Like the other British teams, BRM was caught off-guard by new regulations for the 1961 Formula 1 season that limited engines to 1.5 litres.

However, reliability problems forced BRM to revert to their own, older specification, 5 speed unit.

The original eight exhausts were mounted vertically, but they were prone to working loose and were replaced by a more conventional horizontal layout.

With Joakim Bonnier and Dan Gurney leaving to drive for the new Porsche team, BRM ran only two cars, for Graham Hill and Tony Brooks.

Brooks scored a remarkable third and Hill a fifth in the final round, the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, but this result was helped by Ferrari's withdrawal after the death of Wolfgang von Trips.

The championship proved to be a season-long battle between Hill and Jim Clark, driving the revolutionary monocoque Lotus 25.

Clark led from pole before the fragile Lotus broke, handing Hill the first of his five Monaco Grand Prix victories.

However, problems with the new gearbox forced Hill to retire from the next two Grands Prix while Clark achieved 4 consecutive wins.