Here is Phil Hill at the Monaco Grand Prix on May 14, 1961 charging up the Ste. Devote hill toward Casino Square. At this race Klemantaski was experimenting with what was then called a Press Camera which he had modified to use 120 size film as used in his Rollei. This type of camera could be held sideways or even upside down and given the dynamics of its focal plane shutter could produce in unusual photographic effects a seen here. This mage gives a good feeling of the rush forward of Carlo Chiti’s new aggressive campaign Ferrari 156F1 design against the blur of the formal buildings in the background.
The new Ferraris V6 1.5 liter motors were said to have as much as a 50 bhp advantage over the four cylinder Coventry Climax engines used in the British cars. The Ferrari suspension was in some ways a copy of that used on the most recent Coopers and required a lot of negative camber at the rear for stability as can be seen here. All that said, however, it could not allow Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips or Richie Ginther to out qualify the Rob Walker Lotus 18 driven by Stirling Moss. But Ginther was only 0.2 seconds behind.
At the start Ginther led from Moss and Jim Clark in the works Lotus 21 although the latter soon had to pit with fuel pump problems and lost several laps. Hill stayed close to the action as here at the Station Hairpin. Soon the three Ferraris all were up behind Moss with Ginther getting steadily closer in the final stages of the race. At the flag Ginther, although closing rapidly, was still 3.6 seconds behind Moss with Hill 41 seconds back and Trips taking fourth being classified in that position by distance covered although he was not running at the finish.
Photos by Louis Klemantaski ©The Klemantaski Collection – http://www.klemcoll.com
We have now added a selection of images from both our JJF Archive and our archive of Corrado Millanta to The Gallery at http://www.klemcoll.com.
Klemantaski Collection 