Written by Mario Rodríguez, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
After a record-breaking 24-race long Formula One season in 2024, drivers, teams and staff are finally enjoying their winter break.
It is time to rest and prepare for the next season, as on-track action won’t return until pre-season testing in the last days of February.
Running a championship race during these dates seems far-fetched, even with the calendar getting busier each year. But, believe it or not, F1 has raced as late as the final days of December, and as soon as the first days of January.
The South African Grand Prix, even before it was included in the F1 calendar, was typically held during these dates.
As a result, F1 did not only race a few days after Christmas, with drivers and teams celebrating New Year’s Eve during a race weekend, but also on New Year’s Day itself. This happened twice, in 1965 and 1968, with both races won by Jim Clark.
The first-ever F1 championship race held in South Africa was 1962’s season finale, with Graham Hill taking the win and the driver’s title in East London’s Prince George’s Circuit. Clark won the race a year later, having already clinched the championship.
East London was originally scheduled to once again hold the final race of 1964. However, organisers opted to move it until a week later, becoming the 1965 season opener, with the race taking place on January 1st, New Year’s day.
Eventual driver’s champion Clark dominated the weekend, winning from pole, half a minute ahead of second-placed John Surtees.
It was the first of the Scottish driver’s six wins in 1965, achieved consecutively in the races he took part in. Clark later missed the Monaco Grand Prix to compete in the Indianapolis 500, which he won.
This unusual date, of course, meant that even though the whole weekend was counted as part of the 1965 season, practice and qualifying still took place in 1964.
Additionally, teams had no time to finish developing their new cars, so they competed with the 1964 cars instead.
The actual 1965 machines made their debut almost five months later, on May 30th, at the Monaco Grand Prix, the second race of the season.
The 1966 edition of the South African GP was also held on January 1st, although it was listed as a non-championship race.
Regulation changes for the upcoming season meant teams couldn’t adapt their cars on time to meet the technical requirements, so the event won by Mike Spence didn’t award any championship points.
1967 saw the debut of the Kyalami circuit, replacing East London, and the first F1 victory for Mexican driver Pedro Rodríguez, who won the race for Cooper-Maserati. The race was also the season opener, this time held on January 2nd.
The 1968 South African GP was the last race to be held on New Year’s Day. Once again, Clark celebrated the arrival of the new year with style, and took another dominant win from pole position in his Lotus, achieving his 25th race win and breaking Juan Manuel Fangio’s record as the driver with most victories in F1.
Sadly, this would be Clark’s final F1 race. During the four-month gap until the upcoming Spanish GP, Clark took part in a Formula Two race in Hockenheim, where he lost his life after a crash, a tragic event that deeply impacted the motor racing community.
As for the South African GP, it was moved to March for subsequent years, establishing itself as the season opener for a few seasons, before Argentina and Brazil were added earlier in the calendar.
F1 never raced during New Year’s Day again. Can you imagine welcoming the new year with an F1 race nowadays? An intriguing prospect to think of.
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