A quelques mètres près...

 

1958 - 1959 - Dans la cour de récré, il y a un terrain de basket. Ses lignes blanches, peintes au sol, sont aussi un circuit pour courses de voitures. Je pilote la Talbot-Lago bleue numéro quatre. Et je suis plutôt bon pilote. Le pouce sur le capot, une pichenette, et ma Talbot-Lago s’élance… Toute la difficulté réside à ne pas sortir de la ligne blanche. Si on en sort, on revient au point de départ. Mon plus féroce adversaire est Michel M. Il pilote une méchante Auto-Union de record vert pâle avec des roues rouges. J’ai beau préparer très soigneusement ma Talbot, bien graisser les essieux au savon, Michel M. arrive souvent en tête, avec sa voiture profilée à la fantastique tenue de route. Il a lui-même décidé qu’il était « Fangio » ! Moi, je m’en fiche : je suis « Jean Behra » ! ! !

 

Août 1959 - C’est le magazine qui propose à ses lecteurs « le choc des photos et le poids des mots ». Dans ce numéro, il montre une photo floue, en noir et blanc, représentant l’accident de Jean Behra sur le banking de l’Avus, le 1^er aout 1959. Une vague silhouette humaine, qui semble exécuter un vol plané en plein ciel, y est signalée par un cercle. C’est le corps du pilote français, éjecté de sa voiture, qui effectue là sa dernière cabriole… Quand je découvre cette page, je suis figé d’horreur : « je » suis mort………

La grande trouille des pilotes de cette époque était de capoter, de se retrouver prisonniers dans leurs voitures retournées, et d’y mourir brûlés vifs dans l’incendie qui n’aurait pas manqué de se déclarer ! Jean Behra avait donc mis au point une technique très personnelle qui lui permettait de se faire volontairement éjecter de sa voiture en cas de violente sortie de route. Il y avait laissé – pour le moins - une oreille (la droite, avantageusement remplacée par une prothèse*) et un morceau de son nez, mais il s’en était toujours sorti vivant. Rapiécé, suturé, brûlé, fracturé, recousu mais vivant.

 

L’Avus ne doit pas son nom à quelque empereur romain (très) en avance sur son temps, mais c’est le sigle acronyme correspondant à Automobil Verkehr und Ubung Strasse, soit, approximativement, « route d’exercice et de circulation automobile ». En fait, il s’agissait d’une portion d’autoroute publique toute aussi droite que le mètre étalon du pavillon de Breteuil. D’une longueur totale d’un peu plus de huit kilomètres, le circuit empruntait alternativement chacune des deux chaussées de l’autoroute. Il était terminé d’un côté par une sorte d’épingle à cheveux qui reliait ces deux chaussées, et de l’autre par un virage relevé, très en vogue dans l’entre deux guerres, la Nordkurve. Surnommé « le Mur de la Mort », ce banking était, selon la rumeur de l’époque, le plus incliné et le plus large du monde. C’était surtout une piste de briques à peu près plate, contrairement à celles de Montlhéry ou de Monza qui sont incurvées. Elle était extrêmement cassante pour les mécaniques, et elle se transformait en terrible patinoire à la moindre pluie. Conçu au départ pour battre des records de vitesse, l’Avus était quelque peu inadapté aux courses classiques.

 

En ce pluvieux 1^er août 1959, deux pilotes firent le même terrible valdingue dans le banking de la Nordkurve. Jean Behra y laissa la vie, parce que sa Porsche RSK numéro 21 vint heurter de plein fouet et en marche arrière un socle de béton qui avait servi de support à une batterie de DCA pendant la guerre. Pour tout arranger, les organisateurs avaient dressé des mâts supportant des drapeaux – sans doute ceux des pays compétiteurs - au sommet de l’anneau de vitesse, et dont l’un d’entre eux fut abattu dans l’accident. Lorsqu’un spectateur (???) prit la photo du vol plané du pilote français publiée dans « Paris-Match », Jean Behra avait probablement déjà été tué, écrasé par le moteur de sa Porsche et par l’extrême violence du choc. Carel Godin de Beaufort eut, lui, rendez-vous ce jour-là avec la chance : la sortie de piste de son spyder Porsche dans la Nordkurve fut amortie par des arbres et la voiture retomba sur ses roues comme un chat retombe sur ses pattes… Carel contourna le virage relevé par l’extérieur et reprit la course ! ! ! Mais il fut rapidement arrêté par les commissaires… Contrairement à Montlhéry, où une sortie de l’anneau de vitesse ne pouvait se solder que par un drame (comme le malheureux Benoit Musy et sa Maserati 200 S, le 7 octobre 1956), le virage relevé de l’Avus ne finissait pas en manière de falaise abrupte comme celui du circuit français, mais il était doté d’une sorte de contre-pente. On comprend alors comment ce miracle a pu se produire. De Beaufort décida de poser au sommet du banking, pour une photo qui explique tout…

Ce jour-là, le pauvre Behra n’avait vraiment pas de joker dans son jeu… Il aurait pu s’en sortir s’il n’avait pas percuté ce maudit socle de béton. A quelques mètres près……………

* L’histoire raconte que Behra adorait enlever sa prothèse dans les moments les plus inopportuns. Ce qui devait, j’imagine, lui procurer une grande jubilation intérieure !

 

Raymond JACQUES, alias JaC, peintre épisodique, provincial et banlieusard à la fois.

 

1. Crash JeanBehra by JaC©JaC

3. JeanBehra by JaC©JaC

 

En définitive, ce ne sont pas deux, mais bien trois pilotes qui sortirent du banking ce jour là.

MsO

Monza, septembre 1970

 Parcourant le net, nous avons retrouvé le très beau texte de John Miles, paru jadis sur MdS et qui relate la fin de Jochen Rindt le 5 septembre 1970. Ce texte, comme Jochen, mérite de ne pas tomber dans l'oubli.

 

« Le soleil était bas lorsque le Trident British Airways, vol 062, atterrit à l’aéroport de Milan Linate le jeudi 3 septembre 1970. Il faisait chaud et humide, comme il semble que ce soit toujours le cas en Italie. Je jetai un œil dans le cockpit baigné de pénombre où le pilote et le co-pilote remplissaient leurs plans de vol de retour. Ils seraient à la maison ce soir, les veinards.

Jochen était au sommet. Il régnait sur le championnat du monde. Sa confiance était inébranlable. Il venait de marquer une fantastique série de victoires qui avait débuté à Monaco sur une Lotus 49C, puis sa nouvelle 72 s’était mise à voler. Victoires à Zandvoort, Charade, Brands Hatch et Hockenheim. Jochen Rindt semblait indestructible, vu de l’extérieur.
Mais il ne faut pas se fier aux apparences. J’avais le sentiment que nous avions essuyé trop de casses. Les modifications constantes et les mises à jour – auxquelles s’ajoutaient la surcharge d’une troisième auto pour Emerson Fittipaldi – étaient le signe d’une activité frénétique et engendraient trop de fatigue chez les mécanos. On ne pratiquait pas comme ça chez nos concurrents, me semblait-il. Une intuition trottait dans ma tête, me disant que les choses ne se passeraient peut-être pas aussi bien durant ce week-end.

La 72 avait commencé sa carrière entachée de deux défauts de base : une anti-plongée excessive qui agissait sur les freins en les bloquant, et un anti-patinage également trop prononcé engendrant une traction trop faible. Une fois supprimés les systèmes “anti”, la voiture a vraiment bien marché – car le reste était parfait.

Mais, mon Dieu, qu’elle était fragile ! Nous étions sans arrêt en train de la rafistoler. De plus, le fait de ne pouvoir garder un moteur intact me frustrait (on sut après qu’il y avait un défaut de lubrification). Sur l’Osterreichring, deux semaines avant Monza, un axe de frein s’était rompu sur ma voiture, manquant de peu de me précipiter contre un arbre. Une vibration horrible s’était déclenchée au début de la course. Quand je freinais, la voiture se déportait sans prévenir sur la droite et m’envoyait me bagarrer avec les virages – heureusement que mon ange gardien y veillait. C’en était assez. Chaque fois que je montais dans 72/R1, le moteur pétait ou quelque chose cassait.

J’avais demandé à la merveilleuse Trish, du Team Lotus, de me réserver une chambre calme à l’arrière de l’Hôtel de la Ville, afin d’en finir avec les lumières des feux de signalisation et des courses de mobylette toute la nuit. Je n’ai pourtant pas fermé l’œil, n’arrêtant pas de songer à Bruce McLaren, Piers Courage et Paul Hawkins. Piers venait juste de me doubler quand il s’est crashé. Et maintenant je suis à Monza, théâtre de combats de titans, fief des tifosi. Je n’aime pas cet endroit. Est-ce un circuit automobile ou une arène de chars, style Ben-Hur ? Quelle est la différence ?

Vendredi matin. Il y avait une superbe suspension dans la salle à manger et un lot de boiseries anciennes. N’ayant pas aperçu Jochen au petit-déjeuner, je suis parti au circuit, seul. Les tifosi était déjà à l’œuvre, tentant d’escalader les grillages. L’un avait du sang sur les mains. Aucun camion Gold Leaf Team Lotus n’était en vue. Pas de chef mécano Gordon Huckle, ni Dave “Beaky” Sims, non plus Eddie Dennis. Tous les autres étaient là, par contre. Graham Hill avait essayé sa Lotus 72 Rob Walker plus tôt dans la semaine ; je notais ses spécifications aérodynamiques : ailerons avant plats et section centrale de l’aileron arrière à trois plans ôtée.

Le camion Lotus arriva au paddock peu avant la première séance d’essais. Les gars venaient de s’envoyer 48 heures de route non-stop. Ils avaient l’air épuisé. Ils avaient fourni une grosse somme de travail depuis le GP d’Autriche, outre une 72 à assembler pour Emerson. Les gars étaient en train de régler les rétroviseurs, installaient le siège d’Emerson et faisaient les pleins.

Drôle de façon de gagner un championnat du monde, lance Phil Kerr, le team manager de McLaren, alors qu’il passe près de moi. Je suis convoqué au centre médical. Typique absurdité italienne : on me fait mettre sur une jambe, les bras écartés, les yeux fermés. Je n’ai jamais compris pourquoi. Dingue ce truc.

Jochen semblait en forme. Il savait le championnat dans sa poche. Nina, son épouse, était là comme d’habitude. Autour de Jochen flottait en permanence comme un air d’urgence. Il explosait très vite. Il détestait les essais ; j’adorais ça. En ce qui me concernait, ma conception du paradis était de tourner à Silverstone pour améliorer une auto. Une auto bien réglée va vite sans faire prendre à son pilote beaucoup de risques. Jochen et moi étions en retard après la première séance d’essais : dans les 1,28 alors que Jacky Ickx était à 1,24.6 en compagnie de Clay Regazzoni et Jackie Stewart dans les 1,25 sur sa Tyrrell 001 dont c’était la première sortie. Mais c’est dans la deuxième séance que les choses se sont sérieusement gâtées.

Jochen et moi travaillions sur la vitesse de pointe et nous en étions plus ou moins arrivés aux même conclusions que Graham Hill : ailerons avant et arrière plats, volet central de l’aileron arrière enlevé. Il restait environ une demi-heure d’essais. Les Ferrari était devant en 1,24, nous étions deux secondes derrière. Jochen s’arrête au stand pour réclamer davantage de vitesse de pointe. Il avait failli gagner ici l’an dernier sur une Lotus 49 dépourvue d’ailerons. Il exige qu’on ôte ses ailerons.

C’est le seul moyen d’aller vite sur ce toboggan, dit-il à Eddie Dennis, son mécano. J’avais perdu un temps fou dans le deuxième Lesmo à cause de la sortie qui est aveugle et qui commande le bout droit menant à l’ultra-rapide courbe Ascari (une chicane maintenant) et à la longue ligne droite qui va vers la Parabolique.
C’est alors que j’aperçus Jochen dans mes rétroviseurs. Il restait environ une demi-heure à tourner. Il y avait quelque chose de changé sur sa voiture. J’ai ralenti. Il est passé sous le pont de l’anneau de vitesse dans l’habituel environnement de bruit et de turbulences. Dans Ascari sa voiture était comme folle : l’arrière zigzaguait, elle utilisait toute la piste, même le tarmac où le circuit junior rejoint le grand circuit. Nous nous sommes arrêtés tous les deux au stand. Jochen avait fait 1,25.7, moi 1,26.5. Il était de 500 à 600 tours plus vite en ligne droite sans ailerons. Il voulait maintenant une très longue 5e vitesse pour exploiter au mieux le super DFV à 10 500 tours qu’on lui installerait pour le samedi.

La vision de sa voiture très instable sans ailerons m’avait convaincu de garder les miens. Une conversation que je n’oublierai jamais s’ensuivit alors. Avant que j’aie pu dire quoi que ce soit, un ordre fusa de Colin :

Enlevez les ailerons de la voiture de John ! J’ai répliqué par la négative.
Colin a insisté :

Virez-lui ses ailerons ! Confronté à ce genre de situation, je me fie toujours à mon instinct. La méthode la plus lente est souvent la plus efficace, se plaît à dire Jackie Stewart.

J’avais une idée de ce qui m’attendrait sans ailerons, car même avec ses appuis, ma voiture était très nerveuse. Dans le premier virage, la Curva Grande, l’arrière partait, ainsi que dans Lesmo. Il n’y avait aucune adhérence. Pour la première fois, j’avais peur dans une voiture de course. Les essais se sont achevés. Jochen et moi étions respectivement 6e et 11e. Emerson était en 1,28 mais sa 72 était en panne quelque part sur la piste. Encore un pépin de plus.

En ce temps-là, l’effectif du Team Lotus se montait à 12 personnes. On n’avait pas encore entendu parler de motor-homes ; les débriefings avaient lieu à l’arrière du camion.

La seule façon pour toi de faire du bon boulot est d’enlever ces ailerons, avait renchérit Colin, ce à quoi je m’opposai.

On construisait des voitures avant que les ailerons n’apparaissent, tenta de me rassurer Colin.
Oui mais il me faut du temps pour régler l’auto, répliquai-je, à quoi Colin, têtu, avait répondu :

Tu tourneras demain sans ailerons.
Je ne veux pas.

C’est un ordre, tu le feras !
Et le dialogue s’est arrêté là.

Je me sentais mal. Etre en désaccord avec l'homme qui m'avait tant aidé ne me mènerait nulle part. Toutefois je savais mes jours comptés chez Lotus. Jochen, lui, était optimiste. Il avait réussi à régler la voiture sans ailerons en moins d'une heure et il se sentait capable d'en maîtriser l'instabilité. Pour ma part, j'estimais le risque trop grand. Nous n'avions pas la moindre idée du comportement aérodynamique de cette auto privée de ses ailerons. Je n'aimais pas cette approche irréfléchie du problème.

J'avais abandonné Dave à sa check-list : réglages des sièges, rapports de boîte, etc. Je lui avais rappelé mon opposition formelle à la suppression de mes ailerons, mais je m'attendais au pire. J'ai quitté le paddock, ai passé une bonne nuit, et le lendemain, je suis tombé sur Jochen et Peter Gethin prenant leur petit-déjeuner. Nous avons causé ailerons. Stewart avait été sacrément rapide sans les siens, je suis sûr qu'il avait fait des essais ici même dans la semaine. La plupart des autres pilotes tournaient avec de l'appui.

Ne t'inquiète pas, John, ça va aller, me fait Jochen. Alors qu'il ne restait qu'une séance d'essais ? J'en doutais. Je voulais faire les choses à ma façon.

Samedi matin, l'équipe Lotus paraissait plus sereine. Bien entendu, on avait ôté les ailerons de ma voiture.
Désolé John, le Vieux m'a donné des ordres, s'est excusé Dave.

J'avais perdu le contrôle de ma prise de risque. La journée s'annonçait belle. Jochen a pris la piste dès le début des essais. Dave finissait de faire le plein de ma voiture. Il avait modifié mon siège, ainsi que je le lui avais demandé. Dix minutes après, mécontent de mon sort mais confortablement sanglé, je quittais le paddock en roulant au pas en direction des stands.

Ces DFV était tellement souples, dociles. Avant d'avoir gagné la ligne des stands, je me suis rendu compte que les bruits de moteurs avaient cessé, seuls quelques borborygmes de Cosworth s'étouffant au pied des mécanos troublaient le silence qui s'était abattu sur Monza.
Bizarre. Soudain, Colin, l'ingénieur Maurice Philippe et Dick Scammell se sont matérialisés devant moi, surgissant de la foule qui encombrait les stands.

Jochen a eu un accident. Va voir sur place ce qui s'est passé ! lança Colin.

Mon Dieu ! Que s'est-il passé ? Que puis-je faire ? J'aurais voulu rentrer dans un trou de souris. J'ai été soulagé quand les commissaires ont refusé que je prenne la piste. Bernie Ecclestone, le manager de Jochen à cette époque, suivi d'Eddie Dennis, ont cavalé comme des fous vers la Parabolique. Jochen avait été extrait de l'épave de sa voiture lorsqu'ils y arrivèrent. Un commissaire leur fit un signe qui indiquait le pire. Ils eurent le sentiment que son esprit n'était plus là, qu'il s'était envolé.
Eddie a ramassé un morceau de disque de frein, et l'a balancé au loin. Il a trouvé une des chaussures de Jochen et aussi son casque. Tout l'avant de la voiture était parti. La voiture avait quitté la piste sur la gauche, heurté le rail et explosé dessus. Jochen n'était pas attaché.

On l’a trouvé tellement enfoncé dans le cockpit que la boucle du harnais de sécurité était enroulée autour de son cou. Tout le monde s'est figé. Même les tifosi avaient fait silence. Une autre catastrophe pour Lotus à Monza, là où ils saisissent les autos et traînent les gens devant les tribunaux. Graham et Rob Walker ont rentré leur auto au garage ; Dick Scammell et moi leur avons emboîté le pas, en refermant le rideau presque complètement derrière nous, de façon à ne laisser filtrer de l'extérieur qu'un mince trait de lumière.

Il ne restait rien de l'avant de la voiture de Jochen.
Regardons les choses en face, il est mort, a murmuré Dick.

Il savait déjà car il avait vu le corps de Jochen transporté dans l'ambulance. J'étais terriblement bouleversé, mais aussi quelque part soulagé, comme si j'avais joué à la roulette russe et en avais réchappé. Graham avait souvent été de bon conseil envers moi. J'aimais son approche sensée et raisonnable de ce sport, analogue à la mienne. Mais là, dans cette lumière glauque, il semblait ailleurs ; il a demandé à Rob quand les essais reprendraient.

Il n'y aura pas, bien entendu, de départ à Monza pour le Team Lotus. Aux alentours de cinq heures, la mort de Jochen était officielle et toutes les 72 furent embarquées dans les camions. Je suis rentré à l'hôtel où j'ai vu Nina Rindt en plein désarroi, soutenue par son père, Kurt Lincoln, et par Helen Stewart. J'avais voulu dire quelque chose mais je n'y suis pas parvenu. J'ai dîné, ce soir-là, en ville avec Emerson et des membres de sa famille. Puis j'ai appelé Chris, mon épouse, et je me suis mis au lit.

Piers Courage, Bruce McLaren, et maintenant Jochen Rindt. Sans compter les pilotes moins connus qui sont morts durant cette période et qui n’étaient pas moins importants à mes yeux. Voilà un sport que j’avais toujours rêvé de pratiquer, étant gosse, et qui se changeait aujourd’hui en une histoire d’amour tournant au vinaigre.

Nous ne saurons jamais ce qui s’est réellement produit. On a trouvé l’arbre de frein avant-droit cassé. Une rupture nette tendrait à suggérer que la pièce a cédé dans le choc contre le rail ; une rupture de torsion serait à porter au compte de l’arbre de frein lui-même, qui en lâchant, aurait déséquilibré la voiture sur la gauche, comme la mienne l’avait été sur la droite lors de mes ennuis en Autriche. Denny Hulme a témoigné que la Lotus avait oscillé sur la piste avant de virer sur la gauche. Une pièce s’est-elle cassé, ce qui aurait contraint instinctivement Jochen à donner un coup de volant tout en freinant ? Il avait monté des pneus usagés, et d’autre part, il avait des plaquettes neuves.
On peut aussi imaginer que la balance des freins n’avait pas été adaptée à la faible adhérence du train arrière engendrée par l’absence d’ailerons, ce qui a pu l’envoyer direct dans le rail quand il a freiné. On a raconté aussi que Jochen avait été mis en garde par des membres de l’équipe Lotus qui s‘appuyaient sur mes dires, du risque encouru à tourner sans ailerons.

Des pièces cassent sur les voitures de course. Je pense que c’est ce qui s’est produit. Je n’imagine pas que Jochen ait fait une faute, même sur une auto aussi difficile à mener. J’ai pris le bus pour rejoindre l’aéroport, le jour de la course, avec Bernie Ecclestone. Il était à la fois très éprouvé et en colère. Il semblait vouloir désigner des responsables. Une semaine plus tard, le team manager Peter Warr et Maurice Philippe, déguisé en mécanicien, se sont introduits dans l’enceinte où était entreposée la Lotus accidentée et en ont prélevé le moteur, lequel n’était pas concerné dans l’enquête. Ce DFV fut installé dans la 72 d’Emerson et a gagné le GP des USA quatre semaines après.

J’ai rencontré Colin peu près ce drame. Il était évidemment très affecté et m’a dit que Lotus manquerait le GP du Canada pour se réorganiser. Il m’a donné son accord pour aller au Mans faire quelques prises de vues (John Miles avait collaboré au film Le Mans). Deux semaines après, je reçus un appel de Peter Warr m’informant que Reine Wisell me remplaçait. J’en ai été très chagriné sur le coup, mais rétrospectivement Colin avait sans doute raison. L’équipe avait besoin de nouvelles têtes, pas de quelqu’un dont la confiance était au plus bas. Au Glen, Emerson et Reine firent du bon boulot, en arrivant premier et troisième. La Lotus 72 avait commencé à rembourser ses dettes.

Une de mes meilleures décisions fut de décliner, ce même week-end, le volant d’une Lotus 70 F5000 d’usine à Brands Hatch. Alan Rollinson l’a conduite et l’auto a cassé, l’envoyant dans l’herbe un peu avant Hawthorn !

En ce qui concerne 72/R2, la voiture de Jochen, des rumeurs prétendent qu’elle serait détenue par un particulier en Suisse. J’espère, pour ma part, que ce qu’il en reste est parti là où est sa vraie place – dans un broyeur. »

Un texte de John Miles pour ITV Television (1999), traduit par Patrice Vatan

La Lotus 72 de John Miles sans ses ailerons

Back to the roots

The Gods let those die early who they love (Plautus, Bacchides, IV, 7,18)

 

Pioneers and adventurers, romantics and technocrats, gentlemen and playboys - in the most exclusive group of sportsmen of the so far 31 automobile driving world champions until 2010 there are nearly all kind of guys to give enough support to all clichès of this planet. Twenty of these 31 world champions are still alive. The senior among these aces is Australia`s Sir John Arthur Brabham, born in 1926. Jack Brabham is also the only man to win drivers`and constructors`s worldchampionship in personal union: In 1966, the first year of the 3-litre- formula. Youngest Grand Prix world champion became Lewis Carl Hamilton, Briton with roots in Grenada and also the first black in this elite group, back in 2008.  In 2007 Hamilton had become the first rookie champion in history, if he had been able to cope with his tyres in a better manner in the decisive period of the championship, something he is not really able to do until now. The world champions Dr Nino Farina and Mike Hawthorn, the last one already suffering under uncurable kidney cancer, died in road accidents. Graham Hill crashed with his private aircraft. Juan Manuel Fangio and Phil Hill passed away as old men. Denny Hulme and James Hunt died, suffering under extreme private problems, by broken hearts: Fatal infarctions at the age og 56 and 45 years. The great Alberto Ascari was killed at a less important sportscar test, Jim Clark lost his life at a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim. Only two of the all-time best  in professional automobile racing died in a Grand Prix racing car: Ayrton Senna and Jochen Rindt. Both in British cars. Both caused by technical defects. Both in Italy. Men and fates. There are a lot of parallels and repeatings in the bizarre history of Grand Prix. Senna and also Rindt had got two chances to be killed, but no one to survive. Senna`s steering column, modified by his personal initiative, had broken at Imola in 1994. But the fatal injuries were caused by a piece of metal of a size of some two centimetres broken from the front suspension when the car was crashing into to the concrete wall and this fragment went through the gasket of the vizor into the helmet. At Rindt  the right front  brake shaft , the connection between the wheel and the brake disc inside the chassis, had broken; the Lotus Ford 72 went leftward in an acute angle when braking for the Parabolica to crash into the safety barrier to hit a post behind, spun and did another frontal crash into the barrier. Then the car came to a halt in the run out area. Despite being a fighter for more safety in motorsport together with his friend Jackie Stewart and the drivers`union GPDA, Rindt had go two pretty counterproductive qualities. Very often, but not at Monza, he was using an open helmet as one of the last drivers at that time, because he was not able to get enough air to breathe with the closed version after having sustained a nose fracture earlier in his career. And he used only seat belts fixed on four points instead of the available six, because the most courageous Grand Prix driver of all times had a panic fear of not being able to leave the cockpit quickly enough in the case of a suddenly breaking out fire. The crash into the safety barrier made Rindt slip under the belt and the dash board made out of sharp metal  to be executed like by a guillotine. It does not matter for the reason of the accident, that Rindt had driven without the normally usual wings for better speed at the long straights at Monza (until 1971 without the chicanes installed later): The Lotus Ford 72 had gone off the track because of the unilateral effect of the brakes. From the very beginning the design of the car had been made that way to bring 70 per cent of the brake effect to the front wheels. Colin Chapman and his designer  Maurice Phillippe had decided to use inside brake disc to reduce the weight not being supported by the springs (heavy disc made out of steel inside the wheel). Depending on the circuit length the advantage of inside brake discs could be up to 7/10th of a second. By the way light carbon fibre brake discs have made this design unneccessary meanwhile. The - on a torsion base used ,  brake shafts of the Lotus Ford 72 were hollow, because  higher torques can be transmitted on pipe-like cross-sections than by solid ones. The real reason for the defect had been, as it was explored some decades later, a production mistake made by a supporting company, not a design failure at Lotus. Concerning the consequences of the accident this fact  is out of any importance. Rindt, being the legal heir of his parents`company , had  pro forma registered for economics (main subject: world trade) at the University of Vienna, but he had not got any techical education. In spite of this fact he was not  able to be convinced of the plan of inside lying brake discs, because instinctively  he was knowing the risks: I will either become world champion or getting killed in a  Lotus,  he already had said in 1969. Having got the clear target of winning the title very early before the overseas races in Canada, the USA and Mexico, Rindt wanted to drive the type 49, his Monaco winning car, for a definitely last time to be completely  in a safe position on the high speed track of Monza. But in contrast to early promises Team Lotus had brought no  more 49 type, only driven by novice Emerson Fittipaldi at that time, to the Royal Park. Instead of doing so Chapman had ordered to build a third 72 type for the works team, the 72/5, while Graham Hill now was driving the first ever 72 type constructed in the team of Rob Walker, freshly revised, in midnight-blue livery and now named 72/4. Racing drivers are, despite highly paid, only orders obeying clerks of their teams. It is like at a normal job: Who refuses to do what his employer wants will be fired sooner or later. Chapman, sometimes a chum, sometimes a boss cold as ice, and also concerning other circumstances full of contradictions, but no doubt the greatest genius  the entire world of racing car construction has ever seen, had taken a lot of time to get familiar with the continental European Rindt. But then he adored him like he once had done to Jim Clark. Chapman had made the 72/5 to be constructed as the second car for Rindt beside his regular 72/2: With modifications at the tanks and the fuel system, but above all with revised front brakes - the blower for cooling them in the pits was no longer neccessary. Later also the NACA intakes in the nose scone were able to be taken away. Young Emerson Fittipaldi, not John Miles risen from a test to a number two driver, should do the roll-out of the new car on the for the Brazilian unknown circuit. After that Rindt should  take the 72/5 to decide, which car he would prefer for the race. Ford had a Cosworth V8 with some extra horse powers available for the coming world champion to be installed in that chassis chosen by Rindt. But already on Friday unexperienced  Fittipaldi made a typical rookie mistake, crashed into the third Ferrari of Ignazio Giunti  in the Parabolica and destroyed all plans at Team Lotus. Catastrophes in Grand Prix Racing in many cases show, like  heavy thunderstorms, signs of warning, but very often these signs are, consciously or not, ignored.

His famous quotations seemed to be presentiments. Maybe I will  not to reach the age of forty. But until that time I will  have experienced more things in life than anybody else. Or: Nobody knows, how long he will live. Because of this fact you have to do as much as you can as fast as you can. Jochen Rindt was not determined to grow old and to analyze, supplied with an enormous amount of honours and decorations, the current Grand Prix scenery like today  it is done by his friend and neighbour Jackie Stewart. No doubt, there a lot of competent elder statesmen  full of integrity in this sport, but also some senile gerontocrats not knowing, that their time is definitely over. The character of Jochen Rindt is timeless, charismatic and heroic, bringing us now to those personalites sharing more than a common period in life with him.

Before their wedding in March 1967 Nina Rindt had worked as a model, she was seen in many international fashion magazines and she was also a friend of famous Twiggy. Nina Rindt is a Finn of Swedish and Russian origin; her father Kurt Lincoln also had been a racing driver and he was also the owner of the Keimola circuit. Jochen and Nina Rindt`s only common child Natascha was born in 1968. In 1972 Nina Rindt married a friend of Jackie Stewart,  Briton Philip Martyn, who was said to earn his money being a gambler. Martyn was the father of her daughter Tamara.  For a while, after being devorced from him, she was the girl-friend of Grand Prix driver and Eurosport commentator John Watson (Penske, Brabham, McLaren) from Northern Ireland. In 1979  Nina Rindt married Scottish investment banker Alexander Hood Viscount of Bridport, who is the father of her son Alexander. This marriage was devorced in 1999 and then Nina Rindt more and more disappeared out of the public and she also is not, against her original intention, with the organizers of the Essen Motor Show, that once had become famous all over the world named Jochen Rindt Show. During the nineties Nina Rindt, a heavy smoker for many years, sustained a break of her aorta; she only could be rescued by an emergency operation and a lot of luck.

Natascha Rindt had grown up in the even  by her father designed villa in Begnins at the Lake Geneva and she is very, very similar to her famous father not only concerning her appearance. Before working for the Formula One Group as a television director and a pilot, she had been involved in sport management, for example for the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville and the agency IMG of Mark McCormack, who had Jackie Stewart, Francois Cevert and Peter Revson among their clients. Meanwhile she also became a mother, the name of her daughter is India.

 

Two years after Rindt`s death Lotus boss Colin Chapman again won both worldchampionships with Emerson Fittipaldi and the Lotus Ford 72 now in the colours of black and gold of cigarette brand John Player Special.  In 1974 the Mk 72`s    successor Lotus Ford 76, designed by Ralph Bellamy (former McLaren and Brabham) with it`s semi-automatic gearbox, the double rear wing  and the four pedals was too much ahead in time  of the technical development in Grand Prix Racing, so  Team Lotus had to go back to the meanwhile five years old 72 type until the end of 1975.

 

In 1977 Team Lotus returned into the victory lane with the several times modified Mk 77. Then Chapman again succeeded in establishing another technical revolution together with his engineer Peter Wright: The Lotus Ford 78 and 79s were the first ground effect cars in history; Mario Andretti won the 1978 worldchampionship in a superior manner, while his team mate Ronnie Peterson lost his life at the start of the Italian Grand Prix by a driving error made by James Hunt. Then Chapman drove the development of the ground effect car with the  80 and 88 models  in such an excessive  direction, that could not be technologically and juridically controlled anymore leading  to this technology being banned by the F.I.A. at least. This fact lead to a certain stagnation at Team Lotus where they  always being related on their own power of innovation. But Chapman, who only was interested in winning and not in collecting points, lead his team back to victory at Zeltweg in 1982, when Elio de Angelis was able to beat Keke Rosberg in the Williams Ford by only a few inches. With the background of the turbo era beginning Chapman had negotiated an agreement with Renault and he also had signed a contract with his long years` sponsor John Player & Sons to create a secure financial base for the future. But at this time Chapman and some employèes already had been personally involved in the De Lorean scandal; there had been  massive fraud at millions of subventions and, in the case of John De Lorean,  big style cocaine dealing. The explorations of the prosecution authorities had already been in a high developed status, when Chapman died in the age of only 54 years in the headquarters of Team Lotus, Ketteringham Castle, in December 1982. It was said, that his death was caused by a cardiac infarction.

John Miles immidiately retired from Grand Prix Racing after Rindt`s fatal accident and  only competed in some touring car racing from time to time. Later he worked as an engineer for Lotus and as a journalist for different media. 

After the year 1970 at Rob Walker Rindt`s team mate at Team Lotus in 1969, Graham Hill, drove for the works team of Brabham in 1971 and 1972 before establishing a team of his own from 1973 on under the name Embassy Racing with Graham Hill, first supplied with customer cars from Shadow and Lola, from spring 1975 on as constructor in his own rights. Hill retired from active competition after he had not been able to qualify for the 1975 Monaco Grand Prix, the race he had won fivetimes in his career. Shortly before succeeding in taking the breakthrough also as a constructors with young Briton Tony Brise driving he and nearly his complete team lost their lives in a crash of the private aircraft flown by Graham Hill himself.  Despite very tough conditions in his youth  as the result of the accident Hill`s only son Damon became Formula One world champion  in a Williams Renault in 1996.

 

Emerson Fittipaldi secured Rindt`s world champion title by his victory at Watkins Glen in 1970; he himself won the worldchampionship in 1972, and, after his switch to McLaren, again in 1974. Fittipaldi retired from active competition driving for the team of his own in 1980, but as a constructor in his own rights he only had got average success between 1975 and 1982. From the middle of the eighties Fittipaldi was successfully competing in the Indy Car Series to win twice the Indianapolis 500.  Later he came very close to getting paralyzed at two accidents, one time each in a racing car and in an ultra-light plane. Today the Brazilian is one of the former Formula One  drivers, working as F.I.A. Stewards at the Grandes Prix.

Predecessor but also successor of Jochen Rindt in the office of the world champion was his close friend Jackie Stewart, who won the title in 1971 and in 1973 in a Tyrrell Ford to establish an until 1985 lasting world record of 27 Grand Prix wins before he realized his long time ago scheduled retirement as a driver at the end of 1973. After that the Scot worked as an advisor  for Ford, Goodyear and other companies and also as a journalist for US-American television programme ABC and other media. In 1997 he established a team of his own with the support of Ford to score his only win as a constructor with Johnny Herbert at the Nuerburgring in 1999. Stewart Grand Prix became Jaguar Racing from 2000 on and later Red Bull. Meanwhile Jackie Stewart  had received a honorary doctorate and he also had been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Today he is working as a representative for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The designer of the revolutionary Lotus types 49 and 72 Maurice Phillippe left Team Lotus in spring 1971; at that time the company was in a deep moral crisis, because many experienced empolyèes had disappeared after the death of Rindt. Chapman looked being disillusioned, not to say depressive,  and young Emerson Fittipaldi was still too unexperienced being a number one driver on the one hand, and on the other  he was  seriously confronted with private difficulties: He had been involved  - without any personal responsibility -  in a road car accident in France that year to sustain pretty serious injuries; his wife Maria Helena sitting on the passenger seat had  been expecting the couple`s first baby, that became a stillborn child as the consequence of the crash. Phillippe had accepted an offer from Rufus Parnell Jones in California. The team of the US- American had got, thanks to super sponsors like Viceroy and Samsonite etc., never to be seen financial ressources available for their Indy Car project in 1972. The daring Parnelli Jones, Indianapolis 500 winner in 1964 and a hero of the Baja 1000, and his partner Vel Miletich (that explains the model designation VPJ) bought everything they could to make their credit cards glow: The star drivers Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser and Joe  Leonhard, NASA specialists for titanium processing, FBI agents for the guarding of the factory and the best designer in the world at that time: Maurice Phillippe. He worked behind some metres thick walls being the protection against industrial spies and within bugproof rooms and showed to be  much more creative without Colin Chapman`s  supervision: He invented the aerodynamically nearly perfect trapezium-shaped  monocoque (that later got enormous glory with Gordon Murray at Brabham) and the  lateral aerofoils in the form of a V  instead of conventional wings belonging to that chassis concept. The Viceroy Special with the Offenhauser four cylinder turbocharged engine had a handling like being screwed tight to the tarmac, as Mario Andretti said after the car`s first ever test. But it was a pity, that the officials banned the V-wing, essential part of the design concept, for safety reasons as they said. So Phillippe had to improvize and to make compromises, a fact, that prevented the car from  having the ultimate success. On the other side there had been enough money from Viceroy (a cigarette brand) for constructing a Grand Prix racing car of theirown. Phillippe simply designed a modernized version of the Lotus Ford 72. When the Parnelli Ford VPJ4 gave it`s debut  in Canada 1974 with Mario Andretti in the cockpit, not only the Lotus people, who were pretty near to desperation with their Mk76, very much shaken, but also the rest of the motorsport community. But it was a shame no international sponsors could be found the following years for the so promising US-American Grand Prix team (Viceroy was only interested in the US market, where Formula One traditionally is playing a minor role); after Kyalami 1976 Parnelli F1 was de facto bankrupt and Mario Andretti immidiately joined Team Lotus after the United States Grand Prix West held at Long Beach. Maurice Phillippe went back to Europe, too, where he, after a short guest appearance at Copersucar Fittipaldi, replaced Derek  Gardner at Tyrrell, who had been made responsible for the failed P34 six-wheel  racing car. Phillippe lead Tyrrell`s technology back to the way of success, before in the middle of the eighties a young race engineer suddenly had been put in front of him as the team`s chief designer despite all the good results he had reached. Again Phillippe took a job at the Indy Cars, but senior designer at MARCH Alfa Romeo was too little for the pensive, sensitive, but also risk-taking Phillippe, who  never had been a star for the media as men like John Barnard or Gordon Murray had been despite Phillippe  being on the same level with them. When the depressions, he obviously was suffering under for a longer time, had become so unbearable, he put an end to his life in deep seclusion.

Jacky Ickx had been the only driver to be able to take Jochen Rindt away from the throne after Monza, but when Fittipaldi made that impossible by his win at Watkins Glen, the Belgian was visibly relaxed. Scoring one Grand Prix win per year both in 1971 and 1972 he was no real challenger for those years`world champions. After a quarrel Ickx left Ferrari in the middle of the 1973 season; later he had to leave at Lotus (1975) and Wolf (1976) under similar circumstances to make only sporadic starts for Ensign until 1978. The Belgian made his final Grand Prix appearance at Ligier  as a replacement for Patrick Depailler being hurt at a hang-glider crash. From that time Ickx concentrated on his job of being a Porsche works driver for endurance racing and he was very successful doing so. The Baby Face in the Racing Car and The Man, Who is not Growing Old also had to go through a time of serious illness taking a long time to recover from. Jacques Bernard Ickx, born in 1945, had made a career of extraordinary success: He was twice vice world champion (1969 & 1970),  is winner of eight Grandes Prix and six times of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and he also triumphed at the Dakar Rally and the CanAm. His daughter Vanina, a biologist, took part in the DTM and also is competing in great sportscar races as well as Le Mans.

Jochen Rindt had two school friends also later becoming Grand Prix drivers. Lawyer Dr Helmut Marko also had won at Le Mans before and he was a works driver at B.R.M. in 1971 and 1972, when his young  career was immediately stopped by an incurable eye injury caused by a stone thrown off by Ronnie Peterson at Clermont Ferrand in 1972. Despite officially only being a motorsport advisor for the Red Bull group, today Marko is one of the most powerful men in Grand Prix Racing, because de facto he is the boss of two Formula One teams: Red Bull Renault and Toro Rosso Ferrari. A little younger than Rindt and Marko was Harald Ertl, who worked as a journalist parallel to his sporting career. From 1975 on Ertl drove private Hesketh Fords and sporadically for Ensign and ATS. In 1982 Ertl was killed in a crash of a private aircraft.

Sir Jack Brabham, Rindt`s real challenger in the 1970 season and also his team principal in 1968, decided to end his career both as a driver and as a constructor at the end of 1970 to sell his team to his designer and fellow countryman Ron Tauranac (who himself sold the company one year later to Bernie Ecclestone suffering under excessive demand). Brabham did not want to be only  a team boss . In his home country Australia he later did jobs in aviation and agriculture, sectors, that were familiar to the aviation engineer and son of a Sydney greengrocer. From 1994 on Sir Jack was involved in the Simtek Formula One team with his son David and the unforgotten Roland Ratzenberger in the cockpits of the cars. All three sons of Brabham had become racing drivers. Geoffrey, the oldest, competed in the Indy Car Series, Gary and David had come up until Formula One, but also without scoring successes worth to be mentioned. Sir Jack Brabham, born in 1926, avoids journeys to foreign counties for some years, because meanwhile he is a dialysis patient, but in spring 2010  he attended the Grand Prix of Bahrain  for the 60th Anniversary of Formula One like all other world champions alive.

Jochen Rindt`s first team boss at his Grand Prix debut with a Brabham B.R.M.  at Zeltweg in 1964, Rob Walker, was running his private Formula One team until the end of the 1970 season and then he did a merger with Team Surtees. But this cooperation existed for only three years. For 1974 Walker and his driver Mike Hailwood switched to the team of Yardley McLaren. At the beginning of 1975 he entered, for only a few races,  a private Grand Prix car in the tradtional midnight-blue livery for the last time in his career, a Hesketh Ford 308, together with Harry Stiller and for Australian Grand Prix novice Alan Jones. After that he worked as a journalist for many years, in most cases for American magazine Road & Track. Robert Ramsay Campbell Walker died in 2002 in the age of 84 caused by a loung desease.   Today his whiskey brand Johnny Walker belongs to the Diageo group, one of the sponsors of McLaren.

In the fifties the team of John Cooper, was the most modern Grand Prix team  because of the mid-engine concept introduced by Alf Francis and Jack Brabham, but Brabham and later his junior driver and engineer Bruce McLaren set up on their own giving their careers decisive impulses both as drivers and as constructors. The things, that remained at Cooper were, except tradition, a great lack of interest, a team manager expected too much in the person of Roy Salvadori, a unreliable Maserati V12 and with John Surtees and Pedro Rodriguez two drivers using the too old structures as a springboard for higher tasks. Rindt had  got neither enough money nor sufficient chances for a greater career during this extremely tough years caused by the team`s desperate situation, but there was a lot to learn not only concerning the technology but also about the business methods in Grand Prix Racing. At the end of this period Rindt got offers of nearly all teams and he chose that one of Brabham, the drivers`and constructors` world champions  of 1966 and 1967. In the last great interview of his life  with charming Nisha Pillai from the BBC  John Cooper expressed being pretty proud: You know, Ron Dennis was my apprentice.  In 2000 John Cooper died of cancer in the age of 1977.

Later Ron Dennis had not been  really happy, when people were talking about his time being a mechanic at Cooper, because at the beginning of the nineties he was chosen England`s best manager ahead of all the big groups`bosses. Dennis had merged McLaren with his Project 4 team during the crisis at the end of the seventies, he had brought the first ever carbon fibre racing car to the grid in 1980 and he had definitely created McLaren to be the British universal rival of Ferrari. After his retirement from the pit wall and handing over his office to Martin Whitmarsh some time ago, Dennis is the president of the complete McLaren group.

Compared to today`s  megalomania on the personal sector the structure of empolyèes of the Grand Prix teams four decades ago was pretty clear. In 1970 Team Lotus only had twelve men at the race track. Dick Scammel was the team manager, chief mechanic was former Rob Walker employèe  Gordon Huckle and at the car of Jochen Rindt worked Eddie Dennis and the at that time 21 years old Herbie Blash,  whose real name is Michael and who is the son of a farmer and a fan of famous football club Manchester United. Later Blash switched to Brabham, where he met their team boss Bernie Ecclestone. When Ecclestone sold Brabham once founded by Sir Jack to shady Swiss businessmen, he supplied his old mate Herbie with a job at the F.I.A. When the first three  drivers have to bring their cars to the Parc Fermè obeying the strict regulations of the protocol after the chequered flag has fallen, millions of spectators in front of the television screens are watching a meanwhile a little plump and white-grey haired  gentleman with a modern kind of the Beatles hairstyle wearing a light blue shirt: It is Herbie Blash, who is organizing the ritual procedure according to the precise rules like a master of ceremonies at court.

During the fifties Bernie Ecclestone had been a team owner for the first time. It was Connaught. After he had sold the company later, he became a manager of his driver Stuart Lewis- Evans, an at that time 28 years old Briton of enormous talent and sensivity, who later  joined the most successful team of his home country, Vanwall. In 1958 all teams with the exception of Cooper  still had got front engine cars available and, of course, there were no fireproof overalls. During the final round of the worldchampionship at Casablanca Ain-Diab the Vanwall of Lewis-Evans caught fire, the Briton sustained heavy burns to die of them three days later, because of a lack of seats within the few commercial aircrafts he could not be brought to the necessary medical treatment in London. After the death of his driver Ecclestone did the job of a used car dealer, because he neither was a successful racing driver nor a constructor. One day during the middle of the sixties he had met Jochen Rindt, who had hit the British Formula 2 elite, nearly consisting out of active Grand Prix drivers, like a flash of lightning driving a  privately entered Brabham Cosworth, that had been bought by him. Rindt`s principle in business always had been: I am managing myself. But after leaving Winkelmann, there had been the necessity to have a team manager and a fifty per cent shareholder for the Formula 2 team he had founded. And that was Ecclestone. Rindt also was was pretty near to the foundation of a Grand Prix team of his own having got three opportunities to do so. Two of these chances had been with Robin Herd as the team`s designer, but the Briton had  not shown as a gentleman despite an elite education at the Oxford University, to express these problems in a moderate way. But for the case of these projects being realized it had been likely Alan Rees, the second driver in the old Winkelmann days, to come into the office of the team principal. By the way Rees was not much better than Ecclestone concerning his behaviour in business affairs: First he had been involved in the awful circumstances leading to the foundation of M.A.R.C.H., eight years later he was one of the driving forces to install A.R.R.O.W.S. under similar conditions. In winter 1971/72 Jack Brabham`s friend and fellow countryman Ron Tauranac, modest technician in the background and no businessman loving appearances in public or media,  was confronted with the problem, everything being pretty near to collapse within the Brabham team. Ecclestone never had been something else than a very clever seller, making money out of things that do not really exist or he invented commercial rights on things that had to be created later. Bying Motor Racing Developments Ltd. (M.R.D), what is the real name for the Brabham team, became something like a licence for printing money for Ecclestone during the following decades. At the beginning  Ecclestone`s team  competed the first three years (1972, 1973 & 1974) without a main sponsor in contrast to all their British rivals; fifty per cent of the team`s budget was paid by their owner`s private wallet. Looking like the traditional project of a wealthy motorsport enthusiast,  it really was a long term business strategy even in these early days. On the one hand Ecclestone used these three years to create a technological and personal base for making Brabham a title candidate again, but above all to organize the constructors` association FOCA in such a manner to be, of course, under his personal leadership, his base of power for his political and financial aims. In reality Ecclestone was nothing else than one of up to 15 team bosses at that time. He had not got a special legitimation in the shape of being democratically elected for instance.  From that time on rules and financial affairs in Grand Prix Racing  were decided by only one person: Ecclestone. Very early he had got a vision of Formula One being a global and multi-media sport adventure with turnover of  billions of dollars, if possible bigger than the Olympic Games or the Football World Cup. On the top: The world sport dictator Ecclestone. The other team principals and also the growing old functionaries of the F.I.A. were happy to earn their money and otherwise not be confronted with any business affairs. Only in 1975 Ecclestone signed a contract with a commercial advertising partner, Martini. Parmalat and Olivetti, also Italian groups, should follow. Ecclestone showed the same bad behaviour in dealing with his engine partners Alfa Romeo and later BMW as he did with his personnel. The drivers Reutemann, Watson, Zunino, Stuck and later very likely also Lauda and Piquet sen. were pretty near to resignation,  enthusiastic Pace died in an air- crash. Only one man kept faith with Bernie: Designer Gordon Murray from South Africa, the former assistant of Ron Tauranac. Nelson Piquet sen. won the title in 1981 and in 1983 (as the first ever turbo-powered world champion) and  the Brabham team  was pretty successful the following years, but the bad design of the Brabham BMW BT55 including the fatal accident of Elio de Angelis when testing at Paul Ricard in 1986 brought deep crisis to the company. Designer Gordon Murray had to leave the team, and Bernie Ecclestone did absolutely nothing to prevent them from the ruin. He had got the possibility to shelter Brabham, he had got the duty  to take away all the bad things being under way. But Ecclestone was not interested in doing so; after some 15 years he had come pretty near to his political and financial aims. A team of his own was bothering under those circumstances; Ecclestone sold the Brabham team to a Swiss businessman very quickly showed to be an extraordinary intensive criminal on the economic field. Later the active Japanese Middlebridge group and patriotic drivers like Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell and Damon Hill were not able to rescue the lifework of Sir Jack Brabham, who in far away Australia was suffering like a poor devil under these negative developments happening for years at that period, from bankruptcy. Ecclestone had been able to rescue his former team, but he did not want to do so, because FOCA already had risen into the top of the international sport organizations like IOC or FIFA. Ecclestone  twice had driven fights for power within his empire until the limits of it`s existence: There was the struggle with Jean Marie Balestre and the former F.I.S.A. as the sport`s governing body of the F.I.A. at the beginning of the eighties and in 2009 the quarrell with the team`s association FOTA. Bernie Ecclestone never starts arguments if not being sure to win them. Later Ecclestone publicly said Senna`s death had been good for the publicity of Formula One and he also considered Hitler being a good leader in an interview - those statements need not any comments. The real problem with Ecclestone is: His plans and ideas are fundamentally good, but the realization is inhuman in most cases.

After the death of Colin Chapman Team Lotus, now under the lead of Peter Warr, Chapman`s adjutant for many years, helped young Ayrton Senna to score the first Grand Prix wins of his career from 1985 to 1987.  Later the hopes being connected with signing up with Nelson Piquet sen. had not become reality. A little later main sponsor Camel  followed Piquet switching to Benetton. The struggle for financial survival had begun. Once again Team Lotus created a world star: Mika Häkkinen. When   the 1994 season  was over there was the end as an independent team, for 1995 a pro forma merger with Pacific Grand Prix was made. Then definitely everything was finished. Clive Chapman is cultivating the great tradition in racing car construction and also the heritage of his father with Classic Team Lotus still having their headquarters in Ketteringham Castle - and they are also earning money by doing so. In autumn of 2009 the Proton group from Malaysia being meanwhile the owners of Group Lotus and businessman Tony Fernandes, who had made a successful low cost airline out of the renovation case Air Asia within a very short time, had decided to bring Lotus back to the Grand Prix tracks of the world. In a few weeks Fernandes found sponsors and created an acceptable budget, bought the former Toyota and Audi factory at Hingham, signed contracts with Mike Gascoyne (former Tyrrell, Renault, Toyota and others) as technical director and the star drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, both already Grand Prix winners. The result is the most beautiful Formula One car in 2010: The Lotus Cosworth T127 is connecting tradition with innovation. Hazel and Clive Chapman were guests of honour at the car`s presentation before the start of the 2010 season. The name of the team is Lotus Racing , but Tony Fernandes is working on the task to give them back the name Team Lotus; the rights for this name are owned by David Hunt, no matter for the reasons may be.

The Lotus Ford 72  definitely was in it`s last  worldchampionship competition at the 1975 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen after five exciting years running in a time the world of Grand Prix Racing had dramatically changed. Ronnie Peterson in the 72/9 finished 5th place, Brian Henton in the 72/5 retired after a collision with Tony Brise in lap six. Rindt`s in the accident involved car 72/2 first had been confiscated by the Italian public prosecution authorities, then it disappeared under  dubious circumstances in a pretty rotten garage near Milano, before brought back to England after a quarter of a century. A little later John Miles wrote in a magazine article, it should be put into a scrap metal press. A better alternative would be to bring it on exhibition at Donington in an unrestored shape, to show this historic document to the public. Now the car seemed to be  put into it`s original condition, all important design and construction documents are well-kept. Already the life of Jochen Rindt is the topic of an opera, the premiere was at the Salzburgring and the complete performance is available on DVD, maybe be classic one day.

The biography of Jochen Rindt is neither an adventure story nor a telenovela. It is the story of a child in war from Mainz at the river Rhine. Jochen Rindt became only 28 years of age. But the most children in war had not got as much luck as he had. 

©2010 by researchracing

Remarks by Klaus Ewald