The 1974 Formula One season was the 25th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1974 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1974 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, contested concurrently over a fifteen race series which commenced on 13 January and ended on 6 October. The season also included three non-championship races.
Emerson Fittipaldi and Clay Regazzoni went into the last race of the World Championship level on points, but Regazzoni dropped down the field with handling problems, so Fittipaldi's fourth place gave him the championship. This was also the first title for McLaren and the first of many titles for a team sponsored by the Marlboro cigarette brand. Fittipaldi, Ronnie Peterson and Carlos Reutemann each won three races, Jody Scheckter and Niki Lauda two each, Regazzoni and Denny Hulme, who retired at the end of the season, one each. Graham Hill ran a new team of Lolas, the larger-than-life Hesketh team entered its own car after running James Hunt in a March, and Americans Roger Penske and Parnelli Jones entered their own cars late in the season. Chris Amon's own car, like the Token and the Trojan, was not a success. Two F1 drivers died over the course of the season, Peter Revson in a practice session accident at the South African GP in March, then Austrian newcomer Helmuth Koinigg at the US GP in October.
The 1974 season was the first in which drivers had permanent racing numbers from race to race, after the system had been instituted in the middle of the previous season.