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Checkbook racing
The 1968 season had barely begun before it was rocked to its very foundations by the death of its biggest star, Jimmy Clark, in a minor Formula 2 race (ed. The circumstances surrounding Clark's death has already been covered in great depth. If the reader wishes additional information, Eric Dymock's recent book Jim Clark - Tribute to a Champion is an excellent source). Clark had won the season opener over Graham Hill in South Africa. The V8 Ford-Cosworth DFV which had shown so much promise last year would come to dominate Formula 1 for the next 14 years. But the biggest change would come from another source, the tobacco industry. The introduction of tobacco sponsorship would cause ramifications that are still being felt to this day. The insular world of Formula 1 and Grand Prix racing would never be the same. In 1967 two major oil suppliers, BP and Esso, withdrew from Formula 1 and Firestone, the American tire manufacturer would no longer offer free tires. The small British teams were put under tremendous financial pressure and petitioned the CSI to change their long standing policy restricting advertising on race cars. By the Grand Prix of Monaco, Lotus would no longer be painted green but would now display the colors of Gold Leaf tobacco and would hence forth be known as Gold Leaf Team Lotus. The influence of this new "foreign" money would in due time alter the balance of power and spell the end of privateers. A new type of driver, with their own private financing, would be able to make the jump to the pinnacle of motorsport. On some teams the second seat would become just another "revenue stream". Louis Stanley would later remark that one of his biggest regrets was introducing Marlboro to Formula 1.

The other major introduction into the sport was the use of aerodynamic devices in the form of inverted wings. The first of these were incredibly spindly contraptions that were more of a danger to their drivers than to the competition. Matra's wing was adjustable and was powered by a small electric motor that was actuated by impulses from the break pedal. The next race on the schedule was the Spanish Grand Prix and the Lotus team still devastated by the death of its leading driver saw his teammate Graham Hill garner the checkered flag. Monaco, the next race again belonged to Hill. The race was one of attrition and the fourth victory at the principality for Hill. Matra supplied two teams in Formula 1. The works team led by Jean-Pierre Beltoise and the Tyrrell team led by Jackie Stewart. At Belgium Stewart took the early lead only to run out of fuel giving the race to a surprised McLaren driving one of his own cars. Stewart would not be denied at the next race, the Dutch Grand Prix where he was followed by the works Matra of Beltoise. For the French Grand Prix, Lotus used the 49B which had a tall rear wing mounted directly to the suspension which offered much greater efficiency. Honda brought a brand new car, the Type RA302 that used an air-cooled V8 motor. Former World Champion John Surtees was slated to drive the car but backed out because he considered the new car unsafe. The car was given to newcomer Jo Schlesser who tragically suffered a fatal accident on the third lap. The race run in driving rain was won by Jackie Ickx in a Ferrari 312. The race at Brands Hatch saw more of the cars sporting rear wings with the exception of BRM and Cooper. The Lotuses of Hill and Jackie Oliver looked to dominate the race, alternating the early lead before both had to drop out due to mechanical failures. Another Lotus, this one entered by Rob Walker and driven by Jo  Siffert won the race after an exciting duel with long time bridesmaid Chris Amon.

The next race, the German Grand Prix was run under atrocious conditions with many of the drivers reluctant to drive in such whether. No one more so than Jackie Stewart who had to be ordered by Ken Tyrrell to start the race.   Ironically many would later consider this his greatest race. Actually it was more like two races, The one that Stewart was driving in and the one that contained all of the others. Nursing a broken wrist suffered in a Formula Two race he started the race from the sixth position. As soon as the flag dropped he began his charge to the front reeling in the other cars and by the end of the first lap he was 8 seconds clear. After the second lap he was more than 30 seconds in the lead. Behind him Graham Hill and Chris Amon struggled to maintain this blistering pace. Many of the other cars spun out including eventual second place finisher Hill. At the flag Stewart's winning margin was almost four minutes giving him enough time to extricate himself from his car to accept congratulations, before Hill's Lotus crossed the line.  The Italian Grand Prix at Monza was another wild slipstreaming affair with the lead changing no fewer than 16 times. Denis Hulme in a McLaren-Ford sans rear wing was the eventual winner. The World Championship was wide open with any of four drivers, Hill, Ickx, Stewart and Hulme capable of taking the prize. The next race, in Canada,  saw the end of any title hopes for Jacky Ickx when he crashed his Ferrari and broke his leg. Hulme continued his late season charge and won his second consecutive race. Watkins Glen was up next and saw Jackie Stewart take the prize. That left it up to the season closer in Mexico to decide the title. Jo Siffert dominated the early part of the race only to suffer mechanical problems that cost him two laps. The winner and now double World Champion was Clarks teammate Graham Hill. Fittingly Lotus also won the Constructor's Title. At the end of the season the team that more or less started the rear-engine domination of Formula One and helped many a future star learn his craft was forced to quit. Cooper, which made a name for itself with its 500cc Cooper-JAP Formula Three, could no longer find the funds to compete in the increasingly expensive sport.

If 1967 marked the introduction of Cosworth, 1969 marked its total dominance of Formula 1. Now available to any team, the Cosworth V8 found itself at the rear of cars by Matra, McLaren, Brabham as well as Lotus. The engine would go on to power every winner in 1969.

The Matra entered by Ken Tyrrell and driven by Jackie Stewart won the season opener, the South African Grand Prix. Stewart also won the next race in Spain while the Lotus 49s of Hill and Rindt both suffered wing failures. The ruling organization took action and banned the tall movable wings for the Dutch Grand Prix. Before that race came the Monte Carlo Grand Prix and the fifth and final victory at the famed circuit for Graham Hill. The Dutch Grand Prix had arrived and all of the cars now used low permanently mounted wings.

Four Wheel Drive
The race was also noteworthy for the appearance of two four-wheel drive cars, the Matra MS84 and the Lotus 63. Teams were scrambling to find ways of transferring the torque generated by the ever more powerful 3-liter engines to the road. The wedge shaped Lotus 63 was developed by Maurice Phillippe and resembled in appearance at least, the cars created by Lotus for the Indianapolis 500. Matra's car was more conventional in appearance but was compromised by its space frame chassis. Cosworth, too had developed a four-wheel drive car that was intended to compete under the Ford banner until the company decided to withdraw its support, regrettably it never raced.

The four-wheel drives fatal started at the front differential. On right hand corners the load would be primarily on the left front tire with hardly any load on the inside one. This caused the free wheel to spin madly on tight corners and resulted in terminal understeer. On the Cosworth a limited-slip differential was tried at the front but this proved tremendously heavy to drive. Torque-splitting was tried with 25% to 40% at the front. This alleviated some of the problems but resulted in minimizing any advantage of the four-wheel drive layout. In fact most drivers found no discernable advantage to compensate for its side effects. Rindt who had claimed pole position understandably refused to even bother with the Lotus 63 but Hill after qualifying another 49B took the 4-wheel drive car and recorded a time of 1:28.3 which was 7 1/2 seconds off the pace. Stewart in the Matra MS84 was able to better that time by recording a 1:26.68 but that took all the considerable skill that he had. Neither car actually entered the race as each would require additional development.

After Rindt's early lead from pole he was overtaken by Stewart who went on to win his third race of the year followed by Jo Siffert in a private Lotus and Chris Amon in the Ferrari. For the French Grand Prix Lotus appointed new driver John miles to drive the 63 only to see him retire on the second lap due to a broken fuel pump. Stewart repeated again in France. For the British Grand Prix the four-wheel contingent was joined by McLaren and their M9A, but once again none of them finished in the points and the race was won by Stewart driving a borrowed car. Mario Andretti drove the Lotus 63 at the German Grand Prix and actually put up some respectable times even though he had never been to the Nurburgring before. Unfortunately the race was another matter, which saw him leave the track. Stewart's victory parade was finally broken at the Nurburgring with Jacky Ickx driving a Brabham-Ford to victory only to see Stewart again in the winner's circle at Monza. Amazingly Stewart showed that he too was human when he left the track in Canada giving the victory to Ickx who was followed over the line by his boss Jack Brabham. Jochen Rindt finally tasted victory in America, at Watkins Glen but the race was marred by a serious accident that broke both the legs of his teammate Graham Hill. The last race of the season was in Mexico but the victory of Denis Hulme did little to change the outcome of the World Championship. Jackie Stewart claimed what everyone knew one day would be his. At 63 points he was way ahead of his nearest rival Jacky Ickx with 37. The four-wheel drive cars were slowly abandoned by all of the manufactures save for Lotus who continued to work on their car, their best result being Rindt's second place at Oulton Park. In 1971 Lotus brought out their four-wheel drive turbine car and during the wet Dutch Grand Prix of that year it began to make some noise. Driven by novice David Walker, as the conditions worsened he began to pick off his rivals one by one only to overdue it and crash later in the race. Colin Chapman would remark later that "that was the one race that should, and could, have been won by a four-wheel drive."

Lotus-Ford 72
1970 was notable for the debut of a number of new talented drivers to Formula1 led by Ronnie Peterson this group would include Francois Cevert, Clay Regazzoni, Henri Pescarolo and future World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi. The year was also a tragic one that saw the deaths of Bruce Mclaren, Piers Courage and almost unbelievably Jochen Rindt on the eve of his first World Championship which was awarded to him posthumously. The other sensation of 1970 was the new Lotus-Ford 72.

This was to be Jack Brabham's last season driving as he would retire at the end of the year. To show the younger drivers that there was still some fire in the old man he won the first race of the season in South Africa braking a three year drought. At Jarma, the current World Champion Jackie Stewart won the first race for the new car by March Engineering. This British team founded by Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd prepared their own team cars as well as providing cars for Tyrrell. Having the World Champion driving one of their cars albeit for another team, was a big coup for the new company. Unfortunately the team's resources were stretched thin and their cars was soon overshadowed by the new Lotus. Chris Amon had joined the team with the understanding that they would start slowly fielding just one car initially. Imagine his surprise in finding four other cars just like his on the grid. Monaco proved to be the greatest race of the year when Jochen Rindt passed Brabham on the last corner of the race. The race looked like Brabham had it in the bag but some minor mechanical problems and lapped traffic gave Rindt the opening he needed. The sight of the old Lotus 49, the 72 was still not ready, being thrown around the tight city circuit was a something not soon forgotten by those lucky enough to witness the event. Younger readers from the United States should be reminded that the race was shown on ABC television in those days as part of the "Wide World of Sports". In fact it was just such a telecast eight years earlier that got this writer interested in the sport. The next race was Spa, and another fantastic race was held, this time between the BRM of Pedro Rodriguez and the March of Chris Amon. Rodriguez was just able to hold off a determined Amon. Zandvoort was next and the Lotus 72 without the anti-dive won a convincing victory amongst the sand dunes of Holland with Rindt at the wheel. There were no celebrations on the somber podium as the race was marred by the death of the popular Piers Courage in a De Tomaso. This began a string of four straight victories with the French, British and German GPs. Of these it must be noted that the British GP was a gift win when Brabham ran out of gas while in the lead. The British Grand Prix also saw the debut of a young Brazilian, Emerson Fittipaldi, in a Lotus 49C finish in 8th place. Zeltweg was the next stop in the Championship and the home crowd was ready to celebrate their first World Champion but were disappointed when Rindt failed to finish leaving the race to a Ferrari 1-2 with Ickx leading Regazzoni.

The Championship moved to Monza the home of Ferrari and the unthinkable happened when Jochen Rindt was killed during the second practice session. Several investigations were conducted but with conflicting results. In the end it was though that a brake shaft had failed. The air had momentarily gone out of the World Championship though Ferrari would achieved victory not through Jacky Ickx but with his teammate Clay Regazzoni in only his fifth start. There was some consideration on whether Rindt would be awarded the title if no other driver surpassed his point total. Thankfully this was the case when Emerson Fittipaldi won the US Grand Prix with new driver Wisell finishing third. Lotus won their fourth Manufacturers' Cup but under very sad circumstances.