1974 French Grand Prix

 1974 French Grand Prix

Racing data
9th of 15 races of the 1974 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	LX Grand Prix de France
Date:	July 7th 1974
Place:	Dijon Prenois
Course:	Stade Automobile de Dijon-Prenois
Length:	263.12 km in 80 laps of 3.289 km
Weather:	sunny and hot
Pole position
Driver:	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
Time:	0: 58.79 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell
Time:	1: 00.0 min
Podium
First:	Ronnie Peterson	lotus
Second:	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
Third:	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari

The 1974 French Grand Prix took place on July 7th at the Stade Automobile de Dijon-Prenois and was the ninth race of the 1974 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

For the sixth time within nine years, the venue for the French Grand Prix changed. The first choice fell on the race track near Dijon-Prenois, which, due to its length of only around 3.3 kilometers and its comparatively small paddock, did not meet the current Formula 1 standards. The teams with a total of 30 registered cars had to come to terms with very tight spaces. In view of the short track length, the organizers decided, on the advice of FOCA , to limit the field of participants for the race to 22 vehicles. This decision caused displeasure, especially among the small private teams, as they were deprived of their chance to take part in the race in view of the eight pilots guaranteed to fail in the qualification in this case.

After leaving the Surtees team , Carlos Pace found a new job in the private John Goldie Racing team, where he drove a second customer Brabham alongside John Watson .

Three French added to the field of drivers on the occasion of their home Grand Prix, including the two debutants Jean-Pierre Jabouille , who rented the second car from the Frank Williams Racing Cars team this weekend , and José Dolhem , who took over the cockpit that was vacated by Carlos Pace's resignation in the Surtees factory team. The third French was Gérard Larrousse , who was aiming for his second GP participation after the Belgian Grand Prix with the underfunded private team Scuderia Finotto .

The occasional Finnish driver Leo Kinnunen also competed again, behind the wheel of a private Surtee.

training

For the first and only time in the history of Formula 1 it was possible to achieve lap times of less than a minute on a racetrack. Twelve pilots managed to do this during training. As a result, Niki Lauda's pole time of 0: 58.79 is the shortest lap that has ever been driven in Formula 1. In terms of lap length, however, there were and are definitely shorter routes on which Formula 1 races have been and will be held.

Ronnie Peterson finished second in the front row in the Lotus 72E . Tom Pryce caused a little sensation , who qualified for third place with a strong performance in the Shadow . He shared the second row of the grid with Clay Regazzoni in the second Ferrari.

The third row was occupied by the two McLaren drivers Emerson Fittipaldi and Mike Hailwood . This was followed by Jody Scheckter and Carlos Reutemann as well as Patrick Depailler , who had to fall back on the predecessor 006 after an accident with the current 007 car .

run

While Reutemann managed a quick start, Pryce reacted too late when the start flag fell. Reutemann overlooked this and crashed into the rear of the Shadow pilot, putting the car in the lane of James Hunt , who could no longer evade. Just like two weeks earlier at the Dutch Grand Prix, Pryce and Hunt were involved in a collision on the first lap, which meant the end of the race for both of them. Reutemann also retired on lap 24 due to consequential damage resulting from this collision.

Meanwhile, Lauda was in the lead ahead of Peterson, Regazzoni, Hailwood and Scheckter, while Fittipaldi quickly caught up and took sixth place from Jacky Ickx on the fifth lap . By the 15th lap the Brazilian finally managed to overtake Hailwood and Scheckter.

On lap 17, Peterson overtook Lauda, ​​who had been the leader to date, and gained a considerable lead within a few laps. This was facilitated by the fact that the Austrian had to struggle with vibrations. Regazzoni was relatively unchallenged in third place. Fittipaldi gradually caught up over a long period of time, but retired on lap 28 due to an engine failure. This brought Jacky Ickx and Denis Hulme into the points.

In the last 50 laps, the order of the first six drivers remained unchanged, although the finish between Regazzoni and Scheckter and between Ickx and Hulme was ultimately very close.

With his second place, Lauda took the lead in the drivers' world championship. Regazzoni also moved past Fittipaldi into second place in this classification. In the constructors' world championship, Ferrari overtook the previously leading McLaren team.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
John Player Team Lotus	1	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus 72E	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	2	Jacky Ickx
Eleven Team Tyrrell	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell 007		G
	4th	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell 006
Marlboro Team Texaco	5	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren M23		G
	6th	Denis Hulme
Yardley Team McLaren	33	Mike Hailwood
Motor Racing Developments	7th	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham BT44		G
	8th	Rikky from Opel
March engineering	9	Hans-Joachim Stuck	March 741		G
	10	Vittorio Brambilla
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	11	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari 312B3	Ferrari 001/11 3.0 F12	G
	12	Niki Lauda
Team Motul BRM	14th	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM P201	BRM P200 3.0 V12	F.
	15th	Henri Pescarolo
	37	François Migault	BRM P160E	BRM P142 3.0 V12
UOP Shadow Racing Team	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow DN3	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	17th	Jean-Pierre Jarier
Bang & Olufsen Team Surtees	18th	José Dolhem	Surtees TS16		F.
	19th	Jochen Mass
Frank Williams Racing Cars	20th	Arturo Merzario	Iso-Marlboro FW02		F.
	21st	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Iso-Marlboro FW01
Team Ensign	22nd	Vern Schuppan	Ensign N174		F.
AAW Racing Team	23	Leo Kinnunen	Surtees TS16		F.
Hesketh Racing	24	James Hunt	Hesketh 308		F.
Embassy Racing with Graham Hill	26th	Graham Hill	Lola T370		F.
	27	Guy Edwards
John Goldie Racing with Hexagon	28	John Watson	Brabham BT42		F.
	34	Carlos Pace
Scuderia Finotto	43	Gérard Larrousse			F.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	0: 58.79	201.402 km / h	01
02	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	0: 59.08	200.413 km / h	02
03	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	0: 59.11	200.311 km / h	03
04th	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	0: 59.13	200.244 km / h	04th
05	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren-Ford	0: 59.20	200.007 km / h	05
06th	Mike Hailwood	McLaren-Ford	0: 59.22	199.939 km / h	06th
07th	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	0: 59.32	199.602 km / h	07th
08th	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	0: 59.36	199.468 km / h	08th
09	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	0: 59.43	199.233 km / h	09
10	James Hunt	Hesketh-Ford	0: 59.51	198.965 km / h	10
11	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	0: 59.54	198.865 km / h	11
12	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow Ford	0: 59.59	198.698 km / h	12
13	Jacky Ickx	Lotus Ford	1: 00.00	197.340 km / h	13
14th	John Watson	Brabham-Ford	1: 00.02	197.274 km / h	14th
15th	Arturo Merzario	Iso-Ford	1: 00.16	196.815 km / h	15th
16	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	1: 00.26	196.489 km / h	16
17th	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM	1: 00.36	196.163 km / h	17th
18th	Jochen Mass	Surtees-Ford	1: 00.48	195.774 km / h	18th
19th	Henri Pescarolo	BRM	1: 00.67	195.161 km / h	19th
20th	Guy Edwards	Lola Ford	1: 00.68	195.129 km / h	20th
21st	Graham Hill	Lola Ford	1: 00.73	194.968 km / h	21st
22nd	François Migault	BRM	1: 00.86	194.551 km / h	22nd
DNQ	Vern Schuppan	Ensign-Ford	1: 01.24	193.344 km / h	-
DNQ	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Ford	1: 01.35	192.998 km / h	-
DNQ	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Iso-Ford	1: 01.52	192.464 km / h	-
DNQ	Hans-Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	1: 01.60	192.214 km / h	-
DNQ	José Dolhem	Surtees-Ford	1: 01.70	191.903 km / h	-
DNQ	Rikky from Opel	Brabham-Ford	1: 01.79	191.623 km / h	-
DNQ	Leo Kinnunen	Surtees-Ford	1: 03.15	187.496 km / h	-
DNQ	Gérard Larrousse	Brabham-Ford	1: 03.27	187.141 km / h	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	80	0	1: 21: 55.02	02	1: 00.4
02	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	80	0	+ 20.36	01	1: 00.5
03	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	80	0	+ 27.84	04th	1: 00.9
04th	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	80	0	+ 18.11	07th	1: 00.0
05	Jacky Ickx	Lotus Ford	80	0	+ 37.54	13	1: 01.3
06th	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	80	0	+ 38.14	11	1: 00.7
07th	Mike Hailwood	McLaren-Ford	79	0	+ 1 lap	06th	1: 01.57
08th	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	79	0	+ 1 lap	09	1: 01.7
09	Arturo Merzario	Iso-Ford	79	0	+ 1 lap	15th	1: 01.8
10	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM	79	0	+ 1 lap	17th	1: 01.8
11	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	79	0	+ 1 lap	16	1: 02.2
12	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow Ford	79	0	+ 1 lap	12	1: 02.0
13	Graham Hill	Lola Ford	78	0	+ 2 rounds	21st	1: 02.0
14th	François Migault	BRM	78	0	+ 2 rounds	22nd	1: 02.7
15th	Guy Edwards	Lola Ford	77	0	+ 3 rounds	20th	1: 01.7
16	John Watson	Brabham-Ford	76	1	+ 4 rounds	14th	1: 01.8
-	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren-Ford	27	0	DNF	05	1: 00.6	Engine failure
-	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	24	1	DNF	08th	1: 02.4	Collision damage
-	Jochen Mass	Surtees-Ford	04th	0	DNF	18th	1: 06.8	Clutch damage
-	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	00	0	DNF	03	-	collision
-	James Hunt	Hesketh-Ford	00	0	DNF	10	-	defective drive shaft
-	Henri Pescarolo	BRM	00	0	DNF	19th	-	Clutch damage

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Niki Lauda Ferrari 36 02  Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 32 03  Emerson Fittipaldi McLaren 31 04th  Jody Scheckter Tyrrell 26th 05  Ronnie Peterson lotus 19th 06th  Mike Hailwood McLaren 12 07th  Denis Hulme McLaren 12 08th  Patrick Depailler Tyrrell 11 09  Jean-Pierre Beltoise BRM 10

Item driver constructor Points 10  Carlos Reutemann Brabham 9 11  Jacky Ickx lotus 6th 12  Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow 6th 13  Hans-Joachim Stuck March 5 14th  James Hunt Hesketh 4th 15th  Carlos Pace Surtees 3 16  Arturo Merzario Iso-Marlboro 1 17th  John Watson Brabham 1 18th  Graham Hill Lola 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 45 02  McLaren 43 03  Tyrrell 30th 04th  lotus 22nd 05  BRM 10 06th  Brabham 10

Item constructor Points 07th  Shadow 6th 08th  March 5 09  Hesketh 4th 10  Surtees 3 11  Lola 1 12  Iso-Marlboro 1

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Training"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on November 18, 2011)  
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on November 18, 2011)
3. ^ "World Cup stands" ( Memento from December 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on November 18, 2011)