John Surtees is one of the few prestigious drivers to have won a drivers’ championship with Ferrari. While it was his only F1 world title in 1964, Surtees is the only driver to have won a championship in a blue Ferrari. Apart from this, the British driver got another unique record to his name, owing to his past racing career.
Surtees is the only driver to win world championships in motorsport on both two-wheels and four-wheels. The 1964 F1 champion also raced in the Grand Prix Motorcycle category, which is the predecessor of the modern-day MotoGP series.
To this day, John Surtees remains the only driver to have won a World Championship on both two and four wheels. After winning 7 World Championships in 350cc/500cc, Surtees made the switch to F1 and won the 1964 WDC with Ferrari. He also remains the only Ferrari driver to claim an F1 title in blue.
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Surtees won championships in both the 350cc and 500cc classes, mainly racing in the late 50s. The Briton won his first championship in the 500cc category in 1956. And then, He had a three-peat of championships in both categories from 1958 to 1960, which took the total of his two-wheeler championship titles to seven.
The former Ferrari driver was unique because he switched from motorcycle racing to F1 and wasn’t originally an F1 driver. So, coming into the pinnacle of motorsport and on four wheels unlike his past racing experience, Surtees exceeded a lot of expectations to win a championship.
However, this was the norm back in the early days of F1 as many drivers often raced in multiple categories besides F1 — be it endurance racing or IndyCar. Still, Surtees retains these two unique accolades of winning a championship on both two-wheelers and four-wheelers and winning in F1 in a blue Ferrari.
The story of the blue Ferrari in 1964 that powered Surtees to his only F1 title
The reason Ferrari abandoned its iconic scarlet red color in 1964 — be it for two races — has a detailed backstory involving the FIA and the Italian national motorsport body (ACI) as well. Enzo Ferrari faced rejection from the FIA on one of his cars that he wanted to enter in GT racing.
On this issue, even the ACI did not help Enzo Ferrari’s cause, and that escalated the matter in Maranello. The Ferrari founder swore to not race in the traditional Italian colors that they used ever. That is why, they dropped the red livery and the Ferrari brand moniker for the final two championship rounds of the 1964 F1 season in the USA and Mexico.
Surtees and his teammate, Lorenzo Bandini entered these two races in a Ferrari car with blue and white liveries under the team name North American Racing Team (NART) — a team name that the Italian brand often used in sportscar racing across the pond.
This entire dramatic saga did not affect Surtees’ championship challenge at all. The British driver finished second in both races to beat Graham Hill to his only championship by one point.
