1973 FIA Formula One World Championship Season Review

Formula One 1971 Review - Great Scot! is the DVD review of the 1971 Formula 1 season. This was the year when Jackie Stewart was crowned as F1 champion, the year of the Stewart/Tyrrell double act. At the start of the 1971 F1 season Ferrari was still the team to beat, and the brute force of the V-12 engine threatened to destroy everything in its wake. However, it was the addition of Stewart and Tyrrell into the Championship that challenged the balance of power. It made for an epic season that pitted mechanical muscle against driving skill. And as the season progressed Stewart and Tyrrell developed a magical formula that combined radical aerodynamics with Stewart’s sublime talent. It became clear that the might of the prancing horse could (and would) be tamed.

1970 was the year of transition in Grand Prix racing; the season that pitched the old guard against a feisty new breed of racers intent on pushing Formula One forward into the new decade. Nothing symbolised this battle more than the cars used by top contenders: Jacky Ickx’s Ferrari 312B relied on brute force to compensate for its outdated styling, whereas Jochen Rindt’s Lotus 72 showed that radical aerodynamics represented a brave and (potentially) faster way forward. And with the technological battles came a fascinating season’s racing. Jackie Stewart was the defending champion but took nothing for granted. When different drivers won the first four races, Stewart, and the world, knew that the Championship was wide open. Thrilling battles ensued until triumph and tragedy came together in one fatal collision: on the 5th of September 1970 Championship leader Jochen Rindt died during practice at Monza. He was to become the sport’s first posthumous champion.

1972. All eyes were on the defending champion Jackie Stewart and expectations were high that he would repeat the total domination of the previous year. He made his intentions clear with an emphatic win in the 1st GP – cruising home half a minute ahead of the chasing pack. However, there was another driver intent on stealing his crown: Emerson Fittipaldi, a whirlwind of talent and youthful arrogance in his iconic black and gold Lotus 72. And it turned out to be a thrilling season of on-the-limit action that climaxed at Monza – Fittipaldi’s spiritual home. Stewart’s broken clutch put him out of the race, ensuring Fittipaldi’s place in the record books: at just 25 years of age, ‘Emmo’ became the youngest-ever World Champion.