Jim Clark was undoubtedly one of the greatest drivers of his time, having won the Drivers’ Championship in 1963 and 1965.
The British driver was born in Fife, Scotland on 4th March 1936 although he sadly passed away in 1968 at the age of 32 after sustaining injuries in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.
He holds the record for most grand slams, which means achieving a pole position, fastest lap, race victory and leading every lap in his career.
Clark shares the record with Lewis Hamilton for most Grand Slams in a single season at three, the most seasons with a grand slam and the high percentage of championship points scored during a single year.
It is an impressive feat that only Max Verstappen has come close to in recent years, having won 19 out of a possible 21 races during the 2022 season with Red Bull.
Clark’s impressive career came at a time when F1 racing was seen as a daredevil sport, with drivers regularly being killed because of how unsafe it was.
Former friend and fellow driver Jackie Stewart explained why Clark was such a natural talent during his time when speaking in a feature for The Grand Tour.
Jackie Stewart says Jim Clark was always ‘smooth’ and didn’t stress cars
Clark entered all 72 of the Grands Prix he raced in Lotus cars, achieving 25 victories, 33 pole positions, and 32 podiums.
During the 1960s Lotus cars were seen as flimsy, largely because designer Colin Chapman wanted to push the limits of what was possible.
Clark possessed a talent that enabled him to coax performance out of a car that no other driver could do for Lotus.
“A lot of very good racing drivers died in Lotus cars because the Lotus was very fragile. But Jim Clark was so smooth that he never put too much stress on the areas of the car that would give up.”
What an ex-Lotus F1 mechanic once said about how Jim Clark drove cars
Clark’s meticulous approach to racing was something that his engineers at Lotus would later pick up on, with ex-Lotus mechanic Dave Sims recalling one moment Clark spotted a problem on his car.
“In Barcelona in practice, he came in after 10 laps and said ‘There is something on the left rear, I can feel something on the left rear’ so we looked over and checked everything, it all felt good,” said Sims.
“He said ‘No, there is something wrong’ so that night I took the left rear suspension to piece and low and behold, one of the wheel bearings has just started to wear. I don’t know how anyone could feel that, but he did.”
Clark would race in other championships outside of F1 during his time as a driver, including the British Touring Car Championship which he won in 1964, the Indianapolis 500 which he won in 1965, and Formula 2 which he won in 1965.
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