1968 Formula One season

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1968 FIA Formula One World Championship season
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Index: Races by country | Races by season

The 1968 Formula One season was the 19th FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on January 1, 1968, and ended on November 3 after twelve races.

Contents

[edit] Season summary

Although they had failed to win the title in 1967, by the end of the season the Lotus 49 and the DFV engine were mature enough to make the Lotus team dominant again. For 1968 Lotus lost its exclusive right to use the DFV. McLaren built a new DFV-powered car and a new force appeared on the scene when Ken Tyrrell entered his own team using a Cosworth-powered cars built by French aeronautics company Matra and driven by ex-BRM driver Jackie Stewart.

Unsurprisingly the season-opening 1968 South African Grand Prix confirmed Lotus' superiority, with Jim Clark and Graham Hill finishing 1–2. It would be Clark's last win. On 7 April 1968 Clark, one of the most successful and popular drivers of all time, was killed at Hockenheim in a non-championship Formula Two event.

The season saw two significant innovations. The first was the arrival of unrestricted sponsorship, which the FIA decided to permit that year after the withdrawal of support from automobile related firms like BP, Shell and Firestone. In May the Lotus Formula One team appeared at Jarama in the Red, Gold and White colors of Imperial Tobacco's Gold Leaf brand. The second innovation was the introduction of wings as seen previously on various cars including the Chaparral sports car. Colin Chapman introduced modest front wings and a spoiler on Graham Hill's Lotus 49B at Monaco. Brabham and Ferrari went one better at the Belgian Grand Prix with full width wings mounted on struts high above the driver. Lotus replied with a full width wing directly connected to the rear suspension that required a redesign of suspension wishbones and transmission shafts. Matra then produced a high mounted front wing connected to the front suspension. This last innovation was mostly used during practice as it required a lot of effort from the driver. By the end of the season most teams were using sophisticated wings.

Despite the death of Jim Clark, Lotus won both titles in 1968 with Graham Hill, but Stewart was a serious contender, winning several Grands Prix in the Tyrrell-run Matra MS10. Stewart's winning drive during the rain and fog of the 1968 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, where he won by a margin of four minutes, is considered as one of the finest ever, even though his rain tires were probably better than those of the competition. The car's most innovative feature was the use of aviation-inspired structural fuel tanks. These allowed the chassis to be around 15kg lighter, while still being stronger than its competitors. The FIA considered the technology to be unsafe and decided to ban it for 1970, insisting on rubber bag-tanks (Which meant the effective end of spaceframe chassis in F1). Safety became a major issue in Formula One.

McLaren fielded a pair of Cosworth powered M7s for reigning Formula One World Champion Denny Hulme and team founder Bruce McLaren. McLaren won the non-championship Brands Hatch Race of Champions, then the Belgian Grand Prix was the scene of the team's first Championship win. In doing so, McLaren became only the third driver to win a race in a car manufactured by his own team - Jack Brabham having done it in 1966 and Dan Gurney in 1967 at Spa Francorchamps. Hulme won the Italian Grand Prix and Canadian Grand Prix later in the year.

Repco produced a more powerful version of their V8 to maintain competitiveness against Ford's new Cosworth DFV, but it proved very unreliable. The Brabhams were fast — Rindt set pole position twice during the season — but Brabham and Rindt finished only three races between them, and ended the year having scored just ten points.[1]

[edit] Season review

Rnd Race Date Location Winning driver Constructor Report
1 Flag of South Africa South African Grand Prix January 1 Kyalami Flag of United Kingdom Jim Clark Flag of United Kingdom Lotus-Ford Report
2 Flag of Spain Spanish Grand Prix May 12 Jarama Flag of United Kingdom Graham Hill Flag of United Kingdom Lotus-Ford Report
3 Flag of Monaco Monaco Grand Prix May 26 Monaco Flag of United Kingdom Graham Hill Flag of United Kingdom Lotus-Ford Report
4 Flag of Belgium Belgian Grand Prix June 9 Spa-Francorchamps Flag of New Zealand Bruce McLaren Flag of United Kingdom McLaren-Ford Report
5 Flag of Netherlands Dutch Grand Prix June 23 Zandvoort Flag of United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Flag of France Matra-Ford Report
6 Flag of France French Grand Prix July 7 Rouen-Les-Essarts Flag of Belgium Jacky Ickx Flag of Italy Ferrari Report
7 Flag of United Kingdom British Grand Prix July 20 Brands Hatch Flag of Switzerland Jo Siffert Flag of United Kingdom Lotus-Ford Report
8 Flag of Germany German Grand Prix August 4 Nürburgring Flag of United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Flag of France Matra-Ford Report
9 Flag of Italy Italian Grand Prix September 8 Monza Flag of New Zealand Denny Hulme Flag of United Kingdom McLaren-Ford Report
10 Flag of Canada Canadian Grand Prix September 22 Mont-Tremblant Flag of New Zealand Denny Hulme Flag of United Kingdom McLaren-Ford Report
11 Flag of United States United States Grand Prix October 6 Watkins Glen Flag of United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Flag of France Matra-Ford Report
12 Flag of Mexico Mexican Grand Prix November 3 Hermanos Rodriguez Flag of United Kingdom Graham Hill Flag of United Kingdom Lotus-Ford Report

[edit] 1968 Constructors Championship final standings

Place Constructor Chassis Engine Tyre Points Wins Podiums Poles
1 Flag of United Kingdom Lotus-Ford 49
49B
Ford Cosworth DFV 75 5 9 5
2 Flag of United Kingdom McLaren-Ford M7A Ford Cosworth DFV 56 3 6
3 Flag of France Matra-Ford MS7
MS9
MS10
Ford Cosworth DFV 45 3 5
4 Flag of Italy Ferrari 312 Ferrari 242C 37 1 5 4
5 Flag of United Kingdom BRM P115
P126
P133
P138
BRM P142 28 4
6 Flag of United Kingdom Cooper-BRM T86B BRM P142 20 2
7 Flag of Japan Honda RA300
RA301
Honda RA273E
Honda RA301E
14 2 1
8 Flag of United Kingdom Brabham-Repco BT24
BT26
Repco 740
Repco 860
12 2 2
9 Flag of France Matra MS11 Matra MS68 8 1
10 Flag of United Kingdom McLaren-BRM M5A BRM P142 3
11 Flag of South Africa LDS-Repco Mk3B Repco 620
12 Flag of United States Eagle-Weslake T1G Gurney-Weslake 58
13 Flag of United Kingdom Cooper-Maserati T81B Maserati Tipo 10/F1
14 Flag of United Kingdom Cooper-Climax T79 Climax FPF
15 Flag of United Kingdom Brabham-Climax BT11 Climax FPF
16 Flag of United Kingdom Lola-BMW T102 BMW M12/3

[edit] 1968 Drivers Championship final standings

Place Driver Number Country Points Wins Podiums Poles
1 Graham Hill 10 Britain 48 3 6 2
2 Jackie Stewart 15 Britain 36 3 4
3 Denny Hulme 1 New Zealand 33 2 3
4 Jacky Ickx 7 Belgium 27 1 4 1
5 Bruce McLaren 2 New Zealand 22 1 3
6 Pedro Rodríguez 8 Mexico 18 3
7 John Surtees 5 Britain 12 2 1
8 Jo Siffert 16 Switzerland 12 1 1 1
9 Jean-Pierre Beltoise 21 France 11 1
10 Chris Amon 6 New Zealand 10 1 3
11 Jim Clark 4 Britain 9 1 1 1
12 Jochen Rindt 4 Austria 8 2 2
13 Johnny Servoz-Gavin 23 France 6 1
14 Richard Attwood 11 Britain 6 1
15 Jackie Oliver 11 Britain 6 1
16 Ludovico Scarfiotti 6 Italy 6
17 Lucien Bianchi 19 Belgium 5 1
18 Vic Elford 18 Britain 5
19 Piers Courage 22 Britain 4
20 Brian Redman 16 Britain 4 1
21 Jo Bonnier 17 Sweden 3
22 Dan Gurney 14 USA 3
23 Jack Brabham 3 Australia 2
24 Silvio Moser 19 Switzerland 2
25 Andrea de Adamich 10 Italy
26 Jackie Pretorius 23 South Africa
27 Robin Widdows 16 Britain
28 Basil van Rooyen 25 South Africa
29 Sam Tingle 18 Zimbabwe
30 Bill Brack 27 Canada
31 Bobby Unser 9 USA
32 Moises Solana 12 Mexico
33 Mike Spence 12 Britain
34 Henri Pescarolo 9 France
35 Kurt Ahrens 17 Germany
36 Dave Charlton 22 South Africa
37 David Hobbs 15 Britain
38 John Love 17 Rhodesia
39 Derek Bell 7 Britain
40 Frank Gardner 28 Australia
41 Mario Andretti 12 USA 1
42 Hubert Hahne 18 Germany
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