The GSOH - Round Two - 1968 vs 2013

[crmalcolm]

The next match of the GSOH bracket puts 1968 up against 2013.

Summaries from Wikipedia:

1968 - Although they had failed to win the title in 1967, by the end of the season the Lotus 49 and the DFV engine were mature enough to make the Lotus team dominant again. For 1968, Lotus lost its exclusive right to use the DFV. McLaren built a new DFV-powered car and a new force appeared on the scene when Ken Tyrrell entered his own team using a Cosworth-powered car built by French aeronautics company Matra and driven by ex-BRM driver Jackie Stewart.

Unsurprisingly, the season-opening 1968 South African Grand Prix confirmed Lotus' superiority, with Jim Clark and Graham Hill finishing 1–2. It would be Clark's last win. On 7 April 1968 Clark, one of the most successful and popular drivers of all time, was killed at Hockenheim in West Germany at a non-championship Formula Two event. The Scotsman had gone off the track caused by what was believed to be a deflating rear tire; 90% of the Hockenheim circuit was made up of two long, slightly curving straights running through thick forests. And because there was no protection from the solid trees lining the circuit on both sides, Clark's Lotus smashed into a wall of trees, breaking the Scotsman's neck and killing him instantly; the car was totally destroyed.

The season saw three significant innovations. The first was the arrival of unrestricted sponsorship, which the FIA decided to permit that year after the withdrawal of support from automobile related firms like BP, Shell and Firestone. Team Gunston, a South African privateer team, was the first Formula One team to paint their cars in the livery of their sponsors when they entered a private Brabham for John Love, painted in the colours of Gunston cigarettes, in the 1968 South African Grand Prix. In the next round at the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix, Lotus became the first works team to follow this example, with Graham Hill's Lotus 49B entered in the Red, Gold and White colours of Imperial Tobacco's Gold Leaf brand. The second innovation was the introduction of wings as seen previously on various cars including the Chaparral 2F sports car. Colin Chapman introduced modest front wings and a spoiler on Graham Hill's Lotus 49B at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix. Brabham and Ferrari went one better at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix with full-width wings mounted on struts high above the driver. Lotus replied with a full width wing directly connected to the rear suspension that required a re-design of suspension wishbones and transmission shafts. Matra then produced a high mounted front wing connected to the front suspension. This last innovation was mostly used during practice as it required a lot of effort from the driver. By the end of the season most teams were using sophisticated wings. Lastly, the third innovation was the introduction of a full-face helmet for drivers, with Dan Gurney becoming the first driver to wear such helmet at the 1968 German Grand Prix. He had helped to invent it with the Bell Helmets company and he had already used it at the Indy 500 race same year. Within some years, it became the obvious and later even mandatory choice among F1 drivers.

Despite the death of Jim Clark, Lotus won both titles in 1968 with Graham Hill, but Stewart was a serious contender, winning several Grands Prix in the Tyrrell-run Matra MS10. Stewart's winning drive during the rain and fog of the 1968 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, where he won by a margin of four minutes, is considered as one of the finest ever, even though his rain tires were probably better than those of the competition. The car's most innovative feature was the use of aviation-inspired structural fuel tanks. These allowed the chassis to be around 15 kg (33 lb) lighter, while still being stronger than its competitors. The FIA considered the technology to be unsafe and decided to ban it for 1970, insisting on rubber bag-tanks (Which meant the effective end of spaceframe chassis in F1). Safety had become a major issue in Formula One.

McLaren fielded a pair of Cosworth powered M7s for reigning Formula One World Champion Denny Hulme and team founder Bruce McLaren. McLaren won the non-championship Brands Hatch Race of Champions, then the Belgian Grand Prix was the scene of the team's first championship race win. In doing so, McLaren became only the third driver to win a race in a car manufactured by his own team – Jack Brabham having done it in 1966 and Dan Gurney in 1967 at Spa-Francorchamps. Hulme won the Italian Grand Prix and Canadian Grand Prix later in the year.

Repco produced a more powerful version of their V8 to maintain competitiveness against Ford's new Cosworth DFV, but it proved very unreliable. The Brabhams were fast — Rindt set pole position twice during the season — but Brabham and Rindt finished only three races between them, and ended the year having scored just ten points.

The 1968 season turned out to be a turning point in the history of Formula One, in terms of technicalities and safety. Wings were used on Formula One cars and aerodynamics really played a part in terms of the cars' performance, and five Grand Prix drivers were killed in this year – including Jim Clark, Mike Spence, Jo Schlesser and Ludovico Scarfiotti – Clark at a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim in a Lotus in April, Spence during practice for the Indianapolis 500 in a Lotus in May, Scarfiotti during a hill climb event in Germany driving a Porsche sportscar in June, and Schlesser during the French Grand Prix driving a Honda in July. It was the last year where all the races were run on tracks with almost no safety modifications. The rather dubious events of the season included Schlesser's almost recklessly caused fatal accident at Rouen Les Essarts and the German Grand Prix run in atrocious rain and thick fog at the dangerous and long Nürburgring, a race that was even questioned at the start to be run in the almost intolerable conditions.



2013 - With the nineteen races of the season completed, the defending World Champion, Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel, retained the Drivers' Championship. He did so by winning in India and opening an unassailable 115-point gap with only three races remaining. He broke the record for most consecutive wins in a single season with nine. He also tied the record for consecutive wins, which was set by Alberto Ascari in 1952–1953, and for total wins in a single season with 13, set by Michael Schumacher in 2004. His record tally of 13 wins included a controversial victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix that came when he defied team orders, overtaking teammate Mark Webber late in the race to secure victory. Vettel apologised afterwards to the team, although he later refused to apologise for winning. Vettel's other wins came in Bahrain, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Japan, India, Abu Dhabi, the United States and Brazil. The four times world champion scored 397 points, also a record until 2018, when Lewis Hamilton scored 408 points. Webber finished his last Formula One season in third place with 199 points. It was the first time since 2008 that the Australian failed to win a race. Their combined results allowed Red Bull to clinch the 2013 Constructors' Championship in India by opening a gap of 157 points, with only 129 still up to grab. The team scored a total of 596 points.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished as the runner-up with 242 points. The Spaniard won two races, in China and Spain, and scored five second-places, in Australia, Canada, Belgium, Italy and Singapore, to keep him in a strong championship position throughout the season. However, a retirement in Malaysia and relatively poor results in Bahrain, Monaco, Korea and India saw him fall behind Vettel in the points. The gap closed briefly after the German's gearbox failure at the British Grand Prix, but the defending world champion scored eleven consecutive podium finishes after his sole retirement of the season, including ten wins, to clinch the title. Alonso's teammate Felipe Massa finished eighth in the standings, scoring 112 points with a single podium finish in Spain. Ferrari lost second place in the Constructors' Championship to Mercedes, finishing a mere 6 points behind.

Lewis Hamilton, who scored a win in Hungary, four third places and five pole positions in 2013 with Mercedes AMG, finished fourth in the drivers' standings with 189 points. His Malaysian Grand Prix podium came with a share of controversy as team orders were employed to help him retain third place. After the race, Hamilton said that his teammate Nico Rosberg was the one who actually deserved the podium. Italy was the first time that Hamilton failed to make a Q3 appearance since the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix. As a result, the Briton's streak of consecutive Q3 appearances ended at 66. Hamilton also suffered his first retirement of the season in Japan due to damage caused by a puncture, which he got from a clash with Vettel. Rosberg, despite winning the Monaco and British Grands Prix, finished sixth, with retirements in Australia, China and Hungary, as well as a string of bad luck preventing him from having clean races, hurting his point tally. Mercedes finished as the runner-up to Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship with 360 points.

Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen finished fifth in the Drivers' Championship with 183 points. He missed the last two races of the season due to a back surgery. The Finn won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and placed second at the Chinese, Bahrain, Spanish, German, Hungarian and Korean Grands Prix, but a retirement in Belgium combined with a non-points finish in Italy opened the gap to the championship leader. Belgium was the first time Räikkönen failed to finish a race since returning to the sport at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix. It also ended Räikkönen's record run of consecutive points finishes at 27, which started at the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix. Teammate Romain Grosjean finished third in Bahrain, Germany, Korea, Japan and India, finishing seventh in the points standings. He also saw a return of 2012 controversies during the first half of the season after being handed a 10-place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix, which he received for crashing into Daniel Ricciardo at Monaco. He was also handed a 20-second time penalty in Hungary for a collision with Jenson Button. However, the Frenchman found great form and confidence afterwards to score three consecutive podium finishes and equalled his best ever result in the United States with second place. Poor showings in Monaco, Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and Brazil saw Lotus fall to fourth in the Constructors' Championship with 315 points, 39 adrift of Ferrari for third place.

Despite finishing the 2012 season with two wins in the final two races, McLaren openly admitted to a difficult 2013 campaign. Button finished ninth overall, 39 points behind Massa, whilst teammate Sergio Pérez ended up eleventh. The team ended the season in fifth place in the Constructors' Championship, with a best result of fourth achieved by Button in Brazil. It was the first time since 2006 that McLaren failed to win a race and the first time since 1980 that the team did not score a podium. Force India had a strong start to the season, with Paul di Resta finishing fourth in Bahrain and Adrian Sutil recording a fifth place in Monaco, though the team's performance fell significantly during the second half of the season, with only 3 points scored in seven races from Germany to Japan. However, the team put both cars in the points at its home race as well as in Abu Dhabi. Di Resta has been very consistent during the first half of the season, claiming points in six consecutive races from China to Great Britain. The team finished in sixth place in the Constructors' Championship, 45 points behind McLaren.

Sauber endured a very difficult first half of the season, scoring just seven points in the first 11 Grands Prix. However, Nico Hülkenberg showed impressive form in Italy, qualifying third and finishing fifth in the race, in Korea, where he started seventh and fought off Hamilton and Alonso for fourth, as well as in the United States, where he qualified fourth and finished sixth. The team also enjoyed a great team result in Japan, where the German finished sixth and his rookie teammate Esteban Gutiérrez seventh, the Mexican's first and only points of the season. Sauber scored 57 points and finished in seventh place in the Constructors' Championship. Gutiérrez endured a difficult introduction to Formula One, with a retirement due to driver error in China, a lowly eighteenth place in Bahrain and a string of grid penalties for causing avoidable collisions and blocking other drivers during qualifying. Despite this, he recorded the fastest lap of the race in Spain, secured his first career top ten qualifying appearance in Singapore, repeated the feat in Korea and drove a strong race for seventh in Japan. Scuderia Toro Rosso finished in eight place overall with career-best results for both Daniel Ricciardo, who finished seventh in China and Italy, and Jean-Éric Vergne, who finished sixth in Canada. Qualifying improved as well with the team making the top ten in qualifying on a regular basis, with a peak of fifth for Ricciardo at Silverstone. Williams endured one of their worst seasons, not scoring points until Pastor Maldonado finished tenth in Hungary. Teammate Valtteri Bottas qualified third in changeable conditions in Canada, but was unable to carry the speed into the race. However, the Finn scored his first career points in the United States after a strong weekend, finishing eight in the race. Williams finished ninth in the Constructors' Championship, 28 points adrift of Toro Rosso.

Marussia F1 and Caterham F1 did not score points in 2013. The teams' best results were achieved by Jules Bianchi, who scored a thirteenth for Marussia, and by Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, who have both scored a fourteenth-place finish for Caterham. By virtue of Bianchi's thirteenth place in Malaysia, Marussia ended the season in tenth.

[S griffin]

Although 1968 will always be overshadowed by the death of Jim Clark, among others, it was a lot more competitive than 2013.