1975 Formula One season

It featured the 1975 World Championship of F1 Drivers[1] and the 1975 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers[2] which were contested concurrently from 12 January to 5 October over fourteen races.

An emotional first win for Carlos Pace in his native São Paulo looked to confirm this, but tyre wear frequently hampered the cars and the initial promise was not maintained.

American Mark Donohue died in August, two days after crashing in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Fittipaldi started his title defence with a win, Hunt was a superb second, and Reutemann third in front of his home crowd.

Reutemann, just like in Argentina, took the lead at the start from Jarier and Pace was up to third, whereas home driver Fittipaldi dropped to seventh.

Reutemann struggled with handling issues and dropped well down the order then, with Pace up to second, Clay Regazzoni's Ferrari third and Fittipaldi recovering to fourth.

A month after the Brazilian race, the field went to South Africa and Pace followed up his win with pole, with Reutemann alongside as Brabham locked out the front row, and home hero Jody Scheckter was third in the Tyrrell.

Nearly two months after the third round, the European season began in Spain at the very fast Montjuic street circuit in Barcelona.

Reigning world champion and championship leader Emerson Fittipaldi had no intention to race because of the condition of the barriers, and went home on Sunday morning.

The organisers of the event then locked the cars and motorhomes inside the circuit confines for breach of contract and threatened to keep them there.

The rest of the drivers were there for qualifying, and Ferrari took the front row, with Lauda on pole from Regazzoni, and Hunt third in the Hesketh.

Hunt led until he crashed after spinning on oil on the track, leaving Andretti leading from John Watson in the Surtees and Rolf Stommelen's Hill.

This promoted Pace to second and Peterson to third, but the Swede retired after colliding with backmarker François Migault while lapping him.

The organizers stopped the race on lap 30 due to the debris on the track caused by Stommelen's crash.

The next race took place in Belgium, and Lauda was on pole with Pace with him on the front row, and Vittorio Brambilla in the March a surprising third.

The first race in the second half of the season took place in the Netherlands, and pole went to Lauda as usual, with teammate Regazzoni alongside, and Hunt's Hesketh third.

Hunt and Jarier pitted early, and their gamble paid off as they were first and second, with Lauda, Scheckter and Regazzoni third, fourth and fifth respectively.

Jarier almost immediately retired with a tyre failure, and Scheckter who inherited third had his engine blow up with just 12 laps left.

The tenth round was held at the Silverstone airfield circuit in Great Britain, and Tom Pryce took a home pole position, with Pace second and championship leader Lauda third.

It soon began to rain, and Regazzoni was pulling away until he spun off, hit a barrier and damaged his rear wing.

Lauda was on pole, lapping the 14.2 mi (22.8 km) circuit in under 7 minutes- becoming the first driver to accomplish this feat.

Lauda then suffered a puncture and a damaged spoiler and had to pit, leaving Reutemann to lead from Hunt and Pryce.

Hunt was next to retire, with a wheel hub failure on the straight behind the pits, and Pryce took second, but only briefly as he had to back off towards the end with fuel-feed troubles.

The Austrian GP on 17 August had a very large attendance, as Lauda had a chance of getting close to the championship at his home race.

On a morning practice lap, Mark Donohue's March slid off the track after a tyre failure and hit two marshals.

The penultimate round was in Italy, and after the cancellation of the Canadian GP, Lauda needed only half a point to be the 1975 world champion.

The Ferrari fans were very happy as their team locked out the front row, with Lauda on pole from Regazzoni, and Fittipaldi third.

The final round took place in the US, and it was no surprise that at the spectacular Watkins Glen track in upstate New York (which had a new chicane at the Esses introduced), new World Champion Lauda took pole again, with Fittipaldi alongside and Reutemann third.

Lauda and Fittipaldi drove away from the rest of the field, whereas Jarier retired with a wheel failure one-third into the race.