Is Jim Clark the greatest Formula One driver of all-time?

The greatest driver of all-time? Amid the case being put for Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher, or Ayrton Senna and Manuel Fangio, one man’s claim to that title will be reinforced on Sunday when his achievements are remembered during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

It is 60 years since Jim Clark first won the British Grand Prix, the highlight of a season which saw him win in Belgium, Holland, France, UK — all back-to-back — as well as Italy, Mexico and South Africa. 

Second in Germany and third in the US, the only Grand Prix he did not take points in was the opener in Monaco, when he had to retire while leading on the 78th lap because of gear-box failure.

He dominated his home grand prix in the 1960s, winning it in four times in a row from 1962 to 1965, then again in 1967. He won his second World Championship in 1965 — the year he also triumphed in the Indianapolis 500.

In 1963, this son of a farmer won seven races out of 10. Only Senna won more, with eight in the 1988 season and that was over 16 races. 

Clark with the trophy for winning the British Grand Prix 60 years ago – his legacy as one of F1’s finest drivers will be remembered at Silverstone on Sunday

Clark competed at a time when drivers were far less protected in their cars than they are today. The courage demonstrated by the Scot and his peers as they reached extraordinary speeds was off the scale.

During Clark’s 1963 season, Cedric Selzer was one of five mechanics responsible for his Lotus. 

‘Jim was the fastest, bravest and best driver I’ve ever seen,’ says the South African, 86. 

‘It doesn’t seem like it was 60 years ago when he was ruling the world. My memories of him are still fresh. He was the best. I couldn’t have worked with a better driver.’

‘Out of the car he was a very different personality, very indecisive and very nervous on the open road when he wasn’t driving. I’ve been in a car with him when he was a passenger and at 70 miles an hour he was biting his fingernails. He was a strange mixture of characters.’

Selzer recalls how Clark was initially the second-rated driver at Lotus behind his fellow Scot, Innes Ireland, who won the USA Grand Prix in 1961.

The flamboyant Ireland and the shy, motor-racing obsessed Clark did not always see eye to eye.

‘Innes was some character, but he was out of the Lotus team at the end of that 1961 season because team boss Colin Chapman thought Jim was a better driver and he was correct in my opinion,’ says Selzer. 

Clark’s eight years driving for Lotus in F1 featured 25 race wins and 32 podium finishes 

The Scottish racing driver pictured at the 1966 Mexican Grand Prix, just two years before his death in a Formula Two accident at Hockenheim 

‘Innes held a grudge against Jim for the rest of his days because of it and thought he had stabbed him in the back, which most definitely was not true.

‘Jim had nothing to do with Innes being let go. Innes lived life to the full and maybe wasn’t as dedicated as he could have been and Chapman didn’t take kindly to that. He knew, and I knew, that Jim was the faster and more natural driver.’

In 1962, Selzer mostly worked on the Lotus car of Trevor Taylor, only working for Clark at the 2000 Guineas at Mallory Park. 

Things could have turned out differently for the mechanic before the 1963 season if he had taken up an option to work with Lotus in America. He decided instead to travel the world with the Scot.

Clark returns to the Lotus garage after winning the Belgian Grand Prix in 1963

‘It wasn’t motor-racing reasons that swung my decision to go with Jim,’ says Selzer, with a glint in his eye. 

‘Let’s just say I was young and had a good social life around London that I didn’t want to give up. I didn’t want to be stuck in the States all the time and knew that, if I stayed with Jim, I could come home to London between World Championship races to continue my social life.’

Clark did not start the 1963 F1 season well in Monaco, but had a great June, winning the Belgian, Dutch and French grands prix, with his famous Silverstone victory making it four wins in a row. 

John Surtees won the German Grand Prix at Nurburgring, with Clark in second, before the Scot bounced back with a victory in Italy that secured the World Championship title.

Graham Hill won the next race at Watkins Glen in the US, with Clark third, before he rounded things off with wins in Mexico and South Africa. 

Clark was now a world superstar and his exploits earned Selzer and the rest of the mechanics a nice little bonus. 

‘We were told we were going to get a Mini each, which was all the rage, but we ended up with a Ford that I sold to buy an engagement ring for my fiancee at the time,’ he says.

Clark speaks with Lotus chief Colin Chapman in the pits at the German Grand Prix in 1965

A meeting of racing minds at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1966 as Clark (right) chats to Graham Hill (left) and Jackie Stewart (centre)

‘I was earning £12.50 a week and I could just about get by on that. We also got 10 per cent of the prize money. For winning a world championship race, the first prize was £750, so we got £75 extra as mechanics, but that was divided among those involved with Jim’s car and the Indy team in the US.

‘We got some of the Indy team prize-money as well, so maybe I got £15 extra when Jim won a Grand Prix in 1963. 

‘We weren’t there for the money or bonuses, that wasn’t necessary. We were all there to win motor races. Changed days now as motor racing is so corporate. 

‘When we were doing it, it was amateur motor racing, with some money thrown at it, but those days are long gone.’

Clark was known as a shy man who did not suffer fools gladly. Although Selzer worked with him on and off over four years, the Borderer did not let his guard down much, although the mention of aeroplanes and ghosts helped break the silence.

‘Jim was a gentleman,’ he says. ‘I’ve just been reading Senna’s book and I realised that, although they were both naturally gifted drivers and some say Jim was the Senna of the 60s, they were very different characters. Jim loved driving while Senna had more of a win-at-all-costs mentality.

‘Jim was a cool character and, if there was a drama, he just went with the flow, let us sort out the problem as mechanics, never complained about anything. 

‘He was a hard man to get close to as he wasn’t into small talk so much but we did, occasionally, have some fascinating conversations outside of racing.

Clark’s Lotus, in British racing green, pictured at the Netherlands GP at Zandvoort in 1961

‘Some people who didn’t know him as well as I did thought he was a recluse, but that wasn’t true. He was sociable when he wanted to be. 

‘He loved airplanes, he had a pilot’s licence and, if ever I mentioned flying to Jim, he was off talking about planes, anywhere, anytime.

‘I also remember Jim talking about how he thought he had seen a ghost at the end of his bed at the family farm in the Borders.

‘He said when he woke up one morning he asked his mother why she had been at the end of his bed during the night. She said she hadn’t. It happened again a few weeks later and he called the apparition the White Lady. He was sure he had seen a ghost.’

Selzer remained in motor racing after he left Lotus but knew he would never work with another driver as good as Clark.

‘We had the best car and the best driver. Everybody expected Jim to win because of his natural talent. If we came second, it was a bitter disappointment. We were all so psyched up; we were invincible. That was the attitude of the team, especially in 1963.’

Clark and Chapman in the Ford-powered Lotus that won the Indy 500 race in 1965

Even the Silverstone triumph was regarded as just another race. ‘We were on pole position and, although Jim was passed off the line at the start, he got back in front and won.

‘I remember all the euphoria when Jim won that race in the stands, there were over 110,000 there on the day. The team were happy and backslapping for maybe 15 seconds, but then we went back to work.

‘We’ve won, so now move on. We were so focused that winning the British Grand Prix was just a step on the road for what we all wanted, to win the 1963 World Championship.’

Selzer was working for another team when he heard of Clark’s tragic death at Hockenheim in Germany in 1968. The Scot was only 32 years old.

‘I was devastated, as was everybody who knew him,’ he says. ‘Everybody knew how great a driver Jim was in that era.

‘When I met Juan Manuel Fangio, the first thing he said to me about Jimmy’s accident was that something must have broken at the back of his car, because if it had been at the front then Jim would have had the ability to drive out of it.

‘And then he said that Jimmy was the greatest driver ever. No question, even 60 years on.’