Jochen Rindt

Jochen Rindt

Rindt in 1970
Born	Karl Jochen Rindt (1942-04-18)18 April 1942 Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Died	5 September 1970(1970-09-05) (aged 28) Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Lombardy, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Austrian1
Active years	1964 – 1970
Teams	Rob Walker (Privateer Brabham), Cooper, Brabham, Lotus
Entries	62 (60 starts)
Championships	1 (1970)
Wins	6
Podiums	13
Career points	107 (109)
Pole positions	10
Fastest laps	3
First entry	1964 Austrian Grand Prix
First win	1969 United States Grand Prix
Last win	1970 German Grand Prix
Last entry	1970 Italian Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career Years 1964 – 1967 Teams NART Comstock Racing Porsche Best finish 1st (1965) Class wins 1 (1965)

Karl Jochen Rindt (18 April 1942 – 5 September 1970) was a German-born racing driver who represented Austria during his career. He is the only driver to posthumously win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship (in 1970), after being killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix. He competed in 62 Grands Prix, winning six and achieving 13 podium finishes. Away from Formula One, Rindt was highly successful in other single-seater formulae, as well as sports car racing. In 1965 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, driving a Ferrari 250LM in partnership with Masten Gregory from the United States of America. He was a close friend to Jackie Stewart, and was a neighbour to the Scotsman in Switzerland.

Biography

Early life and family

Jochen Rindt was born in Mainz, Germany, to an Austrian mother and German father, but his parents were killed in a bombing raid in Hamburg during the Second World War, when he was just one year old. He was thus raised by his grandparents in Graz, Austria, where he grew up. Rindt's mother had been a sucessful tennis player in her youth and later studies law, like her father, who was a lawyer. It was this grandfather, who Rindt lived with following his parents death and who opted for Rindt to maintain German citizenship, but Rindt drove his entire career under an Austrian racing licence. His parents owned a spice mill in Mainz, which was inherited by Rindt. In an interview, he described his heritage as a "terrible mixture" and, when asked if he felt more Austrian or German, said that he felt "like a European". Rindt had one half-brother, Uwe, through his mother.

The young Rindt has been described by his brother and friends as a "laddish child", often performing tricks for his friends. While on skiing vacation, he broke his femoral neck, leading to several surguries that left one leg 4 centimetres (1.6 in) shorter than the other. As a result of this, Rindt limped slightly for the rest of his life. When Rindt was sixteen years old, he got a moped and started racing his friends on motocross tracks. His time in school was troubled and he got kicked out of schools more than once. He said of this time:

In the end I got thrown out and went to England to learn English. I learned to drive while I was in England but I was too young to get a licence. When I went back home I broke my leg skiing but I decided I was more than capable of driving myself – even though I had one leg in plaster. I actually drove without a licence for 18 months and then got caught the day before I was eligible to collect it.

The obtaining of his licence was put into further jeopardy by the fact that Rindt had collected eight recorded misdoings with the police during his youth. In 1960, he received his first car, a Volkswagen Beetle, through his parents' spice mill company in Mainz. His interest in motorsport was really sparked when he visited the Nürburgring in 1961 with school friends, including fellow future Formula One driver Helmut Marko. In the same year, Rindt's idol, the German Wolfgang von Trips, died in an accident at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix. However, Rindt still opted to go into the sport and started racing touring cars around that time.

Racing career

Despite being very successful in Formula Two (by winning for instance the 1964 London Trophy at Crystal Palace), Rindt kept on choosing the wrong Formula One cars. Rindt made his Formula One debut for the Rob Walker Racing Team in the 1964 Austrian Grand Prix. It was to be his only Grand Prix of the year. From 1965 to 1967, Rindt raced for Cooper, scoring 32 points in 29 races. In 1968, Rindt raced for Brabham, but his season was not what he had hoped for because of technical problems. He also raced in the Indianapolis 500 in both 1967 and 1968, but finished no better than 24th.

Rindt was noted for being an exceptionally fast driver with superb car control and reflexes, but rarely had a car equal to his talent until 1969 when he moved to Lotus and his career took off. Rindt clinched the first Grand Prix victory of his career in the 1969 Grand Prix of the USA in Watkins Glen. Rindt finished that year with 22 points, giving him fourth place in the Formula 1 World Championship. Rindt occasionally had a fraught relationship with Colin Chapman as he preferred a stable technological footing as opposed to Chapman's need to innovate and invent, but the two forged a successful partnership. Rindt's first victory in the 1970 season was at Monaco, where he advanced to second place due to the attrition of others and closed on Jack Brabham with such ferocity that he forced Brabham into an error and gained the victory on the last corner. With the Lotus 72 better sorted after anti-dive and anti-squat had been removed, Rindt won four Grands Prix in succession in the Netherlands, France, Britain and Germany.

Cooper-Maserati T86, of the type driven by Rindt in 1967

During practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, near Milan, Chapman and Rindt agreed to follow the lead of Jackie Stewart (Tyrrell) and Denny Hulme (McLaren) and run without wings in an attempt to reduce drag and gain a higher top speed. The more powerful flat-12 Ferraris of Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni had been up to 10 mph (16 km/h) faster than the Lotus at the previous race in Austria. Rindt's team mate John Miles was unhappy with the wingless setup in Friday practice, reporting that the car "wouldn't run straight". Rindt reported no such problems, and Chapman recalled that Rindt reported the car to be "almost 800 rpm faster on the straight" without wings.

On the following day, Rindt ran with higher gear ratios fitted to his car to take advantage of the reduced drag, increasing the car's potential top speed to 205 mph (330 km/h). On Rindt's fifth lap of the final practice session, Hulme, who was following, reported that under braking for the Parabolica corner, "Jochen's car weaved slightly and then swerved sharp left into the crash barrier." A joint in the crash barrier parted, the suspension dug in under the barrier, and the car hit a stanchion head-on. The front end of the car was destroyed. Although the 28-year-old Rindt was rushed to hospital, he was pronounced dead. Rindt was in the habit of using only four points on the five point harness then available and did not wear the crotch straps, as he wanted to be able to get out of the car quickly in the event of fire. As a result, upon impact he slid under the belts and suffered fatal throat injuries. He was the second Lotus team leader to be killed in two years, as Jim Clark had been killed in 1968 in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim. An Italian court later found that the accident was initiated by a failure of the car's right front brake shaft, but that Rindt's death was caused by poorly installed crash barriers.

Rindt at the 1969 German Grand Prix

Rindt is buried at the central cemetery (Zentralfriedhof) in Graz.

At the time he died Rindt had won five of that year's ten Grands Prix, which meant that he had a strong lead in the World Championship. At that stage he theoretically could have been overtaken by Ferrari driver Jacky Ickx. However Rindt's Lotus team mate who succeeded him, Emerson Fittipaldi, won the penultimate Grand Prix of the year at Watkins Glen, USA, depriving Ickx of the points he needed to win the title, and so Rindt became motor racing's only posthumous World Champion. The trophy was presented to his Finnish widow Nina Rindt (née Lincoln), daughter of famous Finnish racer Curt Lincoln. Although popular legend has it that Jochen had already promised Nina he would retire from F1 if he won the world championship, he had changed his mind before Monza and had told Nina that he would continue in Formula 1 for at least one more season if he became World Champion.

The penultimate corner at the Red Bull Ring in Austria is named after Rindt.

In addition to his achievements in F1, Rindt had success in sports car racing highlighted by co-driving to a win at the 1965 edition of the Le Mans 24 hours in a North American Racing Team sponsored Ferrari 250LM.

Rindt, the American Phil Hill and Britons Mike Hawthorn and Graham Hill (who also won the Indianapolis 500), are the only Formula 1 champions who have also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Gallery

• 
  Rindt at the 1965 German Grand Prix.
• 
  Rindt driving a Lotus F2 car at the Nürburgring in 1970.
• 
  Rindt heading to the Nürburgring box.
• 
  Rindt with Colin Chapman at the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix.
• 
  Rindt at the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix.
• 
  Rindt with Colin Chapman at the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix.
• 
  Rindt at the 1969 Dutch Grand Prix.
• 
  Rindt in 1969.

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

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

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	WDC	Points
1964	Rob Walker Racing Team	Brabham BT11	BRM V8	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT Ret	ITA	USA	MEX				NC	0
1965	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T73	Climax V8	RSA Ret													13th	4
		Cooper T77	Climax V8		MON DNQ	BEL 11	FRA Ret	GBR 14	NED Ret	GER 4	ITA 8	USA 6	MEX Ret
1966	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T81	Maserati V12	MON Ret	BEL 2	FRA 4	GBR 5	NED Ret	GER 3	ITA 4	USA 2	MEX Ret					3rd	22 (24)
1967	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T81	Maserati V12	RSA Ret	MON Ret						CAN Ret						13th	6
		Cooper T81B	Maserati V12			NED Ret	BEL 4	FRA Ret					USA Ret	MEX
		Cooper T86	Maserati V12						GBR Ret	GER Ret		ITA 4
1968	Brabham Racing Organisation	Brabham BT24	Repco V8	RSA 3	ESP Ret	MON Ret											12th	8
		Brabham BT26	Repco V8				BEL Ret	NED Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 3	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	USA Ret	MEX Ret
1969	Gold Leaf Team Lotus	Lotus 49B	Ford V8	RSA Ret	ESP Ret	MON	NED Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 4	GER Ret	ITA 2	CAN 3	USA 1	MEX Ret			4th	22
1970	Gold Leaf Team Lotus	Lotus 49C	Ford V8	RSA 13		MON 1	BEL Ret										1st	45
		Lotus 72	Ford V8		ESP Ret
		Lotus 72C	Ford V8					NED 1	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 1	AUT Ret	ITA DNS	CAN	USA	MEX

Non-Championship Formula One results

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

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
1963	Jochen Rindt	Cooper T67	Ford V8	LOM	GLV	PAU	IMO	SYR	AIN	INT	ROM	SOL	KAN	MED	AUT Ret	OUL	RAN
1965	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T77	Climax V8	ROC 7	SYR	SMT Ret	INT Ret
	Roy Winkelmann Racing	Brabham BT16	BRM V8					MED Ret	RAN
1966	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T81	Maserati V12	RSA	SYR	INT 5	OUL
1967	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T81	Maserati V12	ROC Ret	SPR	INT	SYR	OUL 6	ESP
1968	Brabham Racing Organisation	Brabham BT26	Repco V8	ROC	INT	OUL Ret
1969	Team Lotus	Lotus 49B	Ford V8	ROC Ret	INT 2	MAD
		Lotus 63					OUL 2
1970	Team Lotus	Lotus 49C	Ford V8	ROC 2
		Lotus 72			INT Ret	OUL 2

Notes

^1 — While Rindt raced with an Austrian licence, he had a German passport and never held Austrian nationality.

Sources

• Henry, Alan (1990). Jochen Rindt. Hazleton Publishing. ISBN 0905138791.
• Nye, Doug (1986). Autocourse history of the Grand Prix car 1966–85. Hazleton publishing. ISBN 0-905138-37-6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Prüller, Heinz (1970). Jochen Rindt. Kimber Publishing. ISBN 0-7183-0162-5. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mappes-Niediek, Norbert (2008). Österreich für Deutsche: Einblicke in ein fremdes Land. Links Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86153-454-9. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rendall, Ivan (2007). The Chequered Flag – The complete history of motor racing. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-1-4072-0683-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Films

• Reuß, Eberhard (Director) (2010). Jochen Rindts letzter Sommer [Jochen Rindt's Last Summer] (Documentary) (in German). SWR.
• Giesser, Christian (Director) (2010). Jochen Rindt lebt [Jochen Rindt Lives] (Documentary) (in German). Cinecraft.

External links

• Official web site created by his daughter Natasha Rindt
• Report on Rindt on the official Formula One website