speed â by using the combined Monza road and banked oval circuit, making the fast Monza even faster.
Citing the fragility of their cars and the dangers of the banking, the major British factory teams of the dayâÂÂLotus, BRM, and Cooper, all boycotted the event, leading to a cobbled together field of private entrants and Formula 2 cars. Because of this boycott by the British teams, none of the drivers who started the race had previously won a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix.
The race was a processional affair, with Ginther leading at the start and eventually being overtaken by Hill. The pair with teammate Willy Mairesse raced on to a rare 1âÂÂ2âÂÂ3 team result for Scuderia Ferrari. The boycott also allowed Scuderia Castellotti to score its only world championship points with Giulio Cabianca finishing fourth in his Cooper T51, two laps behind Hill and ahead of Scuderia Ferrari's fourth entry, Wolfgang von Trips in a 1.5 L-engined (conforming to F2 regulations) Ferrari 156 F2 car.
It was the first victory by an American driver in a Grand Prix since Jimmy Murphy at the 1921 French Grand Prix, and, excluding the Indy 500, the first by an American in the Formula One World Championship.
It was the last Formula One World Championship victory by a front-engined car, although the Ferguson P99 won the non-championship Gold Cup at Oulton Park in 1961.