1971: Gethin wins Monza slipstreamer

It was the usual Monza story with the first dozen screaming round in a solid pack, changing order all the time. No fewer than eight drivers led the race, Regazzoni, Peterson, Stewart, Cevert, Hailwood, Siffert, Amon and the winner. Peterson brought the works March home into second place only a nose behind the BRM with Cevert's Tyrrell equally close in third place.

Mike Hailwood drove an exceptional race in the Surtees. He showed himself to be a very polished driver and he was very unlucky not to finish better than fourth. Howden Ganley gave BRM fifth place as well, while Chris Amon was very unlucky to lose his visor when leading the race which caused him to drop back to sixth place.

Both Ferraris went out with mechanical failure early on while Stewart's Tyrrell broke its engine - the first time this year. In the championship Ronnie Peterson moves up into second place with 23 points ahead of Ickx with 19. It was interesting to note that the point scorers contained three newcomers for the championship lists - Gethin having won his first GP, Hailwood having led his first GP, and Ganley giving his best performance to date.




There was a great deal of speculation in the weeks prior to the Italian Grand Prix whether Sefac Ferrari would be running. The old man had decreed that unless the cars were fully competitive they wouldn't appear. Fortunately in private practice the week prior to the race the 312B2s showed themselves to be reasonably competitive in slightly revised form and, doubtless with a little extra financial persuasion, the Italian team arrived after all.

Not everybody turned up, however, and Gold Leaf Team Lotus were notable absentees as there was more than a possibility the cars would have been impounded and Chapman being forced to answer manslaughter charges following Jochen Rindt's fatal accident this time last year. There was a Lotus in the entry -the 56B Turbine car entered by World Wide Racing, managed by Peter Warr and driven by Emerson Fittipaldi. Also not properly represented were the McLaren team who had already dispatched their two M19s to Canada and were running a single M14 for Jackie Oliver.

Among these three teams only Ferrari had something novel to speak of: they were trying revised heads with different inlet ports and had cut down their rev limit to 500 rpm to 12,000 rpm without loosing any top end power and improving the torque curve. They brought along some of the standard engines to make back to back comparisons. As usual Ferrari drivers were Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni, Andretti one again fulfilling his USAC contractual obligations.

The new Tyrrell, which had been expected to make its debut at Monza, could not be finished in time. All the modifications had been incorporated into Stewart's normal car (003) and these included the extended wheel base alteration first tried in Austria and a new tail section which started immediately behind the cockpit and offered a good deal of aerodynamic downthrust. Francois Cervert's car was running in standard specification but they had the sharp original nose to try.

After their splendid victory in Austria BRM arrived mob handed; they brought four PI 60s and a singleton PI 53. Jo Siffert, as usual, had two cars to choose from, one the short stoke block, the other a standard 142 with Mk 2 heads. Peter Gethin had the same car he drove in Austria, as had Howden Ganley, both with the latest power units. Helmut Marko was once again driving for the British team but had to be content with the older car although there was talk of him driving Siffert's spare car in the race. Apart from subtle Changes to wing configuration there were no alterations to the cars from Bourne.

Matra seemed to have used their GP racing lay-off wisely, and the engines had been much modified since they last appeared in the German Grand Prix. Like Ferrari, Matra had concentrated on the inlet ports and induction generally, and reshaping the tracts had radically improved the rather irregular torque curve as well as giving a useful increase in top end power. This head work resulted in maximum horse power figure of 460 on one engine, and 470bhp on another.

This of course was on the brake and not on the chassis. Chris Amon, as well as getting some sunshine in Ibiza and growing a beard, found time for some testing which resulted in the monocoque being strengthened behind the driver where the engine is mounted. Jean-Pierre Beltoise's suspension will mean that the French team will only run one car until the Canadian GP.

There was nothing new from March who were running a pair of Ford-engined 711s for Ronnie Peterson and Nanni Galli as well as the usual Alfa-engined machine for Andrea de Adamich. As usual the Bicester firm's ranks were swollen by privateers. Frank Williams, still waiting for his Len Bailey designed machine to be finished, was running his re-chassised Ford-engined car for Henri Pescarolo, while Clarke Mordaunt were once again running their Ford-powered 711 for Mike Beuttler. Williams had also put in an entry for Carlos Pace in his old 701 but decided that it would be better to concentrate on running one car. Jean-Pierre Jarier had entered the ex-Hahne 701 with sponsors Shell Arnold.

Under the usual variety of sponsors Surtees brought along three cars, including the new TS9B (005) which had the same monocoque but a completely new nose with the radiators moved to the rear a la Lotus. This car was for John Surtees while Mike Hailwood was making a welcome return to Fl racing in Big John's normal car. Rolf Stommelen was having his last race under the existing arrangement between his German sponsors and the Surtees organisation.

There were no important changes in the Brabham camp. Graham Hill was in the BT34 which now features small aerodynamic cowls by their exhaust system and also had a pointed nose within the lobster claw nose section. Tim Schenken's car featured the same cowls by the engine but was otherwise unaltered. Jo Bonnier made a last minute entry under the colours of Filipinetti for his McLaren M7C and Silvio Moser arrived with the Bellasi-Ford to give it its second Fl outing this year.


Trials took place on Friday and Saturday afternoons, although, there had been an unofficial practice on Thursday. The weather was hot and in every case the fast times were recorded just before the end of the day in the cool of the evening when everybody rushed round in noisy slip streaming swarms. Monza always provides surprises, and this occasion was no exception, for Chris Amon, pulverised the existing lap record in the final minutes of official practice. It was no fluke; the blue Matra had been turning in 23 s without a tow on Thursday running a cooking engine, and with the special race engine and a tow from Tim Schenken the New Zealander turned in 1m23s dead followed by 1m22.40 s which put the French car in pole position.

To start with the Italian organisers didn't credit him with the time, but as many pit time keepers had also got it they checked their books and found the necessary confirmation. It must have been very satisfying for Chris to put it across the Ferraris for once after all his bad luck this season. Neither of his Matras gave any serious trouble, although the water impeller seals failed to seat properly and a fuel pump failed. Chris said afterwards, "This was the first time I was able to pass anybody on the straight. I came up behind Jo Siffert and could hardly believe it when my car went by."

According to the official timekeepers Ickx in the Ferrari was second quickest with 1m 22.82s but no one else ever got this time, and it was generally accepted that they had been "cooking the books" to encourage the Italian public on race day. Certainly all the Italian papers which went to press before Amon's time was verified carried the headline that Ferrari were fastest.

Ferrari were utterly perplexed throughout practice. The cars were handling oddly and were barely as fast as last year. They tried everything in an effort to discover the problem, even fitting Goodyear tyres to both a Bl which had been hastily put together on Friday night and Ickx's B2. When Ickx was supposed to have done his fast time he was in fact driving the Bl on Goodyear rubber. However, he proposed nonetheless to run Firestone's in the race.

Most consistently fast throughout the entire proceedings was Siffert in the BRM who had set best time on Friday in 1m 23.27s and improved this to 1m 23.03s. But Seppi never got a really good tow although the BRM team tried hard to help, so the Swiss driver's time was particularly significant. Ickx's dubious time had also eased the British-built car off the front row - but this might just stimulate Seppi enough for him to make one of his special efforts. Both his BRMs were very fast, with the short-stroke fractionally inferior. BRM had no apparent problems except tyres coming off the rims if they used the smaller 13 in rear wheels. Also on the second row was Ganley who managed to get among a fast bunch near the end and leap-frogged up to the head of the queue, with a time only 0.1 s slower than the BRM team leader. Howden's time encouraged the BRM boys no end and he looked pretty pleased himself!

Fastest of the Tyrrell team was not Stewart for a change but Cevert, who put in 1m 23.41s on Friday. Although he failed to improve on this time it still put him on the third row alongside Peterson who also set his time on Friday, a fraction slower than the Frenchman. Cevert was complaining of oversteer in the Curva Grande but otherwise seemed very pleased. Peterson had done his good time with a 10 Series engine and they had changed this to a new 11 Series for Saturday. Then the March mechanics changed it back on Saturday when Ronnie couldn't improve his time. All the March 711s had their front wings removed and were running with little or no rear wing inclination.

The new World Champion found himself unaccustomedly far back on the fourth row after a frustrating practice in which serious gear selection troubles raised their heads again. The Tyrrell is particularly prone to this problem which is caused by the gearbox casing. This is effectively a stressed member in current Fl style, flexing and allowing the selector mechanism to malfunction. The Tyrrell was jumping out of gear in the Parabolica and Jackie got in relatively little practice for a change.

There was no spare car on this occasion as 001 was in Canada following tyre tests at Mosport the previous week. They also had to change the water radiator as the temperature was a constant 105-degrees C. Also back on the fourth row was Regazzoni in the second of the works Ferraris. Despite all the fuss and bother in the Ferrari pit he was getting on with the job and putting up more consistent times than team-mate Ickx. The steering rack on Clay's car was changed but otherwise the mechanics made few important changes. Before the race Ferrari indulged in one of the customary conjuring tricks with chassis numbers and race numbers and Regazzoni was in fact driving a car in which he hadn't earned his grid place.

Yet again Schenken impressed in the BT33, which was running with the Tyrrell type nose. The Australian profited from running in company with Amon, improving on his Friday's time by nearly 2s with a best lap of 1m 23.73s after changes to gear ratios and roll-bars on Friday. Pescarolo had been fifth best on the first day with 1m 23.77s without the benefit of a tow after a very few laps. The Williams March was then put away and brought out for just a short time on Saturday to make sure all was in order. Frank Williams kept an eye on the times on Saturday as he wanted to be sure that Pesca would be sufficiently far up the grid to be in the leading bunch - ready to send out the Frenchman again had it been necessary.

Backing the two BRMs at the front of the field were Gethin and Marko on row six. Peter Gethin who was running in the high 23s on Friday despite having no fewer than three tyre failures. He found he was unable to stay with Siffert on Saturday when they tried to tow each other round and failed to improve on 1 m 23.88 s. Helmut Marko confirmed his talents by taking BRM's last year's car round less than 0.1 s slower than Gethin; he also did a few laps in Siffert's training car. They decided to run the older car as Marko preferred it.

Just how close was the competition can be gauged by the fact that the fastest 13 cars were below Ickx's pole position time from last year. The gap from Ickx (second fastest) to Marko (12th fastest) was only a second. Thirteenth fastest, and as ever unlucky, was Oliver in the solitary McLaren. Oliver had been unlucky enough to get involved in an accident following a rear tyre coming off Stommelen's Surtees and damaged the right front suspension and front bulkhead. The car was repaired in time for Ollie to slip in a 1m 24.09s which was a very respectable time indeed for an M14. Hill perhaps felt safer alongside Oliver rather than ahead of him after the Silverstone incident! The BT34 proved difficult to sort and Graham never got a good tow, which accounted for his midfield position.

Beuttler, despite sundry problems with his privately entered March 711, was constantly around the 1m 25s mark with a best of 1m 25.01s which put him on the same row as Surtees. Surtees spent all of Friday trying to sort out his new car which was overheating and eventually went back to a front radiator but did few laps, spending a lot of his time organising the team.

The Lotus Turbine was not as fast as hoped (the ambient temperature was perhaps too high for optimum power) and Emerson Fittipaldi couldn't do better than 1m 25.18s even after adjustments to the mixture and removal of additional filtering material. Hailwood, who shared the ninth row with the Turbine, was fractionally faster despite constant troubles. The ex-motor cycle champion had his engine changed after an oil leak on Friday and the replacement unit kept cutting out on the straight. "It must have been worrying for those behind me," he said.

Those old protagonists, Galli and de Adamich, were next in line. Galli's March had a pretty duff Ford engine but he was still over half a second quicker than de Adamich in the Alfa-engined car. Behind them came Bonnier and Moser, neither of whom disgraced themselves with mid 26s. On the back of the grid was Jarier's March 701 which was hardly competitive even had it had a more experienced driver. Missing was Rolf Stommelen who had a tyre come off the rim when he was travelling at around 180 mph in Ascari curve. The car spun into the guard rails and was sufficiently badly damaged to be irrepairable in time for the race. The tyre in question didn't appear to have been pegged to the rim.

There was a short practice session on Sunday morning, got under way by Peterson practising starts. Ferrari sent out Ickx in the Bl on Firestones and Regazzoni in the re-engined B2, Brabham bedded in brakes after suffering surface cracking of the discs the previous day. MRD also discovered that the gearbox on Hill's car was seizing up and quickly started a re-build.



The starting area had been fenced in a concentration camp-style in an effort to contain the record crowd who were already in position hours before the race was due to get under way. The 23 cars did a warming up lap under clear skies, Hailwood putting in a couple for good measure. There was some frantic last minute activity around Amon's Matra and the mechanics only moved away when the cars actually started to move forward towards the starter. When the flag fell both Amon and Ickx were soon passed by the mass behind, Regazzoni making a real flying start from the fourth row. The Ferrari was moving quite fast before the start was given.

A roar went up when Regazzoni came screaming by narrowly in the lead from Siffert, Stewart, Ganley and Peterson. Ickx had the second Ferrari in sixth place just ahead of Pescarolo, Amon, Gethin, Cevert, Marko, Schenken, Oliver and Hailwood who was leading Surtees. The following lap it was just as close, the first 15 cars running literally nose to tail. Regazzoni still led but Siffert was alongside as they went past the pits. Peterson had moved ahead of Stewart and was now in third place. Ganley had been passed by Ickx but this was a relative term as all the leaders were running so close. Pescarolo, Amon and Gethin were virtually side by side with Cevert trying to go through the middle of them.

The opening laps took their toll, for Marko came in very early on complaining the engine wouldn't run properly; they richened up the mixture but he never made it round again for the engine died on the circuit. Surtees was equally unlucky, his Cosworth engine breaking.

On the fourth lap Peterson came by in the lead with Stewart and Siffert on his tail, Regazzoni back in fourth place ahead of his team mate. Ganley was still going extremely well in sixth place with Cevert now behind him, the Frenchman having displaced both Gethin and Amon. Pescarolo was going like a bomb in the Williams March but unable to improve on his position which was just ahead of Schenken. Hailwood was coming up well in the sole surviving Surtees and was running in 13th place, still attached to the leading bunch.

The red works March managed to hold the lead for the next four laps. The blue Tyrrell was his constant shadow while Siffert and Regazzoni scrapped for third place. Cevert made up five places in six laps and was now leading Ickx's Ferrari in fifth place overall. The BRMs of Ganley and Gethin were next in line with Amon still back in ninth place. Schenken was the next casualty, coming into the pits with a broken bottom rear suspension sub frame. Moser's race was also short lived for he was forced to retire at the same time with broken shock absorber mountings.

The new World Champion pushed the Tyrrell into a brief lead on the eighth lap ahead of Peterson, Regazzoni, Cevert and Siffert, but the next lap Regazzoni leapfrogged past to take another turn at the head of the high speed convoy. Amon was having tyre trouble, the centre of the treads on the front wheels chunking and causing the car to understeer badly. To add to his troubles both oil and water temperatures were running 30 degrees higher than they had in practice and he was having to keep out of the slip streams in order to keep the temperatures within limits. Pescarolo's March, which had been suffering from low fuel pressure, suddenly ran properly and the Frenchman moved up a place, at the same time setting best lap of 1m 23.8s, a record. This was, incidentally, better than Pedro Rodriguez's existing absolute record of 1m 24.0s in the Gulf-Porsche 917.

Peterson re-took the lead on lap 10 and held it for a further five laps, first followed by Regazzoni's Ferrari and then by Cevert's Tyrrell which was the next car to slip by to lead them all. Stewart and Siffert were going strongly in fourth and fifth places ahead of Ickx and Ganley. It was a typical Monza race with nothing to choose between the first dozen and people changing position all the way round the circuit. Whoever led round the back never seemed to be leading when they came past the pits. Gethin moved ahead of Amon's Matra on lap 14 but the next time we saw them the positions were reversed again.

A decisive turn in the race came after only 16 laps when the pack sped by with Cevert at their head. Nowhere to be seen were Stewart or Ickx. The Tyrrell came slowly round to the pits, its Cosworth engine ventilated neatly by a connecting rod. The Ferrari was wheeled away, the metalastic engine damper, which is between the crankshaft and the clutch, having broken up and caused serious engine vibrations. Less than two laps later, to the audible distress of the partisan crowd, Regazzoni, who had been running a very strong third at this time disputing the lead strongly, came into the pits. The same rubber engine damper was found to be failing and the second Ferrari was wheeled sadly away.

Peterson was once more in command, having managed to out-fox Cevert going into the Curve Grande. With various retirements and superb driving Hailwood had come up from 14th place and was running with the leaders in third place, having passed Ganley, Siffert, Amon, Gethin, Oliver and Pescarolo. Mike the Bike was really going well and must be pretty sure of an Fl ride in the coming year.

The race had now split up a little. The leading three, Peterson, Cevert and Hailwood, were 8s ahead of Ganley, Siffert and Amon, who in turn had drawn away from Oliver and Gethin. Pescarolo was falling back in ninth place as his March was starting to handle oddly and was being caught by Hill and Beuttler who were in 10th and 11th places after mediocre starts. Fittipaldi was going as well as one could hope in the Lotus Turbine in 12th place but later suffered two cracked disc brakes. The rest of the drivers had already been lapped. At the tail of the field Bonnier was dicing with de Adamich. Galli, who had been well ahead of them both, had been forced to retire earlier with electrical troubles caused by a broken gearbox strut fouling a lead. Jarier visited the pits with clutch trouble.

Little by little the second group started to close back up on the leaders. Shortly before half distance the six cars were back together again, with Siffert challenging strongly in the BRM. On lap 25 Hailwood went past Cevert and Peterson to take the lead - the first time a Surtees has ever led a Grand Prix and of course the first time Mike has ever led a Grand Prix.

The antics of the leaders were quite terrifying to watch, for they would go past the pits sometimes four abreast yet somehow managed to squeeze into the gap where the road narrows as they went down to the Curve Grande. At half distance the order was: Hailwood, Cevert, Peterson, Siffert, Ganley, Amon, Gethin, Oliver then a short gap before Pescarolo, Hill, Beuttler and Fittipaldi. Bonnier and de Adamich were a lap behind.

Just after half distance Siffert passed the three leaders in a single lap and the British built V12 led the race for the next three laps. Chris Amon came up strongly, passed Ganley and was lying in fourth place in striking distance of the lead. The New Zealander obviously felt the time had come to make his presence felt. Further back Pescarolo came in for the first of a series of pit stops when the Williams March started to handle oddly. Although they looked hard at the rear suspension nothing could be found amiss until after the race when the bottom suspension pick-up point located beneath the gearbox was found to be worn.

BRM's hopes took a knock on lap 30 when Siffert slowed dramatically, letting everybody by. The gearbox was playing up and Seppi was having great trouble with selection. He was eventually left with only fourth gear.

Meanwhile out in the lead Peterson, Cever and Hailwood and Amon were still running as close as ever, taking turns at leading until lap 27 when the Matra suddenly shot by all of them to establish itself at the head of the column. The joy in the Matra pit after all their trials and tribulations was a pleasure to witness and Chris kept the blue car out in the front for the next 10 laps except for a single occasion when Mike Hailwood came by ahead of him. The Matra seemed to be faster than anything in a straight line and it looked at last as if Chris stood a chance of breaking his GP duck.

The competition behind the Matra was as strong as ever and Gethin had come up to join in the fun running right behind Peterson and team mate Ganley. With only 10 laps to go the first Six were all in a position to win the race. The tail of the field had been thinned earlier when de Adamich retired the March-Alfa Romeo with serious internal engine disorders and he was joined in the pits a few laps later by Beuttler, who had been driving a very good race in close company with Hill. Beuttler passed Hill on one occasion, but the pistons touched valves and exhaust fumes from the inlet track indicated a major engine blow-up. A few laps later Hill too slowed dramatically just after passing Oliver into seventh place. The BT34's gearbox had seized after two gears had started to run together and sent the temperature in the box sky high.

With only seven laps to go Amon looked a likely winner although he was still surrounded by Peterson, Cevert, Hailwood and co; the New Zealander decided it was time to tear off one of his top visor so he would have a clean one to look through on the closing laps. As he tore off the band they all came adrift and he was driving with no protection at all for his eyes. The Matra fell quickly down to fifth place.

The last five laps were packed with excitement as first Peterson, then Hailwood, then Gethin led past the pits. Gethin had come up really strongly in the final stages, rather like the steeplechasers he knows so well. As they went into the last lap Peterson led from Cevert and Hailwood, with Gethin back in fourth place. On that final lap Cevert made the mistake of leading at Lesmo, and "he who leads at Lesmo never wins the race."

Gethin made an incredible effort passing Peterson on the grass and arriving in the Parabolica really fast, wheels smoking, right between Peterson and Cevert. The Frenchman moved over in alarm and as they sprinted up to the finish it was Gethin by a short head from Peterson. Cevert was third just in front of Hailwood and Ganley. Chris Amon managed to hold on to sixth place without difficulty While Oliver and Fittipaldi followed him over the line. The first five cars were separated by 0.61 s! An incredible finish!

It was rather ironic that Peter Gethin's winning car was P160-01, Pedro Rodriguez's car with which he never scored a GP victory this year. The scenes following the presentation of the trophies were not as wild as last year when Regazzoni won but were nevertheless chaotic as always after the Italian Grand Prix, with the crowd invading the circuit despite the police cordons. There was a great party that night at the Serenissima where the Stanleys' entertaining was befitting BRM's second victory on the trot.