Karl Kling

Karl Kling

Karl Kling demonstrating a Mercedes W196 at the Nürburgring in 1976.
Born	(1910-09-16)16 September 1910 Giessen, Germany
Died	18 March 2003(2003-03-18) (aged 92) Lake Constance, Germany
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	German
Active years	1954–1955
Teams	Mercedes
Entries	11
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	2
Career points	17
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First entry	1954 French Grand Prix
Last entry	1955 Italian Grand Prix

Karl Kling (16 September 1910, Gießen – 18 March 2003, Gaienhofen on Lake Constance, Germany) was a motor racing driver and manager from Germany. He participated in 11 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 4 July 1954. He achieved 2 podiums - the first German ever to achieve a Formula One podium - and scored a total of 17 championship points.

It is said, that he was born too late and too early. Too late to be in the successful Mercedes team of the 1930s and too early to have a real chance in 1954 and 1955. Unusually, Kling found his way into motorsport via his first job as a reception clerk at Daimler-Benz in the mid-1930s, competing in hillclimb and trials events in production machinery in his spare time. During the Second World War he gained mechanical experience servicing Luftwaffe aircraft, and after the cessation of hostilities he resumed his motorsport involvement in a BMW 328.

Kling was instrumental in developing Mercedes' return to international competition in the early 1950s, and his win in the 1952 Carrera Panamericana road race, driving the then-experimental Mercedes-Benz 300SL was a defining point in assuring the Daimler-Benz management that motorsport had a place in Mercedes' future. Called up to the revived Mercedes Grand Prix squad in 1954 he finished less than one second behind the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio on his Formula One debut, taking second place in the 1954 French Grand Prix at the fast Reims-Gueux circuit. This promising start was not to last, and with the arrival of Stirling Moss at Mercedes in 1955 Kling was effectively demoted to third driver. However, away from the World Championship, Kling took an impressive victory in the Berlin Grand Prix (at AVUS, another high-speed circuit). He left the Formula One team at the end of the season, to succeed Alfred Neubauer as head of Mercedes motorsport. He was in this post during their successful rallying campaigns of the 1960s, occasionally taking the wheel himself. On one such occasion he drove a Mercedes-Benz 220SE to victory in the mighty 1961 Algiers-Cape Town trans-African rally.

He died in 2003 at the age of 92.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	WDC	Points
1954	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes W196	Mercedes straight-8	ARG	500	BEL	FRA 2	GBR 7	GER 4	SUI Ret	ITA Ret	ESP 5	5th	12
1955	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes W196	Mercedes straight-8	ARG 4*	MON	500	BEL Ret	NED Ret	GBR 3	ITA Ret			11th	5

* Shared drive with Stirling Moss and Hans Herrmann.

Non-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	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
1954	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes W196	Mercedes straight-8	SYR	PAU	LAV	BOR	INT	BAR	CUR	ROM	FRO	COR	BRC	CRY	ROU	CAE	AUG	COR	OUL	RED	PES	SAC	JOE	CAD	BER 1	GOO	DTT

References

• "DRIVERS: KARL KLING". GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
• "Mercedes Racing Driver Karl Kling Dies". Automobile. Retrieved 2007-04-11.

Further reading

• Karl Kling, G. Molter, Pursuit of Victory (Bodley Head, London, 1956)