The 1971 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 3, 1971, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was race 11 of 11 in both the 1971 World Championship of Drivers and the 1971 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The 59-lap race was won by Tyrrell driver François Cevert after he started from fifth position. Jo Siffert finished second for the BRM team and March driver Ronnie Peterson came in third.
Summary Jackie Stewart's domination in 1971 clinched his second Driver's Championship with three races remaining, but the final round belonged to his Tyrrell teammate, François Cevert. The Frenchman took the lead from Stewart on lap 14 and went on to claim his only career win, the first GP victory for a French driver since Maurice Trintignant in 1958.
As usual, the American race attracted a large field of entrants, despite it being the last race of the year and both Championships having long been wrapped up. It seemed nearly every spare works F1 car and quite a few independents, as well, were present to try for a share of the $267,000 in prize money, easily the richest purse in F1. Unfortunately, the two most popular American drivers, Mario Andretti and Mark Donohue, who was fresh from a stunning third-place finish in Canada in his Formula One debut in a Penske-White Racing entered McLaren were committed to drive on Sunday in a USAC race which had been rescheduled to the GP weekend after it had been called off on the previous weekend because of extremely heavy rain. The two drivers qualified, Andretti in a Ferrari and Donohue in a Penske-White Racing entered McLaren shared with David Hobbs, hoping for more rain in New Jersey and the chance to return for the race on Sunday.
Since the previous year's race, the course had been resurfaced, widened and, most significantly, lengthened by a mile to 3.377 miles with an entirely new section at the southwest corner called the "Boot" or "Anvil". The pits were also moved from the north end straight back before the right angle turn known as "The 90," which now became Turn One.
Friday was sunny and hot (), and Stewart jumped immediately to the top of the charts with a time of 1:42.844, as the times were recorded to a thousandth of a second for the first time. On Saturday, with the temperature now 110° and both Goodyear's and Firestone's qualifying tires breaking down after a few laps, Emerson Fittipaldi pipped Stewart's time from the day before, but the Scot returned to the track and grabbed the pole by .017 of a second. Denny Hulme joined them on the front row in his McLaren, followed by Clay Regazzoni's Ferrari, Cevert and the soon-to-be-absent Andretti. American Peter Revson qualified nineteenth in the third Tyrrell. It was his only race for Tyrrell and his first Grand Prix since 1964.
Race Sunday was dry in both upstate New York and Trenton, New Jersey, and word came that the USAC race would go on meaning that both Andretti and Donohue would be unable to start the race with Hobbs substituting for Donohue in the Penske-White Racing entered McLaren dismaying both the crowd and the organizers, who were robbed of seeing two of the country's best road racers. At the start, Denny Hulme jumped into the lead, ahead of Cevert and Stewart, but by the end of the first lap, Stewart led Hulme, Cevert, Regazzoni, Jo Siffert, Jacky Ickx, Chris Amon and Fittipaldi.
At first, Stewart was able to open a gap back to the following group, now headed by his teammate, but after ten laps, his tires began to go off and the gap closed. The Scot realized that Cevert's Goodyears were holding up much better in the heat, and when Cevert closed up right behind him, he waved him by on lap 14. Hulme was now struggling with a terrible vibration in his tires and was passed, first by Ickx, then Regazzoni and Siffert. On lap 15, American Sam Posey, in his first Grand Prix, retired from a fine run with a blown piston in his Surtees. By the time Ickx could get around Stewart on lap 17, Cevert's lead was 5.7 seconds.
At about half-distance, Cevert finally began to struggle with the same understeer that had plagued Stewart much earlier. Ickx was closing, and his Firestones were getting better as the race went on. On lap 43, the Belgian set the fastest lap of the race, and the gap was down to 2.2 seconds. Then, on lap 49, the Ferrari's alternator fell off, punching a hole in the gearbox and spilling oil all over the track! Hulme hit the oil and spun into the barrier, bending his front suspension. He was standing beside the track when Cevert came by and also hit the barrier, but kept going, now 29 seconds in the lead!
Jo Siffert was now in second place and 33 seconds clear of Ronnie Peterson. With four laps to go, however, Siffert began to run low on fuel. The Swede took huge chunks off the gap as Siffert jerked the BRM from side to side, trying to use every remaining drop of fuel. Cevert coasted home, taking both hands off the wheel to wave as he crossed the line, and Siffert weaved his way around to hold second place by four seconds over Peterson's March.
After taking the checkered flag, Cevert gave a nod to his teammate. "I feel pretty good with a $50,000 win. I followed Stewart in the beginning and was flagged on ahead. Jackie Stewart is a very sensible driver and a very good teacher. He let me go through." While it was the first race on the expanded Watkins Glen track, it was the third year in a row that The Glen had rewarded a driver with his first career victory. This was Cevert's only victory in Formula One.
Qualifying
Qualifying classification Pos.No.DriverConstructorTimeGrid18 Jackie StewartTyrrell-Ford1:42.642122 Emerson FittipaldiLotus-Ford1:42.659237 Denny HulmeMcLaren-Ford1:42.925345 Clay RegazzoniFerrari1:43.002459 François CevertTyrrell-Ford1:43.152566 Mario AndrettiFerrari1:43.195714 Jo SiffertBRM1:43.4686832 Jacky IckxFerrari1:43.8437911 Chris AmonMatra1:43.9708103 Reine WisellLotus-Ford1:44.02491112 Jean-Pierre BeltoiseMatra1:44.067101225 Ronnie PetersonMarch-Ford1:44.193111316 Howden GanleyBRM1:44.430121418 John SurteesSurtees-Ford1:44.908131520 Mike HailwoodSurtees-Ford1:45.094141623 Tim SchenkenBrabham-Ford1:45.110151717 Helmut MarkoBRM1:45.204161819 Sam PoseySurtees-Ford1:45.267171931 Mark DonohueMcLaren-Ford1:45.3782022 Graham HillBrabham-Ford1:45.448182110 Peter RevsonTyrrell-Ford1:45.515192221 Henri PescaroloMarch-Ford1:45.568202315 Peter GethinBRM1:45.729212431 David HobbsMcLaren-Ford1:46.270222526 Nanni GalliMarch-Ford1:46.608232628 John CannonBRM1:47.471242733 Skip BarberMarch-Ford1:47.673252827 Andrea de AdamichMarch-Alfa Romeo1:47.952262919 Gijs van LennepSurtees-Ford1:48.0293024 Chris CraftBrabham-Ford1:48.698273129 Jo BonnierMcLaren-Ford1:49.391283230 Pete LovelyLotus-Ford1:52.14029
Race
Classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 9 François Cevert Tyrrell-Ford 59 1:43:51.991 5 9 2 14 Jo Siffert BRM 59 + 40.062 6 6 3 25 Ronnie Peterson March-Ford 59 + 44.070 11 4 4 16 Howden Ganley BRM 59 + 56.749 12 3 5 8 Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Ford 59 + 1:00.003 1 2 6 5 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 59 + 1:16.426 4 1 7 22 Graham Hill Brabham-Ford 58 + 1 lap 18 8 12 Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 58 + 1 lap 10 9 15 Peter Gethin BRM 58 + 1 lap 21 10 31 David Hobbs McLaren-Ford 58 + 1 lap 22 11 27 Andrea de Adamich March-Alfa Romeo 57 + 2 laps 26 12 11 Chris Amon Matra 57 + 2 laps 8 13 17 Helmut Marko BRM 57 + 2 laps 16 14 28 John Cannon BRM 56 + 3 laps 24 15 20 Mike Hailwood Surtees-Ford 54 Accident 14 16 29 Jo Bonnier McLaren-Ford 54 Out of fuel 28 17 18 John Surtees Surtees-Ford 54 + 5 laps 13 33 Skip Barber March-Ford 52 + 7 laps 25 2 Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus-Ford 49 + 10 laps 2 30 Pete Lovely Lotus-Ford 49 + 10 laps 29 32 Jacky Ickx Ferrari 49 Alternator 7 7 Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 47 Accident 3 23 Tim Schenken Brabham-Ford 41 Engine 15 24 Chris Craft Brabham-Ford 30 Suspension 27 19 Sam Posey Surtees-Ford 15 Piston 17 21 Henri Pescarolo March-Ford 23 Engine 20 26 Nanni Galli March-Ford 11 Wheel 23 3 Reine Wisell Lotus-Ford 5 Brakes 9 10 Peter Revson Tyrrell-Ford 1 Clutch 19 6 Mario Andretti Ferrari Non-starter 19 Gijs van Lennep Surtees-Ford Driven by Posey 31 Mark Donohue McLaren-Ford Driven by Hobbs
Notes
This was the Formula One World Championship debut for American driver Sam Posey and Canadian driver John Cannon. This was the final Grand Prix for former GP winner Joakim Bonnier. This was the 100th Grand Prix start for Brabham. This was the 5th win of a United States Grand Prix by a Ford-powered car. It broke the old record set by Coventry Climax at the 1962 United States Grand Prix.
Final Championship standings
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jackie Stewart 62 2 Ronnie Peterson 33 1 3 François Cevert 26 1 4 Jacky Ickx 19 1 5 Jo Siffert 19Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Tyrrell-Ford 73 1 2 BRM 36 1 3 Ferrari 33 4 March-Ford 33 (34) 5 Lotus-Ford 21Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 5 results from the first 6 rounds and the best 4 results from the last 5 rounds counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Bold text indicates the 1971 World Champions.
References
Further reading Doug Nye (1978). The United States Grand Prix and Grand Prize Races, 1908-1977. B. T. Batsford. Rob Walker (January 1972). "13th U.S. Grand Prix: A First For Number Two". Road & Track, 39–43.