The 100 Most Remembered GPs of All Time: Spanish GP 1975

di Matteo Bramati7 May, 2014

The 1975 Spanish Grand Prix was held as usual on the Montjuic circuit. In fact, every year this track and the Jarama circuit alternated, and that year it was the turn of the track located near Barcelona. The safety of this track was never a strong point, and the drivers, who knew it, were ready to protest if the track conditions were not improved. In this regard, a few weeks before the GP, Jean Pierre Beltoise, representing the GDPA, visited the circuit and suggested installing an additional level of guard rails in order to prevent the cars from flying off the track. These measures were thus taken in view of the race.

When the weekend of the grand prix arrived, however, the controversies had not yet subsided, and the drivers decided not to take to the track for the tests scheduled for Friday: only a couple of cars made some fast laps. What scared them was the danger of the poorly mounted guard rails. Emerson Fittipaldi, the most avid of the protests, went for an inspection on Saturday morning, but found that the situation had not changed, although it had been decided to reassemble the guard rails in every part of the track, even with the help of the mechanics of the various stables. At this point the drivers' front was also split in two: those belonging to the GDPA threatened not to want to drive for that weekend, while those not belonging to the association, however, pushed for the race to take place.

In the end the decision was made to race, also due to some threats from the organizers of the GP, who would have kept the teams' cars stationary in Spain if they refused to race. So the pilots took to the track at dawn at 16pm. Emerson Fittipaldi, however, decided to do it his way, and continue with his protest: he went onto the track completing the obligatory three laps at reduced speed, then returned to the pits and no longer took part in that weekend's race. The qualifying session saw Niki Lauda take pole, and the line-up behind him was as follows: Regazzoni, Hunt, Andretti, Brambilla, Watson, Depailler, Pryce, Stommelen, Jarier, Mass, Peterson, Schekter, Pace, Reutmann, Ickx and so on…

Sunday's race was a real battlefield. During the first lap, 6 drivers retired: Regazzoni, Lauda, Andretti and Brambilla were victims of an accident caused by the latter at the start, the only one who was able to restart was Andretti. Depailler, however, retired due to a suspension problem, while Wilson Fittipaldi and Arturo Merzario voluntarily returned to the pits and abandoned the race to protest about the track conditions.

Just on the fourth lap Scheckter's Tyrrell blew its engine and flooded the track with oil, causing Jones and Donohue to crash. Shortly afterwards James Hunt also retired due to an accident due to an oil slick. At this point the top three were Andretti, Watson and Stommelen: Watson felt strong vibrations in his car and was forced to retire. Andretti, however, began to drop in the standings due to a suspension problem. Tom Pryce and Tony Brise were also forced to retire after they hit each other.

But the drivers' misadventures during that race were not over yet. On the twentieth lap the ranking was: Stommelen, Pace, Peterson, Mass, Ickx. But already on the twenty-fourth lap another driver abandoned the race: it was Peterson who hit a lapped car.

On lap twenty-six, however, what every driver had avoided all weekend happened. Stommelen's car suddenly lost its rear wing in the middle of the straight, his car skidded, touched the barriers at the side of the track, then crossed the road again, crashing into the barriers on the other side of the track and flying between the crowd. The result was 4 deaths among the spectators, while the pilot escaped unharmed. The race was suspended shortly thereafter, but in the chaos of those laps Pace left the scene due to the wreckage of the Stommelen accident, and Mass managed to take the lead.

The decision was made to stop the race due to the severity of the accident. So the winner was the German Jochen Mass. The tragedy that took place in the stands was the last act of a circuit that at the time was unacceptable from a safety point of view, and in fact Montjuic was no longer chosen to host the Spanish GP. The score, for the first time in the history of Formula 1, was halved, as three-quarters of the race had not been completed. Furthermore, it was the first victory by a German driver since the last one by Von Trips fourteen years earlier, and the last before the Schumacher era, and it was also Jochen Mass's only victory in Formula 1. Furthermore, at the time of the interruption of the GP, Lella Lombardi, in the twenty-fourth match, was in sixth place, and was therefore honored with a symbolic half point, which still remains the record for points won by a woman in the Formula 1 championship.

In short, a race as troubled as it was strange and particular as regards the final result.

Matteo Bramati.

The 100 Most Remembered GPs of All Time

Spanish GP 1996 – The Kaiser's premiere in red

Argentine GP 1953 – Ascari Dominates in Drama

Australian GP 2005 – Physique Against All

Monaco GP 1972 – Beltoise Under the Flood

Monaco GP 1984 – The comeback of Senna and Bellof

French GP 1979 – The Epic Duel between Villeneuve and Arnoux

Monaco GP 1988 – Senna's Inexplicable Mistake

Japanese GP 1988 – Ayrton's World Joy

Japanese GP 1989 – The Race of Discord