Ferrari’s heroic 1965 victory at Le Mans

Words: Gavin Green

As the new Ferrari 499P lines up for this year’s Le Mans 24-hour race, the prize is clear. Victory would give Ferrari its 10th Le Mans triumph. A win this year would be especially poignant. It's the 100th anniversary of the world’s most famous sports car race – which Ferrari dominated in the early 1960s.

Winning would be a big ask for a brand-new car, Ferrari’s first outright Le Mans contender for 50 years. Yet the hybrid 499P will seek to replicate the glory last achieved by Ferrari in 1965. 

Relive the highlights of the heroic Ferrari win at the 1965 24 hours of Le Mans that marked six wins in a row for the Scuderia

That was the sixth consecutive Ferrari win at Le Mans, Ferrari’s seventh in eight years, and one of Maranello’s most famous victories. It was also completely unexpected, in the face of fancied opposition from the new big-budget Ford GT40s. 

The famous rivalry would become the subject of a Hollywood film Ford v Ferrari starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, set in 1966. That, in fact, was Act Three of their Le Mans rivalry.

Act One, in 1964, saw Ford comprehensively beaten. Here we deal with Act Two in 1965. Ford returned stronger and keener. Its goal was straightforward but not easy: to beat the perennially successful Ferraris. 

The race marked the first appearance for the newest car to emerge from Maranello, the V12, four-litre engined 330 P2, seen here in testing

Huge money was poured into the Ford effort: 11 cars entered, including the new monster-engine 7.0-litre GT40. Drivers included American Phil Hill (a former Ferrari world champion) and Kiwi Chris Amon (who, two years later, would lead Ferrari’s F1 team). There were four 4.7-litre GT40s – thought to be more reliable, if less powerful, than the new 7.0-litre version – and five Ford 4.7-litre powered Cobras.

Not to be outdone, 11 Ferraris lined up against the mighty Fords. They included the newest 330 P2 entered by the Maranello factory (drivers included defending Ferrari F1 world champion John Surtees), plus older P1s and 250 LMs entered by assorted Ferrari privateers. 

One notable driver pairing was the experienced American F1 and sports car racer Masten Gregory and the up-and-coming German F1 star (and future world champion) Jochen Rindt.

Also in the race driving one of the brand new 330 P2 Spiders was defending Ferrari F1 World Champion John Surtees

They were entered by the factory-supported North American Racing Team, run by Ferrari’s US importer Luigi Chinetti, the first man to steer a Ferrari to victory at Le Mans (in 1949). Their 250 LM was however surely too slow to win against the big capacity Ford V8s and the newer and more advanced 4.0-litre V12 Ferrari P2. As expected, they qualified down in 11th place, 12 seconds off the fastest Ford.

Phil Hill started from pole in his 7.0-litre Ford, from Surtees’ Ferrari P2, ahead of the second big-engine GT40. Perhaps predictably the powerful Ford surged into the lead, chased by the second 7.0-litre Ford. Their pace was phenomenal. But so was their fuel consumption. After just over an hour, they were both in the pits to refuel. 

The race winning number 21 car, the 250 LM driven by the American Masten Gregory and German driver Jochen Rindt, pictured on its way to victory

Ferrari took the lead. By the third hour, Ferraris occupied the first five places. By the seventh hour, all the GT40s were out of the race, hamstrung by a mix of engine and transmission problems. All 11 Ferraris were still running.

When Le Mans was inaugurated in 1923, its founders wanted a race that would test fuel consumption (because the thirstier the car, the more it must stop) and reliability, as much as speed. And so it was to prove in 1965. 

But just when Scuderia Ferrari looked to be cruising to victory, the P2s ran into trouble. Ferrari has always used motor racing to test new components, and in 1965 trialled new brake discs featuring radial ventilation slots (which would soon become commonplace in racing). They began to crack. The older, slower Ferraris quickly moved up the field. 

Before and after: a quiet moment of anticipation for Italian Giampiero Biscaldi who drove a Ferrari 275 P2 in the race and the explosion of joy for overall winners Gregory and Rindt

Twenty-four hours after the race began, the chequered flag dropped as the NART Ferrari 250 LM of Gregory and Rindt completed their 348th lap – five laps ahead of another 250 LM entered by a French privateer. The Belgian entered 275 GTB would come third: it was a Ferrari 1-2-3. And achieved by three unfancied Ferraris. 

The 1965 race proved the importance of reliability. It also proved that Le Mans frequently delivers surprises. And it would prove Ferrari’s last overall Le Mans win for at least 58 years.