Jochen
Rindt

Jochen Rindt was born in Mainz on 18 April 1942 but grew up in Graz, and he raced under an Austrian licence throughout his career. He began competing in 1961, took several victories in an Alfa Romeo GT 1300 and moved up to Formula Junior in 1963. In Formula Two he took 29 victories in total. In 1964 he won the London Trophy at Crystal Palace ahead of Graham Hill, which brought him international attention. In 1965 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Masten Gregory, sharing a North American Racing Team Ferrari 250LM.

Rindt made his Formula One debut at the 1964 Austrian Grand Prix in a Brabham, retiring with a broken steering column. He drove for Cooper from 1965 to 1967. The team, formerly a top outfit, was struggling in 1965. At the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix Rindt qualified second and took his first podium, and he finished the year third in the championship. In 1967 he finished fourth twice and ended the season twelfth. He moved to Brabham for 1968, but the team's Repco engine could not match the Cosworth DFV. Rindt finished only two races, both in third place, and was twelfth in the standings.

He joined Lotus for 1969. At the Italian Grand Prix he started from pole position and lost a four-car finish to Jackie Stewart by just eight hundredths of a second. He took his first Grand Prix win at Watkins Glen and finished the season fourth. In 1970 he won at Monaco in the older Lotus 49 after Jack Brabham made a mistake at the final corner of the last lap. He then won in the Netherlands, his first victory in the new Lotus 72, in a race in which his friend Piers Courage was killed. Wins in France, Britain and Germany followed. The German race was held at Hockenheim rather than the Nürburgring after the drivers' association GPDA, represented among others by Rindt, demanded safety changes.

Rindt died in practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on 5 September 1970. Jacky Ickx could not catch him in the remaining races, so Rindt became world champion posthumously, the only driver ever to do so. He started 60 races and recorded six wins, 13 podiums and ten pole positions. Together with Stewart he campaigned for greater safety in racing. The penultimate corner of the Red Bull Ring is named after him.

Source: Wikipedia, “Jochen Rindt”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.