British Grand Prix

Brands Hatch, 20 Jul 1974

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 25 Jul 1974 pp26-35 (by Pete Lyons). Motoring News 25 Jul 1974 pp12-18 (by 'AH' Alan Henry). Motor Sport September 1974 pp965- (by 'DSJ' Denis Jenkinson). Autocar 27 Jul 1974 pp20-23 (by Ray Hutton). Sport Auto Septembre 1974 pp14-21 (by Gérard Crombac). Autocourse 1974/75 (edited by Mike Kettlewell) reproduced Pete Lyons' reports from Autosport, so included very little information that had not already been published.

If all the F1 cars ever turned up to the same race, it was going to be busy, and so it proved at the British GP. The massive entry list started with the 23 F1 Association entries, first the two-car teams from Lotus, Tyrrell, McLaren, Brabham, March, Ferrari, BRM, Shadow, Surtees and Williams, with the usual third cars this time from McLaren and BRM, plus the Brabham hire-car BT42 for Lombardi and operated by Hexagon. After a CSI directive in June that all genuine entries had to be accepted, the non-member constructors were Ensign, Trojan, Hesketh, Maki, Lyncar and Token, and Embassy-Hill had their usual two Lolas. Privateers were Hexagon Racing, Dempster International Racing Team with the ex-Hesketh March 731, and Kinnunen, making 34 entries. In Thursday's first practice session, Nicholson's Lyncar became the 27th 3-litre F1 constructor, and when it turned up a day late, Ganley made Maki the 28th. The Token was not technically a works entry as the car had been hired by Bob Harper Racing. Andy Sutcliffe was due to drive one of the Finotto Brabhams but they did not turn up, and John Surtees was entered in a third Surtees but did not use it. The Amon did not even make an entry. The final alteration to the entry list was when Guy Edwards decided his injuries meant he should hand over the Lola to Peter Gethin.

The six spare cars that saw use were a Tyrrell 007, Marlboro McLaren M23, Surtees TS16, Hesketh 308, Lola T370, and a Yardley McLaren M23. Also present but unused were a Lotus 76, Brabham BT44, Ferrari 312B3, BRM P160 and Shadow DN3, making a total of eleven spare cars, one short of the record set in Monaco. A total of 45 cars were present, easily a new record. 25 starters were allowed, so the nine non-qualifiers were the second Surtees, the second Williams and the third Brabham from the F1 Association ranks, the Ensign, Maki, Lyncar and Token from the minnow constructors, and privateers Dempster International and Kinnunen. Alan Henry admitted he was confused by the Surtees numbering system, which used a suffix to denote the specification, so had TS16-02-3, TS16-03-3 and TS16-05-3 on their chassis plates. Shadow brought along a new car, which the team regarded as DN3/5A but was using the carnet and chassis plate from DN3/3A, so this car was called DN3/3A by Jenkinson and Henry. Hunt and Watson again excelled among the non-members, the two Lolas were comfortably on the grid, and Schenken's Trojan just pipped Purley's Token for the last place. 68,000 fans packed Brands Hatch for race day.

Lauda got away quickest from pole position and led the race right up the 69th lap out of 75 but a tyre was leaking and his gamble to nurse the tyre and stay out of the pits failed. He dived into the pits and quickly received a new tyre, but was not allowed to rejoin the track to complete his last lap. He was thus classified ninth, two laps behind, but would have finished fifth if the race organisation had been better. In a dangerous precedent, an FIA committee meeting in September decided to alter the race results and put Lauda fifth. The RAC were not in a strong position to object,as the Bossom Report had just been released, proposing a massive overhaul of the running of the RAC's motor sport responsibilities. The FIA communique mentioned that the RAC had refused to turn over documents relating to the race, and to add further insult, RAC head of motorsport Dean Delamont turned up 90 minutes late for the FIA meeting.