April 18, 1942 - September 5, 1970
Jochen Rindt
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Rindt 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, after being killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix in 1970. He competed in 62 Grands Prix, winning six and achieving 13 podium finishes. Away from Formula One, Rindt was highly successful in other classes. 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.
During practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, near Milan Lotus team leader Colin Chapman and Rindt agreed to follow the lead of Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme 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 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. 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.
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, daughter of famous Finnish racer Curt Lincoln. Although popular legend favors the myth 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.
(Photo; www.octetort.com)
Rindt is buried at the central cemetery in Graz, Austria.
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