#295 1977 United States Grand Prix

Ian Ashley, who still carries the Godfrey Belton flag on his 308 E/2, qualifies for the first time thanks to a time of 1'45"100. The two Heskeths flank Ian Scheckter's March 771/2, which the South African driver damages during Saturday's unscheduled morning session, leaving to the Bicester mechanics a lot of work to do to prepare the car before the race. The last two rows of the grid are made up of the official March 761B from Ribeiro, Nève, Binder and the Penske of the newcomer Ongais, who on Friday is forced to face problems with the power supply system and plugs. After the unscheduled session on Saturday morning, the last hour is lost due to the deluge, but it is worth remembering that Jones bravely sets the fastest lap in 2'07"127, with an average speed of over 150 Km/h. Really impressive in absolutely difficult conditions. Stuck places in second place with a time of 2'07"750, while the rest of the group, led by Peterson's Tyrrell, is at least five seconds slower. Those who expected a response from Ferrari and Lotus to James Hunt's exploit with McLaren on the first day of testing for the United States Grand Prix were disappointed. The rain, transforming the Watkins Glen circuit into a semi-flooded track, ruined hopes and ambitions. On the slimy asphalt nobody could improve, and therefore the starting grid is the one defined after the first two and a half hours of training: Hunt and Hans Stuck in the front row (for the German it’s the first time), Carlos Reutemann in third and Niki Lauda in fourth. This is not to be exalted, but on the other hand Jody Scheckter, the only one who in theory could steal the title from the Austrian, is behind him. Lauda regrets that he had to close the practices in advance.

"The engine of my Ferrari gave out just as the car was up to speed and I could attempt a lunge. A real shame, because I could have set a better time and started in a more advanced position".

What will be the behavior of the Austrian driver in the Grand Prix?

"Simple, I'll settle on Scheckter. For me the most important thing here is to get to the finish line before him".

It had rained all night and this morning the organizers were forced to postpone the start of the practices for half an hour. It was necessary to clean the runway from the soil brought by the water and eliminate some flaws. During the first session, which wasn’t timed, there were some accidents with no consequences for the drivers. Shortly after the start the engine of the Ensign driven by the young Frenchman Tarnbay collapsed; the spilled oil smeared a long stretch of asphalt, making it necessary for the marshals to intervene on the track. The unforeseen caused a further twenty minute outage. Soon after Ian Scheckter went off the road and ruined the front of his March. The rain stopped falling shortly before the start of the tests and the technicians mounted the dry tires on the cars but, after a few laps, thick droplets made the track slimy again. Numerous spins, especially at the exit of the difficult downhill curve at the end of the straight in front of the pits. Andretti, at this juncture, was the fastest with his Lotus. In the one hour of timed practice it was still raining. The fastest,by the way, was Alan Jones, with the Shadow, in 2'07"31, who preceded Stuck (2'07"75). Twenty-six drivers are admitted to the race. Only one excluded (unless the same is started): Tambay. The Frenchman, who had broken an engine on Friday, has another engine failure today. Bad luck record. In the afternoon, after having meditated on it, Lauda communicated to the manager of Ferrari, engineer Roberto Nosetto, that if it rains again tomorrow as today he won’t race. The Austrian has stated that he will risk a maximum of sixty percent. If the risk could be higher, it won’t take to the track, repeating, in an almost analogous way, the no of Japan from last year. Nonetheless, it now seems logical that the games are over. In the Circus everyone lives already projected in 1978, a year of new challenges and ardent revenge, although, in reality, there is still a small question to settle: the World Championship. All right, it’s a purely formal question, however it must be resolved, and this is the goal of Niki Lauda and Ferrari today at the circuit of Watkins Glen. Lauda is on the hunt for a point. The Austrian is at the top of the standings with 69 points against Jody Scheckter's 42 while there are three races to go to the conclusion of the World Championship: the Grand Prix of the United States, Canada and Japan. Lauda is 27 points ahead of Wolf's South African. In theory, he could still win the title: he should always estabilshed himself and Niki at the same time, he should never win even a point. 

A risky hypothesis, but in the meantime it is better to close each account. Lauda will only need to finish in the top six of the United States Grand Prix on Sunday to be World Champion for mathematics as well, regardless of whether Scheckter wins or not. And if the South African does not succeed, Lauda would be champion even in the event of retirement. It’s clear that in Watkins Glen, maybe for the last time, the interests of Lauda and Ferrari will match perfectly, beyond the controversy following the divorce. The Canadian and Japanese races, once the title has been won, will be an annoying appendage for the driver and the team. The first is called to hard work with the Brabham-Alfa Romeo, the second has to think about the new driver, Gilles Villeneuve, and the setting up of the 1978 program. One of the dominant themes of the next season will be the challenge between Lauda and Ferrari. On the one hand a man who will try to demonstrate how talent and experience can make any car a winning one (in this case the Brabham-Alfa Romeo), on the other a team that will proudly clarify how his successes are independent of the driver. A good fight. For Sunday, however, the pairing on the track (rain permitting) is still Lauda-Ferrari. Then, each goes his own way. And win if you can. In the meantime, regarding the dismissal of Ermanno Cuoghi, chief mechanic of Lauda's team, and some statements made by Eddie Cheever after the hiring of Villeneuve by Scuderia Ferrari, some clarifications are provided by the press office of the Maranello team. Cuoghi case:

"The mechanic Cuoghi, on September 21, confirmed to dr. Pacher, chief staff of Ferrari, who would not leave the Thing. To Cavaliere Tomaini, on Saturday at Watkins Glen, he communicated that new and tempting offers from Lauda induced him to withdraw from the agreement he had taken. Faced with this decision, the Ferrari technical manager invited him to cease his collaboration with immediate effect as he could not admit the continuation of such a fiduciary relationship with a person already committed to the competition".

On the young American from Rome, Eddie Cheever:

"The lawyer Bombara, in Cheever's interest, signed an agreement with Ferrari on September 1, which the company respects and hopes that the other party will do the same. As for Cheever's statements, they do not flatter us and do not affect us".

On Sunday, October 2, 1977 the bad weather did not give the participants of the United States Grand Prix respite and the sky clouded threateningly for most of the morning. Initially a light rain falls, then a real downpour just before the race. The track is wet and the sky is uncertain at the start. When the cars go out for a warm-up lap, the line-up is well divided between drivers who are fitted with slick tires and those who are fitted with full wet tires. In the short time it took to complete the warm-up lap, the rain increased considerably, so only the Brabham team decided to take a chance and Watson's car started the race on slick tires. The Brabham driver seems so sure of himself that Andretti thinks of following him for a while, then immediately changing his mind. At the start Stuck immediately takes the lead with his Brabham-Alfa, while the rest of the group is engulfed by a wall of water spray. Stuck, writhing in the puddles with large strokes, completes the opening lap of the race leading a championship Grand Prix for the first time in his career. Hunt is second ahead of Andretti, followed by Reutemann, Peterson, Lauda (who goes too wide in the Toe curve and is overtaken by Peterson), Jody Scheckter, Laffite (who narrowly avoids a spin on the Toe), Nilsson, Jones, Brambilla, Depailler, Mass, Regazzoni, Jarier, Watson (who quickly returns with the slicks), Ashley, Keegan, Jabouille, Ongais, Lunger, Ian Scheckter, Binder, Fittipaldi, Ribeiro and Neve. At the end of the second lap Stuck slightly lengthens his lead, taking it to 1.5 seconds over Hunt, while Watson falls back to last place in front of Neve, Scheckter overtakes Lauda and Peterson to move up to fifth place and both Jones and Regazzoni catch up. Jones overtakes Nilsson and then Laffite. Watson struggles to keep his Brabham on track and is 25th. Stuck's clutch mechanism fails during the third lap, but the young German driver continues in great style, while Hunt keeps an eye on the Brabham which precedes him by only two seconds of advantage. Reutemann is fourth, threatened by Scheckter, while Jones is very fast in the early stages of the race and manages to steal the sixth place from Lauda. The Australian driver, aboard his Shadow, is very competitive and at the end of the third lap he is seventh, behind Ronnie Peterson. 

Meanwhile Scheckter overtakes Reutemann, while Lauda makes a small gap and Brambilla, who follows him, goes off the track damaging the front wing. In an attempt to pass the Tyrrell, Jones loses control of the Shadow and spins at Turn 6 and finally collides with the guardrail, seriously damaging the DN8/4 monocoque, but manages to get out of the car without problems. Jones later expresses the view that Peterson was more guilty than he was for the accident, an opinion expressed by many other drivers over the course of the race. During the fourth lap Mass drops in eighth position after passing Regazzoni and Laffite, while Brambilla stops in the pits. The Italian driver starts again a few moments later, still without a wing, and that's how he will end the race. On the sixth lap Lauda and Mass overtake Peterson. Ongais, fifteenth up to now, goes off the track and is forced to retire. At the end of the seventh lap, Stuck's gap on Hunt rises to 3 seconds, while Regazzoni and Peterson are fighting for the eighth place: Regazzoni passes Peterson outside the Toe corner, with a very dangerous overtaking. Mass stops a second time with the McLaren M26 which has a problem with the fuel pump during the eighth lap and Ian Scheckter spins violently against the barriers present at the chicane in the tenth, exiting his March 771 unscathed. Jody Scheckter quickly overtook Reutemann and took fourth place, but Lauda and Regazzoni were also close to the Ferrari of the Argentinian when the race reached the tenth lap. In the meantime, Lauda climbs to fifth place, subtracting it from Reutemann. While Ian Scheckter leaves the track without being able to restart. Stuck's superb performance only lasts until the middle of the fifteenth lap. The Brabham BT45B seems to have lost the clutch while Stuck tackles one of the corners of the Glen, at the height of the Punta, and in a moment he goes off the road and finds himself between the fences. The young German gets out of the car with extreme disappointment and James Hunt takes the lead, driving his McLaren excellently in the horrible weather conditions that today presents, never again being caught up to the checkered flag. For the next thirty laps or so, the half-dozen leading positions are not subject to major changes. Hunt moves away from Andretti, accumulating an advantage of about 12 seconds on the leader of Team Lotus, Scheckter's Wolf is third and Lauda fourth. It takes Regazzoni up to the twenty-third lap to overtake Reutemann's Ferrari and take fifth place, even if the second 312 T2 has an ignition problem. Behind this group, however, there’s a lot of movement, especially around Peterson's Tyrrell. 

On lap eighteenth, Nilsson challenges his compatriot for seventh place, alongside Tyrrell on the long back straight. Then, to Nilsson's amazement, Peterson moves towards his Lotus, pushing his compatriot out of the circuit and forcing him to spin around the circuit. As a result, Nilsson is forced to retire due to damage to a suspension. Laffite also tries to pass Peterson, and even the Frenchman later admits that he was pushed by the Swedish driver on the grass a couple of times while trying to join the six-wheeled Tyrrell. Eventually Laffite passed Peterson and took him during the twenty-first lap. Towards lap 25 the track begins to dry out and as a result the riders drive over wet areas of the asphalt to cool and preserve their grooved tires. Of all, Lauda does it systematically. The other driver who shows great willpower in this race, even if the odds are against him in his case, is Watson. Realizing the futility of his situation with slick tires, the Northern Irish driver stops at the end of the eighth lap to switch to rain tires. Thus begins to recover ground, moving to nineteenth place on the fifteenth lap, then to sixteenth place during the twentieth lap, to fifteenth place during the twenty-fifth lap, to thirteenth place during the twenty-seventh lap, until reaching the tenth place at the end. on lap 38, when he was forced to stop again to fit new slicks. Undaunted, after having lost just one position, Watson restarts and recovers the tenth place before stopping to fit a third set of tires at the end of the forty-second lap. The stop plunges him to fourteenth place, but in the end he climbs up to twelfth place, despite the effects of a rapidly drying circuit in the final stages of the race, at the end of an afternoon of hard work that brings him very little in terms of results. The only other retirement recorded is that of Jean-Pierre Jabouille's Renault, which, after having driven in a reliably way in eleventh position, stops along the circuit during the thirtieth lap due to the breakdown of the gearbox alternator which discharges the car battery quickly. Peterson makes two stops to fit new tires, while his Tyrrell is equipped with another set of wet tires as Ken Tyrrell doesn't think Ronnie Peterson is ready to fit slick tires at the end of lap 34. Too bad, because Peterson returns to the pits five laps later, this time to mount slicks, and the combined effect of the two stops makes him fall to sixteenth position, remaining there until the end of the race. 

Towards the middle of the race Hunt is in the lead 15 seconds ahead of Andretti, with Scheckter relegated to about 30 seconds behind in third position, while Lauda settles for fourth place, enough to guarantee him the title of World Champion for the second time in his career, keeping Regazzoni and Reutemann at a safe distance. In the closing stages, with the track drying out, Hunt slows down to preserve his wet tires. But, from lap 45, the British driver begins to worry about the surge in the water temperature gauge and what he thinks is a deflating rear tire, slowing him down more than expected. On the other hand, Andretti throws his last strength into the battle and recovers about a second per lap on Hunt starting from the fifty-second lap. However, he has to be careful as his grooved tires are consumed after a race in changing conditions. This combination of circumstances ends up bringing Andretti a few seconds away from Hunt's McLaren during the final laps, with the American public cheering on his compatriot. On the last lap James Hunt is surprised to see Mario Andretti's Lotus 78 in the rearview mirror. The British then increased his pace to get his ninth victory in Formula 1, the second of the year, crossing the line 2 seconds ahead of Andretti, happily winning the United States Grand Prix for the second consecutive time. Third place goes to Jody Scheckter, while Niki Lauda sets the seal on his second World Champion title with a cautious fourth place. Team-mate, Carlos Reutemann, finished in sixth place, behind Clay Regazzoni, the second Ferrari lapped by the winner before the finish, while Laffite finished seventh and Keegan's Hesketh closed very promisingly in eighth. Jarier finished in ninth position, while Lunger got the better of a long battle with Binder for tenth place just before the finish. Next, the order of arrival sees Watson, Fittipaldi, Depailler, Ribeiro, Peterson (setting the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1'51"854), Ashley (after a pit stop delays another good driving) and Neve, with Brambilla, brings his Surtees to the finish line in nineteenth and last place, five laps behind the winner. At the start of the race, the Italian driver made a pit stop to mount a new section of the nose, after having lost the original during a spin. But the radiators were now so deformed that Brambilla could not continue even without a new nose, since the mounting brackets were so deformed that there was no way to start again. Without restraint, the gruff Italian jumped out of the cockpit, straightened the radiator brackets with his bare hands and got back on board his car, leaving the mechanics amazed at the quick restart. 

The championship is now truly over: Niki Lauda is World Champion, Ferrari got another big claim. But it’s a title that excites less, it’s a title that was born in a poisoned atmosphere: the divorce between the Austrian driver and Scuderia Ferrari was a bitter event and the subsequent controversies made it even more unpleasant. The Formula 1 World Championship ended in the most logical way: in a season in which no driver and no car demonstrated overwhelming supremacy, regularity and reliability ended up prevailing. The Austrian raced as a champion, more as an accountant than as a Grand Prix computer while the Italian cars, so criticized on some occasions, confirmed a holding supremacy that ended up defeating their rivals. This counts too and is the result of continuous technical evolution, the will of the team's men to win and the goodness of an overall organization. Lotus, Brabham, Wolf, McLaren had exciting moments, but in the end Andretti, Watson, Scheckter and Hunt had to lower their hats in front of the Lauda-Ferrari duo. The World Championship for Niki Lauda and Ferrari had started badly on January 9, 1977 on the Buenos Aires circuit. The Austrian had engine problems, never repeated during the season, he had been forced to retire and the Maranello team could only enjoy the third place of rookie Carlos Reutemann, who arrived from Brabham. The Austrian was reassured only because his great rival James Hunt, in the first sensational off the road of the year, had not taken any points. But the victory of Jody Scheckter and the brand new Wolf already gave an indication of what the Formula 1 World Championship would be like, a sarabande of ups and downs, of confirmations and disappointments, of surprises, to which only Lauda would be stolen later to win his second title, no longer with the peremptory nature of 1975 but thanks to some success and a regularity that all the other drivers have not been able to demonstrate. First Reutemann and then Scheckter. The South American part of the championship ended in the most logical way. After his placement in Argentina, Reutemann seemed to be able to gain altitude with a great performance in Brazil. Carlos was winning a race full of twists and turns and suspense, while Lauda was forced to a long and difficult comeback from the starting fifteenth place. 

The Argentine beat Hunt and took nine very precious points, placing himself at the top of the standings and Niki had to be content with not staying too far behind with a good third place.  A dangerous rivalry could also ignite in Ferrari but the Austrian returned to win in the tragic South African Grand Prix where Tom Pryce lost his life, hit in full by a heavy fire extinguisher transported to the circuit by an unwary commissar, himself a victim of the precipitous crossing of the runway. Lauda obtained his first, painful, victory in front of the now usual Scheckter, who became leader of the classification, in which Niki and Reutemann preceded, paired. But the South African doesn't seem to be the only rival in form for the Ferrari duo. Mario Andretti appears in Long Beach and brings the versatile and competitive Lotus back to the fore. An exciting three-way challenge ends with the Italian-American in first place, followed by Lauda and Scheckter. Only four races were held but the situation appears to be outlined: Niki and Jody are at the top of the standings, with Andretti and Hunt already forced to pursue and Reutemann stationary between the two groups. This brings us to the first European race, in Jarama, where there’s not Lauda, ​​blocked by a rib pain, reminiscent of the Nurburgring accident. For Andretti it’s perhaps the most beautiful race: a long solitary run-up that relegates Reutemann to second place. For Mario it’s the second consecutive success and the Italian-American comes to Monte-Carlo with the role of great favorite. However, he has to deal with Scheckter, who is back in the limelight. The Wolf driver is uncatchable. Inexplicably, perhaps because he no longer achieves the best times in practice, there is talk of a Ferrari crisis. But the fogging of Italian cars is a fictitious one. While the others break their engines and take turns leading the races, Lauda and Reutemann a little for luck, a little for skill and a lot for the reliability of the 312 T2s always reach the bottom of the races and take decisive points. Nilsson wins in Belgium but Lauda is magnificent second, with exceptional timing. In Sweden, when a different car is finally established, Laffite's Ligier-Matra, things are not going well for the Italian team. Niki retires due to trouble at the front but the balance is saved once again by Reutemann with a third place. The problems for Ferrari continue in Dijon, with the worst result of the season: Lauda fifth and Carlos sixth. But the Austrian can afford a few stops. He is now at the top of the standings and no one will be able to undermine him from the leading position. Niki is at 33, Andretti and Scheckter are one point behind. The Silverstone appointment is awaited: the English race can be decisive. 

Hunt thinks to make everyone agree but Andretti, Scheckter and Watson retire and for Lauda, ​​second, it is the beginning of the escape towards the title. One last victory is missing, which arrives punctually in Hockenheim. For Lauda it is a triumph. He is, as an exponent of the drivers commission, who rejected the Nurburgring and forced the German organizers to fall back on the Hockenheim car. The public is hostile to him, the opponents know that the moment is important. All the title contenders are very close to the start. They have to ask a lot from the engines and little by little they begin to abandon themselves: first Watson, then Hunt and Andretti are forced to return to the pits on foot. Lauda makes a single overtaking-masterpiece: he slips on Scheckter and goes on to win. Now it seems done. Still second in Zeltweg and first in Zandvoort, the Austrian now has the title within reach. The last races, including Monza where Andretti triumphs, are a formality for him. Now we should, at least for a moment, forget what has happened in recent months, remember how good there has been between Lauda and Ferrari in recent years. But it’s difficult to do, especially considering the last episode that happened in Watkins Glen, with Lauda taking away from the Maranello team a precious element such as the chief mechanic Ermanno Cuoghi and the Scuderia Ferrari which ejects Cuoghi himself from the team on the day of victory. And how sad the triumph dinner was celebrated in two different places. How much more exciting was that title won by Lauda and Ferrari in 1975. An unforgettable Sunday in Monza, the track invaded by fans, an authentic joy. The spell seems to have broken on another Sunday, the dramatic one at the Nurburgring. The accident caused a chain reaction: the early return of Lauda, ​​the disappointments of the last races, the great refusal of Niki to race in Japan, the impression - on the part of the Austrian - that Ferrari, beyond the declarations officers, would have preferred to dissolve relations. And here is Lauda set up this 1977 season as a proud revenge: one, for granted, against opponents and bad luck and one, secret, against those who had not trusted him in the depths of their hearts. And when the rematch seemed possible, if not probable, away with the more or less obscure maneuvers to change teams. It is a title, therefore, to be greeted with melancholy, even if, of course, what it implies should not be forgotten. First: Lauda has confirmed that he is himself, that is, a class pilot with unique intelligence and coolness. 

Second: Ferrari, despite all the difficulties of the year, reaffirmed that they are at the top of Formula 1, that they always have competitive cars, that they have a top-level team. Third: the Italian industry, and in particular the group of which the Maranello team is a part, has shown that it can fight vigorously even in the sports sector. The United States Grand Prix seals four years of collaboration between Lauda and Ferrari. And it seems strange that Lauda won the title on James Hunt's day and that he did it in the rain, just like last year he lost the challenge with the British on a rainy Sunday at Fuji, Japan. Now is the time to think about the future, which for Lauda and Ferrari is as interesting and demanding as it is difficult. We would just like, in homage to this second title won, that the 1977 final was worthy of a World Champion and a team like that of Maranello. A bit of style, at least.