Four-wheel drive had already proved its worth at Indianapolis, so when the infamously fragile suspension-mounted wings were banned after the 1969 Spanish GP, Colin Chapman hastened to finish his all-wheel-drive Lotus F1 car in an attempt to restore the anticipated losses in traction. Matra and McLaren followed suit, but we were all to learn that the stability advantages of 4×4 at Indy were not appropriate for the complex cornering conditions of the typical European circuit. Another trigger for the whole escapade was that back in 1961 Stirling Moss had won a wet-weather Oulton Park Gold Cup with the front-engined, 1.5-liter Climax Ferguson P99. The 4×4 machine also had Maxaret anti-lock brakes, which Moss described as "stunning".
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