Emerson Fittipaldi and Denny Hulme were team mates at McLaren in 1974 – though the comparison does not flatter Hulme.

That was his final year in the sport, while Fittipaldi was at the peak of his powers, winning his second championship that year.

Hulme got his break in F1 through Jack Brabham, who he worked for as a mechanic before starting his first championship races in 1965. The following season was a breakthrough year for Brabham as he won the championship in his own car.

Hulme went into the 1967 season having never previously won a race. But while Brabham frequently hit trouble running new parts on his car, Hulme’s Brabham saw the chequered flag in nine out of 11 races, and it was in the top four every time. He won at Monte-Carlo and the Nürburgring, and took the title from his team mate.

With that he joined another driver running his own team – fellow Kiwi Bruce McLaren. Hulme went into the final two races of 1968 level on points with championship leader Graham Hill, but he missed out on a second title after crashing out at Watkins Glen and in Mexico – the latter an enormous shunt caused by a suspension breakage.

McLaren was killed in 1970 – the same year Jochen Rindt lost his life, which prompted Fittipaldi’s promotion at Lotus. He quickly delivered on his potential, winning his fourth career race at Watkins Glen.

But 1971 was a difficult season as the team struggled to get to grips with its new car, the 72, and Fittipaldi was briefly sidelined after being injured in a road accident. After getting a handle on the new car, he clinched the championship in 1972, becoming the youngest driver ever to do so.

Fittipaldi started 1973 with a pair of wins but came under increased pressure from new team mate Ronnie Peterson as the season wore on. Jackie Stewart claimed his title back from Fittipaldi.

That led him to cut his ties with Lotus and join McLaren. He paired up with Hulme, who had won once with the competitive new M23 in 1973. Hulme won the season-opener at Buenos Aires, but come the end of the season it was Fittipaldi who won the title in the final round.

While Hulme headed into retirement, Fittipaldi spent a second season with McLaren before making the surprise decision to drive for his brother Wilson’s team. In five years the team tasted little success, second place for Fittipaldi in Brazil in 1978 being the notable exception.

Which of these drivers should go through to the next round of the Champion of Champions? Vote for which you think was best below and explain who you voted for and why in the comments.

	Emerson Fittipaldi	Denny Hulme
Titles	1972, 1974	1967
Second in title year/s	Jackie Stewart, Clay Regazzoni	Jack Brabham
Teams	Lotus, McLaren, Copersucar, Fittipaldi	Brabham, McLaren
Notable team mates	Ronnie Peterson, Denny Hulme, Jochen Mass	Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Emerson Fittipaldi
Starts	144	112
Wins	14 (9.72%)	8 (7.14%)
Poles	6 (4.17%)	1 (0.89%)
Modern points per start1	6.90	8.39
% car failures2	25.69	25.89
Modern points per finish3	9.29	11.33
Notes	Won in his fourth F1 start	Took title off team mate Brabham in 1967
	Spent five seasons with Fittipaldi team after winning second title	Moved to McLaren the following year and came close to retaining his crown
	Formerly the youngest ever world champion	Won the first race of 1974 but retired at the end of the year
Bio	Emerson Fittipaldi	Denny Hulme

¹ How many points they scored in their career, adjusted to the 2010 points system, divided by the number of races they started
² The percentage of races in which they were not classified due to a mechanical failure
³ How many points they scored in their career, adjusted to the 2010 points system, divided by the number of starts in which they did not suffer a race-ending mechanical failure

You need an F1 Fanatic account to vote. Register an account here or read more about registering here.

Read the F1 Fanatic Champion of Champions introduction for more information and remember to check back tomorrow for the next round.

Have you voted in the previous rounds of Champion of Champions yet? Find them all here:

Champion of Champions

• Ayrton Senna voted Champion of Champions by F1 Fanatic readers
• Champion of Champions in stats
• Champion of Champions Final: Senna vs Schumacher
• Ayrton Senna vs Juan Manuel Fangio
• Michael Schumacher vs Alain Prost
• Ayrton Senna vs Jack Brabham
• Juan Manuel Fangio vs Jackie Stewart
• Alain Prost vs Niki Lauda
• Jim Clark vs Michael Schumacher
• Jack Brabham vs Lewis Hamilton

Images © Gillfoto via Flickr (Fittipaldi), Gerry Swetsky (Hulme)

Bruce McLaren driving his own car at Watkins Glen in 1966

Last world champion: Denny Hulme, 1967
Last Grand Prix winner: Denny Hulme, McLaren, Buenos Aires, 1974
Last Grand Prix starter: Mike Thackwell, RAM, Montreal, 1984
Last Grand Prix: None held

Only eight drivers from New Zealand have ever started Grands Prix. But they include a world champion, the founder of one of the great F1 teams, and a driver considered to be one of the bext never to win an F1 race.

New Zealand’s F1 history

For some reason New Zealand’s F1 drivers are notable for achieving things at young ages. Burce McLaren became the youngest driver to win an F1 race when he scored his maiden victory at Sebring in 1959. That record was only broken by Fernando Alonso 44 years later.

Mike Thackwell still holds the record for youngest driver to participate in an F1 race. He was 19 years, five months and 29 days at the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix.

Thackwell never got the break he deserved in Formula 1. However the team created by McLaren persisted long after his untimely death testing a Can-Am car in 1970. Teddy Mayer, one of the men who helped run the McLaren team in its early years and for over a decade after the death of its founder, passed away yesterday.

McLaren won four races during his career, the last of which in his own car in 1968. But another New Zealand driver had already become the country’s first champion. Denny Hulme, driving for Australian Jack Brabham’s team, beat his boss and team mate to the championship the year before. Hulme also won the Can-Am championship for McLaren after Bruce’s death.

The other noteworthy New Zealand driver to compete in Formula 1 was Chris Amon who, as well as being the fifth-youngest Grand Prix starter, is often considered one of the best drivers not to have won an F1 race. On several occasions he led races he looked certain to win, only for some bizarre fate to intervene. He led at Monza in 1971, until his visor broke, causing him to drop back. A puncture robbed him of a likely win at Clermont-Ferrand the following year. His misfortune at the wheel was matched by an uncanny ability to choose the wrong team at the wrong time.

New Zealand has never held a round of the F1 championship. However many F1 drivers competed in the Tasman series which ran during the winters of 1964-1975 at circuits in New Zealand and Australia.

New Zealand’s F1 future

New Zealand has been among the top teams in A1 Grand Prix, largely thanks to the efforts of Jonny Reid. Red has now been replaced in the team by the splendidly-monikered Chris van der Drift, who won the Formula Masters championship last year.

Their exploits brought A1GP to New Zealand at its modernised Taupo circuit, but its doubtful the circuit would be up to hosting an F1 race even if the money was there to pay for it.

Read more about Denny Hulme: Denny Hulme biography

Formula 1′s lost nations

• Formula 1’s lost nations: Austria
• Formula 1’s lost nations: South Africa
• Formula 1’s lost nations: Canada
• Formula 1’s lost nations: Argentina
• Formula 1’s lost nations: USA

Denny Hulme in a McLaren at Anderstorp in 1973

Lotus were hard to catch in 1968 - this is Graham Hill at Jarama in Spain

F1 Fanatic guest writer Andrew Tsvyk looks back at a time when the F1 season started on January 1st.

It used to be that Formula 1 was not a multi-billion dollar business, the cars were not developed by rocket scientists in sterile laboratories and there was a race on New Year’s Day.

Alright, I have to admit that racing on New Year’s Day was not common even before big money arrived in Grand Prix racing. But, as weird as it may seem nowadays, on January 1, 1968 there was a world championship race at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa.

Fable

Despite the celebrations, it was business as usual for Jim Clark, as the Lotus driver put in a typically dominant performance during qualifying, clinching a record-breaking 33rd pole position. Team mate Graham Hill and Matra driver Jackie Stewart joined Clark on the front row which, in 1968, was three cars wide. But while Hill and Stewart were separated by 0.1s, Clark was a full second faster.

Such a performance must have depressed the opposition, but Clark’s rivals had probably got used to the idea that their best chance of success would come if he hit trouble. Clark’s Lotus often suffered mechanical problems, as Colin Chapman’s creations were as fast as they were fragile. Therefore, Clark often had to relinquish race wins, where he had been leading by a lap or more.

But with Ford joining forces with Lotus in 1967, mechanical gremlins had increasingly become a thing of the past. The Lotus-Ford partnership had already proved to be a dominant combination on the other side of the Atlantic, with Clark winning the 1965 Indy 500, becoming the only driver to win both the 500 and the world championship in the same year. And with Ford’s involvement in motorsport reaching Formula 1 in the second part of the sixties, Lotus were privileged to be the first to get their hands on the new Ford-Cosworth DFV engine, which would dominate Grand Prix racing over the following 15 years.

Ford’s Formula 1 debut at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix was a fairy-tale story with Graham Hill taking pole position and Jim Clark clinching the race win. The Scot added two more triumphs to his tally in the remaining rounds of the 1967 world championship, but lost out the ultimate prize to Brabham’s Denny Hulme by ten points.

Nevertheless, Clark had every reason to be excited about the upcoming season. First of all, both the Lotus 49 and the Ford-Cosworth DFV engine had proved extremely quick from the beginning. But while teething problems spoilt a couple of races in 1967, everyone expected Chapman and Cosworth’s Keith Duckworth to solve them by the first race of 1968.

Race

The weather was beautiful on race day, which encouraged the locals to attend the show. However, with track temperatures reaching a staggering 54ºC and air temperature 33ºC in the shade, many participants were concerned not only about tyre wear, but also the reliability of their machines.

After a dominant performance in qualifying, the Lotus-Fords were expected to be untouchable in the race, at least if nothing went wrong with them. However, 28 year-old Jackie Stewart seemed to have other plans.

While both of the British racing green Lotuses had poor starts, with Clark losing the lead and Hill dropping down to seventh, Stewart blasted to the front of the field. Nevertheless, keeping Clark behind proved difficult, and when the 15 cars came nose to tail down the main straight at the end of lap one, pole-sitter Clark made a bold move on Stewart entering the first corner. With the Lotus-Fords in the class of their own in terms of top-speed throughout the weekend, Stewart was defenceless.

Having retaken the lead of the race, Clark started to pull away from his chasers. But while the Scot had no problems with doing that, his team mate, Graham Hill, had more worries. Seventh at the end of lap one, the 1962 champion had the bit between his teeth, as he tried to recover the lost ground. He soon moved ahead of John Surtees (Honda) and Chris Amon (Ferrari), setting his sights on Jack Brabham and Jochen Rindt. Graham profited from Black Jack’s misfortunes, whose engine started to misfire, and took away third place from Rindt on lap 13. After that the Englishman had an uneventful race as both Stewart and Clark were out of reach, while Rindt’s Brabham-Repco could not sustain the pace of the Lotus-Ford.

Hill overtook Stewart shortly before the Tyrrell driver was forced to retire with a broken rod on lap 43. This was a huge disappointment for the Scot who had been the only threat to Clark’s dominance. Tyrrell were using the Formula Two-based Matra MS9 for the last time, and had become the first team other than Lotus to use Cosworth engines.

Jim Clark was untouchable on the day and broke a major record with his 25th career win, eclipsing the mark set by the great Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s.

Sadly, it was also Clark’s last win. A few months later the great driver lost his life while competing in a Formula 2 race at the Hockenheimring It used to be that Formula 1 drivers raced everything that had four wheels…

Result

Local interest

More than 100,000 people attended the 1968 South African GP, but it was not only the hype of Formula 1, good weather or the new year atmosphere that encouraged the locals to watch the world’s greatest drivers in action. While there is no doubt that the locals admired the likes of Clark, Brabham and Hill, the South Africans also came to support home drivers Dave Charlton, Basil von Rooyen and Jackie Pretorius.

But while none of the locals made it to the finish, the South African fans were cheering for Rhodesian racer, John Love. They hoped he would emulate his performance of the previous year, when he led the race in a privately-entered Cooper-Climax. Love headed the field until lap 73, when a misfire forced the local hero to pit for fuel, losing the lead to Pedro Rodriguez.

Love made a total of ten world championship starts, his final effort being the 1972 South African Grand Prix. While second place would remain his best career result, the man from the country now known as Zimbabwe is famous for his exploits in the local South African F1 championship.

Accidents

The 1968 South African Grand Prix saw 14 retirements out of 23 starters and the most dramatic accident took place on lap two, when a water pipe broke on Ludovico Scarfiotti’s Cooper-Maserati. The Italian did a fine job of pulling off safely just after the Esses and quickly left the cockpit. Unfortunately, Scarfiotti received second-degree burns and was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Brenthurst.

Scarfiotti made a speedy recovery and was able to race in the following round of the world championship at Jarama in Spain, finishing third. However, he would lose his life one year later, crashing a Porsche 910 during a hillclimbing event in the German Alps, aged 34.

This is a guest article by Andrew Tsvyk. If you want to write a guest article for F1 Fanatic you can find all the information you need here.

Jim Clark in the Cosworth DFV-powered Lotus

The fourth part of our series looking at F1′s 100 winners includes four champions: Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, John Surtees and Denny Hulme.

Plus which Italian driver only won once – at home, in a Ferrari? Read on to find out.

31. Jim Clark

First win: 1962 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps
Total wins: 25
Nationality: British

Champion in 1963 and 1965, Clark was the dominant force of the mid-sixties. He surely would have been at the front of the sport for many more years had he not died in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim in 1968, a loss that shocked the motor racing world.

Clark stayed loyal to Lotus throughout his career, and though their superior speed would allow him to dominate races, poor reliability cost him many others. The 1962 championship slipped from his grasp at the final round in East London, South Africa, when he suffered an oil leak.

In 1963 he won seven times in ten starts and claimed the title. He only finished three times the following year – but he won every time he did.

In 1965 he started nine F1 races with the following results: win, win, win, win, win, win, fuel pump failure, engine failure, engine failure. That’s how dominant Jim Clark was.

Clark drove the Ford Cosworth DFV engine to victory in its first race in 1967. Though unreliability again dogged him throughout the year he looked good for the championship in the following season when he won the opening round in South Africa. But then came that fateful race at Hockenheim.

Read more about Jim Clark: Jim Clark biography

32. Dan Gurney

First win: 1962 French Grand Prix, Roeun
Total wins: 4
Nationality: American

Said to be the driver Clark feared most on the track, Gurney started his F1 career with Ferrari 1959, then moved on to BRM the following season but the car was terribly uncompetitive. Results started to come when he joined Porsche in 1961 and the next year he won for the first time at Rouen.

Porsche withdrew at the end of the season and Gurney joined Brabham. He won twice in 1964, and for 1966 he formed his own team, Anglo American Racing. When their gorgeous Eagle chassis was paired with the Weslake engine Gurney took the machine to victory at Spa in 1967.

Unable to offer any serious opposition to the Cosworth-engined cars Gurney turned to American racing in 1969 but returned to F1 the following year with McLaren following the death of founder Bruce McLaren.

33. John Surtees

John Surtees (left) beat Jack Brabham by 0.2s at Monza in 1967

First win: 1963 German Grand Prix
Total wins: 6
Nationality: British

John Surtees is the only driver to have won world championships for both motorcycles and cars: he won seven titles on his MV August before switching to F1.

He won the Formula 1 title in 1964 for Ferrari but the following year he was badly injured in a sports car crash. As he recuperated Enzo Ferrari’s advisor Eugenio Dragoni began encouraging Ferrari to give young Italian driver Lorenzo Bandini greater prominence in his driving line-up.

Angered by the political manoeuvrings, Surtees left the team. He later drove for Honda, scoring a memorable final win at Monza, before setting up his own F1 team.

Read more about John Surtees: John Surtees biography

Lorenzo Bandini

First win: 1964 Austrian Grand Prix, Zeltweg
Total wins: 1
Nationality: Italian

Bandini won only one race, at the unloved Zeltweg airfield course in Austria. He died when his Ferrari crashed into straw bales on the harbour front during the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix and erupted into flames.

35. Jackie Stewart

Jackie Stewart won from 16th on the grid at Kyalami in 1973

First win: 1965 Italian Grand Prix, Monza
Total wins: 27
Nationality: British

Stewart’s skills as a racing driver were just part of what he brought to the sport. By the time of his retirement in 1973 he had won 27 races from 99 starts and claimed three world championships.

His style was meticulous, methodical and smooth – and devastatingly effective. In thick rain and fog at the Nurburgring in 1968 he crossed the finishing line four minutes before his nearest competitor.

The following year he was champion for the first time in a Matra run by Ken Tyrrell. He couldn’t compete with Tyrrell’s first attempt at his own chassis the following year, but was champion once more in 1971 winning six times.

Illness in the form of a stomach ulcer hampered his 1972 championship effort but he still won four races. He planned to retire after his 100th start at Watkins Glen in 1973 – having already won a third title – but when team mate Francois Cevert was killed in practice for the race Stewart quit on the spot.

He remained closely involved with motor sport in various ways including commentator, ambassador and even team owner. His Stewart team won a race in 1999 before he sold it to Ford.

But his greatest contribution outside the cockpit was his passion for improving safety, a legacy of a crash at Spa in 1966 where he found himself trapped in a car with petrol leaking onto him. His efforts for the GPDA earned criticism from the likes of Pedro Rodriguez and Jacky Ickx, but from the vantage point of forty years later it is clear Stewart’s tireless efforts saved many lives.

Read more about Jackie Stewart: Jackie Stewart biography

Richie Ginther

First win: 1965 Mexican Grand Prix, Mexico City
Total wins: 1
Nationality: American

Ginther’s first – and only – win at Mexico City in 1965 was also the first win for Honda’s fledgling F1 team. That came in his sxith season of a Formula 1 career where he’d earned that unfortunate title of “good number two” – a quality driver, but not from the top drawer. After that first win he only entered six more races.

37. Ludovico Scarfiotti

First win: 1966 Italian Grand Prix
Total wins: 1
Nationality: Italian

Perhaps not the best-remembered of the drivers on this list – but what Italian racer wouldn’t want to win at Monza for Ferrari? That’s what Scarfiotti did in 1966, in only his fourth Grand Prix start. He never did a full season of F1, and died in a crash at a hillclimb in 1968.

38. Pedro Rodriguez

First win: 1967 South African Grand Prix, Kyalami
Total wins: 2
Nationality: Mexican

Pedro was two years older than brother Ricardo who also raced in F1. Despite the death of his brother in practice for the first Mexican Grand Prix in 1962, Pedro made his debut in Formula 1 the following year. After several appearances mainly in American rounds he joined Cooper in 1967 and won first time out for them in South Africa.

After switching to BRM another victory followed in 1970 at Spa. It was one of his finest wins, but dwarfed by his mighty feat in the Brands Hatch 1,000km sports car race, where he won by five laps in heavy rain. Sadly, like his brother, Pedro also died at the wheel, during a sports car race at the Norisring in Germany.

39. Denny Hulme

First win: 1967 Monaco Grand Prix, Monte-Carlo
Total wins: 8
Nationality: New Zealander

Perhaps the most understated and low-key champion ever, Hulme was famously disinterested in the glamorous trappings of professional motor sport. He came over to Europe from New Zealand in 1960 and having worked as a mechanic for Jack Brabham found his way into driving.

He first raced for Brabham’s team in 1965 and learned from his boss, team mate and mentor who was champion in 1966. But the following year Hulme claimed the title himself and then left to join McLaren.

Two further wins in 1968 kept him in the championship hunt once again but the title went to Graham Hill. Then in 1970 he crashed heavily in Indianapolis and was badly burned. He still won the Can Am champoinship for the team that year but from then on his race performances seemed to lack the edge they once had, although he did win twice more in F1. Hulme died when he suffered a heart attack during the 1992 Bathurst touring car race.

Read more about Denny Hulme: Denny Hulme biography

40. Jacky Ickx

First win: 1968 French Grand Prix
Total wins: 8
Nationality: Belgium

Certainly one of the best drivers never to be champion, Ickx was runner-up in 1969 and 1970, first with Brabham and then Ferrari.

He dazzled at the Nürburgring in 1967, setting a time good enough for third on the grid using an F2 car. Ferrari snapped him up for 1968 and he duly delivered his first win at Rouen. He switched to Brabham for 1969 and pushed Stewart hard for the title, famously beating his rival at the Nürburgring, but Stewart took the championship.

At the end of 1970, having returned to Ferrari, Ickx found himself in the unenviable position of trying to overtake championship leader Jochen Rindt in the title race, despite the Austrian having died at Monza earlier that year. Ickx admitted he was not too disappointed to have taken the title that year, although he would never come as close again.

Ickx remained with Ferrari has their poerformances vacillated in the early 1970s. But in 1973 he finally left, joining Lotus for 1974. It was terribly ill-timed, as Ferrari had a string of competitive seasons culminating in Niki Lauda winning the 1975 and 1977 titles. Ickx didn’t win in F1 again but was tremendously successful in sports cars, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours six times.

On his current run of form Felipe Massa stands a chance of achieving something very rarely seen in Formula 1: he could turn the tables on his team mate by taking the title off him the year after he won it.

The only driver to achieve this in recent F1 history is Alain Prost, who did it twice while at McLaren. In 1989 he infamously turned the tables on Ayrton Senna and took away the title the Brazilian had won in 1988 when the pair were also team mates. And in 1985 he did likewise to Nika Lauda, the year after the Austrian had pipped him to the title by half a point.

Before then you have to go back over four decades to 1967 when Denny Hulme, driving a Brabham, pinched the drivers’ title off his team mate – Jack Brabham!

As noted here earlier the drivers’ championship race has closed to just six points covering four drivers. Lewis Hamilton may sit on top of the pile but Ferrari have won the most races and in the past four events Massa has trimmed Kimi Raikkonen’s advantage over him to a single point.

It seemed unthinkable a few weeks into the season when Massa had gone off three times in two races.

Why is it so rare to see drivers in the same team take titles off each other? In Formula 1 the competitiveness of a car counts for a lot, so you might imagine it would happen more often.

In recent years we have become used to seeing the top teams focussing their efforts on a single driver – it was certainly the case for Michael Schumacher at Ferrari.

One team that have consistently bucked that trend is McLaren. Their policy on signing drivers appears to be to compile a list of the best drivers in the sport and try to sign the best two who are available.

This has had destuctive consequences in recent years: the class of 2001 – Raikkonen, Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya – all stormed out of the team on less than happy terms within 18 months of each other. Which is something else that Prost could tell us a thing or two about…

F1 Fanatic guest writer Journeyer returns with the first in a two-part look at the history of the Monaco Grand Prix.

And so we reach Monaco, Formula 1′s most famous and glamorous race – and with good reason. Barring World War II, Grands Prix has been held here for the last 80 years or so.

We won’t be able to cover all the dramatic moments that took place at this great street circuit, but in two articles today and tomorrow we will cover some of the most memorable.

1929: The first Grand Prix was held here that year, with Williams winning (a person, not the team). It was one of the first rounds included in the pre-War European Championship (a precursor to the current World Championship). The first ever qualifying session was also seen here in Monaco (in 1933, to replace the practice of drawing lots for grid slots)

But after World War II broke out the European Championship was suspended and never returned.

1955: The Monaco GP became part of the first F1 World Championship in 1950, but decided to drop out after the championship switched to F2 rules. Although they dabbled in sports cars in 1952, it finally returned to the F1 fold in 1955. In a year which saw Mercedes dominate, Ferrari pulled off an upset win courtesy of Frenchman Maurice Trintignant.

But this year is most memorable for Lancia driver Alberto Ascari’s plunge into the harbor. He swam away, but would never race in a GP again after dying in a test accident at Monza just four days later.

1961: This time, it was Ferrari dominating the season. But again, Monaco would see an upset win, courtesy of Stirling Moss driving a Lotus. He had to fight hard for it, though, as the Ferraris pushed him all the way to the flag. As for the video, it’s a rare piece of commentary from Murray Walker.

1966: While the actual 1966 race wasn’t all that memorable, the weekend as a whole was more memorable for another reason. It was the first race filmed by John Frankenheimer for the film “Grand Prix”. Check out his onboard lap of Monaco – quite a treat!

1967: This year would prove to be tragic. Lorenzo Bandini (Ferrari) was chasing race leader Denny Hulme (Brabham). But Bandini, like Alberto Ascari 12 years back, would crash out at the harbor. But unlike Ascari, Bandini simply shunted into the straw bales at the Chicane. Unfortunately, a fire in the car was made worse when it spread to the straw bales. Bandini died from the burns he sustained. Because of this incident, straw bales are banned, leaving Armco and tires as the only acceptable safety barriers.

WARNING: Some people may find this video disturbing. Discretion is advised.

1970: This was supposed to be Jack Brabham’s last GP win, and what a place it would have been to do it there. But he fell one corner short, making a mistake at the Gasworks. And champion-in-waiting Jochen Rindt took advantage to win in the Lotus – although he had to run 1 more lap, because the man holding the checkered flag was expecting Brabham, and didn’t wave it when Rindt crossed first!

1972: This was one of those Monaco GPs plagued by rain. Amid the confusion, it was BRM’s Jean-Pierre Beltoise who would escape the madness to take his one and only F1 win.

Read more about that race here: Grand Prix flashback: Monaco 1972

This would be the last GP of the old Harbor layout. By 1973, the Piscine (Swimming Pool) and Rascasse corners would be added to the circuit (thanks to some reclaimed land), while the back straight would be converted into the pitlane.

We’ll cover the memorable moments from that new layout tomorrow.

Share your experiences of visiting the Monaco Grand Prix here.

This was a guest article by Journeyer. If you’re interested in writing for F1 Fanatic look at the information for guest writers here.

For every Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or Juan Manuel Fangio – giga-stars whose names are writ large across the motor racing firmament – there are the slightly more obscure, less well known holders of the title World Drivers’ Champion.

Denny Hulme, 1967 world champion is one of these.

Before I sat down to read Eoin Young’s biography of the New Zealander I could sum up everything I knew about the man in three bullet points: he won the title in ’67 and he died of a heart attack during the 1992 Bathurst 1000.

And he won his championship in a Brabham while team mate to Jack Brabham, who can’t have been best pleased. You wonder how Fernando Alonso would have felt under the same circumstances.

This excellent book written by Eoin Young has filled in those gigantic gaps in my knowledge. It is the third in a series that includes his books on Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon (which I hope to review soon).

You couldn’t hope for a better writer on the subject than Eoin Young. He was there, he saw it all and “Memories of the Bear” is rich with riveting first-hand anecdotes.

Hulme had the kind of varied career F1 drivers had in the sixties and seventies, covering not just Formula 1 and the lower echelons but also the outrageous CanAm machinery and Indy Cars including a turbine.

Young backs up his tales with reams of quotes from Hulme and those close to him with plenty of research and details on Hulme’s humble pre-racing beginnings in his native New Zealand.

It’s a first-rate piece of work and I’m delighted to have found such a definitive title on a fascinating character I previously knew very little about. If you want to find out more about one of F1′s more unusual champions, I wholeheartedly recommend this to you.

F1Fanatic rating

£17.99
Haynes
2007
ISBN 9781844252084

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It comes after he finished runner-up in the 2003 championship (to Michael Schumacher) and in 2005 (to Fernando Alonso)

His triumph puts Finland up to fifth among the countries that have won the most championships. Finnish drivers have won four world championships, the others being Keke Rosberg in 1982 and Mika Hakkinen in 1998 and 1999.

Countries’ championships

1. Britain 12 (Mike Hawthorn, Graham Hill (2), Jim Clark (2), John Surtees, Jackie Stewart (3), James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill)
2. Brazil 8 (Emerson Fittipaldi (2), Nelson Piquet (3), Ayrton Senna (3))
3. Germany 7 (Michael Schumacher)
4. Argentina 5 (Juan Manuel Fangio)
=5. Australia 4 (Jack Brabham (3), Alan Jones)
=5. Austria 4 (Jochen Rindt, Niki Lauda (3))
=5. France 4 (Alain Prost)
=5. Finland 4 (Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen (2), Kimi Raikkonen)
9. Italy 3 (Giuseppi Farina, Alberto Ascari (2))
=10. United States 2 (Phil Hill, Mario Andretti)
=10. Spain 2 (Fernando Alonso)
=12. New Zealand 1 (Denny Hulme)
=12. South Africa 1 (Jody Scheckter)
=12. Canada 1 (Jacques Villeneuve)

Photo: Ferrari media

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Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

Will it be a glorious celebration of a worthy champion? Or yet another of F1′s sensational championship controversies?

Here’s a collection of 17 of the most memorable F1 title deciders on video – with the original commentaries where possible – from Fangio to Alonso…

1951 – Juan Manuel Fangio vs Alberto Ascari vs Jose Froilan Gonzalez

Fangio wins his first championship.

1962 – Graham Hill vs Jim Clark

Graham Hill is champion in South Africa as Jim Clark retires.

1967 – Denny Hulme vs Jack Brabham

It was a Lotus one-two but Denny Hulme won the championship from team mate – and team boss – Jack Brabham.

1969 – Jackie Stewart vs Jochen Rindt

Stewart won a thrilling dash to the line at Monza to clinch the championship as well.

1976 – James Hunt vs Niki Lauda

The notorious championship decider at Fuji Speedway in 1976 where Niki Lauda, blinded by spray, withdrew from the race and James Hunt finished third to snatch the title.

1980 – Alan Jones vs Nelson Piquet

A controversial clash between title duellists Alan Jones and Nelson Piquet saw the race stopped and restarted. Piquet retired from the second race, losing the title to Jones.

1981 – Nelson Piquet vs Carlos Reutemann

Piquet had his revenge on Williams in 1981, taking the title from Carlos Reutemann in the final round.

1983 – Nelson Piquet vs Alain Prost

Piquet’s seocnd title in 1983 came after rival Alain Prost retired from the season finale.

1985 – Alain Prost vs Michele Alboreto

Prost picked up enough points to win the championship at the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch after Michele Alboreto was forced to park his Ferrari.

1986 – Alain Prost vs Nigel Mansell vs Nelson Piquet

F1′s last three-way title decider was won by Alain Prost after Nigel Mansell suffered a sensational tyre failure.

1989 – Alain Prost vs Ayrton Senna

The first of the great acrimonious title duels. Ayrton Senna went to pass Alain Prost late in the race, but Prost turned in and hit his team mate. Senna got going again, but was controversially disqualified, making Prost champion.

1990 – Ayrton Senna vs Alain Prost

Senna didn’t mess around in 1990, taking Prost off at the first opportunity, sealing the championship for himself.

1994 – Michael Schumacher vs Damon Hill

Schumacher’s variation on the ‘eliminate your rival’ approach was a little more subtle…

1997 – Jacques Villeneuve vs Michael Schumacher

…but not always effective.

1998 – Mika Hakkinen vs Michael Schumacher

It all went wrong for Schumacher in the last race of 1998. Already delayed by having to start from the back, a puncture halfway through the race finally killed his title hopes.

2000 – Michael Schumacher vs Mika Hakkinen

Finally, in 2000, Schumacher ended Ferrari’s 21-year wait for a drivers’ champion, winning the title in style at Suzuka.

2006 – Fernando Alonso vs Michael Schumacher

It was Alonso who ended Schumacher’s five-year reign as champion, and this year he could win a third consecutive championship.

Photo: Renault media / LAT Photographic

Related links

• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part I (100-91)
• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part II (90-81)
• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part III (80-71)
• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part IV (70-61)
• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part V (60-51)
• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part VI (50-41)
• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part VII (40-31)
• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part VIII (30-21)
• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part IX (20-11)
• 100 Greatest F1 Videos Part X (10-1)
• Video: F1′s best circuit ruined?
• Top 50 overtaking moves part 1, 50-41
• Top 50 overtaking moves part 2, 40-31
• Top 50 overtaking moves part 3, 30-21
• Top 50 overtaking moves part 4, 20-11
• Top 50 overtaking moves part 5, 10-1

Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

It’s the first time this has happened since 1986. Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen will be hoping Lewis Hamilton has the same kind of luck Nigel Mansell did on that fateful occasion…

Here’s what happened on the eight occasions three drivers went into the last round still able to win the title – starting with the very first championship of all.

1950: Giuseppe Farina

Before the final round:

Juan Manuel Fangio 26
Luigi Fagioli 24
Giuseppe Farina 22

The first world championship came down to a battle between the three Alfa Romeo drivers. Farina claimed the title by winning the finale at Monza after Fangio’s gearbox failed.

After the final round:

Giuseppe Farina 30
Juan Manuel Fangio 27
Luigi Fagioli 24

1959: Jack Brabham

Jack Brabham 31
Stirling Moss 25.5
Tony Brooks 23

All eyes were on the title duel between Brabham and Moss, though Brooks had an outside chance. Moss was leading by a substantial margin when his Cooper’s gearbox failed. Although Brabham had to push his car across the line he was still champion.

Jack Brabham 31
Tony Brooks 27
Stirling Moss 25.5

1964: John Surtees

Graham Hill 39
John Surtees 34
Jim Clark 30

Clark had to win in Mexico with Hill not scoring to be champion, but in the end neither of them were. Hill was involved in a controversial clash with Surtees’ team mate Lorenzo Bandini. It was Surtees who won the title by a single point.

John Surtees 40
Graham Hill 39
Jim Clark 32

1968: Graham Hill

Graham Hill 39
Jackie Stewart 36
Denny Hulme 33

Graham Hill didn’t let the pressure get to him and won his second title by scoring a victory at the scene of his disappointment four years earlier.

Graham Hill 48
Jackie Stewart 36
Denny Hulme 33

1974: Emerson Fittipaldi

Before the final round:

Emerson Fittipaldi 52
Clay Regazzoni 52
Jody Scheckter 45

The top two went in the final round tied on points but Carlos Reutemann won the race while fourth place gave Fittipaldi his second title.

After the final round:

Emerson Fittipaldi 55
Clay Regazzoni 52
Jody Scheckter 45

1981: Nelson Piquet

Carlos Reutemann 49
Nelson Piquet 48
Jacques Laffite 43

Reutemann famously blew it under pressure at Las Vegas. Despite starting on pole he limped home eighth, with Piquet fifth taking the two points he needed.

At the end of this close season five drivers were covered by just seven points (Laffite on 44, Alain Prost 43) – if only there had been one more round!

Nelson Piquet 50
Carlos Reutemann 49
Alan Jones 46

1983: Nelson Piquet

Before the final round:

Alain Prost 57
Nelson Piquet 55
Rene Arnoux 49

Piquet took the title from Prost in an anti-climactic finale that saw both his title rivals retire. Piquet dropped to third, allowing team mate Riccardo Patrese to win, not wishing to over-stretch his Brabham.

After the final round:

Nelson Piquet 59
Alain Prost 57
Rene Arnoux 49

1986: Alain Prost

Before the final round:

Nigel Mansell 70
Alain Prost 64
Nelson Piquet 63

Mansell needed only to finish third to win the championship. He was set to take the championship when, without warning, his left-rear tyre exploded at speed, spinning him out of the race.

It left Piquet in the lead but, fearing the same would happen to him, he pitted, letting Prost through to win the race and the championship.

After the final round:

Alain Prost 72
Nigel Mansell 70
Nelson Piquet 69

NB. There were up to four drivers mathematically able to win the title in 1982. One of them, Didier Pironi, had been badly injured earlier in the year and was unable to race. The fourth, Niki Lauda, was racing under appeal from his disqualification at Zolder earlier that year. He lost the appeal.

Photo: Daimler

Related links

• Down to the wire – F1′s great championship deciders
• Debate: Which driver deserves the title?

Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport