This is the DVD review of the 1974 Grand Prix Season - Down to the Last Race - which saw Emerson Fittipaldi crowned as the 1974 F1 Drivers Champion.

1974 was the year of change in Formula One. Defending champion Jackie Stewart had retired from racing, creating a power vacuum that sucked a host of racers, old and new, into the battle for the Championship.

And what a season! Predicting the outcome of each race was impossible as the drivers battled to come to terms with closer racing brought about by faster cars with better tyres. It was reliability as much as driving skill that kept the leaderboard in a state of constant flux. By the final race of the season Emerson Fittipaldi (McLaren), Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari) and Jody Scheckter (Tyrrell) were locked in a fascinating three-way battle for the title. It went right down to the wire.

This film doesn’t just show the action from the season – it tells the story. Pit-lane cameras eavesdrop on intimate conversations between the engineers and drivers as they discuss set-up and tyres, revealing a world markedly different from contemporary Formula One.

Brunswick Films were one of the few producers filming Formula One in the days before global TV coverage, multi-camera angles and official season review DVDs and videos. The previously unseen footage from their famous archive has been utilised to create a review packed with on-the-limit driving (including an in-car lap of Brands Hatch), great close-ups of the major personalities and intriguing paddock-side discussions that give the sense of a story unfolding as the season progresses – the story of ‘car wars’ and the battle between set-up, streamlining and engine power. It's very much a film of its time.