Italian Grand Prix

Monza, 5 Sep 1971

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 Sep 1971 pp13-19 (by Patrick McNally). Motoring News 9 Sep 1971 pp10-13 (by 'MGD' Mike Doodson). Motor Sport October 1971 pp1011-1013 and 'Notes on the Cars art Monza' pp1013-1014 (by 'DSJ' Denis Jenkinson). Autocourse 1971-72 pp116-121 (by David Phipps). The Motor Racing Year No 3 (by Anthony Pritchard) pp94-100.

There were two cars from each of Tyrrell, Ferrari and Brabham; three from March and Surtees, and four from BRM, and only one from Matra as Beltoise was still suspended. Team Lotus were absent due to ongoing court cases from Rindt's death the year before, so "Worldwide Racing" entered the turbine Lotus 56B for Fittipaldi with Peter Warr managing the operation, and McLaren had a single entry for Oliver in an M14A as the M19As had already been dispatched to North America. There were six privateers this time: Frank Williams and Clark-Mordaunt-Guthrie both with March 711s, Shell-Arnold with the ex-Hahne March 701 for Jarier, Silvio Moser with the Bellasi for the first time all year, Jo Bonnier in his McLaren M7C now in Filipinetti colours, and Herbert Muller in the ex-Walker Lotus 72 now owned by Siffert, adding up to 25 entries. Autodelta was looking after the Alfa-engined March 711, but it was still a works entry. Carlos Pace was entered in Williams' March 701 but there was no time to repair it after the Gold Cup, and although Muller's Lotus 72 was present, and looking very attractive in yellow Villiger Cigar livery, it did not move. Surtees' extra car was for Mike Hailwood, Surtees' regular F5000 team leader, who was rumoured to be joining the F1 team full time in 1972. However, the Eifelland-funded deal that had put Stommelen in the second Surtees was not being continued. In more Surtees news, "Big John" had a new chassis 005 with the radiators moved to the sides, in the style of the Lotus 72, but it was converted to standard specification for the race.

Ferrari had four cars present, so each driver had a spare, but the only other spare cars in use were Amon's Matra MS120B-04 which had an older MS12 engine in it and Siffert's slimline BRM P160 with short-stroke engine, which Marko was also allowed to try during practice. Tyrrell had decided to send Tyrrell 001 ahead to Canada for tyre testing for Stewart had no spare for the first time in a very long time. The Ferrari drivers had so many options that Ickx ended up racing a 1970 312B and Regazzoni managed to set his practice time in one 312B2 but raced a different one. As it was a Ferrari and Monza, this was overlooked.

Poor Chris Amon took pole position and looked likely to win with only seven laps to go when he managed to pull off his visor. Autosport said he raced 04 with the MS71 engine, but Motor Sport said he raced 06, and that 04 was just a training car without the new sleeker bodywork and engine cover. Autocourse sided with Autosport on this, not perhaps a surprise as they were Haymarket stablemates, and Motoring News sided with Motor Sport, also not a surprise. Pritchard also said that 06 was the spare, and Race Report said that Amon raced 04 with an MS71 engine.