1973 South African Grand Prix

 1973 South African Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 15 races of the 1973 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	VII Grand Prix of South Africa
Date:	March 3, 1973
Place:	Midrand
Course:	Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
Length:	324.216 km in 79 laps of 4.104 km
Weather:	hazy and warm
Pole position
Driver:	Denis Hulme	McLaren
Time:	1: 16.28 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Emerson Fittipaldi	lotus
Time:	1: 17.10 min
Podium
First:	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell
Second:	Peter Revson	McLaren
Third:	Emerson Fittipaldi	lotus

The 1973 South African Grand Prix took place on March 3rd at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and was the third race of the 1973 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

In the three weeks between the Brazilian Grand Prix and the next round of the World Cup, the new Shadow team succeeded in completing two cars and entering them for the South African Grand Prix with drivers George Follmer and Jackie Oliver . A copy of the new McLaren M23 , which was driven by McLaren regular driver Denis Hulme , was also finished on time. This gave the opportunity to report his previous emergency vehicle as the third works vehicle and to occupy it with the South African Jody Scheckter .

A local guest starter , Jackie Pretorius, was also used at Frank Williams Racing Cars , as Nanni Galli had to take a break due to an injury. In addition, two other South Africans took part in the race weekend as private drivers in last year's vehicles. This had been a tradition at the South African GP for several years.

Andrea de Adamich returned to the field and, as in the previous year, drove a third factory Surtees , which was reported under its own name due to a different main sponsor.

training

During practice, Denis Hulme proved the class of the new McLaren M23 with the fastest lap time. Although Hulme had already achieved six Grand Prix victories and the world championship title in 1967 , this was his first and only pole position in the Formula 1 World Cup. Next to him, Emerson Fittipaldi and the impressive Jody Scheckter qualified for the front row. Ronnie Peterson and Clay Regazzoni formed the second row in front of Peter Revson , Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Carlos Reutemann . The strong team performance by McLaren with all three works cars among the top six starting positions was striking.

During the final training session, Jackie Stewart had a serious accident at high speed due to a leaky brake line, which he survived unharmed thanks to sensible safety fences. As he then swapped his car for that of his teammate François Cevert , his fastest training time was denied and he had to start the race from 16th place. Cevert had to start from last place without a timed lap.

run

Hulme initially took the lead ahead of Scheckter and Fittipaldi. Revson was fourth after a good start.

In the third round, Dave Charlton , who had an excellent start from 13th place, was in seventh place and dueled with Reutemann. In doing so, he lost control of his car and collided with Mike Hailwood . Most of the following colleagues were able to evade reflexively, except for Clay Regazzoni . He collided with Hailwood's car and additionally involved Jacky Ickx in the accident. Regazzoni passed out while his BRM went up in flames. Hailwood immediately rushed to help, loosened the Swiss man's belts and pulled him out of the fire. For this act he was later awarded a medal of bravery by the British Queen . Regazzoni got away with minor burns comparatively lightly.

Although yellow flags were waved because of the accident, Jackie Stewart overtook his competitors Peterson, Revson and Fittipaldi. The leading Denis Hulme had to pit because he suffered a puncture when driving over debris. A little later, when the leading Jody Scheckter ran into the ambulance with which Regazzoni was brought to the hospital, he slowed down and warned his colleagues who followed with a show of hands. Stewart, who was approaching next, passed Scheckter and the ambulance on a train. Because of this offense, McLaren lodged a protest with the race control, which was not granted.

Stewart kept the top position until the finish. Scheckter defended second place for a long time before his tires deteriorated towards the end of the race, so that he could no longer keep Revson and Fittipaldi behind him. With four laps to go, his engine finally failed. As a result, he also lost fourth place, but was still classified ninth because of the distance covered.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
John Player Team Lotus	1	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus 72D	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	2	Ronnie Peterson
Eleven Team Tyrrell	3	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell 006		G
	4th	François Cevert	Tyrrell 005
Yardley Team McLaren	5	Denis Hulme	McLaren M23		G
	6th	Peter Revson	McLaren M19C
	7th	Jody Scheckter
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	8th	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari 312B2	Ferrari 001/1 3.0 F12	G
	9	Arturo Merzario
Brooke Bond Oxo Team Surtees	10	Mike Hailwood	Surtees TS14A	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	F.
	11	Carlos Pace
Ceramica Pagnossin Team Surtees	12	Andrea de Adamich	Surtees TS9B
STP March Racing Team	14th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	March 721G		G
Marlboro BRM	15th	Clay Regazzoni	BRM P160D	BRM P142 3.0 V12	F.
	16	Jean-Pierre Beltoise
	17th	Niki Lauda
Motor Racing Developments	18th	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham BT37	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	19th	Wilson Fittipaldi
Frank Williams Racing Cars	20th	Jackie Pretorius	Iso-Marlboro FX3B		F.
	21st	Howden Ganley
UOP Shadow Racing Team	22nd	Jackie Oliver	Shadow DN1		G
	23	George Follmer
Clarke-Mordaunt-Guthrie Racing	24	Mike Beuttler	March 721G		G
Scribante Lucky Strike Racing	25th	Dave Charlton	Lotus 72D		F.
Blignaut Lucky Strike Racing	26th	Eddie Keizan	Tyrrell 004		F.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	1: 16.28	193.686 km / h	01
02	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus Ford	1: 16.41	193.357 km / h	02
03	Jody Scheckter	McLaren-Ford	1: 16.43	193.306 km / h	03
04th	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	1: 16.44	193.281 km / h	04th
05	Clay Regazzoni	BRM	1: 16.47	193.205 km / h	05
06th	Peter Revson	McLaren-Ford	1: 16.72	192.576 km / h	06th
07th	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM	1: 16.84	192.275 km / h	07th
08th	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	1: 16.94	192.025 km / h	08th
09	Carlos Pace	Surtees-Ford	1: 17.06	191.726 km / h	09
10	Niki Lauda	BRM	1: 17.14	191.527 km / h	10
11	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari	1: 17.16	191.477 km / h	11
12	Mike Hailwood	Surtees-Ford	1: 17.17	191.453 km / h	12
13	Dave Charlton	Lotus Ford	1: 17.18	191.428 km / h	13
14th	Jackie Oliver	Shadow Ford	1: 17.64	190.294 km / h	14th
15th	Arturo Merzario	Ferrari	1: 17.64	190.294 km / h	15th
16	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 17.65	190.269 km / h	16
17th	Wilson Fittipaldi	Brabham-Ford	1: 17.95	189.537 km / h	17th
18th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	March-Ford	1: 17.98	189.464 km / h	18th
19th	Howden Ganley	Iso-Ford	1: 18.07	189.246 km / h	19th
20th	Andrea de Adamich	Surtees-Ford	1: 18.66	187.826 km / h	20th
21st	George Follmer	Shadow Ford	1: 18.82	187.445 km / h	21st
22nd	Eddie Keizan	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 18.92	187.207 km / h	22nd
23	Mike Beuttler	March-Ford	1: 20.37	183.830 km / h	23
24	Jackie Pretorius	Iso-Ford	1: 20.54	183.442 km / h	24
25th	François Cevert	Tyrrell-Ford	no time	-	25th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell-Ford	79	0	1: 43: 11.07	16	1: 17.25
02	Peter Revson	McLaren-Ford	79	0	+ 24.55	06th	1: 17.64
03	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus Ford	79	0	+ 25.06	02	1: 17.10
04th	Arturo Merzario	Ferrari	78	0	+ 1 lap	15th	1: 18.82
05	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	77	2	+ 2 rounds	01	1: 17.55
06th	George Follmer	Shadow Ford	77	0	+ 2 rounds	21st	1: 19.03
07th	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	77	0	+ 2 rounds	08th	1: 18.50
08th	Andrea de Adamich	Surtees-Ford	77	0	+ 2 rounds	20th	1: 19.77
09	Jody Scheckter	McLaren-Ford	75	0	DNF	03	1: 17.55	Engine failure
10	Howden Ganley	Iso-Ford	73	0	+ 6 rounds	19th	1: 19.53
11	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	73	1	+ 6 rounds	04th	1: 17.63
-	Carlos Pace	Surtees-Ford	69	0	DNF	09	1: 18.23	accident
-	Eddie Keizan	Tyrrell-Ford	67	0	NC	22nd	1: 20.40	Unrated
-	Jean-Pierre Jarier	March-Ford	66	0	NC	18th	1: 18.88	Unrated
-	François Cevert	Tyrrell-Ford	66	0	NC	25th	1: 18.21	Unrated
-	Mike Beuttler	March-Ford	65	0	NC	23	1: 21.21	Unrated
-	Wilson Fittipaldi	Brabham-Ford	52	0	DNF	17th	1: 18.96	Gearbox damage
-	Jackie Pretorius	Iso-Ford	35	0	DNF	24	1: 21.32	overheated engine
-	Niki Lauda	BRM	26th	0	DNF	10	1: 18.41	Engine failure
-	Jackie Oliver	Shadow Ford	14th	0	DNF	14th	1: 20.15	Engine failure
-	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM	04th	0	DNF	07th		Clutch damage
-	Dave Charlton	Lotus Ford	03	0	DNF	13		accident
-	Clay Regazzoni	BRM	02	0	DNF	05		accident
-	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari	02	0	DNF	11		accident
-	Mike Hailwood	Surtees-Ford	02	0	DNF	12		accident

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  Emerson Fittipaldi lotus 22nd 02  Jackie Stewart Tyrrell 19th 03  Denis Hulme McLaren 8th 04th  François Cevert Tyrrell 6th 05  Peter Revson McLaren 6th

Item driver constructor Points 06th  Arturo Merzario Ferrari 6th 07th  Jacky Ickx Ferrari 5 08th  George Follmer Shadow 1 09  Wilson Fittipaldi Brabham 1 10  Clay Regazzoni BRM 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  lotus 22nd 02  Tyrrell 21st 03  McLaren 12 04th  Ferrari 9

Item constructor Points 05  Shadow 1 06th  BRM 1 07th  Brabham 1

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Training" ( Memento from January 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on July 23, 2011)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Fight at the Limit. The Formula 1 Chronicle 1950–2000 , ed. v. Willy Knupp, RTL book edition: Zeitgeist Verlag: Düsseldorf / Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-89748-277-0 , p. 171
3. ↑ Fight at the limit. The Formula 1 Chronicle 1950–2000 , ed. v. Willy Knupp, RTL book edition: Zeitgeist Verlag: Düsseldorf / Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-89748-277-0 , p. 169
4. ^ "Report" (accessed on July 23, 2011)
5. ^ "World Championship stands" ( Memento from January 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on July 23, 2011)

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website