1972 Season

The 1972 Formula One season is the 26th FIA Formula One season, featuring the 23rd World Championship of Drivers and the 15th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers across twelve rounds. Jackie Stewart is the reigning champion.

Points are awarded to the top six finishers in each race. Championship totals count each driver’s best five results from rounds 1–6 and best five from rounds 7–12.

Driver changes

BRM hired Reine Wisell from Lotus and Jean-Pierre Beltoise from Matra. The team lost Jo Siffert, who died during the 1971 World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch; they field up to five cars in the opening round.

March promotes their Formula Two driver Niki Lauda to the F1 team; Lauda also continues racing in Formula Two.

Emerson Fittipaldi is joined at Lotus by David Walker.

McLaren signed the 1971 Can-Am champion Peter Revson; they had previously worked together at the 1971 Indianapolis 500. Matra reduces to a one-car operation following Beltoise’s departure.

Surtees signed Tim Schenken from Brabham and Andrea de Adamich from March. Mike Hailwood moves to a full-time seat while also competing in Formula Two. Team founder John Surtees shifts to a management role and retires from driving at the end of the season.

Under new managing director Bernie Ecclestone, Brabham promotes Formula Two driver Carlos Reutemann alongside veteran Graham Hill. Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior joins the team in a paid third seat.

Frank Williams gains Motul sponsorship and purchases a new March 721 for Henri Pescarolo. He also promotes Formula Two driver Carlos Pace to the team with the previous year’s March 711.

Team changes

Alfa Romeo withdraws from the sport entirely after unsuccessful partnerships with McLaren in 1970 and March in 1971.

Two new teams enter mid-season: Eifelland Caravans, fielding a redesigned March 721 with Rolf Stommelen from the second round; and Tecno, an Italian karting and racing team with Martini sponsorship, entering from the Belgian Grand Prix with Nanni Galli.

Calendar

The Argentine Grand Prix returns to the calendar for the first time since 1960, at the Autódromo de Buenos Aires. Belgium is also back after the 1971 race was cancelled when Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps failed mandatory safety standards; the 1972 edition moves to the new Nivelles-Baulers circuit.

The Spanish Grand Prix moves from Montjuïc to Jarama, the French Grand Prix from Circuit Paul Ricard to the Circuit de Charade, and the British Grand Prix from Silverstone to Brands Hatch, each as part of the existing circuit-rotation arrangement.

Three rounds are cancelled: a United States Grand Prix West at Ontario Motor Speedway near Los Angeles (the FIA required a prior test event, which the circuit owners declined to hold), the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort (safety upgrades incomplete due to lack of funds), and the Mexican Grand Prix (local interest dissipated following Pedro Rodríguez’s death in a sportscar crash in 1971). The championship runs to twelve races.

Regulation changes

The minimum car weight rises from 530 kg to 550 kg. Turbocharged engines may now run up to 1,500 cc, reverting a 1970–71 restriction to 500 cc; the naturally aspirated limit remains 3,000 cc.

1972 is the first season in which all circuits on the calendar meet the FIA’s official Circuit Safety Criteria. Mandatory car safety measures include fuel tanks lined with safety foam, no magnesium sheet thinner than 3 mm, a driver headrest, minimum cockpit dimensions, a 6-point harness, a combined master cut-off and fire-extinguisher switch, and a 15-watt red warning light at the rear.

The first Drivers’ Code of Conduct is published for this season.