F1 history in the 70's - golden years of motor racing

“The decade of incredible speed, great drivers, the courage that is equal to that described in the novels about knights, and unfortunately decade of heavy losses” - that is perhaps the best way to describe F1 history in the seventies.

Beginning of the decade was marked by the young driver from Scotland - Jackie Stewart. He had a great talent for driving, and he achieved excellent results driving for Matra and Tyrrell. He won three world championship titles in 1969, 1971 and 1973. Unfortunately, because of the deaths of many drivers at the time, he retired too soon when he was only 34 years old. That left experts and the audience to speculate whether he might have been the greatest driver of all time that he continued to drive.

Half of the seventies were marked by two talented and great drivers - Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi who have won titles in 1972 and 1974 driving for Lotus and McLaren, and Niki Lauda from Austria. He became the champion in 1975 and 1977 driving for the Ferrari team. Even today, many people believe that Lauda is one of the best drivers in motor racing history.

In 1976 at the Nurburgring track in Germany Lauda had the greatest accident in his career when his car was caught by fire after the accident. From the car in flames he was saved by the British driver James Hunt from McLaren. Before the last race of the year, only Lauda and Hunt had a chance to become champions. Lauda decided not to drive that race, apparently because of bad weather. Yet many people believe that he left the title to the Hunt who saved his life.

The second half of the decade was marked by more good drivers. Among them we should mention Mario Andretti, driver from the United States who have won the championship in 1978 with Lotus, competing against team mate Roni Petersen from Sweden. Unfortunately, Petersen was killed that year in a crash at the start of the race in Monza. Also, in Ferrari teem in the late seventies came a talented young Canadian named Gilles Villeneuve. He was incredibly brave on the race track, which made him a favorite driver of Enzo Ferrari.

As it was said earlier in this article, the seventies were marked by the deaths of many drivers. Certainly one of the most intriguing was the death of German driver Jochen Rindt, who was killed during the qualifications for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 1970. Since he was the leader of the championship at the time he died, he became the only driver in F1 history who has become a world champion after his death.