Christian
Danner

Christian Danner was born in Munich on 4 April 1958. He began racing in 1977, straight after leaving school, starting out in the Renault 5 Cup before stepping up to the European Formula Two Championship in 1981. He was a regular frontrunner there and took several podium finishes, though never a win. In 1985 he moved to the newly created Formula 3000 series and won four races on his way to becoming its first champion.

That same year Danner made his Formula One debut with Zakspeed. He started two races and retired from both with mechanical failures. In 1986 he began the season with Osella, but could make little impression with the car and its underpowered Alfa Romeo engine. After six races without a finish he switched to Arrows, who had powerful BMW turbo engines, and scored his first point at the Austrian Grand Prix. He ended the year 18th in the World Championship, his best final position.

He went back to Zakspeed for 1987. The car was uncompetitive and often unreliable, and whenever he reached the finish he was outside the points. In 1988 he raced touring cars, and in 1989 he returned to Formula One with Rial. Of 13 entries he qualified for only four races. He finished fourth at the United States Grand Prix, helped by a high number of retirements. Rial parted company with him after the Portuguese Grand Prix. In total he started 36 Grands Prix without reaching the podium.

After his Formula One career, Danner became a regular in the German touring car championship (DTM), where he had already made his debut in 1988. In a BMW M3 he won both races at Hockenheim. In 1993 he took six podiums and finished fifth in the standings, and in 1995 he won at the Norisring. He kept racing touring cars until 1997. In 1990 he drove in Japanese Formula 3000 for Leyton House, scoring four points to finish 14th. In the 1990s he made several appearances in Indy Car racing, with a best result of seventh at Homestead in 1995. He also took part in the Grand Prix Masters series. After his racing career he became a Formula One commentator for the German channel RTL.

Source: Wikipedia, “Christian Danner”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.