1968
SEASON

Technical and safety regulations

Dan Gurney became the first driver to wear a full-face helmet at the 1968 German Grand Prix . He had helped to invent it with the Bell Helmets company and had already used it at the 1968 Indianapolis 500 . Within some years, it became the obvious choice among drivers and was later deemed mandatory. All cars had to be fitted with a rollbar that stretched out to at least 5 cm (2.0 in) above the driver's helmet, an electrical circuit breaker , an oil catch tank and a reverse gear . And the cockpit had to allow easy evacuation.

Other

The FIA decided to permit unrestricted sponsorship on cars 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 , Team Lotus , initiall... On 7 April, Jim 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 t...

Round 1: South Africa

The fast and flowing Kyalami circuit between Johannesburg and Pretoria played host to the South African Grand Prix for the second time on New Year's Day 1968. Briton Jim Clark was fastest by a second with his Lotus-Ford/Cosworth teammate Graham Hill alongside him with Jackie Stewart in the new Matra-Ford/Cosworth completing the front row. On the second row there were the two Brabham-Repcos of Austrian Jochen Rindt and Australian Jack Brabham while the third row featured Briton John Surtees in th...

Gap between rounds 1 and 2

Many F1 drivers in the 1960s went to compete in the Tasman series in New Zealand and Australia during the European winter and the Southern Hemisphere summer, which was a nine-week, eight-race series that started in early January and ended in late February/early March, with respective races every week in open wheel racing cars that were very similar to F1 cars of the time, with exactly the same chassis- only these variants had 2.5 litre engines, as opposed to Formula One world championship cars, ... The non-championship Race of Champions at the English Brands Hatch circuit near London in March was won by Bruce McLaren in his own McLaren car, ahead of Mexican Pedro Rodriguez in a BRM and McLaren's teammate and countryman Denny Hulme.

Round 2: Spain

There was a four-month gap between the South African Grand Prix in January and the Spanish Grand Prix in May. Formula One had lost yet another driver: Briton Mike Spence died after a practice accident at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway while running one of Andy Granatelli's Lotus turbines when he hit the wall at Turn One and one of the wheels came back into his cockpit and hit him on the head. The first Spanish Grand Prix since 1954 was held at the brand-new, ultra-modern Jarama circuit just nor...

Round 3: Monaco

It was only a year since Lorenzo Bandini had been killed at Monaco, so the chicane was tightened and the race was shortened by 20 laps. Ferrari did not attend amid reports that the team was not happy with the safety standards at the circuit. Team Lotus was there, however, and Graham Hill and Jackie Oliver ran in the new red and gold livery of Gold Leaf and the cars featured the first hints of aerodynamic front and rear wings. BRM had been planning to run Briton Chris Irwin as Mike Spence's repla...

Round 4: Belgium

Formula One arrived at the fastest circuit of the year: the notoriously dangerous and challenging 14 km (8.7 mi) Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. Amon took pole at an average speed of more than 240 km/h (150 mph) around this unprotected rural road circuit, an incredible average speed by even today's standards. The appearance of wings on the Lotus at Monaco did not go unnoticed and for this race, various teams arrived with experimental wings on their cars. Ferrari was back in action having ...

Round 5: The Netherlands

The traditional home for the Dutch Grand Prix was the fast beach-side Zandvoort circuit near Amsterdam. The Brabham team had its new Repco V8 engine ready and was running a third car for Dan Gurney who had no Weslake engines available for his Eagle. Cooper ran only one car for Lucien Bianchi following the death of Scarfiotti and Brian Redman's accident at Spa a fortnight earlier. In qualifying Chris Amon was fastest in his Ferrari with Jochen Rindt's Brabham and Graham Hill's Lotus sharing the f...