1976 Grand Prix of South Africa

 1976 Grand Prix of South Africa

Racing data
2nd of 16 races of the 1976 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	X Grand Prix of South Africa
Date:	March 6, 1976
Place:	Midrand
Course:	Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
Length:	320.112 km in 78 laps of 4.104 km
Weather:	sunny and warm
Pole position
Driver:	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford
Time:	1: 16.10 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
Time:	1: 17.94 min
Podium
First:	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
Second:	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford
Third:	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford

The 1976 South African Grand Prix took place on March 6th at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and was the second race of the 1976 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

During the five weeks between the opening race in Brazil and the second round of the World Cup in South Africa, there were several driver changes to report. Ronnie Peterson had decided to leave the Lotus team and signed a regular driver contract with Team March , for which he had already competed from 1970 to 1972 . In return, March released his Formula 2 driver Gunnar Nilsson , who then succeeded Peterson at Lotus and thus made his Formula 1 debut. As a result of Peterson's engagement, Lella Lombardi no longer had a March cockpit available.

Since Mario Andretti had decided to contest the South African GP for Parnelli , Lotus needed a second new driver and found him in Bob Evans , who had been under contract with the now no longer competing factory team BRM last year . Frank Williams replaced Renzo Zorzi with Michel Leclère on his team .

The Surtees team returned to the field with a newly developed TS19 car and a new main sponsor . Brett Lunger was hired as a regular driver. With Ensign and Hesketh , two other teams that had missed the season opener intervened for the first time this season. Chris Amon and Harald Ertl , who had already been active for the respective team last year , competed as drivers .

Contrary to the habits of the past few years, Ian Scheckter was only a single local guest starter who competed in his home race. Jody Scheckter's brother drove a privately used Tyrrell 007 .

training

During the training there were discussions about the legality of plastic aprons used by the McLaren and Penske teams. These can be seen as the first signs of developments regarding the ground effect on racing cars, from which the so-called "wing cars" developed in the following years.

The practice resulted in an identical front row as before at the Brazilian Grand Prix with James Hunt on pole position next to Niki Lauda in second place on the grid. Its gap to the fastest lap time of third-placed John Watson was already more than two tenths of a second. This was followed by Jochen Mass , Vittorio Brambilla , Patrick Depailler and Tom Pryce .

run

Shortly after the start, Lauda, ​​Mass and Brambilla passed Hunt. Depailler followed in front of Peterson. Ian Scheckter's race ended after a few meters due to a collision with Leclère. This, however, was able to continue the race.

In the second round, Brambilla won a three-way battle against Mass and Hunt for second place. After Mass had let his teammate Hunt past, he took up the pursuit of Brambilla. However, it wasn't until the fifth lap that he managed to overtake Brambilla. At this point the leading Lauda was already around ten seconds ahead of his pursuers.

A collision between Peterson and Depailler had put Pryce in fifth place. When Brambilla fell behind him and Mass a little later, he was in fourth place. The order at the top then remained constant over several laps. Only when Pryce had to make a pit stop on lap 44 did he lose fourth place to Clay Regazzoni . However, this was canceled nine laps later due to an engine failure and had to give Jody Scheckter fourth place.

The final phase of the race became more exciting because Lauda had to struggle with a creeping puncture during the last laps and was therefore no longer able to drive at the limit. Hunt came within 1.3 seconds of Lauda before the checkered flag fell.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	1	Niki Lauda	Ferrari 312T	Ferrari 015 3.0 F12	G
	2	Clay Regazzoni
Eleven Team Tyrrell	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell 007	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	4th	Patrick Depailler
John Player Team Lotus	5	Bob Evans	Lotus 77		G
	6th	Gunnar Nilsson
Martini Racing	7th	Carlos Reutemann	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
Lexington Racing	15th	Ian Scheckter	Tyrrell 007		G
Shadow Racing Team	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow DN5B		G
	17th	Jean-Pierre Jarier
Team Surtees	18th	Brett Lunger	Surtees TS19		G
Frank Williams Racing Cars	20th	Jacky Ickx	Williams FW05		G
	21st	Michel Leclère
Team Ensign	22nd	Chris Amon	Ensign N174		G
Hesketh Racing	24	Harald Ertl	Hesketh 308D		G
Ligier Gitanes	26th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier JS5	Matra MS73 3.0 V12	G
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing	27	Mario Andretti	Parnelli VPJ4	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Citibank Team Penske	28	John Watson	Penske PC3		G
Copersucar-Fittipaldi	30th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar FD04		G

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	1: 16.10	194.145 km / h	01
02	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	1: 16.20	193.890 km / h	02
03	John Watson	Penske-Ford	1: 16.43	193.306 km / h	03
04th	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	1: 16.45	193.256 km / h	04th
05	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	1: 16.64	192.777 km / h	05
06th	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 16.77	192.450 km / h	06th
07th	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	1: 16.84	192.275 km / h	07th
08th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1: 16.88	192.175 km / h	08th
09	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	1: 16.94	192.025 km / h	09
10	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford	1: 17.03	191.801 km / h	10
11	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 17.09	191.651 km / h	11
12	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 17.18	191.428 km / h	12
13	Mario Andretti	Parnelli-Ford	1: 17.25	191.254 km / h	13
14th	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 17.26	191.230 km / h	14th
15th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow Ford	1: 17.35	191.007 km / h	15th
16	Ian Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 17.40	190.884 km / h	16
17th	Hans-Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	1: 17.44	190.785 km / h	17th
18th	Chris Amon	Ensign-Ford	1: 17.73	190.073 km / h	18th
19th	Jacky Ickx	Williams-Ford	1: 18.13	189.100 km / h	19th
20th	Brett Lunger	Surtees-Ford	1: 18.36	188.545 km / h	20th
21st	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar-Ford	1: 18.40	188.449 km / h	21st
22nd	Michel Leclère	Williams-Ford	1: 18.82	187.445 km / h	22nd
23	Bob Evans	Lotus Ford	1: 19.35	186.193 km / h	23
24	Harald Ertl	Hesketh-Ford	1: 22.11	179.934 km / h	24
25th	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus Ford	1: 22.70	178.651 km / h	25th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	78	0	1: 42: 18.4	02	1: 17.94
02	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	78	0	+ 1.3	01	1: 18.08
03	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	78	0	+ 45.9	04th	1: 18.65
04th	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	78	0	+1: 08.4	12	1: 18.38
05	John Watson	Penske-Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	03	1: 18.94
06th	Mario Andretti	Parnelli-Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	13	1: 19.15
07th	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	77	1	+ 1 lap	07th	1: 18.73
08th	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	05	1: 18.49
09	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	06th	1: 18.60
10	Bob Evans	Lotus Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	23	1: 19.84
11	Brett Lunger	Surtees-Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	20th	1: 19.83
12	Hans-Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	76	0	+ 2 rounds	17th	1: 19.86
13	Michel Leclère	Williams-Ford	76	0	+ 2 rounds	22nd	1: 20.08
14th	Chris Amon	Ensign-Ford	76	0	+ 2 rounds	18th	1: 19.00
15th	Harald Ertl	Hesketh-Ford	74	0	+ 4 rounds	24	1: 22.70
16	Jacky Ickx	Williams-Ford	73	0	+ 5 rounds	19th	1: 20.03
17th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar-Ford	70	0	DNF	21st	1: 18.92	Engine failure
-	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	52	0	DNF	09	1: 18.88	Engine failure
-	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	49	0	DNF	08th	1: 19.28	Engine failure
-	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow Ford	28	0	DNF	15th	1: 19.82	defective water cooler
-	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	22nd	0	DNF	14th	1: 19.37	Oil pressure loss
-	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus Ford	18th	0	DNF	25th	1: 20.00	Clutch damage
-	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	16	0	DNF	11	1: 19.42	Oil pressure loss
-	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford	15th	0	DNF	10	1: 18.79	collision
-	Ian Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	00	0	DNF	16	-	collision

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 18th 02  James Hunt McLaren 6th 03  Patrick Depailler Tyrrell 6th 04th  Jody Scheckter Tyrrell 5 05  Jochen Mass McLaren 5

Item driver constructor Points 06th  Tom Pryce Shadow 4th 07th  Hans-Joachim Stuck March 3 08th  John Watson Penske 2 09  Mario Andretti Parnelli 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 18th 02  Tyrrell 9 03  McLaren 7th 04th  Shadow 4th

Item constructor Points 05  March 3 06th  Penske 2 07th  Parnelli 1

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Training" ( Memento from March 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on February 18, 2012)
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on February 18, 2012)
3. ^ "World Cup stands" ( Memento from March 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on February 18, 2012)

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website