Rikky
Von Opel

Rikky von Opel was born in New York City in 1947 and grew up in St. Moritz. He began racing in Formula Ford in 1970 under the pseudonym Antonio Branco, and then spent two years in Formula 3. In 1972 he won the Lombard North British Formula 3 Championship, one of three concurrent series in Britain, driving for Ensign. He moved up to Formula One with the team in 1973.

He made his debut at the 1973 French Grand Prix. At the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix he qualified 14th but could not start because cracks had been found in the chassis. In 1974 he withdrew from the season opener in Argentina and left Ensign shortly afterwards. He took a seat at Brabham from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards. He finished ninth in both Sweden and the Netherlands, his best results. He failed to qualify in Monaco and France and was replaced by Carlos Pace. Von Opel made ten starts without scoring a championship point, and he is the only Formula One driver to have raced under the Liechtenstein flag.

Source: Wikipedia, “Rikky von Opel”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.