Jo Schlesser

Born	(1928-05-18)18 May 1928
Died	7 July 1968(1968-07-07) (aged 40)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	French
Active years	1966–1968
Teams	Matra, Honda
Races	3
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1966 German Grand Prix
Last race	1968 French Grand Prix

Joseph Schlesser (18 May 1928 in Liouville, France – 7 July 1968 at Rouen-Les-Essarts) was a Formula One and sports car racing driver from France. He participated in three World Championship Grands Prix, including the 1968 French Grand Prix in which he was killed. He scored no championship points.

Schlesser also participated in the 1966 and 1967 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, each time driving a Formula 2 Spec Matra-Cosworth. In 1966, he finished 10th in the overall classification and 3rd in the Formula 2 classification. In 1967, he was forced to retire with a clutch problem after 2 laps.

A real Formula One opportunity came for Schlesser in 1968 with Honda. The Honda team had completed an experimental air-cooled F1 car (dubbed the RA302) which was tested by their works driver John Surtees. Surtees pronounced it as not ready for racing, and a potential deathtrap. Undaunted, with the financial help of Honda France, Honda entered it for the French Grand Prix at Rouen-Les-Essarts. Being the local hero, Schlesser was hired to drive it.

Fatefully, after only two laps, the car slid wide at the Six Frères corner and crashed sideways into a bank. The magnesium-bodied Honda and 58 laps worth of fuel ignited instantly, leaving Schlesser no chance of survival. As a result, Honda withdrew from Formula One at the end of the 1968 season after Surtees refused to drive the car (again) at the Italian race of same year.

Jo Schlesser also raced in NASCAR finishing 13th in the Daytona 500.

A friend of Jo Schlesser's, future Formula One constuctor Guy Ligier always gave his cars type numbers beginning with 'JS' as a tribute to Schlesser.

His nephew Jean-Louis Schlesser later became a successful racing driver, who started one Formula One grand prix and won the Paris Dakar.

Complete Formula One World Championship results[link]

(key)

External links[link]

• Jo Schlesser's accident (in Italian)

v t e Honda Racing F1 Personnel: 1963–1968: Soichiro Honda | Yoshio Nakamura | Shoichi Sano 1999: Harvey Postlethwaite | Tim Densham 2006–2008: Nick Fry | Ross Brawn | Yasuhiro Wada | Geoff Willis | Shuhei Nakamoto | Loïc Bigois Notable drivers: Jenson Button | Rubens Barrichello | Ronnie Bucknum | Richie Ginther | Jo Schlesser | John Surtees Formula One cars: RA270 | RA271 | RA272 | RA273 | RA300 | RA301 | RA302 | RC100 | RA099 | RA106 | RA107 | RA108

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Jo Siffert

Born	(1936-07-07)7 July 1936
Died	24 October 1971(1971-10-24) (aged 35)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Swiss
Active years	1962 – 1971
Teams	Privateer Lotus and Brabham Rob Walker Racing Team March BRM
Races	100 (96 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	2
Podiums	6
Career points	68
Pole positions	2
Fastest laps	4
First race	1962 Monaco Grand Prix
First win	1968 British Grand Prix
Last win	1971 Austrian Grand Prix
Last race	1971 United States Grand Prix

Joseph Siffert (July 7, 1936 – October 24, 1971) was a Swiss racing driver.

Affectionately known as "Seppi" to his family and close friends, Siffert was born in Fribourg, Switzerland, the son of a dairy owner. He initially made his name in racing on two wheels, powering his way to the Swiss 350 cc motorcycle championship in 1959, before switching to four wheels with a Formula Junior Stanguellini. Siffert graduated to Formula One as a privateer in 1962, with a four-cylinder Lotus-Climax. He later moved to Swiss team Scuderia Filipinetti, and in 1964 joined Rob Walker's private British Rob Walker Racing Team. Early successes included victories in the non-Championship 1964 and 1965 Mediterranean Grands Prix, both times beating Jim Clark by a very narrow margin. Siffert was married twice and to his second wife Simone during the height of his career in the late 1960s and at the time of his death in 1971. They had two children together, Véronique and Philippe.

Life and career[link]

Formula One[link]

Siffert at the wheel of a Porsche 906 in practice for the 1966 1000 km Nürburgring race.

In 1968, Siffert drove into the F1 history books by winning the 1968 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in Rob Walker Racing Team's Lotus 49B, beating Chris Amon's Ferrari into second place after a race-long battle. This is regarded as the last GP victory by a genuine privateer.^[1]

Sports cars[link]

While Siffert's status in F1 grew slowly, his fame came as a leading driver for the factory Porsche effort in its quest for the World Sportscar Championship. In 1968, Siffert and Hans Herrmann won the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in a Porsche 907, marking the first major outright wins for the company, apart from a few earlier victories on twisty tracks.

Siffert in the Porsche 908.03 at the 1970 1000km Nürburgring

Siffert at the wheel of a Porsche 908

Later on, Siffert's driving displays in the Porsche 917 were legendary, earning him several major wins in Europe. In addition, Siffert was chosen by Porsche to help launch its CanAm development program, driving a Porsche 917PA spyder in 1969 and finishing fourth in the championship despite few entries.

In 1970 he teamed up with Brian Redman to drive a Porsche 908/3 to victory at the Targa Florio. That same year, Porsche bankrolled Siffert's seat in a works March Engineering F1 since the German company did not wish to lose one of their prize drivers to rival Ferrari. His association with March in F1 was disastrous, so he was delighted to join rival Porsche racer Pedro Rodriguez at BRM the following season.

Death[link]

Siffert won the 1971 Austrian Grand Prix, but then was killed in the non-championship World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch GB, the scene of his first and greatest victory in 1968. The suspension of his BRM had been damaged in a lap 1 incident with Ronnie Peterson, and broke later. This was not admitted by BRM until much later when this fact was accidentally divulged by a BRM ex-mechanic.^[2] The BRM crashed and immediately caught fire. Siffert could not free himself from the burning car.

This accident led to a rapid overhaul of safety, both in-car and on circuit. In the subsequent Royal Automobile Club (the UK organising and regulatory representative of the FIA at the time) investigation it was discovered that the crash itself caused non-fatal injuries but Siffert had rather been killed by smoke inhalation. None of the trackside fire extinguishers worked, and it was found to be impossible to reach the car and extract Siffert because of the extremely intense fire. On-board fire extinguishers (using BCF—bromochlorodifluoromethane, an aircraft product) became mandatory and piped air for the drivers, direct into their helmet. Thus, perhaps one of the sad epitaphs of Seppi was the focus on vehicle and driver safety in Formula One and lesser formulae and far better fire retardant driving overalls.

His funeral in Switzerland was attended by 50,000 people and a Gulf-Porsche 917 of Team John Wyer led the hearse and procession through the streets Link of Fribourg. A very comprehensive story about Siffert's life and death was published in 2005 by Roger Benoit in the Swiss newspaper Der Blick. Benoit was a period Formula 1 sports reporter and knew Siffert well. He was also present at Siffert's last and tragic Brands Hatch race in 1971. The night before the race Benoit took pictures of Siffert, his wife Simone and his mother Maria as well as a friend Jean Tinguely at an evening victory celebration Link. He then also took the very last picture of Siffert alive as he sat waiting in his BRM in the pole position on the starting line five minutes before the start of the fateful race. Siffert's mother died in 1988, surviving her son by over 17 years.

Legacy[link]

In 2005, a very informative 90-minute documentary about his life was made by director Men Lareida: Jo Siffert - live fast, die young[1] "DVD"[2].

In the final round of the 2007-08 A1GP season, at Brands Hatch, the A1 Team Switzerland car carried the message:

Jo 'Seppi' Siffert

40th Anniversary

Brands Hatch

This commemorated his 1968 British Grand Prix victory at Brands Hatch.

Formula One results[link]

Complete World Championship results[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

†Formula Two cars occupied fifth to tenth positions in the 1969 German Grand Prix, however drivers of these cars were not eligible for championship points. The points for fifth and sixth were awarded to the drivers of the eleventh and twelfth placed cars.

Non-Championship results[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Jo Siffert web site (German and French) by Philippe Siffert, Jo's son
• Jo Siffert fan page authorized by Simone Siffert, Jo's second wife

Jackie Stewart

Stewart speaking at the 2005 United States Grand Prix
Born	(1939-06-11) 11 June 1939 (age 73) Milton, West Dunbartonshire
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1965 – 1973
Teams	BRM, Tyrrell
Races	100 (99 starts)
Championships	3 (1969, 1971, 1973)
Wins	27
Podiums	43
Career points	359 (360)[1]
Pole positions	17
Fastest laps	15
First race	1965 South African Grand Prix
First win	1965 Italian Grand Prix
Last win	1973 German Grand Prix
Last race	1973 United States Grand Prix (did not start)

Sir John Young 'Jackie' Stewart, OBE^[2] (born 11 June 1939) is a Scottish former racing driver. Nicknamed the 'Flying Scot', he competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships. He also competed in Can-Am. He is well known in the United States as a color commentator (pundit) of racing television broadcasts, and as a spokesman for Ford, where his Scottish accent has made him a distinctive presence. Between 1997 and 1999, in partnership with his son, Paul, he was team principal of the Stewart Grand Prix Formula One racing team. In 2009 he was ranked fifth of the fifty greatest Formula One drivers of all time by journalist Kevin Eason who wrote: "He has not only emerged as a great driver, but one of the greatest figures of motor racing."^[3]

Early life[link]

Stewart's family were Austin, later Jaguar, car dealers and had built up a successful business, Dumbuck Garage, in Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland where Stewart was born and was educated at Dumbarton Academy. His father had been an amateur^[4] motorcycle racer, and his brother Jimmy was a racing driver with a growing local reputation who drove for Ecurie Ecosse and competed in the 1953 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, until he went off at Copse Corner in the wet.

Jackie attended Hartfield primary school in Dumbarton and graduated to Dumbarton Academy at the age of 12. He experienced learning difficulties owing to undiagnosed dyslexia and was unable to complete his secondary education past the age of 16. He has said: “When you’ve got dyslexia and you find something you’re good at, you put more into it than anyone else; you can’t think the way of the clever folk, so you’re always thinking out of the box."^[5] As a result he was not allowed to continue his secondary school programmes and began working in his father's garage. At the age of 13 he had won a clay pigeon shooting competition^{[citation needed]} and then went on to become a prize winning member of the Scottish shooting team, competing in the United Kingdom and abroad. He won the British, Welsh and Scottish skeet shooting championships^{[citation needed]} and the 'Coupe des Nations' European championship^{[citation needed]}. He also competed for a place in the British trap shooting team for the 1960 Summer Olympics, which was awarded to another competitor named Joe Wheater.^[6] His early involvement with cars was in the family business, where he worked as an apprentice mechanic and it was only natural that he would soon become involved in motor racing.

He took up an offer from Barry Filer, a customer of his family business, to test in a number of his cars at Oulton Park. For 1961, Filer provided a Marcos, in which Stewart scored four wins, and competed once in Filer's Aston DB4GT. In 1962, to decide if he was ready to turn pro, tested a Jaguar E-type at Oulton Park, matching Roy Salvadori's times in a similar car the year before.^[7] He won two races, his first in England, in the E-type, and David Murray of Ecurie Ecosse offered him a ride in the Tojeiro EE Mk2, then their Cooper T49, in which he won at Goodwood. For 1963, he earned fourteen wins, a second, and two thirds, with just six retirements.^[7]

In 1964, he again signed with Ecurie Ecosse. More important, Ken Tyrrell, then running the Formula Junior team for the Cooper Car Company, heard of the young Scotsman from Goodwood's^[7] track manager and called up Jimmy Stewart to see if his younger brother was interested in a tryout. Jackie came down for the test at Goodwood, taking over a new, and very competitive, Formula Three T72-BMC^[7] Bruce McLaren was testing. Soon Stewart was bettering McLaren's times, causing McLaren to return to the track for some quicker laps. Again, Stewart was quicker, and Tyrrell offered Stewart a spot on the team. This would be the beginning of a great partnership that would see them reach the pinnacle of the sport.

Racing career[link]

Stewart in 1969 with the Matra-Cosworth at the Nürburgring.

Tyrrell 003, the car that took Stewart to the 1971 World Championship.

Stewart (right) in conversation with Mike Kranefuss in 1973.

In 1964 he drove in Formula Three for Tyrrell. His debut, in the wet at Snetterton on 15 March, was dominant, taking an astounding 25 second lead in just two laps before coasting home to a win on a 44 second cushion.^[7] Within days, he was offered a Formula One ride with Cooper, but declined, preferring to gain experience under Tyrrell; he failed to win just two races (one to clutch failure, one to a spin) in becoming F3 champion.^[7]

After running John Coombs' E-type and practising in a Ferrari at Le Mans, he took a trial in an F1 Lotus 33-Climax, in which he impressed Colin Chapman and Jim Clark.^[7] Stewart again refused a ride in F1, but went instead to the Lotus Formula Two team. In his F2 debut, he was second at the difficult Clermont-Ferrand circuit in a Lotus 32-Cosworth.^[7]

While he signed with BRM alongside Graham Hill in 1965, a contract which netted him £4,000, his first race in an F1 car was for Lotus, as stand-in for an injured Clark, at the Rand Grand Prix in December 1964; the Lotus broke in the first heat, but he won the second.^[7] On his F1 debut in South Africa, he scored his first Championship point, finishing sixth. His first major competition victory came in the BRDC International Trophy in the late spring, and before the end of the year he won his first World Championship race at Monza, fighting wheel-to-wheel with teammate Hill's P261.^[7] Stewart finished his rookie season with three seconds, a third, a fifth, and a sixth, and third place in the World Drivers' Championship. He also piloted Tyrrell's unsuccessful F2 Cooper T75-BRM, and ran the Rover Company's revolutionary turbine car at Le Mans.

1966 saw him almost win the Indianapolis 500 on his first attempt, in John Mecom's Lola T90-Ford,^[8] only to be denied by a broken scavenge pump while leading by over a lap with eight laps to go; however, Stewart's performance, having had the race fully in hand and sidelined only by mechanical failure, won him Rookie of the Year honours despite the winner, Graham Hill, also being an Indianapolis rookie.

Also, in 1966, a crash triggered his fight for improved safety in racing. On lap one of the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, when sudden rain caused many crashes, he found himself trapped in his overturned^[8] BRM, getting soaked by leaking fuel, which can result in a fire. The marshals had no tools to help him, and it took his teammate Hill and Bob Bondurant, who had both also crashed nearby, to get him out. Since then, a main switch for electrics and a removable steering wheel have become standard. Also, noticing the long and slow transport to a hospital, he brought his own doctor to future races, while the BRM supplied a medical truck for the benefit of all. It was a poor year all around; the BRMs were notoriously unreliable, although Stewart did win the Monaco Grand Prix. Stewart had some success in other forms of racing during the year, winning the 1966 Tasman Series and the 1966 Rothmans 12 Hour International Sports Car Race.

BRM's fortunes did not improve in 1967, during which Stewart came no higher than second at Spa, though he won F2 events for Tyrrell at Karlskoga, Enna, Oulton Park, and Albi in a Matra M5S or M7S.^[8] He also placed 2nd driving a works-entered Ferrari driving with Chris Amon at the BOAC 6 Hours at Brands Hatch, the 10th round of World Sportscar Championship at the time.

In Formula One, he switched to Tyrrell's Matra International team, where he drove a Matra MS10-Cosworth^[8] for the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Skill (and improving tyres from Dunlop)^[8] brought a win in heavy rain at Zandvoort. Another win in rain and fog at the Nürburgring, where he won by a margin of four minutes. He also won at Watkins Glen, but missed Jarama and Monaco due to an F2 injury at Jarama.^[8] His car failed at Mexico City, and so lost the driving title to Hill.

In 1969, Stewart had a number of races where he completely dominated the opposition, such as winning by over 2 laps at Montjuïc, a whole minute at Clemont-Ferrand and more than a lap at Silverstone. With additional wins at Kyalami, Zandvoort, and Monza, Stewart became world champion in 1969 in a Matra MS80-Cosworth. Until September 2005, when Fernando Alonso in a Renault became champion, he was the only driver to have won the championship driving for a French marque and, as Alonso's Renault was built in the UK, Stewart remains the only driver to win the world championship in a French-built car.

For 1970, Matra (since taken over by Chrysler)^[8] insisted on using their own V12 engines, while Tyrrell and Stewart wanted to keep the Cosworths as well as the good connection to Ford. As a consequence, the Tyrrell team bought a chassis from March Engineering; Stewart took the March 701-Cosworth^[8] to wins at the Daily Mail Race of Champions and Jarama, but was soon overcome by Lotus' new 72. The new Tyrrell 001-Cosworth, appearing in August,^[8] suffered problems, but Stewart saw better days for it in 1971, and stayed on. Tyrrell continued to be sponsored by French fuel company Elf, and Stewart raced in a car painted French Racing Blue for many years. Stewart also continued to race sporadically in Formula Two, winning at the Crystal Palace and placing at Thruxton. A projected Le Mans appearance, to co-drive the 4.5 litre Porsche 917K with Steve McQueen, did not come off, for McQueen's inability to get insurance.^[8] He also raced Can-Am, in the revolutionary Chaparral 2J. Stewart achieved pole position in 2 events, ahead of the dominant McLarens, but the chronic unreliability of the 2J prevented Stewart from finishing any races.^[8]

Stewart went on to win the Formula One world championship in 1971 using the excellent Tyrrell 003-Cosworth, winning Spain, Monaco, France, Britain, Germany, and Canada. He also did a full season in Can-Am, driving a Carl Haas sponsored Lola T260-Chevrolet.^[8] and again in 1973. During the 1971 Can-Am series, Stewart was the only driver able to challenge the McLarens driven by Dennis Hulme and Peter Revson. Stewart won 2 races; at Mont Treblant and Mid Ohio. Stewart finished 3rd in the 1971 Can-Am Drivers Championship. The stress of racing year round, and on several continents eventually caused medical problems for Stewart. During the 1972 Grand Prix season he missed Spa, due to gastritis, and had to cancel plans to drive a Can-Am McLaren, but won the Argentine, French, U.S., and Canadian Grands Prix, to come second to Emerson Fittipaldi in the drivers' standings. Stewart also competed in a Ford Capri RS2600 in the European Touring Car Championship, with F1 teammate François Cevert and other F1 pilots, at a time where the competition between Ford and BMW was at a height. Stewart shared a Capri with F1 Tyrrell teammate François Cevert in the 1972 6 hours of Paul Ricard, finishing second. He also received an OBE.

Entering the 1973 season, Stewart had decided to retire. He nevertheless won at South Africa, Belgium, Monaco, Holland, and Austria. His last (and then record-setting) 27th victory came at the Nürburgring with a convincing 1-2 for Tyrrell. "Nothing gave me more satisfaction than to win at the Nürburgring and yet, I was always afraid." Stewart later said. "When I left home for the German Grand Prix I always used to pause at the end of the driveway and take a long look back. I was never sure I'd come home again." After the fatal crash of his teammate François Cevert in practice for the 1973 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, Stewart retired one race earlier than intended and missed what would have been his 100th GP.

Stewart held the record for most wins by a Formula One driver (27) for 14 years (broken by Alain Prost in 1987) and the record for most wins by a British Formula One driver for 19 years (broken by Nigel Mansell in 1992).

Racing safety advocate[link]

During Stewart's F1 career, the chances of an F1 driver who raced for five years being killed in a crash were two out of three.^[9]

At Spa-Francorchamps in 1966, he ran off the track while driving at 165 mph (266 km/h) in heavy rain, and crashed into a telephone pole and a shed before coming to rest in a farmer's outbuilding. His steering column pinned his leg, while ruptured fuel tanks emptied their contents into the cockpit. There were no track crews to extricate him, nor were proper tools available. There were no doctors or medical facilities at the track, and Stewart was put in the bed of a pickup truck, remaining there until an ambulance arrived. He was first taken to the track's First Aid centre, where he waited on a stretcher, which was placed on a floor strewn with cigarette ends and other rubbish. Finally, another ambulance crew picked him up, but the ambulance driver got lost driving to a hospital in Liége. Ultimately, a private jet flew Stewart back to the UK for treatment.

After his crash at Spa, Stewart became an outspoken advocate for auto racing safety. Later, he explained, "If I have any legacy to leave the sport I hope it will be seen to be an area of safety because when I arrived in Grand Prix racing so-called precautions and safety measures were diabolical."^[10]

Stewart continued, commenting on his crash at Spa:

I lay trapped in the car for twenty-five minutes, unable to be moved. Graham and Bob Bondurant got me out using the spanners from a spectator's toolkit. There were no doctors and there was nowhere to put me. They in fact put me in the back of a van. Eventually an ambulance took me to a first aid spot near the control tower and I was left on a stretcher, on the floor, surrounded by cigarette ends. I was put into an ambulance with a police escort and the police escort lost the ambulance, and the ambulance didn't know how to get to Liège. At the time they thought I had a spinal injury. As it turned out, I wasn't seriously injured, but they didn't know that. I realised that if this was the best we had there was something sadly wrong: things wrong with the race track, the cars, the medical side, the fire-fighting, and the emergency crews. There were also grass banks that were launch pads, things you went straight into, trees that were unprotected and so on. Young people today just wouldn't understand it. It was ridiculous.

In response, Stewart campaigned with Louis Stanley (BRM team boss) for improved emergency services and better safety barriers around race tracks. "We were racing at circuits where there were no crash barriers in front of the pits, and fuel was lying about in churns in the pit lane. A car could easily crash into the pits at any time. It was ridiculous."^[11] As a stop-gap measure, Stewart hired a private doctor to be at all his races, and taped a spanner to the steering shaft of his BRM in case it would be needed again. Stewart pressed for mandatory seat belt usage and full-face helmets for drivers, and today a race without those items is unthinkable. Likewise, he pressed track owners to modernize their track, including organizing driver boycotts of races at Spa-Francorchamps in 1969, the Nürburgring in 1970, and Zandvoort in 1972 until barriers, run-off areas, fire crews, and medical facilities were improved.

Stewart's work was not appreciated by track owners, race organizers, some drivers, and members of the press. "I would have been a much more popular World Champion if I had always said what people wanted to hear. I might have been dead, but definitely more popular."^[11] However, his race wins, combined with his popularity with the public and his business savvy, prevented his message from being silenced. Certainly, after his victory in the 1968 German GP at the 187-corner Nordschleife -- in torrential rain, driving with a broken wrist, winning by more than four minutes—no one dared question his bravery as Stewart pushed for better safety standards.

Even though he is known as knowing the Nürburgring better than almost any other driver, he was recently quoted as saying "I never did a lap of the Nürburgring that I didn't have to do."

Today, Stewart's legacy as a safety advocate in motor racing is as great as his legacy as a race winner.

Complete Formula One results[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)