The French Grand Prix 1968 - Practice
Being the lap record-holder and having won the Formula Two race on the
circuit last year, Rindt shot off the moment practice began and set a
searing pace in the Brabham-Repco, getting well under 2 min. for the lap
almost immediately, his 4-camshaft Repco V8 working well for a change.
Surtees was not too happy with the way Honda had managed things over the
matter of the new V8 and he showed that the V12 was very raceworthy by
thrashing round for a number of laps and being second fastest for quite a
time, lapping under the 2 min. mark. The enormous aerofoils on the Lotus
works cars made the Ferraris, McLarens and Brabhams look a bit
ineffective with their mini-wings, and with these in place the Lotus
wedge tails were not fitted. However, they were not happy, for the right-
hand drive-shaft on Oliver's car was overheating its outer universal
joint, and Hill was only just on the bogey-time of 2 min. Elford had a
bad start to his first Grand Prix, for the fuel pump on the rear of the
Hewland gearbox seized and broke its drive before he had started to try
and go fast. Brabham was also in fuel system trouble and his 4-cam Repco
V8 was running very badly, but Rindt was making up for this by staying at
the head of the list and going faster and faster, ending with a time of 1
min. 56.1 sec., a speed of 202.552 k.p.h. (approximately 126 m.p.h.). The
two McLaren drivers were well satisfied with their cars, considerable
improvements having been made to the handling since the last race, and
the aerofoils were giving them confidence so that they were both well
under 2 min. for a lap, and Amon and Ickx were equally happy with the
Ferraris, making almost identical times and half a second quicker than
the McLarens. Stewart also broke the 2 min. barrier, still driving with
his wrist strapped up, and Rodriguez got below bogey-time, but Attwood
just missed it. The V8 Honda seemed trouble-free mechanically, but
Schlesser was having to feel his way along carefully, never having driven
anything with quite so much potential, and while learning he spun the
car, but was quite happy. Although eight drivers got below the 2 min.
mark none of them could approach Rindt's time in the short period of
practice and when they all had to pack up and go home and leave a horde
of amateur Formula Three drivers on the circuit they were justifiably
disgruntled.
On Friday, practice was vaguely from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., but in a feeble
attempt to make up for the previous evening, it was extended for some 20
minutes. Fortunately both evenings were fine and dry, if somewhat
overcast and dull, but the second session did not go off in such a
rousing fashion. Rindt could not repeat his previous performance, his
Repco engine playing up and being difficult to start, and at one point
the Brabham people were pouring petrol into the intakes from a bottle
when there was a back-fire and a great sheet of flame that was more
impressive than dangerous, but it made everyone leap in the air very
smartly and be more careful. Hill was having trouble with the gearchange
of his Lotus fouling something, and Oliver had a monumental accident when
he got on the grass shortly before the pits and struck a parapet which
tore the entire gearbox and rear suspension right off the car; he was
very lucky to step out of the monocoque unscathed, but the car was beyond
immediate repair. The V12 Matra appeared with a sheet of aluminium,
forming an air deflector, over the rear of the engine, and it also had
extra fuel tanks attached to the***pit sides, on the outside. Elford
was still in trouble, for after getting down to competitive times there
was a loud hang and a big hole in the bottom of the B.R.M. engine in his
Cooper, and Servoz- Gavin's engine in the other Cooper would not run
properly, later traced to the valve timing having got out of phase.
Although Stewart improved on his previous best time, he could not
approach Rindt's fastest, while the time that Ickx did on Thursday put
him in third place in the front row, even though Hulme had equalled it on
Friday. Beltoise and Hill joined the select "under-2 min." group, so that
there were ten very competitive entries for the 60-lap French Grand Prix.
The whole of Saturday was available for preparing the cars for the race,
and there was a final test session at 8 a.m. on the Sunday morning for
those who wanted to take advantage of it. The race itself was not due to
start until 4 p.m., the whole of the day being taken up by two National
races, a Formula Three race and lunch. This Festival of Speed, rather
like a Silverstone meeting, was unfortunate, for the weather forecasts
predicted rain before the end of the afternoon, and the skies were
ominous all morning. Before the cars came out on to the grid there was a
grand parade of a lap by some 20 Matra 530 rear-engined coupes, with the
detachable tops removed, and in each one was a Grand Prix driver in the
passenger seat, and his entrant, team manager or some other team member
at the wheel. Tyrrell drove Stewart around, Forghieri drove Ickx, Le
Guellec drove Beltoise, Rob Walker drove Siffert, and so on. while all
this was going on there was a panic in the Brabham camp with a fuel tank
leak on Rindt's car, and at Coopers one of the flexible *** bag tanks
in one of their cars had sprung a leak. With a race distance of 392
kilometres some cars were near the limit on fuel capacity and on
McLaren's car a 24-gallon cylindrical tank had been mounted on the rear,
alongside the cylindrical oil tank, while Hulme's car had a slightly
larger capacity slab tank strapped to the right side of the***pit. The
V12 Matra was still carrying its side tanks, and Courage's B.R.M. had the
tide tank strapped on as in Holland. Amon was using the newer of his two
Ferraris, 0011, even though the engine was not as sharp as it should have
been, for there had not been time in the short practice periods to get
0007 set-up for the circuit. Oliver was a non-starter, there being no
spare works Lotus; Rodriguez was driving P133-0l and Attwood P126-03 and
everyone else had the cars with which they practised.
