1969 Formula One season
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "1969_Formula_One_season".

The 1969 Formula One season included the 20th FIA Formula One World Championship season, which commenced on March 1, 1969, and ended on October 19 after eleven races.

Season summary

The McLaren M7C with early 1969 high-position wings attached. In the Donington Grand Prix Collection.

Matra withdrew their works team from the 1969 championship and focused on their partnership with Ken Tyrrell. Stewart won the 1969 title easily with the new Matra MS80, which corrected most of the weaknesses of the MS10. Stewart's title was the first won by a French chassis, and the only one won by a chassis built in France. It was a spectacular achievement from a constructor that had only entered Formula One the previous year.

Jacky Ickx had a strong second half to the season for Brabham, winning in Germany and Canada, after Jack Brabham was sidelined by a testing accident.¹ Ickx finished second in the drivers' championship, with 37 points to Jackie Stewart's 63.

After several incidents in which wings, struts, or the suspension (to which they were attached) collapsed, wings were banned from Monaco 1969. They were reintroduced later in the season but were to be restricted in size and height, and attached directly to the chassis in a fixed position.

1969 also saw a brief resurgence of interest in four wheel drive following a number of wet races the previous year. Four such cars were entered for the British Grand Prix, and Johnny Servoz-Gavin became the one and only driver to score a point with a 4WD, finishing sixth with the Matra MS84 at the Canadian Grand Prix. Wide tyres and downforce quickly proved to be superior means of increasing grip, and the technology was largely abandoned, although Lotus continued to experiment with the idea for a few more years. Bruce McLaren described the handling of his M9 as being like trying to sign an autograph while someone was jogging his elbow; Cosworth discovered that their car handled better the more drive went to the rear wheels.

Season review

Rnd	Race	Date	Location	Winning driver	Constructor	Report
1	South African Grand Prix	March 1	Kyalami	Jackie Stewart	Matra-Ford	Report
2	Spanish Grand Prix	May 4	Montjuïc	Jackie Stewart	Matra-Ford	Report
3	Monaco Grand Prix	May 18	Monaco	Graham Hill	Lotus-Ford	Report
4	Dutch Grand Prix	June 21	Zandvoort	Jackie Stewart	Matra-Ford	Report
5	French Grand Prix	July 6	Charade	Jackie Stewart	Matra-Ford	Report
6	British Grand Prix	July 19	Silverstone	Jackie Stewart	Matra-Ford	Report
7	German Grand Prix	August 3	Nürburgring	Jacky Ickx	Brabham-Ford	Report
8	Italian Grand Prix	September 7	Monza	Jackie Stewart	Matra-Ford	Report
9	Canadian Grand Prix	September 20	Mosport Park	Jacky Ickx	Brabham-Ford	Report
10	United States Grand Prix	October 5	Watkins Glen	Jochen Rindt	Lotus-Ford	Report
11	Mexican Grand Prix	October 19	Hermanos Rodriguez	Denny Hulme	McLaren-Ford	Report

1969 Constructors Championship final standings

Place	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Tyre	Points2	Wins	Podiums	Poles
1	Matra-Ford	MS10 MS80 MS84	Ford Cosworth DFV		66	6	10	2
2	Brabham-Ford	BT26A	Ford Cosworth DFV		49 (51)	2	9	4
3	Lotus-Ford	49B 63	Ford Cosworth DFV		47	2	7	5
4	McLaren-Ford	M7A M7B M7C M9A	Ford Cosworth DFV		38 (40)	1	5
5	Ferrari	312/69	Ferrari 255C		7		1
6	BRM	P133 P138 P139	BRM P142		7		1
7	Cooper-Maserati	T86B	Maserati Tipo 10/F1
8	Brabham-Repco	BT20 BT24	Repco 740
9	Brabham-Climax	BT23B	Climax FPF
10	Eagle-Climax	T1G	Climax FPF

1969 Drivers Championship final standings

Pos. Driver RSA ESP MON NED FRA GBR GER ITA CAN USA MEX Pts. 1 Jackie Stewart 1 1 Ret 1 1 1 2 1 Ret Ret 4 63 2 Jacky Ickx Ret 6 Ret 5 3 2 1 10 1 Ret 2 37 3 Bruce McLaren 5 2 5 Ret 4 3 3 4 5 Ret DNS 26 4 Jochen Rindt Ret Ret Ret Ret 4 Ret 2 3 1 Ret 22 5 Jean-Pierre Beltoise 6 3 Ret 8 2 9 12† 3 4 Ret 5 21 6 Denny Hulme 3 4 6 4 8 Ret Ret 7 Ret Ret 1 20 7 Graham Hill 2 Ret 1 7 6 7 4 9 Ret Ret 19 8 Piers Courage Ret 2 Ret Ret 5 Ret 5 Ret 2 10 16 9 Jo Siffert 4 Ret 3 2 9 8 11† 8 Ret Ret Ret 15 10 Jack Brabham Ret Ret Ret 6 Ret 2 4 3 14 11 John Surtees Ret 5 Ret 9 Ret DNS NC Ret 3 Ret 6 12 Chris Amon Ret Ret Ret 3 Ret Ret 4 13 Richard Attwood 4 3 14 Vic Elford 7 10 5 6 Ret 3 15 Pedro Rodríguez Ret Ret Ret Ret 6 Ret 5 7 3 16 Silvio Moser Ret Ret 7 Ret Ret 6 11 1 17 Jackie Oliver 7 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 6 1 18 Johnny Servoz-Gavin 6 NC 8 1 19 Sam Tingle 8 0 20 Pete Lovely Ret 9 0 21 John Miles Ret 10 Ret Ret Ret 0 — Bill Brack NC 0 — Mario Andretti Ret Ret Ret 0 — Jo Bonnier Ret Ret 0 — George Eaton Ret Ret 0 — Peter de Klerk NC 0 — Basil van Rooyen Ret 0 — John Love Ret 0 — Derek Bell Ret 0 — John Cordts Ret 0 — Al Pease DSQ 0 Pos. Driver RSA ESP MON NED FRA GBR GER ITA CAN USA MEX Pts.

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Light blue Practiced only (PO) Friday test driver (TD) - from 2003 onwards Blank Did not practice (DNP) Injured or ill (Inj) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrew entry before the event (WD) Event cancelled (CANC)

† Formula Two cars occupied fifth to tenth positions in the German Grand Prix, however drivers of these cars were not eligible for championship points. The points for fifth and sixth were awarded to the drivers of the eleventh and twelfth placed cars.

Non-Championship race results

Other Formula One races held in 1969, which did not count towards the World Championship.

Race Name	Circuit	Date	Winning driver	Constructor	Report
IV Race of Champions	Brands Hatch	March 16	Jackie Stewart	Matra-Cosworth	Report
XXI BRDC International Trophy	Silverstone	March 30	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Cosworth	Report
Madrid Grand Prix	Jarama	April 13	Keith Holland	Lola-Chevrolet	Report
XVI International Gold Cup	Oulton Park	August 16	Jacky Ickx	Brabham-Cosworth	Report

Notes

1. ^ Henry p.85
2. ^ Only the best 5 results from the first 6 races and the best 4 results from the last 5 races counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.