Armed with what was arguably the greatest Formula One design of all time, the Lotus 72D (picture below), Emerson Fittipaldi proved dominant in 1972 as he won five of eleven races and claimed the F1 Drivers’ Championship. At 25 he was then the youngest champion in F1 history. It appeared he might do it again in 1973. But […]
Year Archives:
Monaco in the rain
The 1972 Monaco Grand Prix was held on May 14, 1972. The track was substantially modified from 1971, in the interest of safety. Indeed, the pits were moved to the harbour front, between the chicane and Tabac, and a new chicane was placed near this sector. Picture above: Rain was pouring on race day, and […]
The bloom of Depailler
The 1974 European Formula Two season was contested over 10 rounds and had Patrick Depailler as the season champion. The French ace, also a Tyrrell Formula One driver, stormed the championship with five victories in his works March, beating the likes of Hans-Joachim Stuck and Jacques Laffite. Picture above: Patrick Depailler, March 742 BMW M12 Rosche, takes victories […]
“Captain nice”
Mark Donohue (1937-1975), nicknamed “Captain Nice” was an American race driver known for his ability to set up his own car as well as driving it very fast, very often to victory. His association with Roger Penske is legendary. In 1969, Penske and Donohue raced in their first Indianapolis 500, with Donohue finishing 7th, winning […]
Helmut Marko
Helmut Marko (born in Graz on 27 April 1943) is an Austrian former racing driver and current advisor to the Red Bull Racing team and head of Red Bull’s driver development program. Marko completed a doctorate in law in 1967, before starting his racing career. He later managed the early careers of fellow Austrians Gerhard […]
Can-Am vocation
Denny Hulme (1936-1992) was a racing car driver born in Nelson, New-Zealand. Like journalist Andrew Frankel wrote in Motorsport Magazine, his Formula One career was ‘more successful than stellar’, providing eight wins, one pole position and nine fastest laps in 112 starts over a total of 10 seasons. But he not only claimed the 1967 […]
Optical illusion
This photo-finish of the two Matra 670’s at the 1972 Le Mans 24 Hours, could make you believe in a sprint finish (picture here-above), but no less than eleven laps separated the winners, Graham Hill and Henri Pescarolo and the second placed pair, François Cevert and Howden Ganley, who scored a resounding double for the […]
A rookie on pole
It has happened three times in the history of Formula 1: a beginner or rookie on pole position. The last one to do so was Jacques Villeneuve for his first Grand Prix with Williams, at Melbourne in 1996. Before him, Mario Andretti had achieved this performance at home, in 1968, when he took pole for […]
For a fistful of dollars
The 1972 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the seventh season of the Can-Am Series. It consisted of Groupe 7 racing cars, with their huge engines, running two-hour sprint events. Basically it was a battle between Penske Racing running two Porsche 917/10 for George Follmer and Mark Donohue, and the McLaren Motor Racing Team, running McLaren M20-Chevrolet’s […]
Number 2
Because the new short wheel-base Tyrrell 006 did not satisfy Jackie Stewart in the autumn of 1972, it was François Cevert who first raced it in the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport. Nevertheless, the Scot took its wheel during practice (picture above), with number two on its side pods and the name of his team […]