Spinning a P34

The revolutionary Tyrrell P34, imagined by Derek Gardner, with its six wheels, had made its promising debut, exactly one year earlier at the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama. It had shown bags of potential in testing, and this potential was realised almost instantly when Depailler promptly qualified third on the grid.

Here, at the 1977 Spanish Grand Prix, it was very clear that without the cooperation of Goodyear, who refused to develop specific front tyres for Tyrrell, the P34/2 was much less competitive than a year earlier. Depailler and Peterson qualified in 10th and 15th position, 1.5 seconds off the pace of poleman Andretti in his Lotus 78.

Picture above: Ronnie Peterson climbs out of his Tyrrell P34/2 – see the huge rear tyres and the tiny front ones – after spinning in qualifying, while Regazzoni (Ensign), Mass (McLaren) and Stuck (Brabham), alerted by this brave marshal, avoid hitting the stricken car.

Mario Andretti (Lotus) won the race from Carlos Reutemann (Ferrari) and Jody Scheckter (Wolf). Bad week-end for the Tyrrell boys: Depailler was forced to retire on lap 12 with a broken engine, while Peterson (picture below) finished eighth, a lap down.