The 1972 German Grand Prix was the eighth race of the 1972 Formula One season, and was held at the Nürburgring on July 30. Jacky Ickx, in a Ferrari led the entire race from pole position, ahead of teammate Clay Regazzoni, with Ronnie Peterson in a March finishing third.
Background[]
After the major rebuild of the circuit between the 1969 and 1971 races, there had been no changes since then. German television was asking that teams with cigarette sponsorship blot out the sponsor's name on their cars. All complied except for BRM.
- Brabham: All three cars had slightly upgraded rear suspensions, and all three were sporting smoother rear wings.
- BRM: All four cars (the team had gone back to using a spare, instead of renting it out every chance they had) were upgraded to the modifications made to the car of Jean-Pierre Beltoise at Brands. But the team went into wholesale driver swapping, with Peter Gethin and Jackie Oliver out, and Howden Ganley and Reine Wisell in. Which was not helping morale. BRM refused to cover or alter their Marlboro sponsorship, saying they could not afford the loss of income.
- Connew: The entry for François Migault had been refused by the organizers, as they regarded him as insufficiently experienced for a grand prix at the track. The team showed up anyway, hoping that they could change the organizers' minds, but they eventually went home without running.
- Ferrari: Clay Regazzoni had returned, but with a plastic brace on his wrist. This did not seem to affect his driving, as some drivers described it as 'bad as ever'. Mario Andretti was at the USAC Pocono 500, so Arturo Merzario was given another drive, as a reward for his excellent sixth place at Brands Hatch.
- Lotus: Emerson Fittipaldi's car had radially drilled rear disk brakes (the first time that had been used in F1), and Dave Walker's car had an older oil cooler arrangement, to see if it would assist the car's handling. The team had painted over the words "John Player Special", and substituted "J.P.S.".
- Dave Charlton's team had painted over the words "Lucky Strike", but had managed to make the logos on the car even larger and more distinctive.
- March: The team had their original 721G (the test mule) along as a spare, but never used it.
- Eifelland Caravans had suffered a major fire at their manufacturing plant, and had been bought out by a parent company which saw no purpose in sponsoring an F1 car. So this was to be the last race for the Eifelland team.
- Matra: Chris Amon's MS120D had been repaired for the race.
- McLaren: Peter Revson was also at the USAC Pocono 500, so Brian Redman returned. He was in the original M19A, as the team had not finished repairing the M19C Redman had crashed in France.
- Surtees: No changes anywhere in the team.
- Tecno: The car had a new front suspension, designed by Ron Tauranac (who seemed to be freelancing for pretty much everyone except Brabham), but the team had not had time to test it at all. So the testing would be this weekend.
- Tyrrell: The team left the new 005 car at home, as it was discovered that there was a great deal of vibration in both the front suspension and inboard front brakes. It was hoped that the car would be ready by Austria.
- Williams: Frank Williams had been reduced in 'rank' to privateer again, as the team needed to devote enormous resources to repairing all of the crashed cars of Henri Pescarolo, and the Politoys needed major repairs after Pescarolo's latest accident. Pescarolo had his "old" March 721G back this weekend, but with a new monocoque, it was essentially a brand new car. Mechanics of other teams were heard speculating how long this one would last. Meanwhile, Carlos Pace just kept going faster and faster in the year-old car, and was under the watchful eye of the more established teams as a future star in the sport.
Entry list[]
The full entry list for the 1972 German Grand Prix is outlined below:
Practice Overview[]
Qualifying[]
Qualifying Results[]
Grid[]
Race[]
Results[]
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 |  Jacky Ickx
|
Ferrari | 14 | 1:42:12.3 | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | 9 |  Clay Regazzoni
|
Ferrari | 14 | +48.3 | 7 | 6 |
| 3 | 10 |  Ronnie Peterson
|
March-Ford | 14 | +1:06.7 | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | 17 |  Howden Ganley
|
BRM | 14 | +2:19.9 | 18 | 3 |
| 5 | 5 |  Brian Redman
|
McLaren-Ford | 14 | +2:35.7 | 19 | 2 |
| 6 | 11 | Graham Hill
|
Brabham-Ford | 14 | +2:59.6 | 15 | 1 |
| 7 | 26 |  Wilson Fittipaldi
|
Brabham-Ford | 14 | +3:00.1 | 21 | |
| 8 | 28 | Mike Beuttler
|
March-Ford | 14 | +5:10.7 | 27 | |
| 9 | 6 |  Jean-Pierre Beltoise
|
BRM | 14 | +5:20.2 | 13 | |
| 10 | 7 | François Cevert
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 14 | +5:53.7 | 5 | |
| 11 | 1 | Jackie Stewart
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 13 | Collision | 2 | |
| 12 | 19 |  Arturo Merzario
|
Ferrari | 13 | +1 Lap | 22 | |
| 13 | 16 | Andrea de Adamich
|
Surtees-Ford | 13 | +1 Lap | 20 | |
| 14 | 15 |  Tim Schenken
|
Surtees-Ford | 13 | +1 Lap | 12 | |
| 15 | 8 | Chris Amon
|
Matra | 13 | +1 Lap | 8 | |
| NC | 21 | Carlos Pace
|
March-Ford | 11 | +3 Laps | 11 | |
| Ret | 2 | Emerson Fittipaldi
|
Lotus-Ford | 10 | Gearbox | 3 | |
| Ret | 20 | Henri Pescarolo
|
March-Ford | 10 | Accident | 9 | |
| Ret | 3 | Denny Hulme
|
McLaren-Ford | 9 | Engine | 10 | |
| Ret | 14 | Mike Hailwood
|
Surtees-Ford | 8 | Suspension | 16 | |
| Ret | 12 |  Carlos Reutemann
|
Brabham-Ford | 7 | Transmission | 6 | |
| Ret | 22 |  Rolf Stommelen
|
March-Ford | 7 | Electrics | 14 | |
| Ret | 25 | Dave Walker
|
Lotus-Ford | 6 | Split oil tank | 23 | |
| Ret | 23 |  Niki Lauda
|
March-Ford | 4 | Oil leak | 24 | |
| Ret | 27 | Derek Bell
|
Tecno | 4 | Engine | 25 | |
| Ret | 29 |  Dave Charlton
|
Lotus-Ford | 4 | Driver ill | 26 | |
| Ret | 18 | Reine Wisell
|
BRM | 3 | Engine | 17 |
Milestones[]
- Final race for Eifelland Caravans
Standings after race[]
References[]
- Pritchard, Anthony (1973). The Motor Racing Year No4. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.. pp. 98-106. ISBN 0-393-08677-1.
| V T E | German Grand Prix
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|---|---|---|
| Circuits | Nürburgring (1951–1954, 1956–1958, 1960–1969, 1971–1976, 1985, 2008–2013*), AVUS (1926, 1959), Hockenheimring (1970, 1977–1984, 1986–2006, 2008–2014*, 2016, 2018–2019) |   |
| Races | 1950 • 1951 • 1952 • 1953 • 1954 • 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959 • 1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969 • 1970 • 1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 | |
| European Championship Races | 1932 • 1933–1934 • 1935 • 1936 • 1937 • 1938 • 1939 | |
| Non-Championship Races | 1926 • 1927 • 1928 • 1929 • 1930 • 1931 • 1932–1933 • 1934 | |
| * Nürburgring and Hockenheimring alternated between each other during these years. | ||
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