Here’s an article by Dennis Simanaitis, a former engineering editor at Road & Track magazine for 33 years. He’s got a blog called Simanaitis Says where he shares his automotive enthusiasms with his readers, like this article about a driver dominating F1 50 years ago; same story as today!
It sure sounds familiar. A driver performing “perfectly all year long, staying up front so consistently that his challengers were demoralized” The 1972 season and its dominance by Emerson Fittipaldi and his John Player Special Lotus 72D. The “R&T Bonus Feature” also had paintings by automotive artist extraordinaire Werner Bührer of 13 cars from the 12 participating teams in 1972. Here are these wonderful illustrations, together with tidbits gleaned from Thompson and Bührer.
The Leader. Like eight other teams, Lotus depended upon the Ford Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) V-8s . Only BRM and Matra (both V-12s), and Ferrari and Tecno (both flat-12s) were exceptions.
The Front Runners. Jon observed, “The invincibility of the Jackie Stewart/Tyrrell combination was a thing of the past; although Stewart ended the season in the same winning style that he had begun it, he had to fight hard just to finish second in the standings.”
The Midpack. The March 721X proved wanting. Team manager Max Mosley and designer Robin Herd responded by fitting the Ford DFV/Hewland combination into the team’s Formula 2 chassis. The French Matra is remembered for the best exhaust note ever in F1, known to be audible for miles.
The Rest. Jon reported, “The BRM, Matra, March, Surtees and Brabham teams were only occasionally effective, while the three new makes—the Tecno, the Politoys and the Connew—achieved nothing at all, not even the faint adjective ‘promising’. ”
I wonder if F1 enthusiasts of the year 2073—were they to exist—would wonder about Max Verstappen and his Red Bull dominance and the likes of Haas and AlphaTauri.
D.S.
Simanaitis writes about cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff.
Check him out at https://simanaitissays.com/
Amazing post, Chris. Thanks for sharing. Emerson was the “maverick” that brought F1 into the lives of the Brazilian fans. Suddenly we had something else to be proud of, other than soccer.
On the wall of my dad’s repair shop, there was a huge poster of Emmo’s Lotus, going flat out at Interlagos.
Gosh, all these memories brought tears to my eyes.
Thats funny, Rubens, because I always grew up thinking that Brazilianns were genetically superior at racing. I never thought of a time before Fittipaldi, or that he brough such pride to the nation.
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Im glad you enjoyed the article we shared, and that the pics ‘brought you back’ to your dads workshop.