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#218 1972 Italian Grand Prix

2022-02-01 00:00

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#1972, Fulvio Conti, Translated by Siria Famulari,

#218 1972 Italian Grand Prix

As reported last month in Continental Notes the Monza circuit was slowed down by the introduction of two chicanes so that when the teams begin testing

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On Tuesday 5 September 1972 the Ferrari press office issue the following press release:

 

"Yesterday (Monday 4 September 1972) the Ferrari Spa Management Committee met and agreed on the opportunity to also ensure the collaboration of the drivers Arturo Menarlo, Carlos Pace and Brian Redman in order to be able to develop a greater presence in the Championship in 1973 World Sport".

 

This is Ferrari's third statement on its plans for next year. The first, issued in the aftermath of Jacky Ickx and Clay Ragazzoni's one-two in the German Grand Prix, had caused a sensation among Maranello fans, announcing a downsizing of sporting activity and a policy of austerity. In that press release the uncertainty of the near and future moments was mentioned and, without prejudice to the technical staff, the competitive commitment was limited to the design and construction of a Formula 1 model and of a prototype to be tested also in racing, without however assuming binding commitments to the championships. The drivers were left free, with the exception of Ickx, who went to Enzo Ferrari on August 2 and was reconfirmed for 1973, as a second press release indicated. In a month, and we are now on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, the situation has undergone a certain development. While the basic choices remain unchanged, we are pleased to note that Ferrari has reopened towards the Formula 1 and Sports World Championships. Ickx, in fact, has received the assurance of being able to participate in the fight for the title by taking to the track in every Grand Prix with the 312-B2 or with the new 312-B3, while this third press release, hinting at a greater presence and adding Merzario, the Brazilian Pace and the Englishman Redman to the Belgian, gives a glimpse of the presence of two 312-Ps ( the three liters victorious this season) at the most important races of the World Championship. In conclusion, one car for Formula 1 and two for Sports with Merzario as test driver at Fiorano. A good step forward. It remains to remember that the management committee of Ferrari Spa is composed of Enzo Ferrari himself, comm. Bellicardi, by the engineer. Montabone and Eng. Dondo. It is logical to assume that, by re-examining the general situation and in agreement with Fiat, partner of the Maranello company since 1969, it was possible to broaden the horizons of 1973. And this sincerely rejoices both Italian fans and those who follow motorsport in general. In the meantime, the Italian Grand Prix returns and, as happened for Jackie Stewart in 1969, the Monza track will probably give Emerson Fittipaldi the victory of the Formula 1 World Championship. 

 

The Brazilian from Lotus only needs three punishments to mathematically win the title , reaching a total score unassailable by Stewart and Hulme, the only ones, in theory, to have the possibility of surpassing it. Three points, therefore, a fourth place. A modest finish line and placing for someone who has won four out of nine Grands Prix this year, but it is logical to assume that Fittipaldi will set his race to reach this goal first and foremost. Emerson is the opposite of Latin: not exuberant and impulsive, but cold and calculating. Already in Germany and Austria he took to the track aiming not to win but to finish the race. At the Nurburgring he had to retire, but at Zeltweg he achieved the victory, finishing the race as a triumph. If the same happens in Monza, so much the better. Otherwise - thinks Fittipaldi - let Lckx or Stewart succeed, as long as he takes home the title. And it is, it must be said, a very lacy title, which rewards the man and the machine, Fittipaldi and the black-golden Lotus-Ford. A strange combination, if you look closely: on the one hand a 25 year old driver, very young in age and experience. which in 1969 raced on small single-seaters for rookies, and on the other an older single-seater designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe in 1969. In a world as fast and changing as that of Formula 1, four years is a long time for a car, even considering the updates undergone season after season. It must be said that Fittipaldi and Lotosi met happily this year. The Brazilian has matured (even if he confesses that he is not yet perfect in overtaking manoeuvres), finding his own limits and those of the cars: the made-in-England single-seater has received a number of corrections to the rear suspension from Chapman and has become competitive again . So, the results came in and Stewart had to settle for second places, like everyone else, including the Ferrari drivers. For Stewart (and for Hulme) Sunday is the last chance: either he wins, or the world title, in any case, goes to Fittipaldi, who would no longer even need those famous three points.

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On Friday, September 8, 1972, while all the business of making Formula One cars function properly go on as usual, the drivers have the chicanes to learn, and new braking points for the Parabolica corner, and with all the stopping-and-starting involve in one lap, there is no point in worrying about slip-streaming or for slow cars to get a tow from the faster ones. The wide track in front of the pits is divide in two by a line of rubber cones, which keep the cars in the right-hand lane, close to the pits, and this led them towards the entrance to the bank speed track, as they use to run when the combine road and track circuit is use. At the end of the Trade pits they have to brake really hard in a straight line, from about 150 m.p.h. and change down to 2nd gear and do an S to the left through an opening in an Armco barrier wall, that is wide enough for only one car. This takes them over to the left side of the wide pits straight just where it divide between road circuit and bank track, and the cars then accelerate up through the gears and into fifth gear as they round the Curva Grande. The central Armco wall is built onto two concrete plinths, with bevel edges to form curbs through the chicane, and if anyone overshot on braking he goes straight on towards the beginning of the banking until he stops and is then leave out through a gate by a marshal, when the course is clear, to join the road circuit after the chicane. If a car suffers complete brake failure, it will hit a wall of straw bales across the bank track and if it bursts through them it can coast round the banking until it comes to rest. The result of this layout means that the drivers can break to the maximum from quite high speed, and if they overdid it there is plenty of escape room. The second chicane is just before the apex of the left-hand Vialone Curva, or Ascari bend, that leads onto the back straight. This is less of a chicane and more the introduction of a left-hand bend, a right-hand bend, and another left-hand bend, all in second gear, with a touch of accelerator in the middle. Its approach is entirely different, being on the beginning of a left-hand curve, so that braking has to be more subtle, and the new piece of road is two-cars or more in width, so that there is a definite line through the corners. Errors on braking mean a trip straight-on into a neutral area, that is the original circuit, and then a right turn onto a by-pass road that rejoins the track after the chicane. 

 

The rest of the circuit is unchanged, the difficult Lesmo corners still being difficult, and the long sweeping Parabolica corner at the end of the back straight being the same, but approach at a lower speed than before, while the exit is a bit tighter as you have to aim for the right-hand side of the pits straight. Needless to say, the Ferrari team are the first ones to try the new circuit arrangements, almost before they are finish, and neither Ickx nor Regazzoni thought much of the idea, both preferring the old flat-out blind into the Curva Grande and through the Vialone. Major technical interest lay in the braking systems, for the brakes are getting far more work to do, with four very hard applications each lap, instead of two, and with little time between them to encourage heat dissipation. The result is enormous pad wear, in the region of five times that experience before the chicanes are introduce, but such is the margin on brakes today, encourage by short races, that the Ferodo engineers aren’t unduly worry, except in the case of the Matra, which uses smaller pads than most cars. The problem can’t be ignore, especially as drivers got braver on braking for the first chicane, and it make it obvious that Grand Prix car braking systems as supply by Girling and Lockheed, in conjunction with Ferodo linings, are well ahead of other developments for a long time, in that they still have something in reserve under these new and extreme conditions. There aren’t many circuits where you have to break from very high speed down to 80 or 90 km/h 2nd gear corners, without much time for heat dissipation. During the first afternoon, almost everyone makes a trip up the escape road at the first chicane, as the only way to find the absolute limit of braking is to go beyond it, so that the gate-man is keeping very busy. Quite a lot of drivers are bumping the angled curbs at both chicanes, and at one moment Andretti put his inside front wheel onto the curb as he accelerates out of the second chicane and next moment his Ferrari is spinning round in the middle of the road. Just after this Stewart almost repeat the performance with his Tyrrell. At the first chicane Gethin lost control of his P160 B.R.M. under braking and spin through the gap without touching anything, ending up out of the chicane pointing the wrong way. Fittipaldi is really using the inherent stability of the Lotus 72, and it's very large inboard front brakes to the maximum, searching for the ultimate limit, which he find by taking to the escape road on two consecutive laps. Regazzoni is really stamping the accelerator pedal hard down in the middle of this chicane, whereas drivers like Cevert and Lauda wait until they are well clear and pointing straight before they turn the power on. 

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Ganley is very smooth and quick with his P160 B.R.M., but none of the B.R.M.s were getting back on full song quick enough on the pick-up in second gear, especially compare with the Ferraris and the Matra, Amon’s car being particularly impressive. An extractor exhaust system involving the air outlets from the oil radiators is being tried on Cevert’s Tyrrell-Cosworth V8, and he is also using one of the new giant-size air intakes for the engine, though he fails to detect the calculate gain in power and speed. Stewart is out in the new Tyrrell-Cosworth and also in his spare car as well, and Hulme is out in the spare McLaren as well as his newer car, but the timekeepers fail to produce times for either of these training cars. John Surtees is highly delighted with the general feel of his new car, though the fuel system is playing-up, which prevent him doing any very fast and consistent laps. After a short break, practice continues until the early evening and towards 6:00 p.m. lap times improve steadily as a result of drivers learning the new conditions, the car problems being solve and the air getting cooler. The first day ends with Stewart fastest, at 1'35"82 compare with the old record of 1'23"8, and last year’s fastest practice lap by Amon with the Matra, in 1'22"40 sec. Hulme is second fastest with a very unobtrusive drive in 1'35"97, and no-one else is below 1'36"0. The Tecno feeling so peculiar on corners and snaking down the straights that Bell is reluctant to try too hard, Beuttler’s Match is delayed by a number of small niggling things so that he has very little time out on the track, and Pace’s engine never runs properly and finally it does as the fuel-injection unit got itself in a muddle. Although there is a lot of over-shooting, spinning and kerb bouncing there is only one casualty, and that is Galli’s brand new Tecno, which suffers rear end damage, though it is repairable. On Saturday afternoon it all begin again, and this time the weather is very hot, so that for the first part of practice there is little hope of any improvements to lap times. There is still plenty of opportunity for errors, and Peterson did it all wrong at the second chicane and severely damage his March. 

 

Ganley is still trying very hard but his B.R.M. has a poor engine and he is lacking speed on the straights, so that his lap times are well down on those of Wisell who isn’t going round the corners anything like as well, which must be very frustrating for the New Zealander. Hailwood is going well, keeping very close to HuIme and Fittipaldi, while Amon does very little practice in the early part of the afternoon. During a short break Peterson’s car is collected and then as the sun went down and the temperature dropped the activity not only increase in volume but in desperation as well. The escape road at the first chicane is used overtime as drivers continue to search for the ultimate breaking point, few of them being able to find it without going beyond it. The only one who has no option is Revson, who stood on the brake pedal on one lap and had the master-cylinder and reservoir for the rear brakes snap off its mounting flange on the front bulkhead. With rear brakes only he goes up the escape route quicker than anyone, with no damage, which satisfies the people who have done the layout for the braking area. As tires, engines and aerodynamics continued to advance, extremely dangerous limits were being reached. Monza did not select the cars and drivers, it favored the game of wakes and the formation of groups of 7-8 single-seaters, with all the risks of a race like this. However, the chicanes installed by the Automobile Club of Milan, desired by the drivers, arouse controversy. These are two Ss, one located on the grandstand straight and the other before the entrance to the Ascari curve, points that the drivers faced at almost 300 km/h. The first variant lengthened the route by 7.50 metres, the second by 17.80 metres, so much so that the track is now 5775 meters (25 meters more than in the past). Andretti, returning to Formula 1 after almost five months, says:

 

"I would have almost preferred groups, with all the danger they entail, to this type of chicanes. They are too narrow and angular; they should have made them softer and wider to allow the passage of two cars side by side. Thus there is a serious risk of collisions. Today, I had to take the loophole to avoid colliding with another driver".

 

Regazzoni, in principle, agrees with his teammate, but states:

 

"It's better to face these bad variations than a group race".

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Ickx is more severe in his judgment than him.

 

"It's a crazy chicane, like the one in Monte-Carlo. Neither more nor less. Everyone wanted these variations and everyone should be happy. However, no one is, we are not because the chicanes were built by people who perhaps have good will but who have never driven a Formula 1 car".

 

Stewart, he alone, defends the chicanes. The president of the GPDA simply says that they are fine. Andrea de Adamich, who is part of the GPDA with duties as an observer on the circuits, states:

 

"This is a fallback, however in Monza the problem was not so much that of high speed, in my opinion, but that of contrails and groups. If the variants manage to thin out the ranks of pilots, they will have achieved their goal. Let's wait for the end of the race before judging them".

 

The other news from this first day of testing concerns the adoption by the Ferraris of new 17-inch rims for the rear wheels (more grip, less skidding), a certain prevalence of Goodyear tires over Firestone ones, a harmless off-track exit by Nanni Galli at the second bend of Lesmo with the 1973 model Tecno (only the rear suspension was damaged), the debut of the beautiful Surtees TS14 with John Surtees himself at the wheel, a stop due to lack of petrol by Emerson Fittipaldi. During the final hour of practice drivers aren’t only trying hard for fast laps but are also doing some pretty serious practice at overtaking groups of cars under braking, and on two occasions it is a case of the last one into the chicane area being the first one out, as everyone doing about and some do straight on. The session ends on a lively note with the prospect of all the front runners finding themselves up the escape road in a confused jumble, while a back marker goes through into the lead. Three more drivers join the elite group who got under 1'36"0. these being Regazzoni, Amon and Ickx, the last two taking the front row of the grid, as Stewart don’t improve sufficiently on his first daytime to retain pole position. There are only very small fractions of seconds involve, but with the modern two-by-two grid line-up three-tenths of a second put Hulme in the third row, and one tenth of a second relegate Stewart to the second row. Wisell is a surprise leader of the B.R.M. quartet, and Beltoise in the revise P180 is disappointingly slow by comparison. As only 25 cars are being accept for the start, two have to drop out, and these are Pescarolo (March 721) and Bell (Tecno), both of them well over 1'40"0.

 

"Tomorrow will be a lottery. I can win, someone else can win, as has always happened this year in Formula 1. Of course, personally I can't go any faster than today".

 

Jacky Ickx speaks, who set the best time with the Ferrari 312-B2. Ickx, engaged like his teammates Regazzonl and Andretti, in a prestigious test, lapped today in 1'35"65, at an average of 217.354 km/h. A remarkable exploit, which once again demonstrates the class of the Belgian, but which was favored by the adoption of particular tyres. These tyres, unfortunately, cannot be used in the race because they do not last for many laps (eight-nine are the maximum limit). Two insisted more than Ickx and the Swiss complained a beginning of failure of the left rear tire while the Italian-American dechapped the right rear one, managing to control the car very well (night from Maranello) was necessary to obtain good qualifying times and start in the front rows of the grid With normal tyres, the three Ferrari drivers lapped on average in 1'36"0. It's not a question of the car, but of the tires and in Monza the Goodyears, which equip the Matra-Simca, the Tyrrell and the McLaren, offer a higher performance than that of the Firestones (Ferrari, Lotus, B.R.M.). Not for nothing, without the cunning of the super tyres, we would find Chris Amon at the top of the grid with the Matra, who lapped in 1'35"69. However, special tires or not, we must record for the umpteenth time a remarkable balance of values, such as men and machines. The best are collected in a very small space, with differences that are now measured in hundredths of a second. 

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Stewart was third (1'35"79), Regazzoni was fourth (1'35"83) and Hulme was fifth in (1'35"97). For Ferrari the situation is positive. The long training sessions in August on the track of the racetrack have produced their results and the technicians limited themselves in these two days to finishing work. The drivers are happy and all three single-seaters, whose engines had been replaced on Friday night, ran at a very high pace. There is now only one unknown: to what extent will the greater or lesser performance of the tires influence the performance of the cars? For Ferrari, in this circuit which should prevent the formation of groups and the inclusion of less valid single-seaters (see the Gethin case with B.R.M. last year), the strongest rivals should be limited to Amon, Stewart and Hulme. Given Amon's chronic bad luck, one would almost want to limit the field to the Scottish driver and the New Zealander, who are playing here their last chance to stop Fittipaldi in his bid for the world title. The Brazilian driver did not emerge in the furious carousel that closed the tests, when almost all the riders took to the track together taking advantage of the cooler temperatures. The Brazilian will start on the third row.

 

"The car isn't right yet, moreover the engine was quite weak and didn't allow me to improve my times. Never mind, tomorrow I'm just aiming to finish in the top four, which would allow me to become world champion".

 

Next to Emerson is his patron Colin Chapman, who decided to come to Monza together with a lawyer after many hesitations for fear of legal consequences for the tragic accident in Rindt two years ago. The audience booed him loudly. 25 cars will start at the start. Peterson ruined his March (rear suspension) in a spin at the second chicane, the Ascari curve, but the mechanics are convinced they will repair it in time. Excluded, however, are Pescarolo, with March, and Bell, with Tecno, who set the worst times. Still some controversy over the variants. Today the drivers asked to change the starting system, which includes not taking the grandstand chicane and overtaking is prohibited until after the entrance to the Ascari chicane. For those who violated the prescription there was a one minute penalty. According to the latest news, this minute has been abolished. In any case, this should be the first and last Italian Grand Prix with chicanes. A new project is ready, which will abolish the curve and the Ascari curve. It seems that a decision will be made during the month of November and that it is conditioned by a change in management at the Monza Autodromo. The introduction of the chicanes posed the problem of the start for the organizers of the Grand Prix. More precisely, once the chicane was completed at the end of the grandstand straight, it was realized that it was not possible to launch the wild group into that funnel located just four hundred meters from the starting line. So it was decided to eliminate the barrier on the first pass, hoping to avoid any danger. A mistake was made, however, by forgetting to sweep the track where three days of testing and the morning races had accumulated dirt on the asphalt, thrown outwards by the turning cars. 

 

When Ickx was the first to put his wheels on this puddle of dust, an increasingly dense cloud rose, from which it was feared that a tangle of cars would appear, one on top of the other. However, nothing bloody happened, but once the dust cleared, a car was seen slowly leaving with the engine turned off to stop and oil the straw protections of the chicane. It was Jackie Stewart's Tyrrell, which set the record for the shortest Grand Prix with around six hundred meters covered. In the frenzy of the start to conquer first place the great Jackie had burned the clutch, and with it the last hopes, more theoretical than real, of being able to still fight with Emerson Fittipaldi for the world title. Having eliminated Stewart, the peloton immediately split up, demonstrating the usefulness of the chicanes. On the other hand, it was precisely at one of the two barriers that we witnessed the accident that was so feared. In the lead is a small group of five cars with Ickx, Regazzoni, Fittipaldi, Amon and Hailwood. The positions remained unchanged for thirteen laps, then Regazzoni passed Ickx. In just one lap Clay gains half a second, and seems capable of making a decisive change in the race. However, bad luck caused him to find Pace practically stationary (he only moves with the starter motor and first gear engaged) in the chicane located at the Ascari curve. The obligatory path is like a parenthesis on the left and the Swiss driver, who is now on the exit, desperately tries to force the passage: his left rear wheel hits Pace's front, the suspension comes off and the car after a series of zig-zags ends at the side of the track. 

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A few tongues of fire are released, but while Clay jumps out of the cockpit a firefighter averts any danger. Says Clay Regazzoni:

 

"There were yellow flags and I slowed down, but I didn't see Pace until the last moment. Why didn't they move him to one side? He crawled forward and, as I passed him, he touched me. I lost control of the Ferrari and managed to stop after a few dozen metres. With those flames, I ran away. It is an accident that depends on the design of the variant itself. Too narrow and with poor visibility".

 

And Carlos Pace adds:

 

"I'm very sorry for Clay who was in the lead, but I don't feel responsible. I crossed at the entrance to the chicane and the car stopped sideways and with the engine off after hitting the guardrail. The marshals jumped onto the track and helped me get going again. As I walked slowly, all the way to the left, Regazzoni and the others arrived. I think Clay was walking very fast and, when he had to close the trajectory, he hit the side of my March with his side, more or less at the height of his left rear wheel. But, honestly, I was on the outer edge of the road. I couldn't move any further than that".

 

In the meantime, Ickx regains first position, followed by the group now reduced to four units and the race continues almost without tension. The second group is made up of Hulme and Andretti, but the Italian-American remains in that position for a short time, given that a puncture forces him to stop in the pits to change the front right wheel and he practically loses the lap, returning to the track right in front of Ickx. The selection begins to be felt on lap 30, when Hailwood loses contact with his teammates due to a lack of power in the engine of his Surtees. Then it's Amon's turn, who heads straight for the grandstand chicane to return from the loophole and prepare for the inevitable retirement due to total brake wear. There was almost no suspense: Ickx gives the impression of racing with confidence, and Fittipaldi tries to be completely uninterested in a victory that wouldn't have been of much use to him. Instead, during lap 45 only the Lotus arrives, passing at full speed while Jacky Ickx arrives in the pits with momentum now with the engine off. It turns out after a few minutes that it was a special dry battery that failed. A truly trivial failure. Emerson Fittipaldi slows down to race towards success without risk and both Hailwood, Hulme and Revson overtake him to a minimal extent. Andretti also showed an angry reaction. who tries to finish the race at full laps with a furious chase. Instead he closes three hundred meters from his rival. Three hundred meters plus a lap, for a seventh place which remains the only asset in Ferrari's deficit. You can't win without a bit of luck and Ferrari lacked luck not once but three times, with so many gloves on its drivers in the race. Regazzoni and Ickx ended up out of the race directly from the best position, that of leader, and Andretti concluded with his usual professional honesty a test made opaque by a pit stop which relegated him to the purgatory of lapped drivers. 

 

The whole race, focused on the interest of the spectators on the Italian cars, ended up finding a different winner in the end, a driver who was liked by everyone, but who in the disappointment of the moment received little applause from the public and a salvo of boos. A rescue truck slowly cuts through the crowd, towing Clay Regazzoni's red Ferrari. They take it to the garage and the mechanics of the Maranello team look with anger and disappointment at the Brazilian fans who are singing and dancing in the middle of the track to the rhythm of an improvised samba. The Italian Grand Prix is over and the new O Rey, the Pelè of cars, looks out of the window of the racetrack management building: Emerson Fittipaldi, winner in Monza and World Champion. He took refuge in the building to escape the enthusiasm of his admirers. He clings to his wife Maria Helena, receives hugs from Colin Chapman, the owner of Lotus who continues to shout lovely, has disheveled hair and mustache and looks like a Latin, not an Englishman, Emerson, who is a very amiable man, does not shy away from congratulations and signs a ton of autographs. It's his time and he enjoys it. No one has ever won a world title at the age of 25, no one has ever had such a rapid career. In 1969 at the wheel of small minor formula singles, in 1970 the first Grand Prix in Great Britain and the first victory in the United States, now the triumph in Monza. 

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A driver who matured quickly, who was favored by a combination of circumstances, first and foremost being Lotus' number one, but who nevertheless did not waste the opportunity and always knew how to race with his brain and not only with enthusiasm. Emerson says, untying his suit:

 

"I still can’t believe it. Me, just me, World Champion. I'll have to get used to it. It's too beautiful".

 

And he kisses Maria Helena, who goes around the rooms of the building trying to hold the enormous laurel wreath and the trophies offered to her husband. One was delivered to Fittipaldi by Margherita Bandini, who appears frightened in the joyful confusion surrounding the Brazilian.

 

"I wasn't aiming for success on Saturday. I was satisfied with a placing to be able to win the world title. Half an hour before the start I just prayed to be able to leave. We discovered a leak in the main fuel tank just as we were taking the Lotus out on track. Champan and the Meccans did a formidable job and managed to remedy this incredible inconvenience. In the morning I had driven around for a few minutes to register the car, everything was fine. Better this way anyway, if I had had to stop in the race it would have been worse, much worse. It was the first emotion. I knew that this Grand Prix meant more than any other to me. But I forced myself to run as always. The start was bad, with all that dust, with that confusion. Ickx and Regazzoni got off to a good start and I tried not to stay far from them".

 

And here Fittipaldi makes a confession that reveals his nature, the nature of a sensitive man and not of a steering wheel robot.

 

"I came out of the Ascari chicane and saw Pace on one side and Regazzoni on the other, with his Ferrari catching fire. I was scared and scared, so scared for Clay".

 

Then, he wants to know how the accident happened and what explanations his colleagues gave. He shakes his head.

 

"It's a good thing they didn't get hurt. I felt the third emotional moment of the race when Ickx entered the garage. I felt sorry for him and I'm sincere because I know what it feels like to retire, but at that moment I also understood that I had now won the Grand Prix and the title. . This would have been mine equally, Because Stewart had retired and Hulme was behind me, but to get it with a success in Monza was fantastic. I don't know if I could have surpassed Ickx. It wasn't worth taking risks and between our two cars the situation was quite balanced: the Lotus allowed me to delay braking more and go through corners at a higher speed, but his Ferrari was more brilliant in acceleration. Perhaps these are useless questions, who can say how we would have finished the race?"

 

The president of Csai, Rogano, arrives and takes Fittipaldi and his wife to the terrace of the building. The crowd calls out to them and chants the Brazilian's name. Chapman disappears. But there is the problem of making Fittipaldi disappear. The winner of the Grand Prix and new World Champion ends up in a police van, like any referee on the run and disappears, to the sound of a siren, in the Lotus truck-caravan, in the most protected enclosure of the garages. And this is, perhaps, Emerson Fittipaldi's last emotion on his longest and most beautiful day. During the evening Fittipaldi celebrated the triumph with his wife Maria Helena and South American journalists at the headquarters of the Brazilian Cultural Institute in Milan. Emerson is becoming an official figure, a man who advertises Brazil and its most important product, coffee. It is not for nothing that on his black-orange helmet there is a green writing, namely Café do Brazil. Fittipaldi, however, has not yet been absorbed by the iron advertising machinery of Formula 1, at least he has managed to retain his humanity, his simplicity. 

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Perhaps because he is young, perhaps because he is simple and if on the track he behaves with cold calculation, in life he is not measured with the same yardstick. This is the big difference with Stewart, who is an accountant through and through and seems to have become a money-making machine. He still says to his wife:

 

"I don't believe it, I don't believe it. I am World Champion. At the beginning of the year I hoped to perform well, to win some races, but I didn't think about the possibility of succeeding Stewart. I was aiming for the Scotsman or the Ferrari. Then, little by little, I felt something born inside me. But now I'm still not convinced that I succeeded. It's fabulous".

 

Emerson was born on December 12, 1946 in Sao Paulo. Large family, of distant Italian ancestry. Dad Fittipaldi's grandfather had been brought to Brazil from Basilicata. But it is nice to observe that the Fittipaldis speak Italian and are sentimentally linked to their land of origin. Emerson has never made a secret that he would have preferred to race for Ferrari rather than Lotus. Maybe now he has changed his mind. Brother Wilson, three years older, began racing and Emersoli followed him, in the workshop and on the track, until he too got behind the wheel. Touring races, karting, small single-seaters. 

 

"At a certain point I realized that to become someone I would have to leave Brazil. I went to England in March 1969 and with the help of friends I managed to get a Formula Ford".

 

He made very rapid stages, from Formula Ford to Formula 3 and Formula 2, in a succession of successes that demonstrated a natural talent. The very young Brazilian was reported to Colin Chapman, who decided to sign him in 1970. At the time, Lotus had Jochen Rindt as its first driver and Miles as its second driver. And here fate played in Fittipaldi's favor. Rindt crashed at Monza, Miles proved to be a disappointment, Emerson without realizing it found himself leader of the team, with the best car and the mechanics at his disposal. And this matters, matters a lot. And his greatest merit is that he did not waste the opportunity of being able to improve with humility, of having found the limits of himself and of the car with a progressive patient work of refinement. Now he is World Champion, the first South American after Fangio. His biographers point out that he likes good food, that he lives in Geneva with his brother while his father and mother live in a nearby house, that he is afraid of dogs and that, as a good Latin, he is jealous of his beautiful wife Maria-Helena . But she is jealous of him too. However, after Monza for Maria Helena the real rival is called Lotus. For the rest, the organizers of the Italian Grand Prix, held in Monza, have not resolved the underlying problems, but with the adoption of the chicanes they have at least saved this year's race. A finally lively Grand Prix, full of those twists and turns which, even if they don't follow the public's liking, keep their interest alive. 

 

The chicanes were created with an abundance of errors (just as the elimination of the obstacle at the start was studied superficially) but even if they had been perfect they would not have represented the panacea to restore relevance to a facility that appears outdated in every part . Now we are back to talking about real variants, given that the bureaucratic obstacles encountered so far could be removed by the change in some political supports, linked to Osai's next re-election. In this way the racing problems will be solved, but it will be necessary to address the equally serious ones that concern the entire structure of the racetrack which is lacking in services of all kinds, in equipment for the public and also in those against the public. Despite the limited turnout of spectators, the usual invasion of the track occurred once the race had just finished, precisely because there were no suitable barriers. Adding to the confusion was a confused and relaxed order service. He intervened late with unjustified, violent and useless actions against individual spectators targeted in the midst of the general chaos. Ferrari's season in Formula 1 was off to a bad start and there was yet another demonstration in Monza. In Regazzoni's accident there is undoubtedly a percentage of the fault of the Swiss driver who on this as on other occasions always chooses the bravest path. 

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The trouble is that he is often wrong. At the end of the race he himself admitted having seen the yellow flags indicating the blocked chicane, but he also added:

 

"With those behind me I couldn't brake; In fact, it could have been a good opportunity to disconnect everyone".

 

Regazzoni is like that, and we have to accept him as he is. From now on, however, B.R.M., which I have hired for next year, will have to accept it. Mario Andetti's exclusion from the leading positions also has two components: the driver's poor adaptability to the modified circuit and the bad luck that caused him to puncture a tyre. But for Ickx it can be attributed to absolute bad luck. With all the complex and delicate mechanical parts, he has given up a beat, an accessory that should now give maximum reliability. As if that wasn't enough, the news of Firestone's withdrawal initially caused a certain shock in the racing community. At the end of last week, Maranello made telephone contact with Goodyear, which would remain the only one in the running, and the approach was more than satisfactory. But on Sunday evening Firestone denied the news and only announced a reduction in its commitments, while maintaining its presence in the world of racing.


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