1962 Season

Driver changes

Stirling Moss was set to drive for Scuderia Ferrari this season, but a crash at the non-championship Glover Trophy left him in a coma for a month with the left side of his body paralysed for six months. Giancarlo Baghetti takes the vacant seat, having earned it by winning the 1961 French Grand Prix and several non-championship races in a privately entered Ferrari.

Richie Ginther leaves Ferrari for BRM, filling the seat vacated by Tony Brooks’s retirement from the sport. BRM have introduced their own V8 engine for this season; previously the team relied on a Climax unit.

At Lotus, Innes Ireland has been fired and joins the renamed UDT Laystall Racing team. Trevor Taylor takes his place alongside Jim Clark.

Double World Champion Jack Brabham has left Cooper to form his own team, Brabham Racing Organisation. Tony Maggs steps up to replace him at Cooper.

Team changes

Brabham Racing Organisation enters the championship, initially running a Lotus chassis while Brabham’s own design, the BT3, is completed. If the car races, Brabham will become the first driver to compete in a championship round in a car bearing his own name.

Bowmaker Racing enters the season with the Lola Mk4 — the first Formula One chassis ever produced by Lola Cars.

BRM, after years of using Coventry Climax engines, debut their own V8 powerplant.

Calendar

The season spans nine races from 20 May to 29 December 1962. Monaco has been moved back three weeks, so the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort opens the season and holds the honorary designation of European Grand Prix. The French Grand Prix returns to Rouen-Les-Essarts, as tradition has rotated the venue there every five years — previously in 1952 and 1957. Most significantly, the South African Grand Prix makes its World Championship debut, held at East London on 29 December as the season finale.

Regulation changes

All competitors use tyres supplied by Dunlop, which holds a monopoly on supply this season.