Formula 1

About the season

Ferrari signed Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni away from BRM; Lauda scored his maiden Grand Prix win at the Spanish Grand Prix, dominating from pole with fastest lap - the start of the team's revival. On 22 March, during practice for the South African Grand Prix, American driver Peter Revson's Shadow-Ford suffered a suspension failure at high speed at Barbecue Bend; the car burst into flames, and though Graham Hill, Fittipaldi and Denny Hulme all tried to pull him free, Revson died on the way to hospital. For the first time since 1968, the title fight went down to the final race: Fittipaldi and Regazzoni arrived at Watkins Glen level on points, but the Ferrari driver was hit by handling problems while Fittipaldi's fourth place secured McLaren's first-ever Drivers' Championship. Fittipaldi had switched from Lotus to McLaren for the season, and this win brought the British team its first World Championship title. Emerson Fittipaldi won the 1974 Drivers' Championship with 55 points (McLaren), 3 points ahead of the runner-up. McLaren won the Constructors' Championship with 72 points, 7 points ahead of the runner-up. Across 15 completed races this season, there were 187 retirements. 7 different drivers won a race this season. Emerson Fittipaldi took the most race wins, 3 in total. Hulme won the season-opening race, the Argentine Grand Prix. The season's biggest upset win came from Hulme at the Argentine Grand Prix, starting from grid position 10. The closest finish of the season came at the Belgian Grand Prix, with a gap of just 0.350 seconds. Brambilla made the biggest gain of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix, from grid position 31 to finishing 9 (up 22 places). The Monaco Grand Prix saw the most retirements of the season, with 18 drivers failing to finish. The most dominant win of the season came at the German Grand Prix, with a margin of 50.7 seconds. Reutemann won the United States Grand Prix, the final race of the season.