Video: Stewart's 1971 Formula One Championship winner
By Nick Tarsey
A notable car in the garages at the Silverstone Classic Media day this week was Tyrrell 003 - the Cosworth V8-powered car that Jackie Stewart drove for most of the season on the way to his second Drivers’ title in 1971. At this stage Tyrrell did not use model numbers for their cars but just numbered their chassis as they were built, thus 003 was the third car they constructed, and was similar to 001 featuring only some detail changes.
Stewart had started the season in Tyrrell 001, crashing that car in testing at Kyalami. He put the repaired car on pole for the race, and finished second, then used it for three non-championship races, losing out to V12-powered rivals in each occasion.
For the Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuic Park in April, the second round of the championship, Stewart had the new 003, and having qualified fourth passed Jacky Ickx in the Ferrari to win by over three seconds after the 75 laps. Although he ran the 001 chassis in practice at most races,003 was Stewart’s mount for the rest of the season and he won at Monaco, Paul Ricard, Silverstone, at the Nurburgring and at Gosport in Canada.
He sealed the title at the Austrian GP in August despite not finishing after stub axle failure, points rivals Ickx and Ronnie Peterson also failing to score. By season’s end Stewart had 62 points, well clear of Ickx on 33 with team-mate Francois Cevert third on 26.
The car evolved during the season, having started with a finned front wing mounted high on the nose before gaining the lower full width front wing, while the tall airbox appeared during the year.
