1975 Downpour Beyond Comparison

Even by Formula One's recent catastrophic standards, a rain shower during today's British Grand Prix is unlikely to cause the chaos created by the sudden deluge that visited Silverstone 30 years ago. Sixteen drivers crashed, 19 made pit stops and the lead changed nine times between seven drivers. Just to round off the confusion, Emerson Fittipaldi was declared the winner while stationary in the pits 10 laps before the race was due to finish.

It was an unusual race from the outset. Safety concerns created by a multiple collision at the end of the first lap of the previous grand prix at Silverstone in 1973 (the race alternated with Brands Hatch) had brought the call for a chicane at Woodcote, the final, very fast right-hander. Fittipaldi, as reigning champion in 1975, laid out a sample chicane with cones during a pre-race test. Unfortunately, he failed to tell all the drivers, a point that came to everyone's attention when the British driver, Brian Henton, swept into Woodcote as usual at 170 mph in his Lotus and sent the cones flying.

The chicane was in permanent position by race weekend and Tom Pryce mastered it better than most by becoming the only Welsh driver to claim pole position for a championship grand prix. The first 12 cars were covered by less than a second.

The Brabham of Carlos Pace overtook Pryce's Shadow at the start, the youngsters eventually being passed by the Ferrari of Clay Regazzoni. As the flamboyant Swiss pulled away, dark clouds began to roll across the far side of the circuit and Regazzoniwas the first to find that spots of rain had arrived at Stowe and Club corners when he slid off the track. Pryce, who had just overtaken Pace, assumed the lead but then spun off as the light shower edged towards Becketts.

Jody Scheckter was among the first to stop and change to wet-weather tyres; a sound decision based on the Tyrrell driver racing back through the field to take the lead. The rest, having gambled on the track drying out, were eventually proved right when a stiff breeze blew away the clouds and brought slick dry-weather tyres back into play. Scheckter enjoyed only six laps at the front before returning for slicks.

That left James Hunt in charge for eight laps before an exhaust broke on his Hesketh. Fittipaldi then took the lead for the first time. No sooner had he done so than the rain, heavy this time, returned.

'I remember seeing a very black cloud heading towards us and I knew for sure it was going to cause trouble,' recalls Fittipaldi. 'It was a typical English summer's day; one cloud here, another one there - and this one was coming towards Stowe. When it arrived, it was like you had turned on the shower just over that corner. Everywhere else was 100 per cent dry.

'As I went down Hangar Straight, I could see it. I braked and went through the corner very slowly, in second gear. I got back to the pits, put on my wet tyres and went back out. Now it was really bad down at the far end of the circuit. The safest place was to stay in the middle of the track because the car could have spun off in any direction at any time.'

Unlike today, there was no thought of the race being either stopped or run behind the safety car. Officials had said before the start that, if it rained, the race would continue. They clearly meant it even though cars were spinning in all directions.

'Now it was a curtain of rain,' says Fittipaldi. 'You could see nothing. Suddenly I saw the back of Mario Andretti's car and I just missed him. Cars were off all over the place. I got back to Woodcote - I don't know how - saw the red flag, and stopped.'

Fittipaldi was declared the winner because he had been leading at the end of the last lap that counted. The cars classified second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh were either wrecked or abandoned at the far side of the track. It was to be Fittipaldi's last F1 victory.