1962 PORSCHE 804 FORMULE 1

Although the German company Porsche was still young in the early 1960s, it already had numerous motorsport competitions to its name, including Formula 1, even though the first races did not deliver impressive results. In 1958, the Stuttgart-based brand started competing in the premier class for single-seaters with a model based on the 718, followed by a few other cars designed specifically for this purpose. The last model, the 804, achieved a victory in the only season in which it competed, that of 1962, before Porsche abandoned this discipline due to a change in the regulations announced for the following year.

Intended to replace the 787 for the 1962 season, the Porsche 804 made its Formula 1 debut at Zandvoort in the Dutch Grand Prix. Of the two single-seaters at the start, the best result was achieved by the car driven by Sweden's Jo Bonnier, which finished 7th and earned points, while the other 804, driven by American Dan Gurney, was forced to retire due to a broken gear selector. Porsche secured a point thanks to the private team Maarsbergen, which finished in sixth place, with Carel Godin de Beaufort at the wheel of the 718, while the 787 driven by gentleman driver Ben Pon withdrew after spinning out after two laps. The situation did not improve in the Monaco Grand Prix, where the only 804 on the grid, driven by Dan Gurney, was forced to retire after an accident shortly after the start. A few weeks later in Belgium, not a single one of the new single-seaters made it to the line-up. The only Porsche to finish was the 718 from the Dutch team, with de Beaufort at the wheel, taking seventh place.

Things picked up in the fourth race, the ACF Grand Prix, on the Rouen circuit: during qualifying, Gurney and Bonnier secured sixth and seventh positions on the grid. However, during the race, things turned out differently: while Bonnier withdrew after 43 laps due to gearbox problems (he was classified tenth), his teammate Gurney managed to hold off the more experienced BRMs (whose performance would earn the British brand the Constructors' title at the end of the season) and the Cooper Climaxes, giving Porsche its first Formula 1 victory after 2 hours and 7 minutes on the track. In the next two races, Gurney achieved Porsche's best results, finishing ninth in Great Britain and third in the German Grand Prix, races in which Bonnier had to retire and finished seventh.

These encouraging results did not, however, enable Dan Gurney or Porsche to finish on the podium in either Drivers' or Manufacturers' Championship. Gurney scored points in the penultimate event of the season, the United States Grand Prix, thanks to a fifth-place finish, while Bonnier, after so many withdrawals, managed to secure sixth place in the Italian Grand Prix held at the Monza circuit three weeks after the American event. At the end of the season, Gurney and Porsche were fifth in the overall standings: the American driver managed to finish ahead of his compatriot and reigning world champion Phil Hill, while Porsche had the satisfaction of taking fifth place ahead of Scuderia Ferrari. Both teams ended the season with 18 points each, this total calculated by taking only the five best results for each driver and each manufacturer. But on the track, Porsche managed to secure one more placement and one point more (thanks to Bonnier's result at Monza) than the Modena-based team, giving them joint fifth place in the International Manufacturers' Cup.

By the time he joined Porsche in 1961, Daniel “Dan” Sexton Gurney had already completed two seasons in Formula 1, racing for Scuderia Ferrari and then BRM, without winning but securing two podium finishes. The 1962 victory with the Porsche 804 was therefore his first personal success in Formula 1. Over the following years, he achieved three more victories, two in 1964 with Brabham and one with Eagle in 1967, after which he joined McLaren, where he ended his career in 1970. Gurney's best finishes are fourth place in the Drivers' Championship in 1961 with Porsche and in 1965 with Brabham.