An exciting three-way battle for the title fell in favour of McLaren's Emerson Fittipaldi after his dramatic late-season charge overhauled the Ferrari pair of Lauda and Regazzoni.

Off the pace where Lotus following the failure of their type 76 car. However, they still managed three victories in their venerable Type 72D model largely due to the brilliance of Ronnie Peterson. Tyrrell, without Stewart and Cevert, were regrouping with talented young chargers Depailler and Scheckter and former champion Denis Hulme took a final win for McLaren in the Argentine GP before retiring after a long and successful career.

Peter Revson was killed in an early season accident at Kyalami and Watkins Glen was once again the scene of tragedy as the young Helmut Koinnig was killed in a gruesome practice accident.

With Cosworth engines in plentiful supply even more teams tried their hand at Formula 1 often with little or no recourses. Trojan, Lyncar, Token and Amon were among those who tried and ultimately failed.