Anderstorp. Yune 9th.
There were a few changes on the driver scene for the Swedish Grand Prix as drivers retired hurt, just retired or were busy doing something else. Arturo Merzario had broken a finger in an accident during the sports car race at Imola, the week before the Swedish event, so his place in the Frank Williams team was taken by Richard Robarts. In the March team Reine Wisell took the place of Hans-Joachim Stuck, as the forceful young German was competing in a Formula Two race at Hockenheim, having his sights set on winning the European Championship, and in the UOP-Shadow team Bertil Roos took over the place vacated by Brian Redman, the Lancastrian deciding that the rat-race of Formula One was not his way of living. Roos is a Swede who lives for the most part in America and does a lot of racing there in European-type National racing. With the total entry limited the BRM team decided not to be greedy with a three-car team, and dropped Francois Migault for this event. The organisers agreed to take 27 drivers for practice, the fastest 25 to take part in the race, though there was a clause in the supplementary regulations that allowed them to take the extra two drivers onto the starting grid if they should be Scandinavians! With advice from the Formula One Constructors Association the 27 drivers did not include Chris Amon, Tim Schenken and some newcomers, the exclusion of Ron Tauranac’s Trojan for Tim Schenken coming as a surprise to quite a few. On the mechanical front the scene was pretty stable, most of the crashed cars from Monaco having been repaired or completely rebuilt or even replaced. Team I.otus had the same formula as for Monaco, with Peterson on 72/R8 and Ickx on 72/R5, with this time the Lotus 76 number JPS/9 for Peterson to try as a spare car. The Tyrrell team of Scheckter and Depailler had the two t 974 cars, as raced previously, with Tyrrell 006/2 as a spare, though it was never used. The McLaren outfit had nearly a full set of M23 models, Hailwood having his usual pair, M23/t and M23/7 for the Yardley side of things, and Fittipaldi and I Mine having M23/5, M23/6 and M23/4 to race in Texaco-Marlboro colours, while on a trailer as advertising material was M23/2. Reutemann and von Opel had the usual three Brabham BT.44 models between them, and John Watson had BT42/2 for the Hexagon racing team. The March that Stuck crashed so extensively at Monaco was virtually scrapped and a new one built around the same identification plate: so that we can justifiably call it 741/1-2, in the same way that Brambilla’s car is 741/2-2 after being written-off in Spain earlier in the season. The Ferrari team’s neat arrangement of ringing the changes on their five cars was spoilt by Lauda at Monaco when he crumpled 015 in practice, and raced 010, so 015 was rebuilt for him to use in Sweden, 010 was given a rest, 012 was the spare car for this race and Regazzoni had on as planned. The two-car BRM team of Beltoise and Pescarolo comprised the two 1974 cars, the former having P201/01 and the latter having P201/02, it now having its front brakes mounted in the normal position of “inboard” for this model of BRM. The Swedish import to the Shadow team took over Redman’s car, while Jarier had his usual car, in long-wheelbase form, and the new and as yet unraccd car as a spare.
Tearn Surtees were not in the best of spirits, both drivers thinking it was time they started winning races, and were even unhappier than usual as John Surtees was not there for them to moan at. As mentioned, Robarts was acting as stand-in for Merzario, and his team-mate was the Danish driver Tom Heise. With time being short the Ensign team, backed by Theodore Racing of Hong Kong, brought along the 1973 car for Schuppan to drive, rather than hurriedly prepare the car used at Monaco, and Graham Hill and his young apprentice-driver Edwards, had the pair of Embassy-backed Lola cars that they had raced at Monaco, both looking immaculate and as if brand new, the cars that is, not the drivers. Hunt was driving his lordship’s Hesketh 308/2 and to complete the list there Was The Flying Finn, Leo Kinnunen with the prototype TS16 Surtees, carrying more Scandinavian advertising than seemed reasonable for its potential.
