Fifty-five years ago, Formula One produced one of its greatest finishes at the Temple of Speed. It also happens to be the year I was born. And last week, at 55 years old, I traveled to Monza for the first time to attend the Italian Grand Prix. I can’t think of a better reason to look back at what happened there on September 5, 1971.
The Autodromo Nazionale Monza opened in 1922, built in just 110 days inside the Royal Park north of Milan. It was only the third permanent purpose-built motor racing circuit in the world, following Brooklands and Indianapolis.
The Monza of 1971 was very different from the circuit Formula One races on today. There was no first-corner chicane. No Variante della Roggia. Instead, drivers faced an extraordinarily fast circuit where much of the lap was spent at full throttle. Jackie Stewart later recalled that while the Curva Grande and Lesmos remained serious corners, for most of the lap the drivers were simply flat out. That created something rarely seen in modern Formula One: an enormous, race-long slipstream battle.
Leading wasn’t necessarily an advantage. At Monza, the car in front punched the hole in the air and the cars behind used the draft to close in and slingshot past. Drivers spent the race not only trying to go faster, but calculating when they wanted to be in front. And on that September afternoon, almost nobody could stay there for long.
The race featured eight different leaders and more than two dozen changes of the lead. Ferrari’s Clay Regazzoni led. Jackie Stewart led. Ronnie Peterson led. François Cevert led. Mike Hailwood led. And eventually, Peter Gethin joined them.
With one lap remaining, four cars were separated by almost nothing. Peterson crossed the line first, followed by Cevert, Hailwood and Gethin. BRM’s Howden Ganley wasn’t far behind. None of the five had ever won a Formula One Championship Grand Prix. Cevert moved ahead on the back straight. Peterson attacked under braking for the Parabolica.
And then came Gethin.
Fourth at the beginning of the final lap, he emerged from the Parabolica in front and drove his BRM toward the finish with Peterson, Cevert and Hailwood filling his mirrors. Gethin crossed the line first. Peterson arrived 0.01 seconds later. Cevert was third, 0.09 seconds behind the winner. Hailwood was fourth at 0.18. Ganley finished fifth.
The first five cars were separated by 0.61 seconds.
For Gethin, it would be his only Formula One World Championship Grand Prix victory. His winning average speed was approximately 150.75 mph, or 242.6 km/h. It became one of the defining races of old Monza, and one of the last.
When Formula One returned in 1972, Monza had changed. Increasing speeds and concerns over safety led to the construction of two chicanes designed to slow the cars before some of the circuit’s fastest sections. The great flat-out slipstream battles had come to an end.
The Temple of Speed would remain extraordinarily fast, but September 5, 1971 captured something that Formula One would never quite experience there again.
Five drivers. One final lap. Six-tenths of a second.
I wasn’t at Monza that day. I had, in fact, only just arrived in the world, but motorsport has a wonderful way of connecting generations. Cars disappear, circuits change, and drivers come and go, yet the stories remain attached to these places.
Fifty-five years have passed since Peter Gethin crossed that finish line. I’m 55 myself, and last week, I walked into Monza for the first time.
I sat inside the Parabolica; I walked beneath the trees of the Royal Park; I saw remnants of a circuit that belongs to another era and heard modern Formula One cars racing through a place where Ascari, Fangio, Clark, Stewart, Peterson, Lauda, Senna, Schumacher and so many others made history.
Having been there, I think differently about that afternoon in 1971, when five Grand Prix cars raced toward the finish line separated by little more than half a second.
It was the perfect way to meet Monza.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Circuit History
https://www.monzanet.it/en/history/
Formula 1
1971 Italian Grand Prix — Official Race Results
https://www.formula1.com/en/results/1971/races/299/italy/race-result
Motor Sport
Denis Jenkinson, “The 42nd Italian Grand Prix — The Dice of the Debutants”
October 1971
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/october-1971/21/the-42nd-italian-grand-prix-the-dice-of-the-debutants/
Motor Sport
Nigel Roebuck, “I Was There When… 1971 Italian GP”
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/i-was-there-when-1971-italian-gp/
— Sion Dettra
The Grand Touring Journal