The first race of the 1976 season was the Brazilian Grand Prix, Watson retired when a fuel system failure turned into a fire. and finished fifth at South Africa. Watson was eleven laps down and not classified at the United States Grand Prix West and retired at Spain with engine failure, Watson finished seventh at the Belgian Grand Prix and tenth at Monaco. The PC3 was not as good as had been hoped and in the midseason Penske produced a new Penske PC4 from the Swedish Grand Prix onwards.