The 1972 Italian Grand Prix was the tenth race of the 1972 Formula One season, held on September 10 at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Championship leader Emerson Fittipaldi in a Lotus won the race to clinch his first world championship. Second place was Mike Hailwood in a Surtees, with Denny Hulme in a McLaren coming in third.
Background[]
Teams have long been critical of the 150 mph slipstreaming battles that Monza was known for, and this year the track attempted to remedy that. Two chicanes were added, completely transforming the nature of the circuit. The first change is coming out of the Parabolica, the cars were kept to the right side of the front straight, until just before the old banked turn, when the cars needed to make a slow left-right turn. A short escape road with a gate was for those who overshot their braking. The second change was at the old Ascari corner, where a gentle, sweeping lefthander was replaced by a tighter complex, going left-right-left around a new island. The changes added roughly fourteen seconds per lap, and caused a huge increase in brake usage.
- Brabham: All three cars had new rear wings, designed to provide downforce while minimizing drag.
- BRM: After a gap of several races, with a lot of refinements, BRM entered one of the {{BRM P180|P180s]] in the hands of Jean-Pierre Beltoise. Handling and aerodynamics were much improved. The team also entered P160Cs for Howden Ganley, Peter Gethin and Reine Wisell, but the drain on the resources by running four and five cars for so many races had taken its toll, as the BRM engines were now noticeably down on power to the competition.
- Ferrari: No changes to the cars, but Mario Andretti returned to drive a brand new chassis.
- Lotus: Colin Chapman had been assured by the organizers that there would be no further repercussions of the Jochen Rindt accident of two years earlier, but he was taking no chances. The team only entered one car (plus a spare) for Emerson Fittipaldi, under their alternate guise of World Wide Racing. Each car was shipped in a separate transporter, and the spare car transporter remained on the French side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel unless needed, to minimize the chances of cars and equipment being seized by Italian authorities. This actually worked to their advantage, as the primary transporter blew a tire, and crashed heavily on the Autostrada. Fittipaldi's primary race car suffered a fair amount of damage in the crash, so he ran the entire weekend using the spare car. It was later revealed that Dave Walker had been dropped from Lotus, after it was discovered that he had tested a Formula 2 car for another team (rumored to be Tecno).
- March: Niki Lauda's car had the full-width nose and twin front radiators seen in practice on the spare car at Austria.
- Matra: Chris Amon's primary car had an engine specially tuned for maximum power.
- Surtees: The team had unveiled a new car, the TS14, designed to meet the new 1973 regulations. John Surtees had all but officially retired from driving, but he entered himself to test the TS14 under race conditions. The other cars had no changes.
- Tecno: A great deal of hard work had enabled the team to complete a second car, for Nanni Galli. The new car was almost identical to the original one, but of a much neater appearance.
- Tyrrell: Testing discovered that the front suspension mounts were flexing in the 005 car, which was suspected of causing the handling gremlins of the last several races. Correcting that has also allowed the team to complete work on the new 006 model, now scheduled to be used by François Cevert in Canada. Cevert was still using 002 at Monza, and both 005 and 002 were sporting huge engine air boxes, with a triangular intake opening reaching several inches above the roll bar. Jackie Stewart also tried a first gear with a higher than normal ratio, thinking that it would help with acceleration out of the first chicane. He used that gear in the race, a decision that would cost him dearly.
- Williams: The Politoys had been repaired from Henri Pescarolo's Brands Hatch crash, but developed transmission problems in unofficial practice, and was withdrawn. His March 721 had been repaired from the crash in Austria, but he crashed again (nine crashes in the last eight races!) in unofficial practice, and the repairs were not good enough to allow him to qualify, so Pescarolo missed his second straight race.
Entry list[]
The full entry list for the 1972 Italian Grand Prix is outlined below:
Practice Overview[]
Qualifying[]
Qualifying Results[]
| Pos | No. | Driver | Constructor | Lap | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 |  Jacky Ickx
|
Ferrari | 1:35.65 | — |
| 2 | 20 |  Chris Amon
|
Matra | 1:35.69 | +0.04 |
| 3 | 1 |  Jackie Stewart
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 1:35.79 | +0.14 |
| 4 | 5 |  Clay Regazzoni
|
Ferrari | 1:35.83 | +0.18 |
| 5 | 14 | Denny Hulme
|
McLaren-Ford | 1:35.97 | +0.32 |
| 6 | 31 |  Emerson Fittipaldi
|
Lotus-Ford | 1:36.29 | +0.64 |
| 7 | 3 |  Mario Andretti
|
Ferrari | 1:36.32 | +0.67 |
| 8 | 15 | Peter Revson
|
McLaren-Ford | 1:36.42 | +0.77 |
| 9 | 10 | Mike Hailwood
|
Surtees-Ford | 1:36.50 | +0.85 |
| 10 | 9 |  Reine Wisell
|
BRM | 1:36.68 | +1.03 |
| 11 | 30 |  Carlos Reutemann
|
Brabham-Ford | 1:37.12 | +1.47 |
| 12 | 23 | Peter Gethin
|
BRM | 1:37.21 | +1.56 |
| 13 | 28 | Graham Hill
|
Brabham-Ford | 1:37.61 | +1.96 |
| 14 | 2 |  François Cevert
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 1:37.79 | +2.14 |
| 15 | 29 | Wilson Fittipaldi
|
Brabham-Ford | 1:37.82 | +2.17 |
| 16 | 21 | Jean-Pierre Beltoise
|
BRM | 1:37.82 | +2.17 |
| 17 | 22 | Howden Ganley
|
BRM | 1:37.91 | +2.26 |
| 18 | 26 | Carlos Pace
|
March-Ford | 1:37.98 | +2.33 |
| 19 | 7 | John Surtees
|
Surtees-Ford | 1:38.31 | +2.66 |
| 20 | 18 |  Niki Lauda
|
March-Ford | 1:38.52 | +2.87 |
| 21 | 9 |  Andrea de Adamich
|
Surtees-Ford | 1:38.60 | +2.95 |
| 22 | 8 |  Tim Schenken
|
Surtees-Ford | 1:38.61 | +2.96 |
| 23 | 11 | Nanni Galli
|
Tecno | 1:38.64 | +2.99 |
| 24 | 19 | Ronnie Peterson
|
March-Ford | 1:38.70 | +3.05 |
| 25 | 16 | Mike Beuttler
|
March-Ford | 1:39.73 | +4.08 |
| DNQ | 25 | Henri Pescarolo
|
March-Ford | 1:40.21 | +4.56 |
| DNQ | 12 | Derek Bell
|
Tecno | 1:42.07 | +6.42 |
Grid[]
Race[]
Results[]
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Emerson Fittipaldi
|
Lotus-Ford | 55 | 1:29:58.4 | 6 | 9 |
| 2 | 10 | Mike Hailwood
|
Surtees-Ford | 55 | +14.5 | 9 | 6 |
| 3 | 14 | Denny Hulme
|
McLaren-Ford | 55 | +23.8 | 5 | 4 |
| 4 | 15 | Peter Revson
|
McLaren-Ford | 55 | +35.7 | 8 | 3 |
| 5 | 28 | Graham Hill
|
Brabham-Ford | 55 | +1:05.6 | 13 | 2 |
| 6 | 23 | Peter Gethin
|
BRM | 55 | +1:21.9 | 12 | 1 |
| 7 | 3 | Mario Andretti
|
Ferrari | 54 | +1 Lap | 7 | |
| 8 | 21 | Jean-Pierre Beltoise
|
BRM | 54 | +1 Lap | 16 | |
| 9 | 19 | Ronnie Peterson
|
March-Ford | 54 | +1 Lap | 24 | |
| 10 | 16 | Mike Beuttler
|
March-Ford | 54 | +1 Lap | 25 | |
| 11 | 22 | Howden Ganley
|
BRM | 52 | +3 Laps | 17 | |
| 12 | 24 | Reine Wisell
|
BRM | 51 | +4 Laps | 10 | |
| 13 | 18 | Niki Lauda
|
March-Ford | 50 | +5 Laps | 20 | |
| Ret | 4 | Jacky Ickx
|
Ferrari | 46 | Electrics | 1 | |
| Ret | 20 | Chris Amon
|
Matra | 38 | Brakes | 2 | |
| Ret | 9 | Andrea de Adamich
|
Surtees-Ford | 34 | Drive shaft | 21 | |
| Ret | 8 | Tim Schenken
|
Surtees-Ford | 21 | Accident | 22 | |
| Ret | 29 | Wilson Fittipaldi
|
Brabham-Ford | 20 | Suspension | 15 | |
| Ret | 7 | John Surtees
|
Surtees-Ford | 20 | Fuel pressure | 19 | |
| Ret | 5 | Clay Regazzoni
|
Ferrari | 17 | Accident damage | 4 | |
| Ret | 26 | Carlos Pace
|
March-Ford | 16 | Accident | 18 | |
| Ret | 30 | Carlos Reutemann
|
Brabham-Ford | 15 | Suspension | 11 | |
| Ret | 2 | François Cevert
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 14 | Engine | 14 | |
| Ret | 11 | Nanni Galli
|
Tecno | 7 | Engine | 23 | |
| Ret | 1 | Jackie Stewart
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 0 | Clutch | 3 |
Milestones[]
- Final race for John Surtees.
Standings after race[]
References[]
- Pritchard, Anthony (1973). The Motor Racing Year No4. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.. pp. 113-120. ISBN 0-393-08677-1.
| V T E | Italian Grand Prix
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|---|---|---|
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