1976 Japanese Grand Prix

 1976 Japanese Grand Prix

Racing data
16th of 16 races of the 1976 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	XII Japanese Grand Prix
Date:	October 24, 1976
Place:	Oyama
Course:	Fuji International Speedway
Length:	318.207 km in 73 laps of 4.359 km
Weather:	Fog and rain
Spectator:	~ 70,000
Pole position
Driver:	Mario Andretti	lotus
Time:	1: 12.77 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Masahiro Hasemi	Kojima
Time:	1: 18.23 min
Podium
First:	Mario Andretti	lotus
Second:	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell
Third:	James Hunt	McLaren

The 1976 Japanese Grand Prix took place on October 24th as the 16th and final race of the 1976 Automobile World Championship at Fuji International Speedway .

Reports

background

The Japanese Grand Prix, which was held for the first time as a World Championship round, marked the end of the turbulent 1976 season. Niki Lauda started the weekend as World Championship leader, but only three points ahead of James Hunt , his only remaining competitor for the title.

The field was supplemented by several local guest starters, all of whom made their Grand Prix debuts. Noritake Takahara got the place in the second factory Surtees instead of the regular driver Brett Lunger . Kazuyoshi Hoshino competed in a Tyrrell 007 owned by the Heroes Racing private team. In this constellation, Bridgestone tires were used for the first time in Formula 1 . The Japanese team Kojima Engineering made its debut with its own vehicle, which was driven by Masahiro Hasemi and equipped with Dunlop tires. Masami Kuwashima planned to work as a paydriver for the Walter Wolf Racing team . However, since he could not raise the agreed sponsorship money in time, he was replaced by Hans Binder during the training . Because of this, Kuwashima is considered the racing driver with the shortest Formula 1 career. The Maki Engineering team , with which Howden Ganley , Hiroshi Fushida and Tony Trimmer had already tried in vain to qualify for individual Grand Prix in 1974 and 1975 , returned to Formula 1 one last time. Tony Trimmer was hired again as a driver.

training

The slow upward trend of the Lotus team that was evident throughout the season culminated in a pole position for Mario Andretti . Next to or behind him, the two duelists qualified for the world title, James Hunt and Niki Lauda. This was followed by John Watson , Jody Scheckter , Carlos Pace , Clay Regazzoni and Vittorio Brambilla .

The Maki team again failed to qualify, just like in the seven attempts in previous years. The Shadow team offered trimmer after failing to qualify a short-term use in a third work-Shadow to; Maki did not release Trimmer from his contract.

run

It rained heavily on the day of the race. In addition, thick fog came up. After some discussions, the organizers decided to start the race anyway. At this point, all drivers agreed with this decision.

Hunt initially took the lead ahead of Watson and Andretti. Shortly afterwards, after a driving error, Watson had to take a detour through a run-off zone and thus lost his position. Lauda, ​​who had dropped back into midfield, headed for the pits at the end of the second lap and gave up. A mechanic came up to him and asked what was going on. Lauda just replied: “I don't want to kill myself again …” The mechanic understood immediately and said: “OK. Niki, just say: the engine is down ... "But Lauda refused:" No! Tell them the truth ”. In the driver meeting, some drivers agreed not to drive due to the prevailing conditions. When the race started anyway, Brabham driver Larry Perkins pitted first, Lauda a lap later. Carlos Pace and Emerson Fittipaldi followed a few laps later.

While Hunt continued to lead the race, Brambilla passed Andretti in second place. On lap 22 he even dueled briefly with the leader, but fell back after a spin. Then Jochen Mass added Hunt's top position to a McLaren one- two lead until he had an accident on lap 36. This put Patrick Depailler in second place ahead of Andretti.

On the drying track, Hunt had problems with the tires and the brakes in the last third of the race. In lap 62 he could no longer defend himself against Depailler and Andretti. Both the now leading Depailler and Hunt himself had to head for the pit two laps later to have new tires fitted. As a result, Andretti took the lead and did not give it up until the finish. Hunt returned to the track in fifth place after the pit stop. During the 71st lap he passed Alan Jones and Clay Regazzoni. In the two previous laps, Depailler had already succeeded in doing this and was now in second place ahead of Hunt.

Third place was enough for James Hunt to win the World Championship by one point over Niki Lauda, ​​who was already on his way home at the time.

The fastest race lap was credited to Masahiro Hasemi. A few days after the race, however, it was said that it had been a measurement error and that the fastest lap had actually been completed by Jacques Laffite . However, this correction was not included in the official statistics.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	1	Niki Lauda	Ferrari 312T2	Ferrari 015 3.0 F12	G
	2	Clay Regazzoni
Eleven Team Tyrrell	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell P34	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	4th	Patrick Depailler
John Player Team Lotus	5	Mario Andretti	Lotus 77		G
	6th	Gunnar Nilsson
Martini Racing	7th	Larry Perkins	Brabham BT45	Alfa Romeo 115-12 3.0 F12	G
	8th	Carlos Pace
Beta Team March	9	Vittorio Brambilla	March 761	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
March engineering	10	Ronnie Peterson			G
	34	Hans-Joachim Stuck
Marlboro Team McLaren	11	James Hunt	McLaren M23		G
	12	Jochen Mass
Shadow Racing Team	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow DN8		G
	17th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow DN5B
Team Surtees	18th	Noritake Takahara	Surtees TS19		G
	19th	Alan Jones
Walter Wolf Racing	20th	Arturo Merzario	Williams FW05		G
	21 1	Hans Binder
		Masami Kuwashima
Hesketh Racing	24	Harald Ertl	Hesketh 308D		G
Ligier Gitanes	26th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier JS5	Matra MS73 3.0 V12	G
Citibank Team Penske	28	John Watson	Penske PC4	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Copersucar-Fittipaldi	30th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar FD04		G
Kojima engineering	51	Masahiro Hasemi	Kojima KE007		D.
Heroes Racing	52	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Tyrrell 007		B.
Maki engineering	54	Tony Trimmer	Maki F102A		G

¹ Hans Binder took over the Wolf-Williams with starting number 21 during training from Masami Kuwashima

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	1: 12.77	215.644 km / h	01
02	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	1: 12.80	215.555 km / h	02
03	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	1: 13.08	214.729 km / h	03
04th	John Watson	Penske-Ford	1: 13.29	214.114 km / h	04th
05	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 13.31	214.055 km / h	05
06th	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 13.43	213.706 km / h	06th
07th	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	1: 13.64	213.096 km / h	07th
08th	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	1: 13.72	212.865 km / h	08th
09	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford	1: 13.85	212.490 km / h	09
10	Masahiro Hasemi	Kojima-Ford	1: 13.88	212.404 km / h	10
11	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1: 13.88	212.404 km / h	11
12	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	1: 14.05	211.916 km / h	12
13	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 14.15	211.630 km / h	13
14th	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	1: 14.23	211.402 km / h	14th
15th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow Ford	1: 14.32	211.146 km / h	15th
16	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus Ford	1: 14.35	211.061 km / h	16
17th	Larry Perkins	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 14.38	210.976 km / h	17th
18th	Hans-Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	1: 14.38	210.976 km / h	18th
19th	Arturo Merzario	Wolf-Williams-Ford	1: 14.41	210.891 km / h	19th
20th	Alan Jones	Surtees-Ford	1: 14.60	210.354 km / h	20th
21st	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 14.65	210.213 km / h	21st
22nd	Harald Ertl	Hesketh-Ford	1: 15.26	208.509 km / h	22nd
23	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar-Ford	1: 15.30	208.398 km / h	23
24	Noritake Takahara	Surtees-Ford	1: 15.77	207.106 km / h	24
25th	Hans Binder	Wolf-Williams-Ford	1: 17.36	202.849 km / h	25th
26th	Masami Kuwashima	Wolf-Williams-Ford	1: 17.90	201.443 km / h	DNS
DNQ	Tony Trimmer	Maki-Ford	1: 30.91	172.615 km / h	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	73	0	1: 43: 58.86	01
02	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	72	1	+ 1 lap	13
03	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	72	1	+ 1 lap	02
04th	Alan Jones	Surtees-Ford	72	0	+ 1 lap	20th
05	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	72	0	+ 1 lap	07th
06th	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus Ford	72	0	+ 1 lap	16
07th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	72	0	+ 1 lap	11
08th	Harald Ertl	Hesketh-Ford	72	0	+ 1 lap	22nd
09	Noritake Takahara	Surtees-Ford	70	0	+ 3 rounds	24
10	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow Ford	69	0	+ 4 rounds	15th
11	Masahiro Hasemi	Kojima-Ford	66	0	+ 7 rounds	10	1: 18.23
-	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	58	0	DNF	05		overheated engine
-	Hans Binder	Wolf-Williams-Ford	49	0	DNF	25th		Wheel bearing damage
-	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	46	0	DNF	14th		Oil pressure loss
-	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	38	1	DNF	08th		defective ignition
-	Hans-Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	37	0	DNF	18th		defective ignition
-	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	35	0	DNF	12		accident
-	John Watson	Penske-Ford	33	0	DNF	04th		Engine failure
-	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Tyrrell-Ford	27	1	DNF	21st		Tire damage
-	Arturo Merzario	Wolf-Williams-Ford	23	0	DNF	19th		Gearbox damage
-	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar-Ford	09	0	DNF	23		task
-	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	07th	0	DNF	06th		task
-	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	02	0	DNF	03		task
-	Larry Perkins	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	01	0	DNF	17th		task
-	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford	00	0	DNF	09		Engine failure

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  James Hunt McLaren 69 02  Niki Lauda Ferrari 68 03  Jody Scheckter Tyrrell 49 04th  Patrick Depailler Tyrrell 39 05  Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 31 06th  Mario Andretti Parnelli / Lotus 22nd 07th  John Watson Penske 20th 08th  Jacques Laffite Ligier 20th 09  Jochen Mass McLaren 19th 10  Gunnar Nilsson lotus 11

Item driver constructor Points 11  Ronnie Peterson March 10 12  Tom Pryce Shadow 10 13  Hans-Joachim Stuck March 8th 14th  Carlos Pace Brabham 7th 15th  Alan Jones Surtees 7th 16  Carlos Reutemann Brabham 3 17th  Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar 3 18th  Chris Amon Ensign 2 19th  Vittorio Brambilla March 1 20th  Rolf Stommelen Brabham 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 83 02  McLaren 74 03  Tyrrell 71 04th  lotus 29 05  Penske 20th 06th  Ligier 20th 07th  March 19th

Item constructor Points 08th  Shadow 10 09  Brabham 9 10  Surtees 7th 11  Copersucar 3 12  Ensign 2 13  Parnelli 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Training" ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on April 9, 2012)  
2. ^ History of Maki Engineering on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on May 15, 2014).
3. ↑ Book: Stern Extra 60 Years of Formula 1
4. ^ "Report" (accessed April 9, 2012)
5. ↑ Fight at the limit. The Formula 1 Chronicle 1950–2000 , ed. v. Willy Knupp, RTL book edition: Zeitgeist Publisher: Düsseldorf / Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-89748-277-0 , p. 191
6. ↑ "Result"
7. ↑ "World Cup stands" ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on April 9, 2012)  

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website