February 6: Today in Racing

Racing was already well under way by early February 1960 with Bruce McLaren (Cooper-Climax) winning the 1960 Argentine Grand Prix from 13th on the grid, beating Cliff Allison (Ferrari) and Maurice Trintignant (Cooper), while Stirling Moss set fastest lap en route to fourth

Thirty-five years later, it was still launch season as Ferrari launched its John Barnard and Gustav Brunner-designed F1 412 T2 this day to meet new FIA rules after the dreadful events of ’94.  

Its V12 was reduced from 3.5 to 3-litres and new side protection measures introduced around the driver's head as Ferrari moved back to a transverse gearbox for better weight distribution, but it was not enough to win the title although Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger did win races.  

Ferrari was back at it in 2003 as it confirmed Felipe Massa as test driver alongside Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.

This day had its fair share of controversy too as Formula 1’s notorious FISA-FOCA war came to a head with FOCA running a breakaway a non-championship race in Kyalami as it threatened to establish a breakaway series in 1981.  

Bernie Ecclestone-led teams union FOCA was concerned by the Jean-Marie Ballestre-fronted governing body’s distribution of income that favoured grandee teams Ferrari, Renault and Alfa Romeo. 

The breakaway would prove a major step toward modern F1’s Concorde Agreement.

Niki Lauda was appointed CEO of Ford's premier performance division in 2001, as middleman between the struggling Jaguar F1 team and the company board in Detroit. 

The restructure failed to elevate the team from middle of the pack and Jaguar would go on to be sold to Dieter Mateschitz to become Red Bull, while triple world champion Lauda’s next and final F1 rescue entente proved significantly more successful for Mercedes.

Race action on this day over the years, also saw Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby drive their Ford Mk II to Daytona 24 Hour victory, while the 1971 race as reduced to six hours on fears that he new 3-litre cars would not make the distance.  

A fact borne out by Ferrari’s Mario Andretti and Jacky Ickx taking  the win in a 5-litre 512P after teammates Tim Schenken and Ronnie Peterson had a puncture while leading 15 minutes from home.

Motor racing said goodbye to Tony Rolt, the last surviving driver from the very first Formula 1 grand prix in 1950, who passed away aged 89 in 2008. Rolt failed to finish any of the three British Grands Prix he started with two more appearances on 1953 and ’55