For 1971, Ferrari decided to focus everything on 3-liter sports, abandoning the development of 5-liter cars, thus leaving the 512M to private teams. The 1971 season therefore served as an apprenticeship, which unfortunately began in a tragic way in Argentina with the death of Ignazio Giunti. The car proved to be competitive over the course of the season, although still short on reliability. During the winter of 1971-1972 it was modified to become truly unbeatable in the course of 1972.