1971 Formula One season

It featured the 22nd World Championship of Drivers, the 14th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers and a number of non-championship races open to Formula One cars.

[5][6] Austrian Jochen Rindt had won the championship posthumously in 1970 for Lotus-Ford; he was killed at Monza during practice for the Italian Grand Prix in September of that year.

Although three races remained after Monza, Rindt's points lead after four consecutive Grand Prix victories earlier in the season was enough to secure him the championship.

The new Tyrrell 001 car was first raced by the Scottish Stewart at the Mont-Tremblant circuit in Quebec, Canada- and was immediately competitive, but he retired due to mechanical failure.

Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni were retained but the team's third driver, Italian Ignazio Giunti was killed in January during the Buenos Aires 1000 kilometer long-distance sportscar race.

Jean-Pierre Beltoise was pushing his Matra sportscar back to the pits when he was hit by Giunti's Ferrari 312P; the Italian was killed in the ensuing crash.

Rob Walker decided that he could no longer afford to continue his private team and transferred his Brooke Bond Oxo sponsorship to Surtees, which recruited second driver Rolf Stommelen (with backing from Auto Motor und Sport and Eifelland caravans) from Brabham.

Walker's decision to stop racing freed veteran Graham Hill and he moved to Brabham (which was now being run by Ron Tauranac, and would be bought by Bernie Ecclestone that year) where he was joined by former Williams driver Tim Schenken while Williams entered old Marches for Derek Bell and Matra refugee Henri Pescarolo.

The South African Grand Prix, held at the fast and flowing high-altitude Kyalami circuit between Johannesburg and Pretoria in March kicked off the championship season.

This race, run at a shorter distance than is usual for a Grand Prix was won by the Swiss Regazzoni in a Ferrari, ahead of pole-sitter Jackie Stewart and veteran Briton John Surtees.

The Questor Grand Prix in the western United States was held one week after the Race of Champions, at the Ontario Motor Speedway in southern California.

This event was not entered by Ferrari, and Stewart took pole again ahead of Briton Peter Gethin in a McLaren-Ford, Rodriguez and Siffert BRMs.

Stewart began to increase his lead over Ickx while Amon ran third; Regazzoni went out on lap 13 with a fuel pump failure which promoted Rodriguez to fourth place with Andretti fifth and Denny Hulme sixth in his McLaren-Ford.

The second row featured Siffert's BRM and Amon's Matra; then it was Rodriguez, Hulme, Beltoise, Ronnie Peterson in a March, Hill and John Surtees in a car of his own construction.

Stewart was able to hold on to take victory ahead of Peterson and Ickx; Siffert later went out with an engine failure, so fourth place went to Hulme.

The Belgian Grand Prix was originally supposed to be held as a championship round two weeks after the Monaco event on 6 June at the fast 8.7 mile (14.1 km) Spa-Francorchamps circuit, but the failure of the track owners and authorities to bring Spa up to mandatory safety standards meant that the rural circuit was deemed unsuitable for Formula One cars to race on and the event was cancelled.

[7] Another non-championship round, the Rhein-Pokalrennen, was held three weeks after the Monaco Grand Prix at the very fast Hockenheim circuit in West Germany, and was won by Jacky Ickx in a Ferrari.

Two weeks after the Dutch race was the French Grand Prix at the brand-new Paul Ricard circuit near Marseille in the south of France.

With a few laps to go, Schenken suffered transmission failure and retired, leaving third place for Fittipaldi, and a home victory for Stewart, ahead of Peterson.

The German Grand Prix returned to an updated 14.2 mile (22.8 km) Nurburgring after a year's absence from the track due to safety concerns.

[citation needed] Graham Hill (Brabham) and Reine Wisell (Lotus) both had problems before the start only 20 cars lined up on the grid.

In the final laps Siffert suffered a deflating tire but he was so far ahead that he was able to nurse the car to the line, beating Fittipaldi by just over four seconds.

Matra was also running only one car as Jean-Pierre Beltoise was still suspended as a result of the sportscar accident in January in Buenos Aires which had killed Ignazio Giunti.

The field was bolstered by a third Surtees, entered for Mike Hailwood, a multiple Grand Prix motorcycle champion making the transition to car racing.

On the fast sweeps of Monza the V12 cars were very competitive and Chris Amon took pole in his Matra with Jacky Ickx alongside in his Ferrari.

The second row featured the BRMs of Jo Siffert and Howden Ganley and the first V8 car was the Tyrrell of Francois Cevert, fifth on the grid.

Eventually, a close five-car battle developed for the lead, with Peter Gethin taking his only Grand Prix victory by 0.010 secs.

World Champion Stewart took pole position ahead of Siffert, Cevert, Fittipaldi, Amon, Peterson, Wisell, and Mark Donohue in a Penske-entered McLaren.

Ickx stalked Cevert until lap 40 when the Ferrari began to fall back with an alternator problem which led to the Belgian's retirement.

Approaching the fast Hawthorn Bend at high speed on lap 15, his BRM suffered a mechanical failure which pitched it across the track into an earth bank.