The 1973 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the last to be run on the uncompromising high speed perimeter track.  It produced a race which would have huge ramifications for some teams, drivers and the circuit overall.

There is a very simple reason why the United Kingdom became the dominant player in Formula One.  It’s not economic, it’s not technical and it isn’t sporting.  It is historical.  It’s the Second World War and, more specifically, the efforts of the RAF and the USAF to destroy Nazi Germany.  These campaigns, initially of desperate defence and then of overwhelming offence by day and night bombing, led to Great Britain being peppered with airfields, runways and perimeter tracks.  These stretch from the North of Scotland to the South Coast.  At the end of hostilities in 1945 many of these facilities were abandoned.  One of them, RAF Silverstone, would become the home of British motorsport. The 1973 British Grand Prix at Silverstone would be a watershed moment for Formula One. It would change this venue forever.

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Post War Boredom

Around these empty air bases there was now a population of fighting age men.  Many of these had gained technical and mechanical expertise during wartime service. Even more were just looking for some form of excitement in a drab world of post-war austerity.  The result was an utter boom in club racing up and down the UK. 

A criticism of the talent level of the grids of yesteryear when compared to today is that, apparently, the talent pool in the 1950s and 1960s was smaller.  This notion doesn’t stand up to even the most cursory analysis.  Post war motorsport boomed.  The barrier to entry was, in comparison to today, extraordinarily cheap.  Being competitive in any given series didn’t require excessive sponsorship, just commitment and talent.  The required technical skills were readily accessible.  The number of drivers competing week in week out was far higher than today and there were far more venues for them to compete at.

The result was that you couldn’t go 40 miles in the British mainland before finding some sort of motorsport event. Be it sprints, Sports cars, single seaters (including an enormous 500cc scene acting rather as Formula Ford does today) etc.  Take a look at Britain’s motorsport venues, active and departed.  The ones based on former airfields include, Thruxton, Snetterton, Ouston, Gransden Lodge, Ibsley, Charterhall, Winfield, Full Sutton, Croft, Anglesey, Llandow, Croft, Castle Combe, Goodwood, Brough, Blandford, Boreham and of course, Silverstone.

Bomber Command

RAF Silverstone was a Bomber Command station that was home to No. 17 Operational Training Unit RAF and was active between 1943 and 1946. In these years, the peaceful Northamptonshire countryside would reverberate with roar of twin Bristol Pegasus engines as crews got to grips with the Vickers Wellington Bomber (designed in part by Barnes Wallace, the man who would create the bouncing bomb of Dambusters fame).  The local farmers were probably expecting a bit of peace and quiet after the airbase shut up shop.  They didn’t get it.  Racing began at Silverstone in 1947 and by 1948 the circuit hosted its first Grand Prix.

In the years prior 1949 the circuit used part of the perimeter track and the runways of the base creating a layout not dissimilar to a melting hourglass.  For 1949 the race would run solely on the perimeter track, creating a fearsomely fast circuit, one of the fastest in the world, which would remain unchanged until the 1973 race made it untenable.

The World Championship famously held its first ever round at Silverstone on the 13th of May 1950 and would enjoy being the sole home of the British Grand Prix until 1955 when Aintree (also home of the Grand National) would compete with it for hosting.  The Liverpool circuit would host its last Grand Prix in 1962, but by then the wonderful sweeping curves of Brands Hatch were looking to host the UK’s premier motorsport event too.  In the end a deal was struck.  Silverstone would host the British Grand Prix in odd numbered years, Brands hatch in even.  This arrangement would continue until 1986.

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Second Row Champions

Thus it was that the 1973 British Grand Prix would be contested at Silverstone.  This was the era of early aerodynamic innovation, where the cars were still predominantly mechanical in terms of grip.  1973 was a dramatic and tragic year for the sport and the British Grand Prix would, in hindsight, be a watershed moment for opening the door to drama and danger in that season.  

Jackie Stewart would arrive in Northamptonshire leading the Championship by the narrowest of margins in his Tyrrell.  He was only one point ahead of reigning World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi in the iconic and beautiful Lotus 72.  It was Fittipaldi’s team mate though who was to grab the attention in practice.

Arguably the defining image of 1970s Formula One is Ronnie Peterson, in a exquisitely held drift, blasting around Woodcote corner.  The black and gold JPS Lotus with its tail hanging out and Peterson’s head cocked to one side as he delicately holds the savage beast under control.  The incredibly talented and quick Swede was mesmeric to watch all through his career, and nowhere more so than during the British Grand Prix of 1973.  Pole was his whilst his World Champion team-mate could only manage fifth on the grid, nearly half a second off the pace.  

Sharing the front row with Peterson was the 1967 World Champion Denny Hulme who was making the very best of the new McLaren M23.  Also on the 3 wide front row sat team-mate Peter Revson with Jackie Stewart heading the second row just ahead of his rival Fittipaldi.  Heading up row three sat the young South African Jody Sheckter in the third McLaren.

The Madman

Scheckter had made his World Championship debut at the end of the 1972 season for McLaren and had been an occasional driver for them in 1973 finishing ninth in South African Grand Prix and retiring in France after contesting the lead with Fittipaldi and, ultimately, colliding with him to put them both out of the race.  Thus he already had a reputation for great speed, but also a wild streak.  

Fittipaldi, in the wake of their coming together, was scathing “”This madman is a menace to himself and everybody else and does not belong in Formula 1.” he told the press.  This dangerous reputation was about to solidify dramatically.

As the flag dropped Peterson got away well, holding his lead, but it was Stewart in the Tyrrell who was the man on the move, emerging from the first corner, Copse in second.  By Becketts the Scot had passed Peterson for the lead and was looking to streak clear.  By the entry of the last corner, Woodcote, a 160 mph right handed drift Stewart was well ahead.  Behind him it was Peterson, Reutemann, then Denny Hulme in fourth with Scheckter right on his gearbox.  As the pack streamed through Woodcote Scheckter tried a hugely ambitious move, attempting to pass Hulme around the outside of the fearsome corner.  

He ran out of room.

Carnage

Running slightly wide onto the grass his McLaren then hooked hard to the right and speared back across the circuit, nosing into the inside wall and bouncing back into the path of the rest of the pack.

Utter carnage followed.  Revson managed to avoid Scheckter by the narrowest of narrow margins, actually slicing his team mate’s rear wing clean off as he streaked through.  Those following weren’t as lucky, as on cold tyres and cold brakes there was nothing they could do to avoid Scheckter’s McLaren as it rolled back into their path.  The resulting collision was an explosion of tyres, fuel, twisted metal and fibreglass.  Footage of the scene looks more like an air crash than a motorsport accident as cars and parts of cars went flying everywhere at speeds no less than 140mph.  

Good Fortune

That nobody was killed in this accident is entirely down to luck, for the cars of the era were utterly lethal as subsequent events that season would, tragically, go on to prove. The only person injured was Andrea de Adamich whose Brabham folded up around his lower legs, badly breaking an ankle.  He would ultimately have to be cut from his car and wouldn’t race again.  Apart from him and Scheckter, seven other cars were utterly totaled.  Both Shadows were gone with George Follmer and Jackie Oliver badly bruised but otherwise ok.  Roger Williamson, making his debut for March was out and so was Beltoise’s BRM.  

All three Surtees cars were totally destroyed, their unfortunate drivers Hailwood, Pace and Mass making the short walk back to the pits. They had to explain to team owner, the 1964 World Champion John Surtees, that his Formula One team had been utterly wrecked.  Indeed this wreck put Surtees under serious financial pressure and began the decline of what had been a very promising Formula One team.  They would limp on until 1978 but would never be as competitive as they had been again.

No Second Start For Scheckter

In the aftermath of the accident, as teams licked their wounds and took stock, Scheckter became the target for many team owner’s wrath.  McLaren, who could have provided him with the spare car and let him take the restart, instead chose to “rest” the South African in the face of demands from most of the grid who were calling for his permanent exclusion from the World Championship.  This “rest” would last four races before he returned for the Canadian Grand Prix where he would have another controversial coming together with Francois Cevert.

At the second start Peterson once again got away well. Niki Lauda’s BRM had a stormer to get up into second, Stewart third. Once again the canny Scot began to move forward, disposing of Lauda and then hunting down Peterson.  

What followed was a knife edge battle. Peterson’s artful drifting held off Stewart’s charge until Lap Six when Jackie made his move going into Stowe corner.  Peterson protected his line on the inside and squeezed the Tyrrell. Stewart ran up onto the inner kerb, unsettling the car. It fishtailed wildly before spinning into the infield.  He recovered to the circuit but found he was now having gearbox issues and would ultimately limp home in tenth.

Revson vs Peterson

Behind this drama Fittipaldi was holding off Hulme and Revson in the McLarens and a flying Hunt in the Hesketh.  When Fittipaldi retired with transmission issues it freed up Revson and Hunt to make after Peterson.  By now Revson had the bit between his teeth, knowing that the McLaren was going well. The American began to reel in the Swede. On Lap 39 he carved his way past the Lotus and took a lead he wasn’t to lose.  He would win his first World Championship Grand Prix by 2.8 seconds as Peterson, coming home second, held off Hulme and Hunt.  The top four were less than 5 seconds apart at the flag.

It had been a breathless end to an incredibly eventful race, the last on the original Silverstone perimeter layout.  When the Grand Prix returned in 1975 a chicane had been added at Woodcote to slow the cars.  This began a chain of alterations over the next five decades. A chain which would lead to the very different circuit we know today.

Fate

And what of the protagonists in that last race?  

Well, Stewart would go on to be 1973 World Champion, albeit in horrific circumstances. His team mate and elected successor, Cevert, being killed at Watkins Glen.  Fittipaldi would move to McLaren himself, further honing the M23 and using it to retake the title in 1974.  Ultimately he would end up in the USA, adding further laurels to an amazing career in Indycar.  Revson would win again in Canada (in controversial rain soaked circumstances) and would sign for Shadow in 1974.  He would be killed testing at Kyalami early in the season.  

Hulme would retire from F1 in 1974, whilst still highly competitive, but would go on competing in other forms of motorsport until 1992. He would die of a heart attack behind the wheel whilst racing in the Bathurst 1000.  Peterson would never get the World Championship his talent so richly deserved.  He would leave Lotus and try his hand with several other teams. This would lead to mixed success, before returning to Lotus to partner Mario Andretti.  He dutifully helped Mario to be World Champion in 1978. Heartbreakingly he would lose his life after a start-line wreck at the Italian Grand Prix.  Such is the cruelty of motorsport.

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The Sane Man

Scheckter?  Despite all the evidence to the contrary in 1973, he would go on to become one of the most respected and level headed of F1 drivers. He was a deserving World Champion for Ferrari.  His talent and speed were never in doubt but he tempered it with experience and calculation as he went along.  Perhaps his biggest learning experience came in the last race of 1973.  Scheckter was the first on the scene of Francois Cevert’s appalling accident during qualifying at Watkins Glen. 

Leaping from his car to see if he could assist the man he’d tangled with in only the previous race, Scheckter came across one of the most gruesome wrecks in the sport’s history.  Cevert was beyond saving.  What he saw that day sobered Scheckter. It began his transformation into the driver who would win races for Tyrrell, Wolf and ultimately a World Championship with Ferrari.  He retired after the 1980 season as one of the safest and most reliable drivers on the grid.  He would focus his energies into business post F1 and become hugely successful in firearms training systems and farming.

The Future

Silverstone would adapt, survive and thrive over the years.  It would deliver a huge spectacle whilst retaining a reputation for close racing whilst keeping an eye on its history.  Today, after much investment, and at times painful negotiation, it is among the very best circuits on the calendar. The pit complex has been updated for the 21st century and the infrastructure has been substantially developed.  For all its glitz and technical challenge though, the ghosts of the perimeter track are still there. 

Rather like the thundering Wellington bombers of the Second World War, there is something hugely evocative about the old, uncompromising, layout. The image of cars screaming around a sequence of corners which required nothing else but maximum, on the edge, commitment. The 1973 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was, perhaps, the last great example of this style of circuit racing.  There is a reason why Silverstone is the home of British motorsport.  It’s not economic, it’s not technical and it isn’t sporting.  It is historical.

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