#201 1971 Netherlands Grand Prix

Although some of the scandal-mongering newspapers insist that the Zandvoort race-track is doomed and the future of the Dutch Grand Prix is in doubt, nothing could be further from the truth; the year-long activities at the Dutch circuit continue to make the whole setup a good business proposition, of which the local town council benefit by receiving a large slice of the income, as distinct from the profit. With the ever-increasing demands by the Formula 1 entrants and further demands of expenditure of hard cash by the GPDA Safety Brigade, there are times when one is given to wondering why organisers carry on with Grand Prix racing. Whatever the reason, this year’s Dutch Grand Prix sees a bumper entry and there is no squabbling or dissatisfaction over who is to start as all 25 drivers listed in the entry are to be accepted on the starting grid. After scrutineering has taken place on Friday morning, practice gets under way in the afternoon with a following wind blowing down the straight, thus encouraging a fast day as it is known. The weather is very grey and gloomy and with the scrub grass and sand dunes all around and the muddy-looking North Sea just behind the grandstands, the Zandvoort circuit is about as gay and entrancing as it is ever likely to be and one begins to see why everyone likes circuits like Barcelona and Monte-Carlo. However, the job in hand is to put in some fast laps as soon as possible as there is every likelihood of the weather breaking up later on, and the bogey time is the 1'19"23 set up by Ickx last year in the original prototype flat-12-cylinder Ferrari. Now there are not only two similar cars as spares, with 1971 engines, but three of the second version of the flat-12-cylindered cars, the 312B/2 models, and it is Regazzoni setting the pace with #5 car, having been out earlier in the week doing some unofficial practice. He has got down to a cool 1'17"98 when the engine blows up and the car is wheeled round the back of the pits with oil dripping from everywhere, and work begins on removing the engine and installing a new one.

Also in the first part of the afternoon Team Lotus has a disaster, for Walker has barely begun to circulate in Fittipaldi’s Lotus 72 when he falls off the edge of the track and damages the rear end too badly for immediate repair, so that is the end of all Charlton’s hopes of joining Team Lotus for this race. He is to have taken over 72D/R5 when the turbine car is ready for Walker to drive. It is quite clear that laps under 1'20"0 are the least that can be considered competitive and both Andretti and Ickx are well inside this figure by mid-afternoon, as is Wisell, who is now alone in upholding Lotus’ honour, Stommelen is in there with the second of the 1971 Surtees cars, and Ganley also, indicating that the sparkle that appears in his driving at Hockenheim has not been a flash in the pan. Stewart is experimenting with the new Girling double-disc brakes on the latest Tyrrell car and amid a certain amount of detail bothers he just scrapes in under the 1'20"0 barrier. After the mid-afternoon break things really begin to happen and Ickx sets up a new fastest time with 1'17"42, with Rodriguez right behind him with 1'17"46, these two 12-cylinder cars being visibly faster down the straight than anything else. After a bit more experimenting with the new brakes on the Tyrrell, Stewart goes out and very quickly got within striking distance of the twelves with 1'17"64, and you can almost hear The Good Ford saying: Thank the Lord for Stewart. Things are really warming up now and the 1'20"0 bogey time is for beginners, 1'19"0 is for the pros, 1'18"0 for the stars and 1'17"0 for the aces, with more yet to come. While the general increase in pace is going on Regazzoni crashes his spare Ferrari, number 4, and just before practice ends Andretti has a spectacular accident past the pits in the brand-new 312B/2 and it is later revealed that both are the result of tyres centrifuging inwards on some new ultra-wide rims. This means a reshuffle in the Ferrari camp, and Andretti takes over the remaining spare car on the following day, while Regazzoni has his 1971 car back again.

There seems every possibility that the aces would break 1'17"0 in the following practice periods, providing everything stayed constant, but as so often happens things do not remain constant and on Saturday morning it is pouring with rain. So bad is the rain, and prospects for any improvement in the weather so remote, that a lot of drivers give Saturday morning practice a miss, knowing that there is plenty of time in the afternoon to splash round in the rain. Unfortunately this catches them out, for suddenly the weather clears and, apart from a change in direction of the wind, the afternoon becomes fine. Those who have deliberately not practised in the morning, like Surtees, Cevert and Hulme, are not to know they have been caught out until next morning when the rain returns. Due to an impressive piece of organisation and a lot of hard work Team Lotus has got the Pratt and Whitney turbine engine back from Canada and installed in the 4-wheel-drive chassis and Walker is out practising as soon as possible. It is not possible to effect immediate repairs to the crashed Lotus 72 so Charlton has to remain a spectator. Andretti takes over the remaining spare Ferrari and Regazzoni have his 1971 car back again. So bad are the conditions during the morning that even the fastest laps recorded are 20 seconds slower than the previous day’s times. Only Regazzoni and Rodriguez brake the 1'40"0 mark and then by only a gnat’s whisker. During the lunch break conditions suddenly improve and the afternoon becomes warm and dry, but the wind is now head-on up the straight and though everyone is out and trying hard there is no question of approaching the Friday times, so for most drivers their first day’s times are the ones to count for grid positions. Regazzoni and Siffert are fastest, with Rodriguez, Stewart and Ickx close behind. As Peterson is not too happy with the general feel of the new March 711 it has been put away, and he is concentrating on the early model, with the Cosworth V8 engine.

The Ferraris and B.R.M.s are significantly faster down the straight than all the other cars, even the Matras, and but for Stewart and the Tyrrell the outcome of the two days' practice would have been a clean sweep for the 12-cylinder cars. Race day is as wet and dull as Zandvoort has ever known, yet an impressive crowd of spectators pour into the circuit all morning, as everyone prepares for a really wet race, with knobbly wet-weather tyres, waterproofing over the electrics and much preparation for keeping water out of visors and cockpits. In view of the dreadful conditions a 15-minute free practice session is allowed before the start so that drivers can weigh up the conditions of the track. While everyone is assembling on the dummy grid the Ferrari mechanics suddenly rush Andretti’s car back to the pits and feverishly start to change the petrol pumps, as the system has lost all its pressure. Andretti has to sit patiently in the cockpit while mechanics work away at the back of the car and, though the Dutch officials delay the start as long as possible, they can wait no longer and one by one engines are started up and preparations made to move the 23 cars forward to the starting grid. Ickx makes a spectacular practice start off the dummy grid, and then he, Rodriguez and Stewart lead the rows of cars forward to the starting line. The flag falls and so slippery is the track that nothing seems to happen for seconds, and then the Firestone tyres of Ickx and Rodriguez find grip and pull away from Stewart, who is still trying to make his Goodyears grip the road. As the field pours into the Tarzan hairpin in a cloud of spray Amon has his Matra right on the outside edge of the raised corner and is going round the outside of Stewart, but just fails to get by so that the order round the back of the pits and away across the sand dunes is lckx, Rodriguez, Stewart, Amon, Regazzoni, Surtees. In the opening scramble Siffert and Soler-Roig have spins on the wet track and there is a lot of dodging about but no damage.

Ickx leads from Rodriguez on the opening lap, and once again Amon goes high on the banked Tarzan corner, and this time falls over the edge into the sand and the wire mesh safety fence, where the Matra remains stuck while everyone goes by. At the end of lap 2 the Ferrari of Ickx and the B.R.M. of Rodriguez have opened up quite a considerable gap from Stewart, who is still in third place, but as the dark blue Tyrrell goes into the Tarzan comer at the end of the main straight it spins helplessly and Stewart has to sit and watch while a whole row of smiling opponents go by him, and he is in eighth place when he gets going again. As he motors off from the corner leaving Amon still working away to get his Matra out of the safety fence, Andretti joins the race from the pit lane with a great rush of noise and spray. He arrives at the first corner and promptly spins, luckily staying on the track, and sets off at a more sedate pace, after which Amon gets his Matra disentangled and motors round to the pits but the radiator is split so that was that. By the end of the third lap the Dutch Grand Prix is over for all except Ickx and Rodriguez, who are way out on their own and indulging in a motor race that must go down in history. On the next lap Pescarolo gets his Frank Williams March 711 all sideways and out of control and runs into Schenken’s Brabham as they accelerate out of the Tarzan hairpin along the short straight behind the pits, and the rather vulnerable aerofoil on the nose of the March is badly bent. Pescarolo stops at the pits next time round and has the complete aerofoil removed and continues the race with the front of the March looking very light and almost airborne.

Accidents are by no means over, for, as the Lotus turbine car ends lap 5, Walker misjudges his braking point past the pits and goes straight on over the bank and almost out of sight amongst the restraining mesh fences and advertising hoardings, escaping unscathed, but with the nose of the Lotus wiped off. It is no day at all for Team Lotus for two laps later Wisell pulls his Lotus 72 smartly out of his race with Peterson’s March and stops just beyond the pits with a rear wheel coming loose. He reverses back into the pit lane but of course this entails immediate disqualification. While this is going on there is another coming together at the end of the main straight when Galli and Cevert get tangled together under-braking and the March and the Tyrrell end up in the sand. Amidst all this unruliness Ickx and Rodriguez are really getting on with a motor race and they end lap 8 side-by-side, trying to out-brake each other for the Tarzan hairpin, and it is Rodriguez who gets in front as they fight each other all the way round the twisty bits behind the pits. Regazzoni is a comfortable third, followed by Surtees, Peterson, Beltoise and Stewart, but the little Scot is fast giving up and lets Stommelen, Ganley and Siffert go by on the next lap. Andretti retires at the pits as his engine has not worked properly even with the new fuel pumps fitted, and Hulme, van Lennep and Hill are having a little race of their own at the end of the field, apart from the stragglers like Soler-Roig, Barber, Schenken, Gethin and Pescarolo. By 10 laps, with 60 still to go, the two tigers battling for the lead are lapping the end of the field and they race in and out of the traffic the way they do in long-distance sports-car races. Nothing is sacred to them and they sweep past Hill, van Lennep, Hulme and Stewart as if they are not there. Then they whittle down the distance to Ganley and Beltoise, who have been overtaken by Siffert, and then they catch the Swiss and after that Stommelen, all the while Rodriguez being first and Ickx second.