1969 Formula One season

It featured the 20th World Championship of Drivers, the 12th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers and four non-championship races open to Formula One cars.

The Belgian Grand Prix was originally to be held on 8 June, but Jackie Stewart, a strong advocate for safety in Formula One, had inspected the track and demanded multiple changes to the circuit.

Lotus had pioneered movable wings, operated by a fourth pedal at the driver's feet, and their rivals had used the winter stop to implement a system of their own.

[6] At the beginning of the season, the wings were positioned as high as possible to generate the most downforce and secured on the car's suspension to push the tyres into the ground.

But when the 1969 Spanish Grand Prix featured several dramatic crashes, the FIA (then known as the Commission Sportive Internationale or CSI) banned all use of wings.

The American driver had noticed that, when going through a fast corner, the wing leant sideways so far that it touched the rear tyre and twisted the struts.

During practice, Rindt hit a stray dog and damaged his suspension but still managed to qualify on pole, ahead of Amon and Hill.

While Jacky Ickx was in second place, his wing collapsed, necessating a pit stop, and later, his Brabham's rear wishbone broke, making retirement unavoidable.

[10] Going into the Monaco Grand Prix, one could have expected unified actions to control the high and fragile wings, but it took the CSI (FIA) until after the first practice was already run.

After this reset, Stewart was again fastest and qualified on pole, ahead of Ferrari driver Amon and Matra teammate Beltoise, but all three of them retired within six laps of each other.

[11] The ban on movable wings was still active during the Dutch Grand Prix, but the CSI now allowed aerodynamic devices if they were fixed to the bodywork (and not to the suspension) and could not move.

With Stewart regelated back to third, Lotus could control the race, but instead, started fighting each other, with Rindt taking the lead on lap 3, while going off track with two wheels.

The Scot moved up to second place, but in terms of pace was losing out, until Rindt suffered a drive shaft failure on lap 16.

And first of all, it was Jackie Stewart claiming pole position for Matra, ahead of 1967 champion Denny Hulme for McLaren and Jochen Rindt for Lotus.

Stewart, meanwhile, took an easy win, with his teammate and home hero Jean-Pierre Beltoise finishing in second, and Belgian driver Jacky Ickx completing the podium in his Brabham.

[13] During practice for the British Grand Prix, it was again Stewart who set the pace from the beginning, and he was comfortable to switch to the four-wheel drive Matra MS84.

But it was Rindt in the two-wheel drive Lotus 49B that gave Stewart a real run for his money: the Austrian came within two tenths of a second of the Scot, who felt another defensive lap was necessary.

[14] For the German Grand Prix, twelve Formula Two cars complemented the grid, and one of them, Gerhard Mitter, was sadly killed during practice.

On the F1 grid, it was Ickx who set his first pole position of the year, ahead of Stewart and Rindt, and the Belgian made a good start.

Mario Andretti, coming over from the United States to further develop the four-wheel drive Lotus, slowed down during the first lap and saw Vic Elford crashing into him and flying into the trees.

[15] Ickx had climbed up to second place in the standings, but was looking at such a distance to Stewart, that the championship would be decided at the Italian Grand Prix if the Scot managed to win the race.

After at least fourteen lead changes and even a lot more in the remaining points-paying positions, it was Stewart's teammate Beltoise who made a do-or-die move into the last corner of the race.

After he was injured in a testing accident in June,[17] triple World Champion Jack Brabham returned to the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix.

In practice, at least three drivers spun or crashed out on the slippery sandy surface of Mosport, but Jacky Ickx managed to qualify on pole position, five tenths ahead of the competition.

[18] The United States Grand Prix was the penultimate round of the championship and saw Rindt take his fifth pole position of the year, ahead of Hulme and Stewart.

On lap 36, Stewart's engine suffered an oil leak and he had to retire, leaving Rindt to take, after seven career podiums, his first victory.

Ickx had also retired, so there was room for some other names on the podium: Piers Courage was second in the Brabham run by Frank Williams Racing Cars and 1964 champion John Surtees was third for BRM.