Argentine GP 1975

Argentine GP, 1975

There were not many changes in the winter of 1974-75. Yardley withdrew and so McLaren concentrated it efforts on the two Marlboro cars. John Mass was taken on to replace the retired Denny Hulme. The Tyrrell, Lotus, Ferrari, Brabham, Shadow, Hesketh and Hill teams remained with the same drivers. Brabham landed sponsorship from Martini while Hill began to build his own cars his team having developed the Lola to such an extent that it ceased to be a Lola. Frank Williams finally began to race cars under his own name, having ended the relationship with Iso because the Italians had not paid. He retained Arturo Merzario and Jacques Laffite. March announced that it was not going to continue but then changed its mind and entered Vittorio Brambilla with backing from Beta. There were big chances at BRM following financial problems with Sir Alfred Owen's Rubery Owen company. The team was renamed Stanley BRM after Louis Stanley (who was married to Owen's sister Jean) and most of the existing management departed. Tim Parnell giving up as team manager and designer Mike Pilbeam moving on. Only one car was entered and, in an effort to drum up British support the car were painted red, white and blue and was driven by Mike Wilds. Surtees also reduced its involvement to one car (with support from Matchbox Toys) and hired John Watson to drive, Hexagon of Highgate having closed down its F1 operation. Penske and Parnelli both became full-time F1 teams with drivers Mario Andretti and Mark Donohue while Wilson Fittipaldi began campaigning the Fittipaldi chassis, designed by Richard Divila and supported by Copersucar.

Helping to level the playing field, Firestone announced that it was withdrawing from F1 and so Goodyear ended up with a virtual monopoly (although Parnelli did run Firestones briefly in the course of the year).

The big news in qualifying in Buenos Aires was the pace of the new Shadow DN5 with which Jean-Pierre Jarier took pole position by nearly half a second, beating Brabham's Carlos Pace. The second row featured Carlos Reutemann in the other Brabham and Niki Lauda in the Ferrari. Then came World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi (McLaren), James Hunt (Hesketh), Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari) and Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell). The top 10 was completed by Jody Scheckter (Tyrrell) and Andretti. The Lotuses were not very competitive with Ronnie Peterson 11th and Jacky Ickx 18th.

On the final parade lap Jarier's transmission failed and so the race started with the pole position man and this enabled Reutemann to jump ahead of his team mate Pace at the start, to the delight of the crowd. At the first corner Mass and Scheckter collided and both cars ended up in the pits. Lauda ran third with Hunt right behind him and on lap eight the Hesketh finally overtook the Ferrari and chased after the two Brabhams.

There was some excitement when the new Fittipaldi spun out of control, crashed into a barrier and caught fire. Wilson Fittipaldi was able to get out but the car was destroyed in the blaze. While this was happening Pace took the lead but then spun near the scene of the accident and dropped to seventh place. Hunt closed gradually up on Reutemann and on lap 26 he took the lead. As Hunt closed in on Reutemann Fittipaldi (E) moved ahead of Lauda to run third and he was soon past Reutemann as well and closing on the leader. On lap 35 the McLaren went ahead.

The order remained unchanged at the front with Fittipaldi winning from Hunt and Reutemann. Pace was fourth until he suffered engine failure and so the place went to Regazzoni with Depailler fifth and Lauda sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 1 Emerson Fittipaldi McLaren-Cosworth M23 53 1h39m26.290s  5 
2 24 James Hunt Hesketh-Cosworth 308 53 1h39m32.200s  6 
3 7 Carlos Reutemann Brabham-Cosworth BT44B 53 1h39m43.350s  3 
4 11 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 312B3 53 1h40m02.080s  7 
5 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Cosworth 007 53 1h40m20.540s  8 
6 12 Niki Lauda Ferrari 312B3 53 1h40m45.940s  4 
7 28 Mark Donohue Penske-Cosworth PC1 52  16 
8 6 Jacky Ickx Lotus-Cosworth 72E 52  18 
9 9 Vittorio Brambilla March-Cosworth 741 52  12 
10 22 Graham Hill Lola-Cosworth T370 52  21 
11 3 Jody Scheckter Tyrrell-Cosworth 007 52  9 
12r 16 Tom Pryce Shadow-Cosworth DN3B 51 Transmission 14 
13 23 Rolf Stommelen Lola-Cosworth T370 51  19 
14 2 Jochen Mass McLaren-Cosworth M23 50  13 
r 8 Carlos Pace Brabham-Cosworth BT44B 46 Engine 2 
nc 20 Arturo Merzario Williams-Cosworth FW 44  20 
r 27 Mario Andretti Parnelli-Cosworth VPJ4 27 Cv Joint 10 
r 14 Mike Wilds BRM P201 24 Mechanical 22 
r 5 Ronnie Peterson Lotus-Cosworth 72E 15 Gearbox 11 
r 21 Jacques Laffite Williams-Cosworth FW 15 Gearbox 17 
r 30 Wilson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Cosworth FD01 12 Accident 23 
dq 18 John Watson Surtees-Cosworth TS16 6 Repair Outside Pits 15 
ns 17 Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow-Cosworth DN5  Transmission 1