STORY OF THE DAY: Behra Scores at Zandvoort

Jean Behra finished fifth in the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, driving the number 1 Ferrari 256 F1. Joakim Bonnier won for BRM, becoming the first Swedish driver to take a World Championship Grand Prix victory, while Behra collected two points for Ferrari in a race increasingly shaped by rear-engined opposition.

Zandvoort’s sequence of fast corners exposed the balance advantage of the lighter British cars. Behra nevertheless brought the powerful Ferrari through the full distance, securing a modest but useful result during a season in which the Scuderia’s traditional design was being overtaken by a major technical transition.

The 256 F1 was an evolution of Ferrari’s Dino 246, retaining a front-engine layout and using a V6 enlarged to roughly 2.5 litres. Its tubular chassis and substantial power made it formidable on fast circuits, although its weight and architecture were less well suited to twisting venues such as Zandvoort.

Frenchman Jean Behra was an exceptionally tough and combative racer who had driven for Gordini, Maserati and BRM before joining Ferrari in 1959. His relationship with the Scuderia proved brief and turbulent, but his fifth place in the Netherlands remains one of his championship finishes for the team before his death at AVUS later that year.