A story of speed and wings

Pedro Rodriguez is trying to concentrate, despite the crowd surrounding him, sitting on the front-wheel of his BRM (picture-above), minutes before the start of the 1968 Belgian Formula One Grand Prix. The Mexican qualified in eighth position, while Chris Amon (Ferrari) was on pole, on this super fast Spa circuit.

The 28-lap race was won by McLaren driver Bruce McLaren, after he started from sixth position. It was his first F1 victory at the wheel of his own car. Pedro Rodriguez finished second for the BRM team and Ferrari driver Jacky Ickx came in third, in front of his delighted home crowd.

After Ferrari introduced a new wing on Chris Amon’s car, he nabbed pole position, and was 3.7 seconds faster in qualifying than the next fastest car of Jackie Stewart (Matra), though Amon claimed to have performed similar lap times without the wings. Team mate Ickx, also a Spa specialist, was 5.7 seconds slower.

In the race, Amon, clearly the fastest man on the track, suffered his legendary bad luck, when he was forced to retire his Ferrari on lap 8, with a broken radiator. His team mate Ickx once declared: “Chris (Amon) was so fast in 1968, if the Ferrari had been reliable, I believe that he could have become World Champion.”