The late 1950's had seen a rapid development in race car technology; the new Cooper design cars had introduced the concept of mid-engine cars, and had won the championship. In 1960 Ferrari had not adopted the technology, the great Enzo Ferrari famously said, 'the horses pull the car rather than push it'. However, other teams such as Lotus and BRM did introduce mid-engine cars. Lotus won in Monaco in 1960, but the Lotus driver, Sterling Moss had a crash later in the season and Jack Brabham won his second drivers' title driving a Cooper.

The FIA introduced new rules in 1961, the cars were becoming too fast for the safety of drivers, and thus the maximum engine size was reduced to 1.5 litres. Most teams struggled to develop a suitable engine for the season, however, Ferrari introduced a very sophisticated car powered by a 120° V6; Ferrari dominated the 1961 season as the British teams scrambled to come up with a suitable engine. The American driver Phil Hill won the championship driving a Ferrari and Ferrari won the constructors.

In 1962, the Lotus team ran the Lotus 25 powered by the new Coventry-Climax V8 engine. The car had an aluminium sheet monocoque chassis instead of the traditional spaceframe design. This proved to be the greatest technological breakthrough since the introduction of mid-engine cars, but the Lotus was unreliable at first and the Lotus driver Jim Clark (British) finished second in the championship. The charismatic Graham Hill (British) won the title driving the new V8 powered BRM. BRM also won the constructors championship.

The Lotus team was managed by the racing design genius Colin Chapman and for the 63 season he produced a very fast reliable car, enabling Jim Clark to win the title with some ease.

The 1964 Lotus 33 was again a fast car but had reliability issues, and Ferrari were determined to regain the championship introducing considerable technological advances and the substantial financial resources expended is illustrated by the team developing three different engines in the season--a V6, a V8 and a flat-12. John Surtees (British) driving the Ferrari won the title and Ferrari the constructors. Surtees' title was especially notable, as he is the only driver to win the World Championship for both cars and motorcycles.

By the 1965 season Chapman had resolved the reliability issues of Lotus and Jim Clark won the title again. He also won Indianapolis 500-Mile Race (the only driver to win both in the same year).  The Japanese manufacturer Honda had their first victory in 1965 at the Mexican GP. This was first victory by a Japanese car and, as of today, the only one by a car powered by a transverse engine.

The FIA change the rules for the 1966 season. The change that can be described as a 'Return to Power' as the engines could now be either 3.0 litre normally aspirated or 1.5 litre supercharged. 1966 was a transitional year for most teams, however, the year did see the first use of composite materials, a technology which would later go on to revolutionise the sport. The McLaren M2B, designed by Robin Herd, used an aluminium-wood laminate known as Mallite for much of its monocoque, although the car's design did not make best use of the new material.

Ferrari was the great favourite to win with a 3 litre version of his well tested sports car V12 design, but the engines were underpowered and the cars were heavy; an enlarged V6 held some promise but Surtees left mid-season after a dispute with team manager Dragoni. Coventry-Climax, formerly supplier to much of the field, pulled out of the sport leaving teams like Lotus to struggle with enlarged versions of obsolete Climax engines. The big winner was Jack Brabham, whose eponymous racing team took victory two years with a compact spaceframe chassis powered by the aluminium-block stock-derived Repco V8 unit. With SOHC heads and no more than 330 bhp, the Repco was by far the least powerful of the new 3 litre engines but unlike the others it was light, reliable and available right from the start of the new rules. 1966 was Jack Brabham's year, while 1967 went to his teammate, New Zealander Denny Hulme, as Brabham tried new parts on his car.

In 1967 Lotus introduced the Lotus 49, powered by the Ford-Cosworth DFV V8 engine that was to dominate Formula One for the next decade. Like the Repco the Cosworth was light and compact but it was a real racing engine using 4-valve DOHC heads and delivering much more power - Cosworth had aimed for 400 bhp (300 kW) and exceeded this when the engine first ran. The DFV was designed to be fully stressed, and this allowed Chapman to design a monocoque that ended just after the driver's seat while the Brabham were still using a very classic tubular frame that supported the engine, the gearbox and the rear suspension wishbones. The newborn DFV suffered from frequent failures due to excessive vibration from the flat-plane crank, forcing Keith Duckworth to redesign several parts, and with reliability issues the car could not win the championship.

In 1968 Lotus lost its exclusive right to use the DFV. McLaren built a DFV-powered car and a new force appeared on the scene when Ken Tyrrell entered his team using Cosworth-powered French Matra chassis driven by ex-BRM Jackie Stewart as lead driver.

Jim Clark took his last win at the 1968 season opening South African Grand Prix. On 7 April 1968 the double champion was killed at Hockenheim in a Formula Two event. Jim Clark is regarded by many as the best F1 driver of all time, clearly it is impossible really to compare drivers from one era to the next, but Clark was exceptional: He had 72 Formula1 starts, winning 25 races and gaining 33 pole positions and 28 fastest laps.

1968 is also very significant year in F1 because of the introduction of unrestricted sponsorship, (the FIA decided to permit sponsorship after the withdrawal of support from automobile related firms). Lotus Formula 1 took advantage of the new rules, painting the car in the red, gold and white colours of Imperial Tobacco's Gold Leaf brand.

The other great change first seen in1968 is the introduction of wings. Predictably it was Colin Chapman who developed the first cars to use wings; Chapman built modest front wings and a spoiler on Graham Hill's Lotus at Monaco. Brabham and Ferrari went one better at the Belgian Grand Prix with full width wings mounted on struts high above the driver. Lotus replied with a full width wing directly connected to the rear suspension. Brabham and Matra then produced a high mounted front wing connected to the front suspension. At the end of the season most cars were using mobile wings with various control systems. There was several case of wings, struts, or even suspension collapsing. Lotus won both titles in 1968 with Graham Hill with Stewart second.

The 1969 season started with cars using larger and more sophisticated wings than the previous year. When both Lotus cars broke their wings' struts and crashed at the Spanish GP, the FIA banned wings for the next race at Monaco. They were reintroduced later in the season but were to be restricted in size and height, and attached directly to the chassis in a fixed position.

Safety became a major issue in Formula 1 and the Belgian GP at Spa did not take place as the drivers boycotted the circuit after safety upgrades were not installed as demanded. Stewart won the 1969 title easily with the new Matra MS80, a spectacular achievement from a constructor and a team that had only entered Formula 1 the previous year. It remains the only title won by a chassis built in France. Jacky Ickx finished second in the championship for Brabham, competitive again after dropping its Repco engines in favour of the DFV.

The 1960's had seem great developments in technology but it is important to note that in the 1960's, F1 was becoming more global with by the late 1960s, races outside Europe forming about a third of the championship in any year. The core of the season remained the European season run over the Northern Hemisphere summer, with overseas races usually falling at the start or end of the season, a pattern which has continued to this day.   

Season	Driver	Nationality	Team	Constructors	Base
1960	Jack Brabham	Australian	Cooper-Climax	Cooper-Climax	Britain
1961	Phil Hill	American	Ferrari	Ferrari	Italy
1962	Graham Hill	British	BRM	BRM	Britain
1963	Jim Clark	British	Lotus-Climax	Lotus-Climax	Britain
1964	John Surtees	British	Ferrari	Ferrari	Italy
1965	Jim Clark	British	Lotus-Climax	Lotus-Climax	Britain
1966	Jack Brabham	Australian	Brabham-Repco	Brabham-Repco	Britain
1967	Denny Hulme	New Zealand	Brabham-Repco	Brabham-Repco	Britain
1968	Graham Hill	British	Lotus-Ford	Lotus-Ford	Britain
1969	Jackie Stewart	British	Mantra-Ford	Mantra-Ford	France