On This Day

Sunday 2nd October 1977

42 years ago

Fourth at the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen was enough to secure Niki Lauda his second world championship in three years, with James Hunt, who was champion in between Lauda's triumphs, winning a wet race from Mario Andretti. While Hunt went all-out for victory, Lauda was content to stay off the pace and try for the one point he needed to clinch the title. Hunt built a 15-second lead until an oil leak two laps from the end allowed Andretti to cut that to three seconds by the finish, and had there been another lap he would almost certainly have passed him. Lauda's win was slightly tarnished the kind of Ferrari infighting that led to him leaving the team at the end of the year. The day before Enzo Ferrari had fired Lauda's mechanic over the phone and so he was not in the pits to join in the success.The 1977 F1 season saw Jody Scheckter's Wolf win first time out, Shadow took their only victory, and Gunnar Nilsson achieved the only win of a career ended by cancer. Renault entered grand prix racing with a turbocharged car which was initially not very successful. The German ATS team took over the Penske cars and the South African Grand Prix was the last race a BRM ever qualified to start. Lauda departed Ferrari even before the season ended, so did not complete the season, having already sealed the title thanks to his consistent form. Ferrari won its third consecutive Constructors' title with new driver Carlos Reutemann having a solid season. The season was also marred by one of the most horrific accidents in Formula One history. During the South African GP on 5 March, TV cameras captured how Tom Pryce was unable to avoid 19-year-old race marshall Frederik Jansen van Vuuren. The latter was killed by the terrifying collision, his body was hurled into the air, and his fire extinguisher killed and nearly decapitated Pryce, whose car proceeded to the end of the straight where it collided with Jacques Laffite's Ligier. There was further tragedy as Carlos Pace lost his life in an aviation accident only a couple of weeks after Pryce's accident.