Spanish Grand Prix

Montjuich Park, 4 May 1969

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

3-litre Formula 1 World Championship events 1966-1985

These 1966 to 1985 results were initially compiled by Allen Brown, but these were in the very basic form required to track individual car histories. Since then further details, such as laps completed, qualifying times and so on, have been added from Rob Ryder's extensive database.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com if you can help with our research.

Individual sources for this event

Autosport 9 May 1969 pp6-11 (report by Autosport Overseas Editor Patrick McNally). Motor Sport June 1969 pp634-636 (report by ARM, Andrew Marriott). Motoring News 8 May 1969 pp14-16 (report by ARM, Andrew Marriott). Sport Auto May 1969 pp80-87 (report uncredited). Race Report 3 p85 (by Eddie Guba). Autosport were continuing with two pages of race data, including chassis numbers and engine numbers, but as the last five F1 reports had been by different reporters, some lack of continuity is inevitable. Alan Phillips was now credited with the data pages and would continue in charge of them into the 1980s, but note that his meticulour tables were done in London using data supplied by the reporter. Simon Taylor mentioned in 2010 that Phillips, "a relentless chain-smoker, sadly succumbed to cancer some years ago".

Barcelona's Montjuich Park had held F3 and F2 races recently, although its history of motor racing went back to the 1930s. This year the straw bales were replaced with Armco barriers and the F1 teams arrived. Two entries as usual came from Tyrrell-Matra , Brabham, Lotus and McLaren, with BRM operating a third car through Tim Parnell, and Ferrari sending a single car for Amon. The privateers were Walker/Durlacher for Siffert and Williams for Courage, giving a miserable total of only 14 cars. There was some talk of Williams entering his older Brabham BT24 for Alec Soler-Roig, but he sold it to Charles Vogele and Silvio Moser instead. BRM believed the problems with the four-valve V12 were now resolved. In Simon Taylor's preview in Autosport, he mentioned Amon's chassis 0017 as the car that was new at Kyalami, apparently clearing up that confusion, but the Patrick McNally report called it "an old chassis 0009, renumbered 0017", which rather suggests the new car 0017 was still travelling on 0009's carnet. Franco Gozzi was now running the Ferrari F1 team, but the Can-Am project was syphoning resources from the F1 team. Nearly all the teams now had high rear wings attached to the rear suspension uprights, just Brabham running with similarly-mounted front wings and Ferrari having a wing above the engine. The wings on both Lotuses gave way during the race, and Hill and Rindt ended up crumpling their cars against the unforgiving Armco barriers, which was at least better than an uncontrollable car hitting a tree or entering a spectator area.

The Belgian GP at Spa had been cancelled after the organisers refused the Grand Prix Drivers Association request for safety barriers at some of the course's especially dangerous points. Jackie Stewart was the loudest voice in favour of improved safety, while Denis Jenkinson of Motor Sport and Innes Ireland in Autocar just before the Spanish GP effectively accused the current crop of drivers of being soft. Jenks in particular was furious with the GPDA, accusing it of being run by a small clique exploiting the members for their own interests. He had little time for the Formula One Constructors Association either.