Harald
Ertl

Harald Ertl was born in Zell am See on 31 August 1948 and attended the same school as Jochen Rindt, Helmut Marko and Niki Lauda. Before entering Formula One he raced in Formula Vee, Super Vee and Formula Three, as well as in touring cars. In 1969 he bought a Formula Vee car and won six races, and in 1970 he finished second in the European Cup. In 1973 he won the RAC Tourist Trophy alongside Derek Bell. He made his Formula Two debut in 1974 and raced in the category for Fred Opert Racing in 1975. He also worked as a motorsport journalist.

Ertl made his Formula One debut in 1975, driving a Hesketh 308 at the German Grand Prix, where he finished eighth. He retired from his home race in Austria and then took ninth at Monza. In 1976 he drove for Hesketh. He came seventh in the British Grand Prix, three laps down, narrowly missing a championship point. At the 1976 German Grand Prix he was one of four drivers who pulled Niki Lauda from his burning Ferrari after his crash. Further eighth places followed in Austria and in the wet Japanese Grand Prix.

He stayed with Hesketh in 1977 and finished ninth in Belgium. After failing to qualify for the French Grand Prix he left the team. In 1978 he drove for Ensign and ATS. At Monza he failed to get through pre-qualifying in the Ensign and then failed to qualify in ATS's spare car. In 1980 he tried again with ATS at the German Grand Prix, with the same outcome. He made 19 starts in total.

In the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM) he won five of the eleven races for Schnitzer in a BMW in 1978 and took the title. He then spent two seasons with Zakspeed: in 1979 he won at Zolder and Mainz-Finthen in the Ford Capri Turbo, and in 1980 he scored four wins and eight pole positions.

Ertl died on 7 April 1982, aged 33, in an aircraft accident near Giessen. He had planned a return to racing in the 1982 Renault 5 Turbo Cup.

Source: Wikipedia, “Harald Ertl”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.