French Grand Prix

Paul Ricard, 1 Jul 1973

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 5 Jul 1973 pp16-24 (by Pete Lyons). Motoring News 5 Jul 1973 pp12-14 (by 'ARM' Andrew Marriott). Motor Sport August 1973 pp873-876 and 'Notes on the cars at Paul Ricard' p877 (by 'DSJ' Denis Jenkinson).

The entries came as usual two from each of Lotus, Ferrari, Tyrrell, McLaren, Shadow, Surtees and Williams, three again from Brabham as De Adamich was back, three also from BRM, one from March, and a newcomer, the Ensign N173 built by Mo Nunn in Walsall, the 21st 3-litre Formula One constructor. John Surtees was too busy running the team to take up the third Surtees entry made for him. The independents were Embassy Racing with Hill's Shadow, Space Racing with the stockbroker March 731, and Hesketh Racing with their March 731. The March hire car for Purley did not arrive, and the other non-arrival was the Tecno team, as a row at the Bologna factory resulted in everyone being thrown out, including sponsor Martini, leaving both the McCall car and the new Fowell car locked inside. The seven spare cars were the two Lotus 72Ds, a spare Ferrari 312B3 for Ickx, Stewart's Tyrrell 005 now in front-radiator spec again, Hulme's McLaren M23, a spare BRM P160E used by Lauda and Regazzoni, and the third Surtees TS14A intended for John himself and used instead by Pace. The Brabham BT42 damaged in Sweden was also on hand as the team had not been home since. The extra entry from Ensign and the extra spare car meant there were 33 F1 cars in the paddock, Lyons noting that this was the highest of the season.