THE GOLDEN YEARS 1967 - 1971
The years from 1967 to 1971 must be considered as the golden years of Formula 2 Racing. The inauguration of the European Championship in 1967 had brought more money and more professionalism into the sport. Formula 2 events had become an exciting spectator sport bringing new drivers and established stars together. The crowds also had been given the opportunity to watch many of their admired star drivers like Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart or John Surtees more than once a year. Very soon it had become clear, that a new generation had knocked on the door being ready to challenge the Grand Prix aces with their own means. An exception was Austrian Jochen Rindt, being the best Formula 2 driver ever. While he had had only average Grand Prix equipment available since his Formula 1 debut back in 1964, he had got excellent material for the class below. So it had been no wonder for him to become the dominating figure of this formula, respecting, that he had been an extraordinary driving talent also being full of determination and courage. Not to forget, he had been very young of age.
Also a youngster of extreme quality had been Jacky Ickx, son of a well-known Belgian motor journalist. Under the roof of old woodcutter Ken Tyrrell, who ever had a clever look at future top stars, Ickx became the first European Formula 2 Champion. He used a very popular combination of team, car and engine in the second half of the sixties becoming the standard both in Formula 2 and Formula 1. French aerospace group Matra had constructed a very effective chassis to be powered by a British Ford Cosworth unit. While Matra had established a French works team of theirown with Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Johnny Servoz-Gavin or Henri Pescarlo driving, the team of Ken Tyrrell brought Jackie Stewart and Jacky Ickx to the grid. That had been the basis for Tyrrell´s debut in Grand Prix Racing with the same car and team specification in 1968.
It was absolutely not surprising, that Matra won the first three European Championships in consecutive manner, in spite of strong opposition from the British constructors. Brabham, Lotus, McLaren Cooper and Lola had entered the European Championship in it´s early stage with chassis of their own, in the most cases for the use of the well-known Ford Cosworth engine. As demanded by the technical regulations, the block had been production based (Ford Cortina). 9000 revs per minute gave it more than 200 horse powers, and that at reasonable costs. While the Cossies being in the absolute majority, BMW and Ferrari had gone different ways. BMW had decided to start as a pure engine supplier to take the chassis from Eric Broadley´s Lola company while the Maranello sportscar manufacturer had designed a complete car of their own around a domestic made engine being the only 6 cylinder unit of that time.
The first BMW works drivers were Swiss Jo Siffert, Hubert Hahne and Kurt Ahrens (both Germany), further Lola BMW´s partly were driven by John Surtees and Chris Irvin. Ferrari brought Chris Amon and Jonathan Williams to the track. The works Brabham entry consisted of Jim Brabham himself, Denny Hulme and Frank Gardner, partnered by a semi-works team of US-American Roy Winkelmann with Jochen Rindt and Alan Rees in the cockpits. Lotus entered the scene with Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jackie Oliver,behind the steering wheel of the McLaren sat team owner Bruce McLaren himself.
To open the European Championship only for B-drivers was an often discussed issue and had the consequence, that the works teams retired from Formula 2 more and more. In 1868 only Matra, Lotus and Ferrari competed against each other on a works base. So the position of the semi-works entries like Winkelmann (Brabham), Team Surtees (Lola), Chequered Flag (McLaren) and again Ken Tyrrell (Matra) became stronger. The same time a lot of pure privateers entered the business. That had been a very positive development for the commercial racing car manufacturers giving a good possibility to them for earning some money. At a time, when commercial sponsoring had been in a very early stage, selling racing cars for the lower formulas was an absolutely need for many British Grand Prix constructors to get additional financial backing for their Formula One involvement.
While Ferrari scored five excellent victories in the 1968 Formula season ( Ernesto Brambilla, the brother of later March and Surtees Grand Prix driver Vittorio, three times, Andrea de Adamich twice), the entire world of motorsport and millions of fans all over the world went into deep mourning, when their admired idol Jim Clark had been killed in his Lotus Ford 48 at Hockenheim at the beginning of April. At the end of 1968 Ferrari withdraw their team from Formula 2 to concentrate on Grand Prix and sportscar racing, but the Italian colours remained in the business with the newly found Tecno team from Bologna, who had their roots in karting and later in Formula 3.
For 1969 Winkelmann switched from Brabham to Lotus cars as their star driver Jochen Rindt also had done it in Grand Prix Racing before. The Austrian continued his domination in Formula 2 stronger than ever. Ken Tyrrell had withdrawn his team from that competition to concentrate all their efforts on Grand Prix Racing (where they won their first worldchampionship at the end of the year with Jackie Stewart driving). Tyrrell had handed over his Matra International F2 team to London car dealer John Coombs, who brought Jackie Stewart and Johnny Servoz- Gavin to the grid. The Frenchman won the European Championship for Matra the third time in three years. An interesting car had been presented by BMW. Still with their powerful works engines, their chassis had been constrcted by German air-craft manufacturer Dornier. The BMW works drivers were Jo Siffert (Switzerland), Dieter Quester (Austria), Hubert Hahne and Gerhard Mitter (both Germany), but the sadest moment for the Munich car company happened, when Mitter, on the way to a solid Grand Prix career, was killed during a practice accident at the Nuerburgring-Nordschleife for the Formula round of that year´s German Grand Prix because of a broken steering.
For
1970 the technical regulations for the chassis changed rapidly.
After a lot of fire infernos had taken place in international
motorsport, the F.I.A. had demanded fexible safety fuel tanks and
automatic fire extinguishers for the top single-seater racing
cars. Especially the first rule was not in the sense of Matra.
The French aerospace group used the hollow space within the
monocoque for filling them with the fuel needed, a technology
known from aviation and space-travel. But flexible tanks had
meant to design a complete new car, and when so busy being
involved in Grand Prix and endurance racing, they decided to
retire from Formula 2. So the remaining works teams were only
three. Tecno, supported by French oil company Motul, brought
works cars for Clay Regazzoni from Switzerland and Francois
Cevert of France to the grid, their Ford engines were also made
by Tecno. A great works entry was BMW with Belgian Jacky Ickx,
Swiss Jo Siffert, Austrian Dieter Quester and German Hubert Hahne
driving. Both Tecno and BMW scored 6 victories each in 1970. The
third works entry was little French manufacturer Pygmée, who
were supported by their national oil company elf for cars driven
by their fellow countrymen Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Jean-Pierre
Jabouille, Patrick Depailler and Patrick Dalbo. With Cosworth
more and more becoming the main supplier of Grand Prix engines
(up to 80 per cent partly used their DFV units), the Formula 2
engines were produced and revised by licensed, but independent
engine shops. Also a new chassis producer had been founded. March
Engineering at Bicester near Oxford did very well in installing
facilities to construct racing cars of nearly all categories
within only a few month. No wonder, that they considered Formula
2 a good business as well and the following years they became
very successful in selling customer cars to privateers.
In 1970 a real opposition to the works teams came from Jochen
Rindt Racing, that were the unofficial Lotus works team. After
the retirement of Roy Winkelmann, both businessman and
criminologist (there were also rumours about his membership in
one of the United States secret services) Jochen Rindt and Bernie
Ecclestone had decided to found a team of theirown. Another Lotus
Ford 69 was driven by Brazil´s rising star Emerson Fittipaldi in
the private Bardahl team. Very sad news came from German Munich,
when BMW´s board of directors made their successful works team
retire from the Formula 2 circus at the end of 1970.
After
Clay Regazzoni had won the 1970 European Championship (to be an
A-driver from now on), Tecno also was considered to be the
favourite for the title again in 1971. Meanwhile Francois Cevert,
Tyrrell´s second driver in Grand Prix Racing, had been the
Italians new team leader partnered by Jabouille and Depailler
also coming from France and backed by elf. After the Austrians
fatal crash at the 1970 Monza Grand Prix qualifying, Jochen Rindt
Racing did not exist any longer and also the Lotus had closed
their customers´department. A modified version of the Lotus Ford
69 was driven by Emerson Fittipaldi for the Bardahl team again,
while the only remaining BMW power was available for works driver
Dieter Quester from Vienna. His March was the only Bicester
mashine with non-Ford engine and backed by the team of German
caravan manufacturer Eiffelland. March theirselves had a works
entry for Ronnie Peterson in the yellow colours of the Swede´s
personal sponsors Vick and Smog (medicine against colds), a
second Ford powered 712M was hired by Austria´s promising novice
Niki Lauda with the support of a great Vienna bank. Private March
teams were Frank Williams with Henri Pescarolo and Shell France
with Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and Jean-Pierre Jarier. A very proper
outfit came from Rondel Racing of former Cooper and Brabham
mechanic Ron Dennis. His beautiful looking Brabham Ford BT36s in
the livery of Motul were driven by the Brabham Grand Prix works
drivers Graham Hill and Tim Schenken partnered by France´s
former skiing ace Bob Wollek. Another oil and fuel company, YPF
from Argentine, sponsored the private Brabham team of Carlos
Reutemann and Carlos Ruesch.
South America brought really new perspectives into the Formula 2
business with a lot of promising drivers, new or revised circuits
and growing markets, not mention the great enthuiasm and passion
for the sport shown by millions of spectators. While the
designate European Champion Francois Cevert had to fight with his
powerful, but fragile Ford Tecno engines, Ronnie Peterson, fast
as ever, became more and more reliable to win the championship
finally by both speed and reliability. When Tim Schenken from
Australia won the last race of the 1600 cc Formula 2 at
Argentinian Cordoba the golden age of Formula 2 was over, but new
horizons could be seen under the 2000 cc regulations.
Graphics: project * 2000
© 2002 by researchracing