Formula 1

About the season

The Lotus 72's radical wedge-shaped body - side-mounted radiators, inboard brakes, torsion-bar suspension - reset what a Formula 1 car was supposed to look like for the rest of the decade. On 5 September, during practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Jochen Rindt crashed into a poorly secured barrier after a brake-shaft failure; true to his habit he had left his crotch straps unfastened, a decision that proved fatal and left him as Formula 1's only posthumous World Champion. After Rindt's death, young Emerson Fittipaldi was promoted to Lotus team leader and won his very first Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, in only his fourth start - the victory that made it mathematically impossible for Jacky Ickx to catch a driver who was no longer alive. The season's closing races unfolded under a shadow of grief, with Ickx chasing down two wins to catch a dead rival's tally, until Fittipaldi's win at Watkins Glen settled the matter for good. Jochen Rindt won the 1970 Drivers' Championship with 45 points (Team Lotus), 5 points ahead of the runner-up. Team Lotus won the Constructors' Championship with 59 points, 4 points ahead of the runner-up. Across 13 completed races this season, there were 143 retirements. 7 different drivers won a race this season. Jochen Rindt took the most race wins, 5 in total. Brabham won the season-opening race, the South African Grand Prix. The season's biggest upset win came from Rindt at the Monaco Grand Prix, starting from grid position 8. The closest finish of the season came at the Austrian Grand Prix, with a gap of just 0.610 seconds. Rodríguez made the biggest gain of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix, from grid position 22 to finishing 4 (up 18 places). The Italian Grand Prix saw the most retirements of the season, with 16 drivers failing to finish. The most dominant win of the season came at the United States Grand Prix, with a margin of 36.4 seconds. Ickx won the Mexican Grand Prix, the final race of the season.