George Follmer and the podium that announced Shadow

i

On 29 April 1973, a Can-Am champion with almost no prior Formula 1 experience climbed onto the podium at Montjuïc Park in Barcelona and gave a brand new team something to feel very good about. George Follmer’s third place at the Spanish Grand Prix was Shadow’s first podium result in the World Championship, achieved in just their second attempt. As debut statements go, it was a striking one.

The unlikeliest of F1 podium men

Follmer was not a typical Formula 1 arrival.

George Follmer

• Races (starts):12
• Wins:0
• Podiums:1
• Pole positions:0
• Fastest laps:0
• Driver of the Day:0
• World titles:0
• Points (total):5

Data source: F1DB (GitHub)

Born in 1934, he had spent most of his career in American motorsport, building a reputation as a tough and versatile driver across sports cars, Trans-Am and the Can-Am series.

He won the Can-Am championship in 1972, which was itself no minor achievement in an era when that series attracted serious machinery and serious talent.

Formula 1, however, was largely unfamiliar territory.

He had made a handful of starts in the early 1960s but had never established himself as part of the grand prix world.

When Shadow brought him in for the 1973 season, he was 38 years old and being asked to race in one of the most competitive fields the sport had seen.

Shadow’s arrival

Don Nichols’ Shadow team had entered Formula 1 with ambition and a distinctive black livery that stood out immediately in the paddock.

i

The DN1 was their first proper grand prix car, and expectations were modest for the early part of their debut season. Teams arriving in Formula 1 rarely made an impression in their first races, and Shadow had every reason to be patient.

The Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuïc was only their second World Championship race, run on the demanding street circuit that wound through the park above Barcelona.

It was a race that Emerson Fittipaldi won for Lotus, with François Cevert taking second for Tyrrell. Follmer came home third.

What it meant

For Shadow, it was an immediate signal that the project had genuine substance. A podium in the second race of a team’s existence was a rarity then as now, and it attracted exactly the kind of attention a new constructor needed.

For Follmer, it remained the highest point of his Formula 1 career.

He completed the 1973 season with Shadow but did not return to F1 afterwards, heading back to American racing.

His grand prix career was brief and, outside of this result, fairly modest in terms of points and finishes. But the Montjuïc podium ensured his name stayed attached to one of the more surprising footnotes in the sport’s history.

Shadow went on to have a competitive if turbulent existence in Formula 1 through the 1970s, most memorably associated with Tom Pryce and a drivers’ championship challenge that never quite materialised before the team eventually folded.

The foundation, though, was laid unusually fast, partly thanks to a middle-aged Can-Am champion who arrived in Barcelona and did something nobody expected.

See a mistake? Let us know