The 1968 World Automobile Championship was the 19th season of the World Automobile Championship, now known as the Formula 1 World Championship . In twelve races from January 1, 1968 to November 3, 1968, the Drivers' World Championship and the International Cup of Formula 1 Constructors were held.
As before, the points were awarded in the 9-6-4-3-2-1 mode. There was a capacity limit of 3 liters (with a compressor 1.5 l, but all participants drove naturally aspirated engines), the minimum weight was 500 kg. The tires were supplied by Firestone , Goodyear and Dunlop , all makes both in the dry and in the wet with a meander profile. Light metal monocoques were used throughout the chassis construction, only the cars from the Brabham racing team still had tubular space frames. The most noticeable change in the appearance of the car was the wing, which was initially mounted on the rear axle to increase the contact pressure. The further development of aerodynamics shaped the appearance of the monopostos throughout the rest of the racing series.
After pole position , Jim Clark won in Kyalami with a start-to-finish victory and the fastest lap. With 25 victories now, he was the most successful driver in Formula 1 at the time, ahead of Juan Manuel Fangio with 24 victories. However, this victory was also his last. On April 7th, Clark had a fatal accident in a Formula 2 race at the Hockenheimring . Graham Hill, who had botched the start, was able to fight his way up to second place. The Lotus cars competed in the usual green and yellow for the last time at this start. From the next race, they were painted in the colors of the new sponsor Gold-Leaf .
Jackie Stewart , the only one who could keep up with Clark, dropped out in the 44th lap.
Mike Spence was supposed to replace the fatally injured Jim Clark in Spain, but Spence was also killed in an accident on May 7th in Indianapolis . Lotus only competed with one vehicle for Graham Hill , which could not convince in training. Pole went to Chris Amon . At the start, Rodriguez took the lead, but was replaced by Beltoise on lap 12 until he had to make a pit stop. Then Chris Amon was in the lead and already looked like the sure winner when his fuel pump failed on lap 57. Hill took the lead, who had already overtaken McLaren , Surtees and Hulme , and after the tragic events, especially for Lotus, scored a victory that should underline the superiority of the team for the coming season.
Johnny Servoz-Gavin had qualified for the front row and took the lead after the start. But he hit a guardrail with his rear wheel and shortly afterwards lost the semi-axis, so that he had to give up on the third lap. So was Graham Hill to his unchallenged fourth win in Monaco before Richard Attwood in BRM and Lucien Bianchi in Cooper , both of which benefited from the numerous failures. Overall, only 5 out of 16 starters reached the finish.
In the run-up to the race, Cooper driver Scarfiotti had a fatal accident in a hill climb on Rossfeld near Berchtesgaden . The other Cooper driver, Brian Redman , had a serious accident in the race and had to take a break for more than a year.
It was the first race in the history of Formula 1 in which individual cars with free-standing rear wings were tried out.
Chris Amon , who started from pole position, was in the lead after the first lap, but was then overtaken by John Surtees . Surtees was leading until lap 10 when his suspension broke, causing the poorly started Stewart to take the lead. However, he ran out of fuel on the final lap. So Bruce McLaren got his first victory in his own car. At the finish he didn't even know that he had won.
The race was driven in the rain. At that time, Goodyear , Firestone and Dunlop offered tires for Formula 1. Dunlop's rain tires proved to be superior, but were only used by the French Matras . The race therefore became a one-sided affair. Jackie Stewart , although not fully recovered from an accident with a hand injury, clinched a victory that was never in danger. His brand mate Jean-Pierre Beltoise came in second, even though he spun once and had to make a pit stop because of a jammed throttle valve. These two lapped the whole field. Silvio Moser's points on a private Charles-Vögele -Brabham also deserved respect.
The race was overshadowed by a fatal accident. In the second lap, Jo Schlesser was killed in a fire accident. On a wet track, his new and untried Honda RA302 slipped off the track in a fast downhill curve, hit an embankment and overturned. The leaking gasoline ignited immediately, the magnesium alloy chassis gave the fire additional food and Schlesser suffered fatal burns in the cockpit.
Jacky Ickx won his first Formula 1 race in a Ferrari .
Right from the start, the race was dominated by the Lotus racing cars. First Jackie Oliver led the field, then Graham Hill . However, Hill retired after 27 laps with suspension damage. Then Oliver led the way again. But he should not succeed in a Grand Prix victory, because on the 44th lap his transmission went on strike. So Joseph Siffert took the lead in the Rob-Walker-Lotus , which he was able to defend against a hard-fighting Chris Amon until the end . He won his first of two Formula 1 races.
Heavy rain and fog with visibility of less than 50 meters at times hindered the participants at the Nürburgring so significantly that the implementation of the race was seriously endangered. Framework races were canceled. It was under these conditions that Jackie Stewart drove one of his greatest races and won by over 4 minutes over Graham Hill . It is noteworthy that, despite the adverse external circumstances, 14 out of 21 vehicles made it to the finish line, more than ever this year. Technically, the introduction of a rear wing that can be adjusted while driving on Beltoise's Matra was remarkable.
As was almost always the case in Monza at that time, there was an extremely exciting race in 1968 in which McLaren , Surtees , Stewart , Siffert and finally Hulme took the lead. Amon and Surtees were involved in a dangerous accident on lap 9, which both survived unharmed. After all but Hulme dropped out or fell behind with technical problems in the leading group, he won by almost a full lap. The fight for second place was decided by Johnny Servoz-Gavin against Jacky Ickx in the last meters . It was his best result in a Grand Prix.
Jacky Ickx had an accident during training , broke his leg and was eliminated from the fight for the world championship. The race was initially dominated by his colleague Chris Amon in a Ferrari , but he retired in the 72nd of 90 laps with a gearbox failure. For the second time this season he lost a victory that was believed to be almost certain. Due to his failure Denis Hulme took the lead and won his second Grand Prix in a row. In the driver standings, he drew level with Graham Hill , who had been leading up until then and finished fourth in the race.
American Mario Andretti , who contested his first Grand Prix in the Lotus, secured pole position . However, he had no influence on the outcome of the race. Jackie Stewart drove his Matra safely to victory ahead of Graham Hill and John Surtees . This gave three drivers the chance to become world champions before the last run: Hill, Stewart and Hulme .
Of the three contenders for the title, Hulme was eliminated on the 10th lap due to an accident, while Stewart only brought his Matra home in seventh place due to engine problems. So winning Graham Hill by winning his second driver and Lotus , the third constructors' championship. Hill initially took the lead until he was ousted by Joseph Siffert on the 22nd lap , who lost his position again after a pit stop; Siffert finished sixth.
The first six got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively. The best five results of the first six and the best five of the remaining six races counted towards the championship.
At the beginning of the season, the fairings, which were mostly in national colors (Italy = red, France = blue, etc.) were increasingly replaced by sponsor colors . A pioneering role was taken by Lotus, whose Type 49 was painted red (instead of British racing green ) and promoted the John Player Gold Leaf cigarette brand . This car was also the first to enter Monaco with a spoiler-shaped rear wing.
There were many intermediate forms in the further development of the wings : small, almost ineffective sheet metal parts at the front and rear, and even today strangely high and filigree-looking components, the pressure of which was directed directly onto the wheel suspension. Later development forbade this type of construction and limited the dimensions of the aerodynamic aids.
News in brief Formula 1
Jim Clark celebrates his 25th and final GP victory at the South African Grand Prix. On April 7, 1968, Jim Clark had a fatal accident at the first round of the European Trophy for Formula 2 cars in Hockenheim .
At the Nürburgring , Jackie Stewart wins a memorable race at the German Grand Prix in fog and visibility under 50 meters.
From the Monaco Grand Prix, the first Formula 1 cars will be equipped with wings.
The starting line-up was changed over the course of the season: in the Canadian Grand Prix in the 3-2-3 system, from the US Grand Prix onwards in rows of two, like today.
The field was occasionally filled with Formula 2 cars.
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Graham Hill
Jochen Rindt
Chris Amon
Jean-Pierre Beltoise
Ludovico Scarfiotti
Lucien Bianchi
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Pedro Rodríguez
Silvio Moser
Pedro Rodríguez
Joakim Bonnier
Dan Gurney
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