1975 South African Grand Prix

 1975 South African Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 14 races of the 1975 automobile world championship
Surname:	IX Grand Prix of South Africa
Date:	March 1, 1975
Place:	Midrand
Course:	Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
Length:	320.112 km in 78 laps of 4.104 km
Weather:	cloudy but warm
Pole position
Driver:	Carlos Pace	Brabham
Time:	1: 16.41 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Carlos Pace	Brabham
Time:	1: 17.20 min
Podium
First:	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell
Second:	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham
Third:	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell

The 1975 South African Grand Prix took place on March 1st at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and was the third race of the 1975 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

There was a break of around a month between the Brazilian Grand Prix and the next World Cup round in South Africa. During this time Scuderia Ferrari had developed the new model 312T and produced two copies for the regular drivers Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni . The premiere of this car, which featured a transversely installed transmission as a special feature, was eagerly awaited by the experts.

The previous Lola customer team Embassy Racing brought the Lola T371 to the start for the first time, which was to be called the Hill GH1 from the following race in Spain and was therefore by definition the team's first in-house design. As Graham Hill had an accident during practice and as a result could not take part in the race, his team colleague Rolf Stommelen completed the first race of the new vehicle. The March works team also presented a new car, the 751 , which was driven by works driver Vittorio Brambilla . The previously used 741 was made available for Lella Lombardi , who thus received another chance to take part in a Grand Prix for the first time after her non-qualification at the Grand Prix of Great Britain in 1974 .

A second copy of the DN5 had been produced at Shadow , so that both factory drivers could now compete with the new car. In team BRM was Mike Wilds by Bob Evans replaced, which thus came to his Grand Prix debut.

Traditionally, some local guest starters enriched the field of participants in the South Africa GP. They were Eddie Keizan , Dave Charlton and Ian Scheckter , who had previously appeared as occasional drivers , and Guy Tunmer , who completed his only Grand Prix participation that weekend.

training

The Brabham of Carlos Pace and Carlos Reutemann , who had already been rated as very competitive in the run-up to the new season due to their strong performances in the final race of the 1974 season , lived up to their role as favorites after their one-two victory in Brazil by taking the front row after training. Niki Lauda qualified in the new Ferrari for third place on the grid alongside Jody Scheckter in the Tyrrell .

Defending champion Emerson Fittipaldi only reached eleventh place on the grid and Jean-Pierre Jarier , who had taken pole position in the two previous races, was 13th. Lella Lombardi qualified for the first time since Maria Teresa de Filippis at the 1958 Italian Grand Prix a woman for a grand prix.

run

Pace took the lead from Jody Scheckter and Ronnie Peterson , who had also started well . Reutemann, Depailler , Regazzoni, Fittipaldi and Lauda followed.

In the third lap, local hero Scheckter took the lead to the delight of the spectators, while Reutemann took third place by overtaking Peterson. This fell back hopelessly in the course of the following laps.

When braking problems became apparent at Pace, he let his team-mate Reutemann pass and a little later also fell behind Depailler, Fittipaldi and Regazzoni. The sequence thus established then remained constant for about 20 laps. Then Fittipaldi dropped out of this group of leaders because he was struggling with a misfire in his engine. As a result, he had to make a total of seven pit stops, which meant he fell hopelessly behind and was not classified at the end of the race due to a short distance covered.

Jody Scheckter won his home race ahead of Reutemann, Depailler, Pace and Lauda. Since Regazzoni had to retire due to technical problems seven laps before the end, Jochen Mass received the last championship point of the day.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Marlboro Team Texaco	1	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren M23	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	2	Jochen Mass
Eleven Team Tyrrell	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell 007		G
	4th	Patrick Depailler
John Player Team Lotus	5	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus 72E		G
	6th	Jacky Ickx
Martini Racing	7th	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham BT44B		G
	8th	Carlos Pace
Beta Team March	9	Vittorio Brambilla	March 751		G
March engineering	10	Lella Lombardi	March 741		G
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	11	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari 312T	Ferrari 015 3.0 F12	G
	12	Niki Lauda
Stanley BRM	14th	Bob Evans	BRM P201	BRM P200 3.0 V12	G
UOP Shadow Racing Team	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow DN5	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	17th	Jean-Pierre Jarier
Team Surtees	18th	John Watson	Surtees TS16		G
Frank Williams Racing Cars	20th	Arturo Merzario	Williams FW03		G
	21st	Jacques Laffite	Williams FW02
Embassy Racing with Graham Hill	22nd	Graham Hill	Lola T370		G
	23	Rolf Stommelen	Lola T371
Hesketh Racing	24	James Hunt	Hesketh 308		G
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing	27	Mario Andretti	Parnelli VPJ4		G
Penske Cars	28	Mark Donohue	Penske PC1		G
Copersucar-Fittipaldi	30th	Wilson Fittipaldi	Copersucar FD01		G
Lucky Strike Racing	31	Dave Charlton	McLaren M23		G
Lexington Racing	32	Ian Scheckter	Tyrrell 007		G
Team Gunston	33	Eddie Keizan	Lotus 72A		G
	34	Guy Tunmer	Lotus 72E

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Ford	1: 16.41	193.357 km / h	01
02	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	1: 16.48	193.180 km / h	02
03	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 16.64	192.777 km / h	03
04th	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	1: 16.83	192.300 km / h	04th
05	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 16.83	192.300 km / h	05
06th	Mario Andretti	Parnelli-Ford	1: 16.89	192.150 km / h	06th
07th	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	1: 17.05	191.751 km / h	07th
08th	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	1: 17.14	191.527 km / h	08th
09	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	1: 17.16	191.477 km / h	09
10	John Watson	Surtees-Ford	1: 17.17	191.453 km / h	10
11	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren-Ford	1: 17.22	191.329 km / h	11
12	James Hunt	Hesketh-Ford	1: 17.30	191.131 km / h	12
13	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow Ford	1: 17.32	191.081 km / h	13
14th	Rolf Stommelen	Lola Ford	1: 17.47	190.711 km / h	14th
15th	Arturo Merzario	Williams-Ford	1: 17.53	190.564 km / h	15th
16	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	1: 17.79	189.927 km / h	16
17th	Ian Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 18.01	189.391 km / h	17th
18th	Mark Donohue	Penske-Ford	1: 18.28	188.738 km / h	18th
19th	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	1: 18.36	188.545 km / h	19th
20th	Dave Charlton	McLaren-Ford	1: 18.51	188.185 km / h	20th
21st	Jacky Ickx	Lotus Ford	1: 18.68	187.778 km / h	21st
22nd	Eddie Keizan	Lotus Ford	1: 19.01	186.994 km / h	22nd
23	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Ford	1: 19.15	186.663 km / h	23
24	Bob Evans	BRM	1: 19.17	186.616 km / h	24
25th	Guy Tunmer	Lotus Ford	1: 19.52	185.795 km / h	25th
26th	Lella Lombardi	March-Ford	1: 19.68	185.422 km / h	26th
DNQ	Wilson Fittipaldi	Copersucar-Ford	1: 19.73	185.305 km / h	-
DNQ	Graham Hill	Lola Ford	1: 21.45	181.392 km / h	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	78	0	1: 43: 16.90	03	1: 18.51
02	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	78	0	+ 3.74	02	1: 18.73
03	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	78	0	+ 16.92	05	1: 18.78
04th	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Ford	78	0	+ 17.31	01	1: 17.20
05	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	78	0	+ 28.64	04th	1: 18.92
06th	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	78	0	+1: 03.64	16	1: 18.67
07th	Rolf Stommelen	Lola Ford	78	0	+1: 12.91	14th	1: 19.32
08th	Mark Donohue	Penske-Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	18th	1: 18.04
09	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 19.79
10	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	77	1	+ 1 lap	08th	1: 18.76
11	Guy Tunmer	Lotus Ford	76	0	+ 2 rounds	25th	1: 20.09
12	Jacky Ickx	Lotus Ford	76	0	+ 2 rounds	21st	1: 17.76
13	Eddie Keizan	Lotus Ford	76	0	+ 2 rounds	22nd	1: 20.73
14th	Dave Charlton	McLaren-Ford	76	0	+ 2 rounds	20th	1: 18.32
15th	Bob Evans	BRM	76	0	+ 2 rounds	24	1: 19.28
16	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	71	0	DNF	09	1: 18.48	defective throttle linkage
17th	Mario Andretti	Parnelli-Ford	70	0	DNF	06th	1: 19.35	defective power transmission
-	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Ford	69	0	NC	23	1: 18.10	Unrated
-	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren-Ford	65	7th	NC	11	1: 18.57	Unrated
-	Ian Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	55	0	DNF	17th	1: 19.24	Driving error
-	James Hunt	Hesketh-Ford	53	1	DNF	12	1: 19.08	defective fuel injection
-	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow Ford	37	0	DNF	13	1: 18.73	overheated engine
-	Lella Lombardi	March-Ford	23	0	DNF	26th	1: 22.22	defective fuel pump
-	Arturo Merzario	Williams-Ford	22nd	0	DNF	15th	1: 19.51	Engine failure
-	John Watson	Surtees-Ford	19th	0	DNF	10	1: 18.50	Clutch damage
-	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	16	0	DNF	07th	1: 19.88	Radiator 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  Emerson Fittipaldi McLaren 15th 02  Carlos Pace Brabham 12 03  Carlos Reutemann Brabham 10 04th  Jody Scheckter Tyrrell 9 05  James Hunt Hesketh 7th

Item driver constructor Points 06th  Patrick Depailler Tyrrell 6th 07th  Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 6th 08th  Jochen Mass McLaren 5 09  Niki Lauda Ferrari 5

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Brabham 19th 02  McLaren 16 03  Tyrrell 11

Item constructor Points 04th  Ferrari 8th 05  Hesketh 7th

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Training" ( Memento from April 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed December 10, 2011)
2. ^ "Report" (accessed December 10, 2011)
3. ^ "World Championship stands" ( Memento from April 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed December 10, 2011)

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website