Mexico City, 3 November 1968: Graham Hill Wins the Title for a Grieving Team Lotus

On 3 November 1968, 58 years ago tomorrow, Graham Hill won the Mexican Grand Prix in a Lotus 49B. The win made him world champion for the second time, and gave Lotus the constructors’ title. It closed the hardest season in the team’s history.

A season that started with a loss

The year began well. Jim Clark won the opening round in South Africa, his 25th and last championship Grand Prix win. On 7 April he was killed in a non-championship Formula 2 race at Hockenheim, when his Lotus left the road and hit the trees. A month later Mike Spence, who had been brought in to drive for Lotus, died after a practice crash at Indianapolis in one of the team’s turbine cars.

Hill, team leader by default, won the next two Grands Prix, in Spain and at Monaco. Colin Chapman signed the young Formula 2 driver Jackie Oliver to fill the second seat. Our guide to famous Lotus drivers covers Clark and Hill in more detail.

A new look, and wings

1968 was also the year the cars changed colour. Hill’s car in Spain was the first works Lotus in the red, gold and white of Gold Leaf, replacing British racing green. At Monaco, Chapman fitted the 49B with small front wings and a rear spoiler, and through the summer the team and its rivals moved to tall rear wings mounted on struts. The car in the photo above shows the front wings of that era.

Three drivers, one race

Twelve rounds were scheduled, and Mexico was the last. Hill arrived on 39 points, with Jackie Stewart (Matra) on 36 and the defending champion Denny Hulme (McLaren) on 33. Jo Siffert took pole in Rob Walker’s private Lotus 49B, his first pole position.

Siffert led early but pitted with a broken throttle cable. Hulme’s race ended on lap 10, when a rear suspension part failed and he crashed. Stewart’s Matra developed an engine problem and he fell back to seventh, a lap down. Hill won from Bruce McLaren, with Oliver third in the other works Lotus.

Hill finished the year on 48 points to Stewart’s 36. Lotus took the constructors’ championship with 62 points to McLaren’s 49.

Why it still matters

No title could make up for the loss of Clark. But it showed that the team, and the 49 that Clark had debuted the year before, could still win without him. The 49 went on to race until 1970.

For the wider story of the company in those years, see our Lotus history guide. The team was by then based at Hethel in Norfolk, and the Hethel and Norfolk loop starts close to the factory.

Source: 1968 Mexican Grand Prix and 1968 Formula One season, Wikipedia.