1971 South African Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of South Africa 1971 took place on March 6th place at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and was the first race of the Formula 1 season 1971.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
Towards the end of the 1970 season, the then-new Tyrrell racing cars and the Ferrari 312B had proved to be the best cars in the field. Ken Tyrrell maintained his regular driver duo of Jackie Stewart and François Cevert for the 1971 season. Even Ferrari continued to perform with the regular drivers Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni. Ignazio Giunti came on January 10 at the 1000 -kilometer race of Buenos Aires and was killed in his capacity as a third Ferrari factory driver replaced by Mario Andretti.
In a further developed version of the Lotus Type 72 was used, which was piloted by regular drivers Emerson Fittipaldi and Reine Wisell. In the Team McLaren also kept Denis Hulme and Peter Gethin their positions as a works driver.
Rob Walker decided for financial reasons against another season with his private team and took part instead indirectly with sponsorship to Team Surtees, where in addition to the founders John Surtees of abgeworbene Brabham Rolf Stommelen second regular driver was. The on Rob Walker's little retreat enjoyed Graham Hill joined the Brabham team, which has now led by Jack Brabham's retirement of Ron Tauranac alone.
The March cockpits were filled due to the departure of both previous works driver, with Ronnie Peterson took over the role of the parent driver, first at the side of Andrea de Adamich and Àlex Soler- Roig, where de Adamich further led his use of Alfa Romeo engines, which he had begun in the previous year with McLaren.
One of the pilots who had been in the previous year in March a contract was Jo Siffert, who now together with the Formula 1 rookie Howden Ganley the regular driver duo with BRM formed, while also Pedro Rodríguez continue driving for this team.
Chris Amon was with the not for the World Cup scoring Argentinean Grand Prix starts on January 24 with a victory as the new Matra factory driver in a promising season, in stark contrast to his team-mate Jean -Pierre Beltoise, the fatal due to its involvement in Ignazio Giuntis accident two weeks, the racing license had been revoked previously on the site. Because of this he was not allowed to go to the start in South Africa.
Training
Jackie Stewart, whose team was switched to Goodyear tires because of the Formula 1 exit from Dunlop, with over half a second ahead of the fastest training time and launched alongside Amon and Regazzoni from the front row. The second series was formed by Andretti and Fittipaldi, while Surtees, Hulme and Ickx shared the third row. Thus all three Ferrari were expected to be found within the first three rows of the grid.
Caused a surprise guest starter Dave Charlton, who qualified in twelfth and thus had some experienced race drivers behind.
After three unsuccessful attempts in the previous year Àlex Soler -Roig was able to qualify for a Grand Prix for the first time.
Race
Since Stewart had a bad start, Regazzoni was going Fittipaldi, Ickx and Hulme in the lead while Stewart dropped back to seventh place. Started Even worse were Surtees and Amon, who found themselves in positions 11 and 14.
Hulme was initially the fastest driver in the field and struggled in round 17 at the top. He stayed there until lap 76 when he had to make a pit stop due to a suspension defect. Andretti, who had meanwhile advanced to second place, took over the lead from now on and put it into his first Grand Prix victory. Stewart was able to conquer the second place ahead of Regazzoni and thus prevent a Ferrari one-two.
Message list
1 marked with a "T" behind the starting number cars were their drivers as spare car available, but were not utilized.
Classifications
Line-up
Race
WM stands after the race
The first six of the race were 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s).