Notes on the cars at Monza

The Elf-Team Tyrrell had sent their original car to Canada for tyre-testing in readiness for the North American races and the fourth car was not completed in time for Monza, so Stewart and Cevert had their usual cars, numbers 003 and 002, respectively. Stewart was using his in long-wheelbase form, with the 4.3 in. aluminium spacer between the engine and gearbox, and his car also had a new rear body treatment, with an inclined rear decking from the back of the cockpit to the rear of the car, with the engine inlet trumpets and air-box sticking out of the middle, making the car look like a central-seat Can-Am car; both Tyrrells had the wide-curved nose cowlings and Cevert had one of the earlier flat-nose cowlings minus fins to try in practice. Before official practice began Stevvart’s car was tried with an experimental cooling layout with the radiator right at the back of the car, the new engine cover being part of this experiment. However, it did not appear during official practice or the race, the normal front radiator being used. On the curved wide-nose cowlings experiments were carried out with tiny aluminium spoilers across the front.

The Ferrari team seemed to be in something of a muddle, for they had their three 1971 cars and a lone 1970 car for their two drivers, Ickx and Regazzoni, and though 312B/2 No. 7 was marked down as a training car for Ickx, he used the 1970 car, which was marked for Regazzoni„ and the Swiss used the latest 1971 car; their official racing numbers were on the 1971 cars they normally drive, 312B/2 No. 6 for Ickx and 312B/2 No. 5 for Regazzoni. They got in such a muddle during practice that Ickx made his fastest lap in 312B/1 No. 4, the 1970 car, and used it for the race, and Regazzoni made his fastest lap in 312B/2 No. 7, but used 312B/2 No. 5 for the race; no one seemed to notice officially. The 1971 cars had very neat new rear aerofoils that were blended into the engine cover and the oil cooler ducts.

The Gold Leaf Team Lotus gave Monza a miss officially as there is still some trouble brewing over Rindt’s accident last year, and they did not want to risk any nonsense of having cars impounded. However, the Lotus-Pratt and Whitney turbine car was there, painted in gold and black and entered by World Wide Racing, a paper-work organisation that is connected with Lotus, and Fittipaldi drove it. Apart from the new colour scheme the car was more or less as raced previously.

John Surtees is obviously going from strength to strength and had three entries with himself in a brand-new car, TS9/005, with side radiators, a full-width front cowling and a plastic air-guide under the nose. Stommelen was driving TS9/001 which Surtees used to drive, and Hailwood was entered with TS9/004. When Stommelen had his accident during the first practice the wreck was cannibalized to convert the brand-new car back to normal specification as the experimental side-radiator layout was not considered raceworthy. The two works Brabhams had small air deflectors in front of the exhaust pipes on each side of the car and quite small aerofoils, Hill being in BT34/1 as usual and Schenken in BT33/3. The Matra team returned after missing the Austrian GP with revised porting on the cylinder heads of their V12 engines, another 30 bhp. being spoken of, which if true must mean the original design work was a long way off beam. With Beltoise still under licence suspension there was only Amon to represent the French firm and he had MS120B/06 with all the latest modifications and a narrower and sleeker nose cowling and a cover over the engine blending into the rear aerofoil. The earlier 1971 car, MS120B/04, was used as a training car, without the improved bodywork.

As there was a USAC race clashing with Monza, Hulme had decided to go to America and give Monza a miss, so there was only one McLaren entry, that being the 1970 car M14A/2, fitted with a very small rear aerofoil, for Oliver, the two 1971 cars having gone to Canada. With the Monza race being a flat-out blind where engines are more important than chassis, it was felt that the 1970 car would be good enough for Oliver. The Frank Williams team had two entries but only one materialised, that being the red March 711/3 for Pescarolo. The other entry should have been the 1970 March 701/6 for Carlos Pace to drive, but there was not time to rebuild it after Trimmer had crashed it in the Oulton Park Gold Cup race.

The Yardley-BRM team were out in full force, as they had been in Austria, with the same cars and drivers, Siffert retaining P160/02, Gethin in P160/01, Ganley in P160/04 and Marko with P153/07 and P160/03 was a spare for Siffert still using the unimpressive “short-stroke” version of the V12 engine. No major changes had been made, but there were variations of guide vanes across the rear aerofoils being tried. There were also four March 711 cars being looked after by the works organisation, three of them STP-sponsored cars and one belonging to the Clarke-Mordaunt, Guthrie trio. Peterson was in 711/6 with one of the best Cosworth V8 engines March have had this year, Galli was in 711/4 and de Adamich had the Alfa Romeo-powered 711/1, the Italian engine having a new and more robust cylinder block with only three main bearings instead of five, while Beuttler completed the foursome with 711/2. In the interests of cutting down drag and gaining maximum speed the “rhinoceros” nose aerofoils were left off and very small rear aerofoils were used, quite a few changes to the suspension geometry having to be made to keep the handling and steering satisfactory.

To complete the entry there was a miscellaneous trio of private entries, comprising Jarrier with the silver March 701/9 of Hubert Hahne, the Bellasi-Cosworth V8 which first appeared last year, with Moser still driving it, and Bonnier with his old M7C/1 McLaren, now painted red with Seuderia Fillipinetti written on the side but entered by Ecurie Bonnier. In spite of FIA announcements only Bonnier and Jarrier had the regulation red rear lights on their cars.—D. S. J.