Mexican1970

The final race of the year was held at the Ricardo Rodriguez circuit in Mexico City. As with previous years, a massive crowd (estimated at over 200,000) turned up for the race. This led to crowd control problems - initial attempts to hold the vast numbers back failed - and much of the race was run with 'human guardrails'. Mercifully, there were no incidents (although Jackie Stewart hit a dog) and the race was won by Jackie Ickx in the Ferrari.

The Mexican Grand Prix was the final round - a then-record 13th Grand Prix of the year - and after a difficult year, for many teams it was a race too far. Financial arrangements were haphazard, the pits inadequate and safety standards poor. The vast crowd began to surge over the fences from the word go, and by raceday, they had broken them down entirely. At many corners the track was lined not with Armco or catch-fencing, but humans, and it is testimony to the professionalism of the drivers that there were no serious incidents over the course of the weekend.
Francois Cevert nearly missed out on the race entirely - the organisers would accept only 18 entries, and initially the by-now pedestrian Jo Bonnier in his private McLaren was on the list to the exclusion of Francois. Pressure from FOCA, however, saw the organisers see sense and the has-been's entry was replaced by that of the young charger.
Tyrrell had done some work on the cars since Watkins Glen, which saw Francois' car fitted with new hubs and uprights. Initial practice proved promising, with the Frenchman 7th, albeit some 2-2.5 seconds behind the leading Ferraris of Ickx and Regazzoni. An engine change overnight and improved conditions on the second day saw Cevert only improve his time by 0.8sec, however, and he had dropped back to 9th. There was speculation, however, that some of the timing was inaccurate and certainly the Tyrrell team felt that he had in fact gone faster than this. In the end, Regazzoni claimed pole, with Stewart, in the Tyrrell 001, second.
Raceday sparked chaos when the crowd surged past the fences and sat right next to the track. The track was littered with paper and broken bottles; Jackie Stewart was forced to go out in a touring car and plead with the crowd to throw no more. There was talk of cancellation, or at least of running the race at a low speed, but with a riot feared things got underway one and a half hours late. The start was sensible, with the front cars leading away in their grid positions: Regazzoni, Stewart and then Ickx.
Poor Francois however, nearly stalled and made a dreadful start, dropping to 13th. Meanwhile at the front, Ickx passed both Regazzoni and Stewart and began to pull away. All the while, spectators were running across the track and one feared the worst.
By lap 7 it was clear that something was not right with the Cosworth powerplant in Cevert's March and he was passed by Oliver. One lap later he coasted to a halt with a blown engine. A disappointing end to an unspectacular first season in which he had shown glimpses of promise, but perhaps more importantly, ensconced himself as a fully paid-up member of the F1 circus.
It all went wrong for Team Tyrrell on lap 14 when Stewart had to stop for a new steering column bush (and to be frank, I have no idea what one of those is - perhaps someone could enlighten me?). It turned from bad to worse when on lap 33 he hit a dog. Stewart was unharmed, the dog distinctly less so - at the forefront of many people's minds was that it could easily have been a human rather than the dog....
Jack Brabham narrowly missed out on 3rd place in his final race when his engine also blew - a disappointing end to 'Black Jack''s magnificent career. In the end the top three were Ickx, Regazzoni and Hulme in that order, but the overriding impression one was left with was of the Mexican Grand Prix being a disorganised farce. Duly, it was not to be found when the F1 calendar was printed for the following season.

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