South African Formula One Championship build interest by padding the field with Formula 2 and Formula 5000 cars, but viewership was in a steady decline - not helped by a somewhat Byzantine points system. 1976 would see the start of the domination of South Africa's National Championship by Ian Scheckter. Indeed, had it not been for youthful exuberance Scheckter would have won the 1975 title. He won more races than Charlton, but Charlton was more consistent. Scheckter won the first four championship in a row for Lexington Racing before United Tobacco Company withdrew their teams (Lexington, Gunston and Texan). With Gunston returning in 1983, Scheckter
History of Formula One reliability. Despite his conflict with the "Commendatore" and his second driver status Lauda enjoyed immense respect from the Ferrari team, which did its best to give him a good car. There was in fact a very competitive field that year but no single challenger to the Austrian emerged and points taken away from Ferrari were shared between many teams and drivers. Surprisingly, the new Wolf team, born from the ashes of Frank Williams Racing Cars and Hesketh, made excellent use of its legacy with Jody Scheckter finishing second to Niki Lauda. 1977 also saw two radical technical innovations that would