Stefan
Bellof

Stefan Bellof was born in Gießen on 20 November 1957. Following his brother Georg, he started karting in 1973 and became German karting champion in 1980. That same year he won the Formula Ford 1600 championship, taking eight victories from twelve races. In 1981 he raced in German Formula Three, and in 1982 he moved up to Formula Two with Maurer Motorsport. He won the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone at the first attempt and followed it with victory at Hockenheim, finishing the season fourth overall.

In sportscars, Bellof drove for the Porsche works team from 1983, in the Porsche 956 alongside Derek Bell. He won at Silverstone, Kyalami and Fuji in 1983. In 1984 he took the World Endurance Championship drivers' title and also became champion in the German DRM series.

Bellof raced in Formula One for Tyrrell in 1984 and 1985, making 21 starts. In the rain-shortened 1984 Monaco Grand Prix he started from the back of the grid and was closing on the leaders when the race was stopped after 31 laps. All of his 1984 results were later removed after Tyrrell were thrown out of that year's championship over lead ballast in the fuel tanks. In 1985 he finished sixth in Portugal and fourth in Detroit, but failed to qualify at Monaco. His final Formula One race was the Dutch Grand Prix, and he ended the 1985 championship 16th.

Bellof died on 1 September 1985 in the 1000 km of Spa-Francorchamps, after a collision with Jacky Ickx's Porsche. In 2013 the Nürburgring renamed the Pflanzgarten III section of the Nordschleife the Stefan-Bellof-S.

Source: Wikipedia, “Stefan Bellof”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.