STORY OF THE DAY: Von Trips Tests Ferrari’s Future at Monza

Wolfgang Von Trips finished fifth in the 1960 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, driving the number 22 Ferrari 156 P. The Formula Two-based car competed within the World Championship field and followed four more powerful machines home as Phil Hill led a Ferrari one-two-three victory.

The leading British teams boycotted the event because organizers used the combined road and banked circuit, which they considered dangerous and unsuitable for their cars. Against the faster 2.5-litre Ferraris, Von Trips’s 1.5-litre machine could not challenge for victory, but its finish provided valuable development mileage for the regulations arriving in 1961.

The rear-engined 156 P used a 1.5-litre Dino V6 mounted behind the driver. Smaller and more agile than Ferrari’s front-engined 246 F1, it represented the architecture the Scuderia was preparing for the following season, when 1.5 litres became the Formula One maximum.

Wolfgang Von Trips was a German Ferrari works driver whose career encompassed both sports cars and Grand Prix machinery. His willingness to race the developmental 156 at Monza helped refine a concept with which he would become a championship contender and twice a Grand Prix winner in 1961.