Enzo Ferrari, man of the day. He has been used to it for some time, perhaps since 1929, when he founded the Scuderia Ferrari in Modena for participation in car and motorcycle racing. This time he caused surprise and emotion by announcing, the day after a sensational victory for his Formula 1 cars in Gemmata, the downsizing of the sporting programs for next year. On Monday and Tuesday hundreds of phone calls arrive in Maranello, the small town a few kilometers from Modena where since 1946 Ferrari has been building racing cars that have won on circuits all over the world and grand touring cars whose ownership constitutes a tangible sign of success and success. ambition. They wanted clarifications, explanations, comments from this 74-year-old man who grew old in his factory office, following a dream in which there was more space for sport and less for budgets, proclaiming his faith in value and meaning technical and human race. The wizard of Mannello, as the fans have nicknamed him, the commendatore or the engineer, as everyone calls him, white pen, as his collaborators affectionately define him in homage to his hair, prefers to remain silent. He has always behaved like this in similar circumstances, perhaps out of careful calculation: he made it known what was important to him, the others let themselves indulge in the guessing game. He confides only to a friend his bitterness for this decision, which costs him a lot and which probably means the end of a cycle. And opening a new one is difficult. Inside you, who have remained young, thoughts, programs and goals still to be conquered are crowded; and you are in a hurry to finish, because the days pass. But the figures and the budgets are pressing. And it is necessary to bend, even if the hope in a twist, in a reversal of the situation, perhaps caused by some daring initiative, does not die.
It is difficult for Enzo Ferrari to restrict his sporting activity. He dedicated his life to racing and fought many battles for his cars. A failed journalist, as he once was, he wrote a book (My terrible joys) in which he describes himself, the stages of his becoming, his controversies, his gestures, sometimes sensational, but always well thought out. The portrait of an uncomfortable man is drawn, capable of arousing fiery enthusiasm and sympathy around him, but also tenacious aversions. A character full of charm, but stingy with friendships, hard and at the same time weak, calculating, but also exposed to labile moods, above all closed in the unbridgeable void of his lost son (Alfredo Ferrari, Dino, died at the age of 24 in 1956). Ferrari's refusal to Ford, which in 1963 had almost concluded agreements to absorb the small Italian factory, remained famous. At the time of signing, the Commendatore realized that the sports department would also end up in the hands of Detroit and missed the deal. He had no second thoughts, however, towards Fiat: a first collaboration in 1965, which allowed the manufacturer to create the 6-cylinder Dino Ferrari engine for Formula 2 racing; a complete agreement in June 1969, which allowed him to find the right destination for the company (which produces a thousand grand tourers a year) and its employees (today more than 800). Ferrari was relieved of the commitments arising from the management of the company, while he was left with all decisions in the competition sector, which employs around 200 specialists and which brought him 18 Formula 1 titles and World Sports Championships. The current economic moment has forced the two partners to make a bitter decision, perhaps unpopular with the more emotional fans. But the technical commitment continues, and Enzo Ferrari will be able to continue his battle with the same strength and spirit as always. In the meantime, Jacky Ickx goes to Maranello and in this regard, Ferrari issues the following statement:
"The driver Jacky Ickx, visiting Ferrari today (Wednesday 2 August 1972), confirmed his collaboration with the company for 1973".
The Belgian tests a sports car and single-seaters destined for the Austrian Grand Prix with Regazzoni and Merzario. Ickx, interviewed immediately after Ferrari's announcement of an austerity policy for 1973, said:
"I have faith in the Maranello company, if Ferrari wants me, I will stay with them, even if there is no constant commitment in the Formula 1 World Championship. The only condition: that it is a temporary situation".
The Belgian kept his promise. On Wednesday he is visiting Maranello to talk to Enzo Ferrari. At the end, the short statement is issued, that in these days he is maintaining an understandable reserve about his moves. However, two facts are certain: evidently, Ickx - who on several occasions has recalled that he has now been at Ferrari for four years and that he is very happy with it and that the team is very strong - must have received precise assurances on the temporary nature of the downsizing (at most one year, i.e. the next sporting season), or on the certainty of participation in all the tests of the Formula 1 World Championship; the Belgian is the only reconfirmed driver. His colleagues should be officially informed of their release from ties with Ferrari at any moment (and this may already have happened for Regazzoni and Merzario). For them the future is uncertain, but only as regards a precise definition of their programs, because they will certainly find a team willing to give them a car. We know of Regazzoni's contacts with the B.R.M. and other brands, and by Merzario with Alfa Romeo (and not only with this company). Andretti is a case in itself: Mario has well-defined commitments and has always dedicated only part of his time to Maranello. A latest rumor leaked yesterday confirms this: the Italian-American would not participate in the Austrian Grand Prix and would not be replaced by Merzario. So, at Zeltweg we should only see Ickx and Regazzoni. And foreigners? It is said that Peterson, who with Schenken had won two races in the World Sports Championship, will leave Ferrari and March (for which he races in Formula 1) in favor of Lotus, which demands exclusive contracts. The same fate befalls Peter Schetty. The water is a beautiful clear blue, a small swimming pool set in the greenery of the park of the eighteenth-century villa in Tradate, where two dogs play on the grass with some children and Peter Schetty is relaxed. On Monday 7 August 1972 Peter will return to Maranello to prepare to manage the trip to Zeltweg, for the Austrian Grand Prix. It will be his fourth to last Formula 1 race as Ferrari sporting director. In December, at the end of his contract, he will leave the team and this position to return to his family in Basel.
"It was not the events of recent days nor the downsizing of the 1973 sports program that led me to this decision. It matured earlier, and only for family reasons. I am an only child and my father needs me. He is 63 years old and wants to retire. We have a textile industry and a plastics industry in Switzerland. These are sectors that I know little about and I need an internship of at least two years to then be able to work in them peacefully. I had to stop racing, unfortunately".
It is a decision that reason approves, and the heart does not. Schetty, first of all, is someone who loves motor sport. Four years as a driver and two in the demanding role of Ferrari's sporting director - perhaps the most complete and competent sporting director Maranello has ever had - have not extinguished this passion of his, despite the bitter or sad moments experienced in Italy and abroad.
"I would be very happy not to completely detach myself from racing. It would cost me too much to break up completely. Enzo Ferrari asked me to lend a hand, every now and then, to Ferrari. I think I will do it, also because I learned many things in Maranello, as a sports manager and as a man".
Schetty is determined not to offer his experience as a leading organizer to others (this gift was one of the factors in Ferrari's success in the World Sports Championship), despite some interesting requests. We know of a secret contact with Alfa Romeo, but Matra-Simca, which is restructuring its racing department, also turned to him. During competitions, this thirty-year-old Swiss man who has two degrees and knows four languages has earned himself esteem and respect: first - and this is very important and significant - by the men of the team, the drivers in the lead, then by the opposing teams.
"As a man, I went through the most terrible moment last year in Argentina when Ignazio Giunti died. We were often together in Modena and I considered him a true friend. It was a pain. But then again, every time I race I'm scared for whoever gets in the car. For me, safety problems are solved above all with the construction of suitable circuits, such as those at Le Castellet, Nivelles and now Misano".
And Adds:
"Which have lots of space on the sides of the track. As sporting director I had to carry out the most unpleasant operation yesterday: preparing the texts in English of the telegrams with which Ferrari announced to its drivers its intention to release them. It's not up to me to judge this Ferrari-Fiat decision. As sports director, however, I believe that racing with only one sport seriously undermines any possibility of winning in the World Sports Championship. And it's a shame, because it would be in the company's interest to establish itself. This year they said we had no rivals. In 1973 they will argue that, since our adversaries had strengthened, we preferred to give up the battle. In Formula 1 the situation is less compromised: after all, Lotus is winning the title with a single car and a single driver, Emerson Fittipaldi. What does Walker count?"
In fact, Ickx will have a car all to himself plus a training car and will be able to participate in every round of the World Championship with reasonable hopes, given the developments of the 312-B2 (and it is logical to assume that the new B3 will retain and exploit the positive experiences gathered this year, without going down paths that are too new and original). In the World Sports Championship, Ickx should be able to count on Andretti for the American races. And for the European ones? There are many voices: some say Redman, some suggest Carlos Pace. Of course, it would be better not to let Arturo Merzario escape, who is also a good test driver.
"This year we worked a lot, and we had some pleasant moments. I think the best was the duel between Peterson and Ickx at the end of the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. It was pure sport, with two drivers fighting on equal terms, that is, relying on identical machines and being able to benefit from identical assistance. Ickx was very good".
Schetty doesn't want to make predictions about Formula 1, where Ickx still has some chance (more theoretical than practical, let's be honest) of taking the title from Fittipaldi.
"In Austria we will do everything possible to confirm the victory at the Nurburgring. The improvements made to the 312-B2 by our technical team, and primarily by Colombo, Ferrari and Rocchi, were significant. We are working in the right direction and I hope that this will continue in 1973, when I will be a simple admirer or, at most, a consultant of Ferrari".
The consultancy should take the form of Schetty's participation in international meetings between manufacturers, in maintaining relationships with race organizers and in assisting the team in particularly demanding races. Given the reduced programme, Schetty probably won't even be replaced: Giacomo Caliri and Giorgio Ferrari, technical managers of sports and Formula 1, should be sufficient, perhaps with the help of a good secretary.
"These are problems that don't concern me. Now I'm resting and from Monday I will think about the Austrian Grand Prix".
Already, in only its third year, the Austrian Grand Prix is accept by everyone. Already it is a classic event that no-one wants to miss. Probably it is due to there being nothing before, unlike the new Paul Ricard circuit, which has to justify being the replacement for Reims, Rouen or Clermont-Ferrand, or the Belgian Nivelles circuit, which has to justify being the replacement for Spa-Francorchamps. Even the Jarama circuit has to justify its alternate replacement for Barcelona, and the rebuilt Hockenheimring tries to justify being the replacement or Nurburgring and the Solitude circuit.
The Osterreichring don’t have to justify itself, its whole conception is right from the start, and the more people who visit it the more people realize that true Grand Prix racing does not have to follow the clinical and dull dictates that originate from America and produce such marvels as the Paul Ricard circuit in France, and the Nivelles circuit in Belgium. Maybe I do bang on a bit on this subject, but I believe in European Grand Prix racing that is born on the road, and I will fight to the last foot of Armco barrier to defend what I feel is right, and for me the Ostereichring is right, in a truly modern context. Not only did everyone enter for the Austrian Grand Prix, but nearly everyone turn up, except Reine Wisell, who is enter by one hand of the Marlboro-B.R.M. complex, and drop by the other hand. The only other non-starter is the new Surtees car, for reasons explain elsewhere. On Thursday afternoon, before the race, there is free practice for anyone who want it and it was a rather pleasant and mutely affair, with no time-keeping, nothing to win or lose, the sponsors admen haven’t arrive and everyone is refreshing and relax and almost human. Team Lotus has send a small group with 72D/R5 as an advance guard and Fittipaldi is carrying out experiments with a very neat cover over the engine which deflect air down to the rear oil cooler, and Walker is waiting in vain for a drive in the car. Ferrari has their full team of cars and drivers out practising, and March were experimenting with a new nose cowling. The new Tyrrell 005 is having its front brakes assemble on the hubs, instead of inboard, and meanwhile Stewart is getting in a lot of laps with 003, repair after its mild accident at the Nurburgring. The serious business of practice begin at 2:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon, until 6:00 p.m. with a 30 minute break to remove any wreckage and sweep up the mess, as it says in the regulations. Last year, Siffert holds the lap record at 1'38"47, and with twelve months of engine development, chassis development and tyre development, at least one whole second is expect to be chop off this time. During the first part of the afternoon it is incredibly hot, and engines are having difficulty in breathing, but as the sun begins to go down conditions are more favorable and some very fast times begin to appear.
As one will expect Stewart is pace setting with the new Tyrrell, but quietly and almost unnoticed Peter Revson is also going incredibly quickly in the brand new McLaren, indicating that the workers at Colnbrook know how to build a racing car. After a lot of hit-and-miss adjustments between rear aerofoil angle and rear wheel camber angle, the Lotus team arrive at a compromise on their spare car, 72D/R5, that suits Emerson Fittipaldi and he records 1'35"97 just before practice finishes, which puts into the shade the 1'36"35 of Stewart with Tyrrell 005, and the 1'36"98 of Revson. As can be seen from the accompanying table of practice times, Peterson, Ganley, Amon, Hulme, Hill, Ickx and Regazzoni all improves on the old lap record, but the pace-makers have already establish times of under 1'37"0 as being in the A category, so beating the old record is child’s play, or should have been. Ganley’s time of 1'37"55 put things into perspective in the B.R.M. team, and Hill is very happy with the new gearbox in his Brabham, as his time of 1'38"14 suggest. Hailwood don’t keep going until the cool of the evening as his clutch gives out, and Schenken is abandon out on the circuit when an electrical fault burn out the ignition unit. Before the afternoon cool everyone’s progress is slow up by the Connew splitting its oil tank and lubricating the circuit, and Gethin’s B.R.M. is spilling liquid on left handers. The new Tyrrell have the air scoops to the side oil radiators extend with sheets of aluminium, and the Ferrari engineers are very distraught as vapour-locking occure in the most unlikely places in the fuel system, and air bubbles in the Lucas fuel injection unit do not make for a clean pick-up. Henri Pescarolo crashing Frank Williams’ March 721 is no longer news, whatever the cause, and it goes almost unnotice, while Ickx abandons his Ferrari with a dead fuel system and continues with the spare car. Fittipaldi is fast all the time, but fastest of all with the spare-car, and Revson is either exceptionally good, or the others are all exceptionally bad; it is difficult to decide. Jacky Ickx is the man of the moment, where the Austrian Grand Prix, the ninth episode of the Formula 1 World Championship, takes place on Sunday 13 August 1972. Ickx won the previous race at the Nurburgring and remained, at least for now, the the only Ferrari driver who scaled back his sporting activity 1973.
"I'm happy I didn't have to leave Ferrari. We've been together for three years, or five if we don't count the short season with Brabham. I feel like an integral part of Maranello and I don't want to race for other manufacturers. I am convinced of one thing: if one day I manage to win the title of World Champion, that day I will be behind the wheel of a Ferrari. It's either this or nothing".
And he adds:
"And I'm sure of another thing: our car is on its way to being the strongest in Formula 1. Today we had some problems due to the high temperature, with vapor-lock phenomena in the fuel system. It is a contingent fact, also suffered by other single-seaters. The 312-B2 is now competitive, like the Lotus or the Tyrrell. Another version, the B3, is under construction. I hope it can offer even more valid results, but I hope it doesn't present too bold solutions. The classic ones are better: you go safer".
So he continues:
"Rather the real problem of Formula 1 is this: every race represents something unique. No one - technician or pilot - is certain of what will happen. The cars are never guaranteed. The same car and the same racer can perform magnificently on one circuit and not perform as well on another. It's clear that I hope to be able to go as well on Sunday as at Brands Hatch or the Nurburgring. Also for these reasons it is important that there is complete agreement within the team. Drivers, technicians and mechanics must understand each other to work faster and better. This is what is currently happening at Ferrari and I am very sorry that Peter Schetty is leaving his role as sporting director. Peter has done a great job for the team both in terms of organization and internal and external relations".
How did it feel to be the only Ferrari driver for 1973?
"The fact that Enzo Ferrari confirmed me is a source of pride for me. It means that there is trust and consideration towards me. Participating in a world championship without teammates is a double-edged sword. On the one hand there is an undoubted advantage, because every care will be dedicated to your machine and the technical staff will work only for you; responsibility increases significantly. Woe betide you. However, one fact is also true: in Formula 1 there can be two or three of you, but the fastest always wins the Grands Prix and the titles. In this sense we can say that just one driver is enough".
Could it be Ickx?
"I hope so, but I think there are no more possibilities for this year. Fittipaldi will be fine with one or two placings. However, we will be able to obtain some satisfaction".
On Saturday, the heat is greater than ever, and practice is bringing forward from 2:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., ending at 4:30 p.m., instead of 6:00 p.m. Consequently, there is no hope of anyone doing any super-fast laps, due to the high temperature. Hulme and Revson both use the spare McLaren, and Beltoise uses the spare B.R.M., but March don’t use their experimental car anymore. Everyone is struggling to get below 1'38"0 and as the afternoon heat continues it is clear that most of the starting grid positions have been decide. Once again, Revson is smoothly fast, confirming the previous day’s impressions, and Fittipaldi is fast in both his cars. Right at the end of practice, Regazzoni is running on some well establish Firestone tyres, and the fuel system stops playing-up for a short time, which allows him to get a lap in 1'36"04, fastest of the afternoon. By the time he see the pit signals requesting him to stop so that the well-worn tyres can be put on lckx’s car, practice finishes, which don’t make him too popular in some circles. With the Tyrrell pit being at the beginning of the row of pits, Stewart is able to do some fantastic practice starts as he set off out of the pit lane, but the tyre marks from the spinning back wheels will have depress a drag-racing enthusiast, and should have cause the designer of the rear suspension some worrying thoughts on geometry, for the rear wheels appear to ride up onto the outside edges of the tyres.
Beltoise has his B.R.M. engine break on him and Beuttler spin off and damage the rear end of his March, necessitating robbing the spare works car of bits to made the Stock-broker Special race-worthy. Apart from Pescarolo, whose March can’t be repaired, everyone is in the race, and on Sunday morning there is a free-for-all practice session for those who want it. The engine in the new Matra blows up, necessitating some frantic work in the paddock to install another one, while the injection system on Beuttler’s Cosworth engine go wrong when the car start up, preventing him trying the-car after its rebuild. Stewart was out in Tyrrell 005 wearing the vast air intake over the engine with which he intends to race, and the funny handling on Pace’s March is traces to the wrong tyres being use. Clay Regazzoni, with Ferrari, was the fastest on this second day of testing for the Austrian Grand Prix, coming close to the time set on Friday by Emerson Fittipaldi with Lotus: 1'36"04 versus 1'35"97. A performance that would rejoice the fans of the Maranello team if it had not been achieved with tires of a particular type, which cannot be used in racing, and if a serious question did not remain about the efficiency of the 312-B2's fuel system. Furthermore, Regazzoni's use of the super tires caused a bit of a row between lckx, the team managers and Clay himself, accused of not having given up the tires in time, of which there was only one set available , to the Belgian companion. Even today the thermometer exceeded 30°C and few riders improved their times compared to Friday. Ickx and Regazzoni were once again forced to make long stops in the garage, punctuated by discussions between engineer Giorgio Ferrari, head of the Formula 1 sector, and engineer Sandro Colombo, the supervisor, and by the frenetic work of the mechanics in blue overalls. The inconvenience in itself is very banal and also happens to normal cars in the summer period: air bubbles form in the fuel system pipes which prevent the petrol from flowing from the tank to the engine regularly. The consequences are clear: the car shudders, seems to stop, then suddenly starts again. Boring consequences in a touring car, let alone in a single-seater whose driver is busy going as fast as possible. On Friday night, to remedy the defect, the Maranello team technicians had mounted an additional electric pump on the 312-B2 of Ickx and Regazzoni. The precaution was not enough. A few laps and lckx returned to the garage.
"It's not okay, it's not okay".
He said, and Regazzoni expressed the same comment. So, here's an emergency solution. The mechanics removed the gearbox oil cooling radiator and replaced it with another one, connecting it to the petrol pipes. Work time: 35 minutes; they are few in relation to the complexity of the operation, but many compared to the overall duration of the tests (three hours). The situation improved, but only partially, so much so that in the end a pipe to vent vapors from the fuel tanks was added to Ickx's 312-B2. The last comment on the situation was rather negative:
"We don't know what will happen tomorrow. Tonight we will have to study other measures. It wasn't a bad thing for us to find ourselves in such precarious conditions".
Naturally, between one interval and another of the vaporlock drama, Ickx and Regazzoni continued the general set-up of their single-seaters, trying to improve the times. And this operation led to a disagreement between Ickx, Regazzoni and the team. Firestone, the company that supplies tires to Ferrari, had brought a single set of special tyres, with a very soft compound, for the Maranello team. They are used to mark the time in qualifying: their characteristics allow the car to perform better with the same driver, road surface, etc., but they cannot be used in the race because they deteriorate rapidly, after just five or six laps. Who should they be addressed to in order to achieve better alignment at the start? To Ickx or to Regazzoni? Peter Schetty, Ferrari's sporting director, first asked the Belgian if he wanted to fit these super tyres. Ickx preferred to wait to continue setting up the car and use the tires when it was in optimal conditions. And then, as the end of the tests approached, the special tires were entrusted to Regazzoni, with the order to complete only three laps: one for reconnaissance, one for launch and one for the time.
This way, Ickx could also use them. Regazzoni did not respect team orders, did six laps and made the most of his four tyres. Says Peter Schetty:
"We showed him the pit sign three times, but he continued".
Regazzoni apologizes by stating:
"I didn't think I had achieved a good performance and I didn't stop before I achieved it".
Clear, right? When Clay finally returned to the box, it was too late. There were seven or eight minutes left before training stopped and Ickx, furious, refused to get back into the car. A Ferrari, therefore, a little tense and uncertain on the eve of this ninth round of the Formula 1 World Championship. We believe that everything will be resolved with a good performance, but those fuel systems are a problem. Thus, only Emerson Fittipaldi and Jackie Stewart remain as the sure protagonists of the race. The Brazilian has 43 points in the standings compared to the Scot's 27. A success would give him the certainty (not mathematical but practical yes) of winning the World Championship. On sunday, August 13, 1972, the start of the Austrian Grand prix is due at 3:00 p.m.. For three days people have been pouring into the Zeltweg plain many of them camping in the fields around the circuit, the beer tents, the hot-dog stalls and the fair-ground doing enormous trade from them, and by the time the Grand Prix cars come out into the pit road the crowd estimates vary from 100.000 to 150.000, and whichever limit you accept there are a lot of people about the place. The grid is due to line up in offset pairs and whatever choice he makes Fittipaldi is on the front row for he is fastest on Friday in R5 and second fastest on Saturday in R7, Regazzoni being between the two Lotus times. The Brazilian decides to use his spare car R5. After a warm-up lap the cars assemble on the dummy grid with mechanics and team-managers protecting their cars and drivers from the heat of the sun with umbrellas and sheet, and at the signal from the time-keepers the 25 cars moved forward to the starting line, ready for 54 laps of the undulating and extremely hot 5.911 kilometres of the Osterreichring. From the outside of the second row Stewart make the sort of start of which Regazzoni will have be proud.
The blue Tyrrell left the Line like a rocket, dived across to the right behind Regazzoni’s Ferrari, in front of Revson’s McLaren and join the front row on the inside almost before some of the slower backmarkers have got their clutches home. Three abreast, Fittipaldi, Regazzoni and Stewart accelerate up the steep hill from the starting area, and it is the blue Tyrrell that take the lead over the brow. Regazzoni is in second place with a howling mob behind him, many of them undecide about their immediate future! The red Ferrari is in trouble with its injection system and is hesitating out of the corners, giving those behind some anxious moments, and the order of the queue is Fittipaldi, Hulme (after a super start almost matching Stewart’s), Reutemann, Revson, Amon, Schenken, Hailwood, Peterson and Hill. For four laps Fittipaldi sat a discreet distance behind Regazzoni and then on lap five he see his chance and dive past, into second place, but already the fleeing Stewart was nearly out of sight. Slowly but surely, the black and gold Lotus begin to close the gap on the blue Tyrrell, and the rest are left behind still trying to find a way round Regazzoni’s Ferrari that is far from being on top form. The other Ferrari is running equally badly and poor lckx is down in fourteenth place, only just ahead of the Tecno. Hulme got by Regazzoni on lap 9 and then everyone go by and at the end of eleven laps the Ferrari is in the pits having water pour over the petrol cooler and the petrol pumps, to try and cure the vapor locking. Apart from the excitement among the leaders in the first ten laps all manner of happenings are going on with the rest of the runners. Walker’s engine in his Lotus blew up in a cloud of smoke on lap seven. Stommelen stops for repairs to the Eifelland bodywork on his March. Wilson Fittipaldi find a foreign object kicking about among the pedals, and stop to throw it out.
Pace has his fuel pressure gauge burst and cover him in petrol, necessitating a long stop for repairs and a change of overalls, and de Adamich is in trouble with a plug lead that don’t want to stay fasten. With Regazzoni out of the way, things sort themselves out, with Stewart conscious that the chisel nose of the Lotus 72 is getting ever closer, Hulme in third place and Peterson up into fourth place from seventeenth position on the opening lap. Charging past the tail-enders seems to be the Swedish driver’s good point; passing the faster drivers is another matter altogether. Hailwood has consolidate himself in fifth place, ahead of Reutemann and Revson. The American driver’s McLaren, is coughing at the wrong moments which is making things difficult for him. Regazzoni rejoin the race for a few laps but then give up the unequal struggle, and at twenty laps, after he has been pass by the Tecno and then by Lauda, poor Ickx joins his team-mate in the paddock and 30.000 Italian spectators begin to drift away from the circuit with a feeling of having been cheate. Reutemann has been force to give up when the fuel injection system on his Cosworth engine goes wrong, and Hill’s Cosworth engine begin popping and banging. Migault is running in last place with Connew but quietly getting on with his first Grand Prix, and is lap by the leaders at 13 laps. By 23 laps Fittipaldi has closes right up on Stewart, but Hulme has also closes up on indicating that Stewart is somehow slowing the pace. As the Connew finishes its twenty-second lap part of the left rear suspension breaks away from the chassis and the car swoops across the road and this takes everyone’s attention so that they hardly notice that Fittipaldi has taken the lead from Stewart, and Hulme is challenging for second place. When Hulme got past the Tyrrell with little opposition on lap 27 it is obvious that all isn’t well with the blue car. It is beginning to steer at both ends, suggesting that something is aiming adrift in the rear suspension, and from a dominant leading position Stewart has dropes to third place with not much hope of holding on to it, as Peterson isn’t far behind. At 30 laps Fittipaldi’s first place look secure enough, except that Hulme isn’t losing any ground, and there is an ominous solid look about the McLaren as it follows the Lotus round, and Revson in the second McLaren is beginning to put the pressure on Peterson’s March as they close up on the stricken Tyrrell.
Among the non-winners there are all manner of troubles arising. Schenken get a puncture in his left front tyre and stops to have it change, and then imagine he has a puncture in his left rear tyre on the next lap. Both rears are change and he is send on his way. Galli stops with the Tecno, after an excellent wheel-to-wheel race with Cevert’s Tyrrell, which amuse the Italian driver immensely but depresses the Frenchman. An oil cooler on the Tecno is coming adrift from its mountings, and after it is fixs he rejoin the race, but it had not been noticed that an oil pipe had also cracked, so he was destined to visit the pits again bit later on. Wilson Fittipaldi is in trouble with a broken brake pipe and Hill retired when his injection system made the engine impossible to keep going. During the time, they were lapping a lot of the slower cars Revson found a way past Peterson, and Stewart is gamely struggling to hold fifth place, but he is fighting a losing battle as the Tyrrell just would not corner properly so he is losing speed down the straight that followed. With 40 laps gone it is painfully clear that Hulme have got the measure of Fittipaldi, the McLaren cornering much better on left hand bends than the Lotus, but the Lotus being faster on top speed. The two cars circulates barely one and a half seconds apart, the swarthy Hulme pushing relentlessly, but knowing there was no possibility of getting by unless the young Brazilian make a mistake. Similarly Fittipaldi knows he is safe providing his Lotus don’t go wrong, but he has little in hand and the gap fall as small as half a second with ten laps still to run. Colin Chapman and his crew are looking very worry and ill at ease as the McLaren got closer and closer, but they under-estimated their protégé, driving in only his third season of Grand Prix racing as though he has doing it for ten years. As the laps tick off on anxiously study lap charts, and stop watches measure the gap that is so small that telling Fittipaldi he is 0.6 ahead seems pointless. The McLaren pit is all smiles, with their cars in second and third places, as well they maybe. Meanwhile the Tyrrell pit is a sea of gloom, for in the closing laps Stewart is being overtaken by everyone. Hailwood goes by, then Amon in the Matra and then Ganley in the first of the B.R.M.s. To add to the Tyrrell despair Cevert has been lap, and after his battle with Galli in the Tecno he is struggling to stay ahead of Lauda, and the Frenchman hadn’t been switch on all weekend.
They got some consolation when they find they aren't alone in trouble, for Peterson’s Cosworth engine fuel system starts playing up with the fluctuating fuel pressure, and he falls back rapidly, being pass by Hailwood, Amon, Ganley and even Stewart. The last car on the same lap as the leaders is the B.R.M. of Beltoise, and when he go by the ailing March, Peterson give up and stop at the pits with only three laps to go, and then stagger off again to limp to the finish. The Tecno is also creeping round as its water temperature is very high and Galli is keeping going with his fingers cross. The relief in the Lotus pit can be feel as the black and gold car appears out of the Jochen Rindt curve and Fittipaldi crosses the line, arm held-high in salute as he chalks up yet another Grand Prix victory in his outstanding 1972 season. What was feared happened. The Ferraris of Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni were forced to retire due to problems with the fuel system, leaving the way free for Emerson Fittipaldi and Jackie Stewart. The Brazilian won and now has the World Champion title within reach. Stewart was unable to counter him due to the progressive loss of stability of his Tyrrell and sadly slipped back, leaving Hulme and the McLaren with the task of stopping Emerson. Not even Hulme, who followed the black-gold Lotus for a long time, could overtake Fittipaldi. And the Austrian Grand Prix, the ninth round of the Formula 1 World Championship, ended with the usual scene of celebration by Colin Chapman and the Lotus clan and with the invasion of the track by jubilant South American fans, for whom Emerson and like Pelé, o rey of motoring. In recent days the Ferrari technicians had come up with many solutions to resolve the power supply drama. After the tests, in the night between Saturday and Sunday, Sandro Colombo and Giorgio Ferrari had decided to abolish the additional electric pump and to leave the petrol cooling radiator instead. The pre-race training sessions on Sunday morning had given rise to hope. The problem seemed to have been resolved. An illusion, unfortunately. Ickx and Regazzoni evidently hadn't pushed the cars enough nor was the temperature very high. A few minutes before the start, however, it had risen to 35 °C (43 °C the asphalt level). This factor, combined with the particular characteristics of the Zeltweg circuit, undulating and fast, with few accelerations-decelerations, once again blocked the 312-B2. The two pilots explain:
"There is no pressure, the petrol doesn't reach the engine and when this joke happens on a bend, you have to be afraid, because you can't get the car back".
And engineer Forghieri adds:
"We tried everything to give Ickx and Regazzoni the chance to race in the best conditions. This fuel system has always proven reliable: we have been installing it since mid-1970 and it has never given us any trouble. It's the same as Brands Hatch or the Nurburgring, where our: U2-B2s performed very well. I can hardly believe that five or six degrees of higher temperature were enough to put him in crisis. It's a matter of low and high fuel pressures in the system, ebbs and flows of gasoline, with vapor buffer formations. Now, unfortunately, we just have to re-study the problem in Maranello".
While the Ferrari mechanics dismantled the garage equipment, on the track Stewart tried to resist Fittipaldi's assault. But Austria doesn't bring him luck: last year he had to withdraw, but on the other hand he had obtained the title at the same time. And the final balance is entirely in favor of the Brazilian, with positive notes for McLaren and for Surtees, who achieved a satisfying fourth place with Hailwood. As for the Ferraris, the Austrian Grand Prix is not very comforting for the two Italian drivers competing, Andrea de Adamich and Nanni Galli. The first was forced to stop in the pits three times to have the spark plugs of his Surtees changed, the second had to stop due to the failure of the rear wing attachment which broke a pipe of the Tecno-Martini lubrication system resulting in withdrawal. Too bad, because they were doing quite well. Now, once this Austrian Grand Prix has concluded, with many Italian fans and many spectators in swimsuits, it is the turn of the Italian Grand Prix, in Monza, on Sunday 10 September 1972. For Fittipaldi, a fourth place (i.e. three points) will be enough to obtain the world title, also for mathematics.
Of course, if this Italian native, who on the eve of the races promises to go slowly and aim only for a placing, behaves in the same way in Monza, obtains the most beautiful triumph in the land of his ancestors, this should not displease anyone. He would be the youngest rider to win the World Championship at 25 years old. Jackie Stewart was right at the beginning of the season.
"I'm afraid that Fittipaldi will take the title away from me".
There are still three races left until the conclusion of the Formula 1 world championship, but that Fittipaldi has now ousted the clever Jackie from the throne. A new king is born. Or Rey, as Brazilian fans say when comparing Emerson Fittipaldi to Pelé, football's number one. A king who is just 25 years old and who has made a rapid and dazzling rise in the world of racing: in sixteen months he went from the wheel of a Formula Ford Merlyn (a formula for young people, like our Formula Italia) to that of an official Formula 1 Lotus, in nineteen he achieved his first success in a Grand Prix. It was October 1970, in the United States. With that victory Fittipaldi ideally gave the world title to Jochen Rindt, the Lotus driver who crashed on a sad Saturday in Monza. Now, O Rey is him, little Rato, the mouse. With a cunning ferret's face, protruding teeth, a tuft always over his eyes, Emerson received this nickname as a boy, when he slipped between the cars of the team for which his brother, Wilson, known as Tigron, who was three years his senior, raced. Already. because in Formula 1 there is not just one Fittipaldi: they are a tribe, a laminar clan, with father, mother, wives, friends and fans. The samba against the background of the piercing scream of the engines. If Emerson is the first Lotus driver, Wilson has a contract with Brabham. Both are married and live together in Lausanne. With them, their father, a sports journalist and radio and TV commentator for a large Brazilian station. It is he who transmits his children's businesses to South America and acts as an advisor to both. A vigorous and lively man, the Fittipaldis express themselves correctly in Italian, with a strong Portuguese-Brazilian accent. Emerson and Wilson's father explains:
"We are originally from Basilicata. But it is a very distant ancestry, which dates back to the nineteenth century. It was my grandfather's family that moved to Sao Paulo and my father was already born in Brazil. However, in Italy, we still have relatives and we feel tied to this country by a lot of affection and sympathy".
Moreover, it is known that the South American clan does not like the English of Lotus very much and that everyone's dream was Ferrari. Given how things are going in Formula 1, reality is better than the dream.
"Every house has its problems. We had some last year. Previously Cosworth didn't supply us with the engines, as the rear suspension was faulty. The torsion bar, as it progressively hardened, caused a violent rolling effect which made road holding precarious. It was almost impossible to drive. Chapman later added a rubber element and solved the situation. This year I feel like I'm carrying a streetcar. The Ferraris have better acceleration, but the Lotuses are superior in corners. Fortunately".
Fittipaldi doesn't consider himself a complete driver.
"We're waiting for Monza before celebrating the title. However, I still have many things to learn. Stewart, for example, manages to fine-tune his car very quickly. He is a good test driver. And at the start straight away, he's hot from the start, while I need him a few laps to find the right rhythm with the Lotus' tanks full of petrol. Compared to last year, however, I have improved: I have found my limits and those of my car. This means I can make full use of it".
Rato, in reality, is a modest boy. Friends maintain that he has the determination of a Rindt and the brain of a Stewart, impetus and reason, in short. And the judgment seems very happy to us. In these years Fittipaldi had few accidents (in 1070, in January, driving a prototype Alfa Romeo he ended up against a guardrail and in September, the day before Rindt's death, he flew parabolic off the track in Monza), and the most serious not at the racetrack, but in France, returning home after a race at Le Castellet. Emerson suffered a fractured sternum and his wife Maria Elena lost the child he was expecting. The then almost World Champion also uses seat belts when riding in the city. Having joined the steering committee of the Drivers' Association, Fittipaldi carefully follows safety problems and believes that more or less all circuits are unsuitable for Formula 1 racing. However, the safety of competitions is not him an obsession. Like many South Americans (and Latins) he is a bit fatalistic and very superstitious. Maria Elena explains that Emerson hates the numbers 22 and 13 and that he would never drive a car with those numbers on the sides. Instead, he cheerfully took on the color that the tobacco company financing Lotus imposed on the cars (and the mechanics): black and gold,
"It brings good luck”.
He says laughing.