1971 United States Grand Prix Explained

Type:F1
Country:United States
Grand Prix:United States
Official Name:XIV United States Grand Prix
Year:1971
Location:Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course
Watkins Glen, New York
Course:Permanent road course
Course Mi:3.377
Course Km:5.435
Distance Laps:59
Distance Mi:199.24
Distance Km:320.67
Weather:Dry
Pole Driver: Jackie Stewart
Pole Team:Tyrrell-Ford
Pole Time:1:42.642
Fast Driver: Jacky Ickx
Fast Team:Ferrari
Fast Time:1:43.474
Fast Lap:43
First Driver: François Cevert
First Team:Tyrrell-Ford
Second Driver: Jo Siffert
Second Team:BRM
Third Driver: Ronnie Peterson
Third Team:March-Ford

The 1971 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 3, 1971, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was race 11 of 11 in both the 1971 World Championship of Drivers and the 1971 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.[1] The 59-lap race was won by Tyrrell driver François Cevert after he started from fifth position. Jo Siffert finished second for the BRM team and March driver Ronnie Peterson came in third.

Summary

Jackie Stewart's domination in 1971 clinched his second Driver's Championship with three races remaining, but the final round belonged to his Tyrrell teammate, François Cevert. The Frenchman took the lead from Stewart on lap 14 and went on to claim his only career win, the first GP victory for a French driver since Maurice Trintignant in 1958.

As usual, the American race attracted a large field of entrants, despite it being the last race of the year and both Championships having long been wrapped up. It seemed nearly every spare works F1 car and quite a few independents, as well, were present to try for a share of the $267,000 in prize money, easily the richest purse in F1. Unfortunately, the two most popular American drivers, Mario Andretti and Mark Donohue, who was fresh from a stunning third place finish in Canada in his Formula One debut in a Penske-White Racing entered McLaren were committed to drive on Sunday in a USAC race which had been rescheduled to the GP weekend after it had been called off on the previous weekend because of extremely heavy rain. The two drivers qualified, Andretti in a Ferrari and Donohue in a Penske-White Racing entered McLaren shared with David Hobbs, hoping for more rain in New Jersey and the chance to return for the race on Sunday.

Since the previous year's race, the course had been resurfaced, widened and, most significantly, lengthened by a mile to 3.377 miles with an entirely new section at the southwest corner called the "Boot" or "Anvil". The pits were also moved from the north end straight back before the right angle turn known as "The 90," which now became Turn One.

Friday was sunny and hot (105F), and Stewart jumped immediately to the top of the charts with a time of 1:42.844, as the times were recorded to a thousandth of a second for the first time. On Saturday, with the temperature now 110° and both Goodyear's and Firestone's qualifying tires breaking down after a few laps, Emerson Fittipaldi pipped Stewart's time from the day before, but the Scot returned to the track and grabbed the pole by .017 of a second. Denny Hulme joined them on the front row in his McLaren, followed by Clay Regazzoni's Ferrari, Cevert and the soon-to-be-absent Andretti. American Peter Revson qualified nineteenth in the third Tyrrell. It was his only race for Tyrrell and his first Grand Prix since 1964.

Race

Sunday was dry in both upstate New York and Trenton, New Jersey, and word came that the USAC race would go on meaning that both Andretti and Donohue would be unable to start the race with Hobbs substituting for Donohue in the Penske-White Racing entered McLaren dismaying both the crowd and the organizers, who were robbed of seeing two of the country's best road racers. At the start, Denny Hulme jumped into the lead, ahead of Cevert and Stewart, but by the end of the first lap, Stewart led Hulme, Cevert, Regazzoni, Jo Siffert, Jacky Ickx, Chris Amon and Fittipaldi.

At first, Stewart was able to open a gap back to the following group, now headed by his teammate, but after ten laps, his tires began to go off and the gap closed. The Scot realized that Cevert's Goodyears were holding up much better in the heat, and when Cevert closed up right behind him, he waved him by on lap 14. Hulme was now struggling with a terrible vibration in his tires and was passed, first by Ickx, then Regazzoni and Siffert. On lap 15, American Sam Posey, in his first Grand Prix, retired from a fine run with a blown piston in his Surtees. By the time Ickx could get around Stewart on lap 17, Cevert's lead was 5.7 seconds.

At about half-distance, Cevert finally began to struggle with the same understeer that had plagued Stewart much earlier. Ickx was closing, and his Firestones were getting better as the race went on. On lap 43, the Belgian set the fastest lap of the race, and the gap was down to 2.2 seconds. Then, on lap 49, the Ferrari's alternator fell off, punching a hole in the gearbox and spilling oil all over the track! Hulme hit the oil and spun into the barrier, bending his front suspension. He was standing beside the track when Cevert came by and also hit the barrier, but kept going, now 29 seconds in the lead!

Jo Siffert was now in second place and 33 seconds clear of Ronnie Peterson. With four laps to go, however, Siffert began to run low on fuel. The Swede took huge chunks off the gap as Siffert jerked the BRM from side to side, trying to use every remaining drop of fuel. Cevert coasted home, taking both hands off the wheel to wave as he crossed the line, and Siffert weaved his way around to hold second place by four seconds over Peterson's March.

After taking the checkered flag, Cevert gave a nod to his teammate. "I feel pretty good with a $50,000 win. I followed Stewart in the beginning and was flagged on ahead. Jackie Stewart is a very sensible driver and a very good teacher. He let me go through." While it was the first race on the expanded Watkins Glen track, it was the third year in a row that The Glen had rewarded a driver with his first career victory. This was Cevert’s only victory in Formula One.

Qualifying

Qualifying classification

Pos.No.DriverConstructorTimeGrid
18 Jackie StewartTyrrell-Ford1:42.6421
22 Emerson FittipaldiLotus-Ford1:42.6592
37 Denny HulmeMcLaren-Ford1:42.9253
45 Clay RegazzoniFerrari1:43.0024
59 François CevertTyrrell-Ford1:43.1525
66 Mario AndrettiFerrari1:43.195DNS
714 Jo SiffertBRM1:43.4686
832 Jacky IckxFerrari1:43.8437
911 Chris AmonMatra1:43.9708
103 Reine WisellLotus-Ford1:44.0249
1112 Jean-Pierre BeltoiseMatra1:44.06710
1225 Ronnie PetersonMarch-Ford1:44.19311
1316 Howden GanleyBRM1:44.43012
1418 John SurteesSurtees-Ford1:44.90813
1520 Mike HailwoodSurtees-Ford1:45.09414
1623 Tim SchenkenBrabham-Ford1:45.11015
1717 Helmut MarkoBRM1:45.20416
1819 Sam PoseySurtees-Ford1:45.26717
1931 Mark DonohueMcLaren-Ford1:45.378DNS
2022 Graham HillBrabham-Ford1:45.44818
2110 Peter RevsonTyrrell-Ford1:45.51519
2221 Henri PescaroloMarch-Ford1:45.56820
2315 Peter GethinBRM1:45.72921
2431 David HobbsMcLaren-Ford1:46.27022
2526 Nanni GalliMarch-Ford1:46.60823
2628 John CannonBRM1:47.47124
2733 Skip BarberMarch-Ford1:47.67325
2827 Andrea de AdamichMarch-Alfa Romeo1:47.95226
2919 Gijs van LennepSurtees-Ford1:48.029DNS
3024 Chris CraftBrabham-Ford1:48.69827
3129 Jo BonnierMcLaren-Ford1:49.39128
3230 Pete LovelyLotus-Ford1:52.14029

Race

Classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
19 François CevertTyrrell-Ford591:43:51.99159
214 Jo SiffertBRM59+ 40.06266
325 Ronnie PetersonMarch-Ford59+ 44.070114
416 Howden GanleyBRM59+ 56.749123
58 Jackie StewartTyrrell-Ford59+ 1:00.00312
65 Clay RegazzoniFerrari59+ 1:16.42641
722 Graham HillBrabham-Ford58+ 1 Lap18 
812 Jean-Pierre BeltoiseMatra58+ 1 Lap10 
915 Peter GethinBRM58+ 1 Lap21 
1031 David HobbsMcLaren-Ford58+ 1 Lap22 
1127 Andrea de AdamichMarch-Alfa Romeo57+ 2 Laps26 
1211 Chris AmonMatra57+ 2 Laps8 
1317 Helmut MarkoBRM57+ 2 Laps16 
1428 John CannonBRM56+ 3 Laps24 
1520 Mike HailwoodSurtees-Ford54Accident14 
1629 Jo BonnierMcLaren-Ford54Out of fuel28 
1718 John SurteesSurtees-Ford54+ 5 Laps13 
NC33 Skip BarberMarch-Ford52Not classified25 
NC2 Emerson FittipaldiLotus-Ford49Not classified2 
NC30 Pete LovelyLotus-Ford49Not classified29 
Ret32 Jacky IckxFerrari49Alternator7 
Ret7 Denny HulmeMcLaren-Ford47Accident3 
Ret23 Tim SchenkenBrabham-Ford41Engine15 
Ret24 Chris CraftBrabham-Ford30Suspension27 
Ret19 Sam PoseySurtees-Ford15Piston17 
Ret21 Henri PescaroloMarch-Ford23Engine20 
Ret26 Nanni GalliMarch-Ford11Wheel23 
Ret3 Reine WisellLotus-Ford5Brakes9 
Ret10 Peter RevsonTyrrell-Ford1Clutch19 
DNS6 Mario AndrettiFerrari Non-starter  
DNS19 Gijs van LennepSurtees-Ford Driven by Posey  
DNS31 Mark DonohueMcLaren-Ford Driven by Hobbs  

Notes

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
PosDriverPoints
1 Jackie Stewart62
2 Ronnie Peterson33
13 François Cevert26
14 Jacky Ickx19
15 Jo Siffert19
Source:[2]
Constructors' Championship standings
PosConstructorPoints
1 Tyrrell-Ford73
12 BRM36
13 Ferrari33
4 March-Ford33 (34)
5 Lotus-Ford21
Source:

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 1971 United States Grand Prix Entry list.
  2. Web site: United States 1971 - Championship • STATS F1. www.statsf1.com. March 21, 2019.