Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips
From Ferrari Wiki
FIA Super Licence  Germany | |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
|---|---|
| Active years | 1956 Formula One season – 1961 Formula One season |
| Teams | Ferrari, Porsche in Formula One, Scuderia Centro Sud |
| Races | 29 (27 starts) |
| List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions | 0 |
| Wins | 2 |
| Podiums | 6 |
| Career points | 56 |
| Pole position | 1 |
| Fastest lap | 0 |
| First race | 1956 British Grand Prix |
| First win | 1961 Dutch Grand Prix |
| Last win | 1961 British Grand Prix |
| Last race | 1961 Italian Grand Prix |
Wolfgang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips (May 4, 1928 - September 10, 1961) was a Germany Racing driver. He was the son of a noble Rhineland family.[1]
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Formula One and sports car driver
Von Trips was born in Cologne, Germany.
He participated in 29 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on September 2, 1956. He won two races, secured one Pole position, achieved six podiums, and scored a total of 56 championship points.
He sustained a concussion when he spun off track at the Nürburgring during trial runs for a sports car race held in May 1957. His Ferrari was destroyed. It was the only one of its Marque to be entered in the Grand Turismo car class of more than 1600 cc.[2] von Trips was forced out of a Royal Automobile Club Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit, in July 1958, when his Ferrari came into the pits on the 60th lap with no oil.[3] The following August he was 5th at Oporto in the 1958 Portuguese Grand Prix. Won by Stirling Moss in a Vanwall, von Trips completed 49 laps and was one lap behind at the finish. Moss was more than five minutes ahead of Mike Hawthorn, who finished 2nd in a Ferrari[4]
In July 1960 von Trips was victorious in a Formula Two event in a Ferrari, with a newly introduced engine in the rear. The race was in Stuttgart and was called the Solitude Formula Two Grand Prix. It was a 20-lap event with the winner averaging 102.21 m.ph. over 142 miles.[5] He won the Targa Florio, 10-lap 448 mile race, in May 1961. Von Trips achieved an average speed of 64.26 mph in his Ferrari with Olivier Gendebien of Belgium. as his co-driver.[6] von Trips and Phil Hill traded the lead at Spa, Belgium during the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix, in June 1961. Hill led most of the way before a crowd of 100,000 people.
Ferraris captured the first four places at the race conclusion with von Trips finishing second. The Formula One World Championship driver competition at this juncture in 1961 was led by Hill with 19 points followed by von Trips with 18.[7]
Death in Italy
The 1961 Italian Grand Prix on September 10 would have been the culmination of von Trips' career, as a third place would have been sufficient to secure the List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions that year. At the Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, his Ferrari collided with Jim Clark's Team Lotus. His car became airborne and crashed into a side barrier, fatally throwing von Trips from the car, and killing fifteen spectators.[8]
Clark described the accident, saying:
Von Trips and I were racing along the straightaway and were nearing one of the banked curves, the one on the southern end. We were about 100 metres from the beginning of the curve. Von Trips was running close to the inside of the track. I was closely following him, keeping near the outside. At one point Von Trips shifted sideways so that my front wheels collided with his back wheels. It was the fatal moment. Von Trips' car spun twice and went into the guardrail along the inside of the track. Then it bounced back, struck my own car and bounced down into the crowd.[1]
Von Trips was on course to become the first German to win the Formula One World Championship. In 1961 von Trips established a go-kart race track in Kerpen, Germany. The track was later leased by Rolf Schumacher, whose sons, Michael and Ralf Schumacher, made their first laps there.
The belief that Wolfgang von Trips would not have been spared from his fate, when a plane he was scheduled to fly to the USA crashed over Scotland, is an Urban myth. However, he seemed to be jinxed at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, where he crashed cars in the 1956 Italian Grand Prix and the 1958 Italian Grand Prix, and was injured in both events.[1]
Complete Formula One World Championship results
(F1 driver results legend 2) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 Formula One season | Scuderia Ferrari | Lancia-Ferrari Lancia D50 | Ferrari V8 | 1956 Argentine Grand Prix | 1956 Monaco Grand Prix | 1956 Indianapolis 500 | 1956 Belgian Grand Prix | 1956 French Grand Prix | 1956 British Grand Prix | 1956 German Grand Prix | 1956 Italian Grand Prix DNS | NC | 0 | |||
| 1957 Formula One season | Scuderia Ferrari | Lancia-Ferrari Lancia D50 | Ferrari V8 | 1957 Argentine Grand Prix 6 * | 14th | 4 | ||||||||||
| Ferrari Ferrari 801 F1 | 1957 Monaco Grand Prix Ret † | 1957 Indianapolis 500 | 1957 French Grand Prix | 1957 British Grand Prix | 1957 German Grand Prix | 1957 Pescara Grand Prix | 1957 Italian Grand Prix 3 | |||||||||
| 1958 Formula One season | Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari Dino 246 | Ferrari V6 | 1958 Argentine Grand Prix | 1958 Monaco Grand Prix Ret | 1958 Dutch Grand Prix | 1958 Indianapolis 500 | 1958 Belgian Grand Prix | 1958 French Grand Prix 3 | 1958 British Grand Prix Ret | 1958 German Grand Prix 4 | 1958 Portuguese Grand Prix 5 | 1958 Italian Grand Prix Ret | 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix | 11th | 9 |
| 1959 Formula One season | Porsche in Formula One | Porsche in Formula One Porsche 718 F2 | Porsche in Formula One Flat-4 | 1959 Monaco Grand Prix Ret | 1959 Indianapolis 500 | 1959 Dutch Grand Prix | 1959 French Grand Prix | 1959 British Grand Prix | 1959 German Grand Prix DNS | 1959 Portuguese Grand Prix | 1959 Italian Grand Prix | NC | 0 | |||
| Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari Dino 246 | Ferrari V6 | 1959 United States Grand Prix 6 | |||||||||||||
| 1960 Formula One season | Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari Dino 246 | Ferrari V6 | 1960 Argentine Grand Prix 5 | 1960 Monaco Grand Prix 8 | 1960 Indianapolis 500 | 1960 Dutch Grand Prix 5 | 1960 Belgian Grand Prix Ret | 1960 French Grand Prix 11 | 1960 British Grand Prix 6 | 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix 4 | 7th | 10 | |||
| Ferrari Dino 246P F2 | 1960 Italian Grand Prix 5 | |||||||||||||||
| Scuderia Centro Sud | Cooper Car Company Cooper T51 | Maserati Straight-4 | 1960 United States Grand Prix 9 | |||||||||||||
| 1961 Formula One season | Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari 156 | Ferrari V6 | 1961 Monaco Grand Prix 4 | 1961 Dutch Grand Prix 1 | 1961 Belgian Grand Prix 2 | 1961 French Grand Prix Ret | 1961 British Grand Prix 1 | 1961 German Grand Prix 2 | 1961 Italian Grand Prix Ret | 1961 United States Grand Prix | 2nd | 33 |
- * Indicates shared drive with Cesare Perdisa and Peter Collins
- † Indicates shared drive with Mike Hawthorn
| Preceded by Giulio Cabianca | List of Formula One fatal accidents Sept. 10, 1961 | Succeeded by Ricardo Rodríguez (Formula One) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Von Trips, 11 Autodromo Nazionale Monza Fans Killed; Hill Wins", Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1961, Page C1.
- ↑ German Driver Injured In Sports Car Trials, New York Times, May 26, 1957, Page S3.
- ↑ Moss Forced Out In English Race, New York Times, July 20, 1958, Page S9.
- ↑ Moss Wins Portugal's Grand Prix, New York Times, August 25, 1958, Page A15.
- ↑ "Von Trips's Victory In Stuttgart", The Times, July 25, 1960, Page 5.
- ↑ "Von Trips Sets Up New Record", The Times, May 1, 1961, Page 4.
- ↑ "Hill Captures Belgium Prix; Ginther Third", Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1961, Page C5.
- ↑ "Motorsport Memorial". http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=612.
External links
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Georg Thoma
| German Sportspersonality of the year 1961 | Succeeded by Gerhard Hetz
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