Wings for the Lotus’

Jochen Rindt at the wheel of his Lotus 49-Ford, note the high wings (photo above), at the 1969 South African Grand Prix, held at the Kyalami circuit. The Austrian driver, second behind Jack Brabham in qualifying, was the fastest of the three Lotus drivers, as Mario Andretti was 6th and Graham Hill 7th.

Bad luck in the race, as Rindt had to retire on lap 44 with a broken fuel pump, and it was Jackie Stewart (Matra-Ford) who won this opening round of the 1969 season, ahead of Graham Hill (Lotus-Ford) and Denny Hulme, always reliable at the front, third in his orange McLaren.

The first Lotus 49 was designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1967 F1 season. It was going to host the Ford Cosworth V8 engine that would make F1 history and was one of the first single-seaters to use a stressed member engine, the block being directly bolted to the chassis! This solution was so effective that all the teams would follow suit.

Jochen Rindt (Lotus 49B) leads Chris Amon (in the sole Ferrari 312 present) in the opening stages of the 1969 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami.