F1
53 years ago… the disappearance of Jochen Rindt, the only posthumous world champion
© DPPI
Jochen Rindt died 53 years ago, on September 5, 1970, during testing for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The 28-year-old Austrian was solid leader of the championship with the Lotus team after having scored 5 victories including 4 consecutive before entering the tenth event of the season.
The pilot of the 72C lost control of his car for a reason which remains undetermined to this day and hit the security barrier at the entrance to the Parabolique. His death was confirmed a few hours later. He will be declared champion posthumously with 5 points ahead of Jacky Ickx.
Jochen Rindt made 60 Grand Prix starts and achieved a total of 6 victories, 10 poles, 13 podiums and 3 fastest laps in the race. He played for three teams. After competing in his first race in F1 on his national GP with a Brabham BT11-BRM, he went to Cooper the following year where he defended the colors until 1967. Returning to Brabham in 1968, he joined Colin's Lotus team Chapman in 1969.
If the Austrian also distinguished himself in F2, he also excelled at 24 Hours of Le Mans by winning the 33rd edition in 1965 by winning with the Briton Masten Gregory on a Ferrari 250 LM of the North American Racing Team.
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05/09/2023 at 07:38 a.m.
After the death of Jim Clark in April 1968 at Hockenheim, that of Jochen Rindt at Monza in 1970 reinforced, in the young motorsport fan that I was then, the undeniable attraction for the single-seater and its gladiator drivers! One of the friends of his good Doktor Helmut and perhaps the one without whom Niki Lauda would not have become the one who was...