STORY OF THE DAY: Bandini earns a second successive Monaco runner-up finish

Lorenzo Bandini finished second in the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, the opening European round of the new three-litre World Championship formula. Driving Ferrari number 16, he followed Jackie Stewart’s BRM home after 100 laps and finished ahead of Graham Hill. It was Bandini’s second consecutive runner-up result at Monaco and his third successive podium there.

Only four cars were classified, testimony to the severity of a race marked by numerous mechanical retirements. Bandini maintained a competitive pace while leading contenders disappeared, but Stewart controlled the event from the opening lap. The Ferrari driver’s reliability and restraint secured six valuable championship points on a circuit where survival was inseparable from speed.

The Ferrari 246 F1 was an interim solution for the new regulations, using a 2.4-litre V6 rather than a full three-litre engine. Its comparatively light and compact configuration made it suitable for Monaco’s confined streets, even though it conceded power to larger-engined rivals. Ferrari simultaneously developed the three-litre V12-powered 312 F1 for faster circuits.

Lorenzo Bandini had joined Ferrari in 1962 and became one of the team’s most versatile Formula One and sports-car drivers. The Italian won at Le Mans in 1963, took his only World Championship Grand Prix victory in Austria in 1964 and played a selfless role in John Surtees’s championship success. His 1966 Monaco performance demonstrated the consistency and mechanical sympathy that made him central to Ferrari.