Jochen Rindt.

[charleselan]

I did not realise that this weekend was the 50th Anniversary of the tragic death of the great Jochen Rindt. Last night while viewing YouTube I came across a audio stream by Tom Clarkson featuring this very topic, and it took me quite by surprise.

Fifty years ago; half of one century I just could not get my head around that fact. I remember to this day in great clarity what I was doing all that time ago when I heard the terrible news. On that awful Saturday I had just set out in my car to go to my local small town and the news came over the car radio a mere quarter of a mile from my parents home. So shocked was I that I turned the car around and returned home; got out the car and reported the news to my parents who were out in the garden working on the vegetable patch.

For me Jochen had sort of replaced Jim Clark  as my most favourite driver, although no one could ever replace Jim Clark. Jochen Rindt was unbelievably only 28 years of age and had his best season in Grand Prix, destined to become the first and only posthumous World Champion.

In the Tom Clarkson audio he speaks at length with Helmut Marko; JYS and Bernie Ecclestone, all who were very close to Jochen. I have not listened to all of the hour long stream as yet but listened intently to the first part which featured dear old Citron Chops Helmut, who to be fair sounded very different to that image we have seen so often in recent years. I had forgotten that he was actually in the same school class as Jochen and they were greta friends, he speaks beautifully and fondly of his old friend.

JYS apparently gets very emotional in his interview, he and Jochen were great rivals but also great friends as well as being neighbours in Switzerland. 

Bernie as much as we all despise what he has done in more recent times was another close friend and manager of Jochen, and speaks quite emotionally about the man. I do feel that Bernie changed after Jochen's death, and that may have gone some way to moulding the man we see in later life.

RIP Jochen you were one of the most amazing drivers who I had the brief privilege of seeing race in the flesh, a true great who often does not get the recognition he deserves today.

Almost spooky to think that Jochen; Ronnie and Alberto Ascari all perished at Monza.

[Carl]

Well said, John Charles, on a sad occasion. I never saw him in person, but knew about his incredible talent from reading about his dominance in Formula 2 and seeing on television his amazing pursuit of Jack Brabham in the closing laps at Monaco in 1970.  What Brabham mouthed when he locked up his brakes into the gasometer, yards from victory, was a very nasty profanity. 

In 1967 as a rookie driver at Indy in one of Dan Gurney's iconic Eagles, Rindt may not have known that rain stops everything and so stayed out one day when it began to rain during practice. When word spread that he was going through Turn 4 at speed in a controlled 4-wheel drift, entire teams hurried down pit row to see his amazing car control.

                                                            

[mikael]

Yes, noteworthy indeed that it matches to the day:

Italian Grand Prix 1970, 5-6 September;

Italian Grand Prix 2020, 5-6 September.

Makes you wonder if this is a result of careful planning, or just an amazing coincidence ...

Below is a photo from Peter Nygaard's large book "Formel 1" (736 pages, coffee-table format; 2018) of Jochen Rindt and his manager Bernie Ecclestone. The photo hints at a harmonic relationship.

Being 5 - soon 6 - years old on that September day, I was not yet conscious about Formula One. But several year ago, I bought a nice second-hand copy of Ted Simon's "The Checkered Year", about the 1970 season. This is a very well-written book - a book worth reading more than once. And the title was (is) right to the point too ...

Back to the photo, it's interesting to note Rindt's well-worn driver's overall; almost a rag!

(C) Peter Nygaard.

[chrisb]

I believe Jochen and BCE were close, and talking of future business projects together,

It is terrible to think that it is 50 years since that dreadful day, the third such tragedy in a bloody awful year, for me Jochen had so much talent and intelligence that he really could have developed into an incredible businessman and maybe changed the whole of motorsport with it,

I would have seen him at Brands in 65 and possibly Crystal Palace but the significance would not have been noted,

it is an awful thought that three of my favourite drivers all lost their lives to terrible accidents at Monza, never forgotten always respected and admired

[René]

Like Mikael, I was 5 years old at the time. Of course I had no idea of Formula 1 and have no memories about Rindt's death. But I do remember reading about Jochen Rindt for the first time, five or six years after he died, and the fact that he was posthumously crowned 1970 world champion. It was the time, the mid seventies, when I became really interested in F1 and the Rindt story only added to this fascination.

He must have been a great driver and a wonderful charachter.

[charleselan]

There is an excellent 2 Part piece about Jochen Rindt on S*YF1, the first part was on Saturday and I caught the last few minutes, some of what I saw was in fact the same interviews that were in audio format on YouTube. Hopefully someone will place the complete feature on the internet somewhere so that it can be downloaded.

The photo you have included Mikael is superb. The guys back then did not have fresh new race clothing for every race, let alone helmets. Just look at Jochen's trusty battered dark green Bell open face.

Jochen was one of the first Grand Prix drivers to start using the full face helmet in 1969 but had physical difficulties using it and often reverted to the old open face helmet. He turned up at the Dutch GP in '69 with a plain white full face Bell helmet with the words "this space to rent" written on the side.

Interestingly he was using his open face helmet at Montjuich Park for the Spanish Gp in 1969 and it was there he suffered the wing failure that resulted in a huge accident which inflicted serious concussion and a broken nose. If he had maybe worn the full face helmet the injuries might have been less severe. 

[charleselan]

Further to my comment above about Jochen wearing a plain white full face helmet at the 1969 Dutch GP I have quite by chance come across this outstanding photograph taken during the race. Here he leads team mate Graham Hill in the early stages where they had quite a dispute along with JYS in his Matra MS80. Jenks actually commented at the time about the inter team rivalry  between Jochen & Graham on track, although they got along fine off track.

Interesting to note the difference in the front wing settings on the cars, Graham having far more of an angle on his whereas Jochen was more feathered. In an nice bit by Emerson Fittipaldi remembering Jochen, he recounts how good and helpful  Jochen was towards him. When he first tested the Lotus 49C he came into the post and said it was understeering like crazy and he wanted more front wing, Jochen advised him that wasn't needed but to use the throttle harder to promote oversteer. Emerson went out again and flew around much to the delight of Jochen on the pit wall.



Her is another shot of Jochen just after retiring from the lead of the 1969 Dutch GP carrying his white full face helmet, some of the words written on it about "space to let/rent" can be seen. Also notice the crisp new race suit, a contrast to the one Mikael posted while in his Lotus 72 in 1970.

[robmarsh]

Superb pictures Charles. I seem to remember that Jochen swapped between the two helmets depending on the circuit. He changed back to the open face for the French GP at the Circuit de Charade as the sinuous nature of the circuit made him feel carsick. I seem to remember reading that DSJ thought it was due to Rindt's consistent smoking and his incipient stomach ulcer.

[Carl]

Sept 7, 2020 17:17:23 GMT robmarsh said:

Superb pictures Charles. I seem to remember that Jochen swapped between the two helmets depending on the circuit. He changed back to the open face for the French GP at the Circuit de Charade as the sinuous nature of the circuit made him feel carsick. I seem to remember reading that DSJ thought it was due to Rindt's consistent smoking and his incipient stomach ulcer.

I remember reading that Rindt borrowed a spare open-faced helmet from close friend Piers Courage at Clermont-Ferrand in 1969 for that reason.

[charleselan]

Rob & Carl,

I believe that the serious accident in the Spanish GP of 1969 in which Jochen sustained concussion was attributed to his attacks of sickness on circuits like Clermont Ferrand. He missed the Monaco GP which came a few weeks after the accident and in all probability in this day and age would have been prevented from competing for some time afterwards. Of course in those days there were no cat scans etc it was just case of doing some simple tests with a doctor and then being passed fit.

As Carl correctly points out at Clermont in '69 he ended up borrowing his friend Piers Courages spare open faced helmet, I understand that he turned up to race with a brand new full face helmet but due to the sick feeling he had he was lent Piers spare. Jochen then wore the new full face at Zandvoort and Spa but reverted to a new open faced helmet for the rest of the season which was just plain silver for the European GP's.

However at Watkins Glen for his memorable first GP win it had been painted in his favoured dark green once more. Of course that win resulted DSJ having to shave off his beard as the journalist had bet that Jochen Rindt would never win a GP. Strange that Jenks did not rate Jochen at all, and I have a feeling that they were none too fond of one another. For someone who had such a profound knowledge of the sport I find it hard to understand DSJ's stance on this one, and did not agree most vehemently.

Jochen had dominated F2 for years, beating everyone from Jim Clark downwards (Jim maybe never had the best of cars in that formula), all because Jochen had a very good car under him unlike when he was in F1 until he joined GLTL in 1969.

I also think that after that Spanish GP accident Jochen changed as a driver (something Helmut Marko mentions) and the fact that he became aware that Lotus cars were shall we say "lightweight" (I say that as a massive Lotus fan). He was less spectacular and more considered, another point raised by Jackie Stewart incidentally.

[Carl]

A well done tour of the old Clermont-Ferrand circuit

[charleselan]

Over the past weekend I happened upon some film clips on YouTube about the recently run "Classic Tour de France" for cars. Only short films available but very interesting as there was a huge variety of cars taking part. As with the original event it travelled around France with events/competitions at various race tracks and hill climbs. One such was at Clermont Ferrand which surprised me as I had no idea that they had built a permanent race track there using I believe a small part of the old old circuit.

It looked really quite good and tried to capture the undulations and scenery of the original; lots of classic type events are now run there which is good to see.

The narrative was all in French and most of the competitors looked like elderly wealthy folk, as is normal in classic racing, but during a later clip up popped none other than Tierry Boutsen driving a pretty standard looking Porsche 911.

On a separate matter I also found a little audio clip (with photos) on YT of the works Matra MS650's on the real Tour in 1970; the sounds of those V12 working their way through the countryside is just sublime.



JPB & Pesca with co-drivers on a road section during the 1970 T de F.

[René]

Here is the complete Sky documentary on Jochen Rindt. It's very good.



This second video is in German without subtitles (so probably not for all) but I find it very interesting. It's a TV broadcast only two days after the Monza tragedy. The setting is very serene and calm, almost unthinkable nowadays. The four men discuss the accident and they are visibly very affected by what happened. One of the men (who sits on the interviewers right hand) is Heinz Prüller, an Austrian motorsport journalist. I practically grew up with his books, mainly F1 year reviews but also books on Niki Lauda with whom he became good friends.

[Carl]

Rene,
           Thanks for posting the wonderful documentary about Jochen Rindt. I was delighted to see the family photos in which his profile was unmistakable even as an infant!

           Rindt had unsavory friends, and I suspect most of what Helmut Marko and Bernie Ecclestone have to say is self-serving, but also good friends Jackie Stewart and Piers Courage to balance the scale.  I remember being elated when Rindt joined Lotus.  Intensely competitive, he accepted the risk of driving a Lotus for driven genius Chapman, but had he known how improved the odds would be at Brabham in 1969, he might have remained and been a multiple world champion, as John Charles and Chris earlier posted.

           Not doubting for a moment his integrity, I wonder how David Tremayne can be certain whose idea it was to remove the rear wing at Monza. Colin Chapman was certainly laser-focused on winning, but why, late in the season when Rindt had twice the points of his nearest competitor, would he advise removing a large component essential to his own original design? Lotus driver John Miles has a different version of how and why the wing was removed; the one certainty is mechanical failure as he braked.

           I think Chris should ride into Scotland and advise Jackie Stewart we're aware his Rolex has a solid gold case, and to stop waving his arm.

-Carl

[mikael]

Thanks a lot, René; I will be looking forward to watching those documentaries in full lengths.