South African Grand Prix

Kyalami, 7 Mar 1970

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 12 Mar 1970 pp8-15 (report by David Phipps). Motor Sport April 1970 p324-326. Motoring News preview 5 Mar 1970 pp10-11, and report 12 Mar 1970 pp12-15,23. Sport Auto Avril 1970 pp36-48,50-51 (by Gérard Crombac). Motor 14 Mar 1970 pp38-41 (by Philip Turner). Autocar 12 Mar 1970 pp52-57 (by Eoin Young). The Motor Racing Year No 2 p37-43 (by Anthony Pritchard). Autosport had Alan Phillips' now standardised two pages of race data, including chassis numbers and engine numbers, but omitted Ickx' spare Ferrari and mixed up the March 701 chassis numbers. Motor Sport had chassis numbers on the Practice Times list as well as on the grid, which would have usefully clarified the usage of T cars, had there been more than just Ickx's present. Sport Auto gave chassis numbers only in Crombac's 'Les Voitures en Course'. Motor and Autocar did not give chassis identification information. Anthony Pritchard's book "The Motor Racing Year No 2" contained detail on all the cars present at each championship race of 1970.

The cast list for 1970 started with familiar two-car teams from Lotus, with John Miles replacing Graham Hill alongside Jochen Rindt, Bruce and Denny again at McLaren with new McLaren M14As, and Jack Brabham joined by Rolf Stommelen in new Brabham BT33s. The Tyrrell-Matra team was now the Tyrrell Racing Organisation team using March 701 chassis, and the other new two-car teams were March Engineering's works team of Amon and Siffert, and the returning Matra factory team with Matra MS120s for Beltoise and Pescarolo. BRM was in new hands since Sir Alfred Owen had fallen ill, and Owen's sister Jean Stanley and her husband Louis Stanley became joint managing directors of the Owen Racing Organisation. John Surtees was not willing to see if this worked, and after a few meetings with Louis Stanley announced he would not sign for BRM in 1970 so Pedro Rodriguez became a full BRM team driver again, alongside Jackie Oliver and George Eaton. Jacky Ickx had joined Ferrari to race the eagerly-awaited Ferrari 312B. Frank Williams had done a deal with the De Tomaso Automobili company of Bologna to run its new F1 cars for driver Piers Courage, in a similar arrangement to Tyrrell's with Matra in 1968 and 1969. That came to a total of 17 "works" entries. March and De Tomaso became the 12th and 13th 3-litre F1 constructor.

The list of privateers was led as usual by Rob Walker, now without Jack Durlacher, who was running a Lotus 49C for Graham Hill, miraculously driving again after his huge accident the previous year. Surtees had bought the McLaren M7C as a temporary measure before building his own F1 car, although this rather stretches the definition of a privateer, and Mario Andretti drove the STP-run March 701 tended by Vince Granatelli and Bill Dunne. Joining the list of privateers for this race only were local drivers Charlton, Love and De Klerk, bringing the total to 23 starters.

The number of new cars present was remarkable by previous standards, 16: two McLaren M14As, two Brabham BT33s, five March 701s, two Matra MS120s, two BRM P153s, two Ferraris 312Bs as Ickx had a spare, and the De Tomaso. The garagiste teams had now settled on what Robin Herd called a "British Standard F1" car, consisting on an aluminium moncoque chassis, Cosworth DFV engine bolted to the back as a stressed member, Hewland DG300 gearbox around which was a yoke carrying the rear suspension, which would consist of reversed lower wishbone, top link and twin radius arms. Front suspension was outboard, and brakes were outboard all round. He could have added that all had the main radiator in the nose. Only Lotus, Brabham and Ferrari now used inboard front suspension, only the McLaren had inboard rear brakes, and only Ferrari and BRM didn't use a Cosworth engine. The Ferrari really was very different to this model, the only car that was. Of course we hadn't seen the Lotus 72 yet...