Notes on the cars at Paul Ricard

Team Lotus were in full strength with their four black and gold Lotus 72 John Player sponsored cars, with R5 and R7 for Fittipaldi and R6 and R8 for Peterson. All four cars had the rear aerofoil mounted some ten inches further back than normal in an endeavour to get it into less turbulent air, thus making it as effective on down-thrust with less incidence and less drag. The hope was to gain speed on the straight without losing adhesion on the corners. For a change Fittipaldi had R5 as his number one car and R7 as his spare, and he raced the former, while Peterson raced R6. The Ferrari team arrived with three cars, all to the same pattern, with 010 and 011 for Ickx and a brand new one, 012 for Merzario. In practice lckx spun off in 010 and bent the rear aerofoil, so parts were taken off 011 to put it straight and he carried on using the earlier car for practice and in the race as well. After the Saturday morning practice 010 was torn completely apart as the fibre-glass cladding under the monocoque was coming adrift. During the lunch hour the monocoque was standing on its side while three Ferrari mechanics sat quietly, with their hands pressing new and damp fibre-glass onto the monocoque, waiting for it to set. By the time afternoon practice began the car was all assembled again and Ickx continued to practice.

All three 1973 model Tyrrells were in standard form, with front-mounted water radiators, Cevert as usual being in 006, while Stewart raced 006/2 and practised with 005 briefly on the first day. When Stewart started up the Cosworth V8 engine in 006/2 it made a distinctly different sound, which was seen to be due to megaphone exhaust pipe ends, and presumably different cams and timing to go with them.

The M23 McLarens in their always smart Yardley colours were scintillating in the bright sunshine, as were the team personnel in their blue and orange uniforms. All three M23 cars were on hand, Hulme with 23/1, Scheckter with 23/3 and Revson’s normal car 23/2 being used as a spare for both drivers. The Brabham transporter travelled down from Sweden without returning to base and as Wilson Fittipaldi’s car was a bit bent after his off-road excursion at Anderstorp, he took over the brand new car, BT42/4, that had been in the transporter in Sweden. Reutemann had BT42/3 as usual, and de Adamich the 1972 BT37/2.

Graham Hill’s red and white Embassy-sponsored Shadow seems to improve at every outing, and was giving more satisfaction and speed, although bits were still falling off. In practice the air-intake for the engine came adrift, as did one of the side-plates on the rear aerofoil, while in the race, in the closing laps the mounting of the aerofoil broke and it lay flat, but did not actually fall off. This gave Hill an extra 250 r.p.m. down the straight at the expense of poor cornering, but was useful when Beltoise passed him on the last lap before the straight. He was able to repass on the straight with superior speed, and get into the “Mickey Mouse” section first, and stay ahead to the finish. The works UOP-sponsored Shadows were as used in Sweden, Follmer’s “crinkled” monocoque being cut about and straightened, but both cars and drivers seem to have come to a stop as far as progress is concerned. After the race, when Follmer’s car was retrieved it was found to have only 40 lb./sq. in. fuel pressure for the injection system, instead of the required 120 lb./sq. in. The pressure-relief valve was replaced and the engine sounded completely healthy once more.

Jarier’s works March 721G/4 was using a Cosworth V8 engine that just seemed to want to go on and on with complete reliability. It seemed so healthy that it was used for all the practice and the race, but everyone expected it to blow sky-high. No-one thought that a constant-velocity joint on a drive-shaft would break, and so early in the race. The Hesketh March was using a new air-intake box for its Cosworth engine, with a very tall thin rectangular opening giving good collecting properties with a narrow frontal area producing less air disturbance over the rear aerofoil than some other air-collector boxes. Beuttler’s March was as used in Sweden with its new oil tank at the rear, and was driven by Wisell. The BRM team were unchanged from Sweden, but had P160/05 as a spare car for Regazzoni or Lauda, it being difficult for Beltoise to fit into the car. Regazzoni’s car, P160/07, started practice with a new design of rear aerofoil that had thick end plates, but it was not retained for the later practice and the race. During practice the team had more than its fair share of engine trouble.

There was an air of despondency in the Surtees team for nothing seemed to be going right and Pace arid Hailwood were looking very gloomy, while John Surtees was so busy and overworked that there was never any sign of him taking up the entry that was made for him with the spare car. Hailwood was driving TS14A/04 as usual, and Pace practised 03 and 05, using the former for the race.

The brand new Ensign driven by von Opel was looking smart and unusual with its all-enveloping bodywork and long tail fins. The basis of the car is an aluminium monocoque with a Cosworth V8 bolted to the rear. Front suspension is by wide-base double wishbones of tubular construction, the lower one operating a coil spring/damper unit and the whole assembly is carried on a square-tube frame attached to the front of the monocoque. At the rear a fabricated bridge piece straddles the Hewland gearbox and supports coil spring/damper units, while the wheels are located by parallel lower links, single upper links, and twin radius rods in a conventional pattern. The water radiator is at the front and the oil radiators on the sides of the cockpit. Proprietary brakes are carried on the hubs at the front and on the gearbox at the rear in a conventional manner, dictated by Messrs. Girling and Hewland. As the sponsor for the car is the driver the car was painted green with yellow lining, there being no outside interests at the moment. The name Ensign is derived from N for Nunn, sign and as Maurice Nunn comes from Walsall one can only imagine what sort of a sign a Nunn sign is!

While those with new cars were happy and those with old cars were making the most of it, there was one unhappy driver at the first practice, this being Chris Amon, for whom a Tecno had been entered. He had neither a new car nor an old car, for there had been a political/financial wrangle in the Bologna firm and Pederzania had slammed the factory doors and told everyone to get out, including the Martini people who were putting up the money. In the factory were the McCall-designed Tecno that ran at Monaco and Zolder and the brand new Fowell-designed car that was all ready to go, but had not been run. The whole affair was very fraught and had seemed to have reached a deadlock, with no hope of either car arriving for Amon to drive, so he left the circuit and returned to England.

Frank Williams’ Iso-Marlboro team took Pescarolo back to replace Nanni Galli, who withdrew from racing just before the Swedish race, and the bearded Frenchman took over IR/01, which was using a front radiator and cut-away monocoque sides, while Ganley was driving IR/02 using the original side mountings for twin radiators.—D.S.J.