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“He stood out from the crowd with all his demeanor,” recalled his school friend Helmut Marko. For today’s Red Bull motorsports consultant, Rindt is much more than a Formula 1 legend. “He achieved success with inferior teams and with an incredible amount of risk. That also shaped his image, ”Marko said Wednesday at the presentation of a Jochen Rindt tram at ORF. “But then he went from being one of the riskiest drivers to being a superior driver who recognized this risk.”
His sudden death was so incomprehensible to all because it was thought that he had left his wild years behind and was inviolable. “All these factors, this personality, this behavior” would have made him unique. “Without Jochen, this whole motorsport wouldn’t exist with this intensity as we know it. We owe all this to him ”, emphasized Marko. “He was a myth.”
Brake wave is the ruin of Rindt
Jochen Rindt, who was actually called Karl Jochen Rindt, had one goal in his career: He absolutely wanted to become Formula 1 world champion. When Nina Rindt accepted the World Cup trophy that her husband had longed for, she had been dead for two months. “It was his passion. He did what he loved, “says the Finn in the ARD documentary” Jochen Rindts Last Summer “from 2010.
TV Notice
A “picture from Austria” shows the documentary “Jochen Rindt – The World Champion from Graz” on ORF2 on Sunday at 6.25pm - more about it on tv.ORF.at
Fifty years ago there was an accident during practice for the Italian Grand Prix: at the Parabolica, Rindt crashed into the rails with his Lotus 72. The cause was a broken brake shaft in the front right. Rindt was just 28 years old and so far the only driver to become a Formula 1 world champion posthumously.
The photos are unforgettable. Wife Nina sitting on a bar stool in the lotus box, looking anxious, a stopwatch in hand. She waited for her husband while all the other drivers returned from the track. It was getting quieter. Jackie Stewart, Rindt’s rival and close friend, approached her and told her what had happened. Bernie Ecclestone, later Formula 1 boss, had his friend’s bloody helmet in his hands.
Motor racing in shock
The impact in and out of the motorsports world by Rindt’s death was great, comparable only to the tragedies of the accident of the British Jim Clark in 1968 in a Formula 2 race at the Hockenheimring and the Brazilian Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994. 30,000 people gave the last escort to Rindt in Graz six days after his death. Racing driver colleague Joakim Bonnier said in his funeral address: “And whatever happens in the coming weeks: Jochen is the world champion for us.”
According to Marko, “little Austria has managed to produce a world star in Formula 1”. Rindt was not Austrian at all. He was born on April 18, 1942 in Mainz. His father was German, his mother Austrian. They had a spice mill. When his parents were killed in a bomb attack in Hamburg in 1943, his grandparents took him to live in Austria. He remained German, but was driving with an Austrian racing license. “I feel like a European,” he once said during a television appearance.
“Courage, vision and a lot of self-confidence”
He made the decision to become a racing driver in 1961 on a trip to the Nürburgring with his childhood friend Marko. He went to England to find a connection to the international scene. “The English in our school was enough to ask for something to eat. You need courage, a vision. And a lot of self-confidence, “Marko recalled in July in the” Red Bull Bulletin. “
Rindt quickly rose to the star and won the 24-hour classic at Le Mans as early as 1965. His television show “Motorama” became a cult. He moderated with a fur coat or interviewed his Formula 1 teammates. In 1965 he organized the “Jochen Rindt Salon” in Vienna for the first time. In his private life he found happiness in Nina. They married in 1967 and their daughter Natascha was born in 1968.
“Become a world champion or die”
For a long time it lacked a car capable of winning in Formula 1. In 1964 it contested its first of 60 races. The big break didn’t come until 1969: Lotus boss Colin Chapman wanted him to replace Clark. The Briton was considered an ingenious but ruthless designer. “At Lotus I can become a world champion or die,” Rindt said before signing his contract.
The relationship was difficult from the beginning. “I have never trusted Lotus,” Rindt ranted after a wing on his car broke in Barcelona and he had an accident. But in the penultimate race of the season at Watkins Glen he celebrated his first win.
Posthumously to the world title
The following year, Rindt triumphed in Monaco after a race to catch up on the narrow streets of the principality. At Zandvoort he started a winning streak. But the death by fire of his friend Piers Courage overshadowed the race. This was followed by top spots at Clermont-Ferrand, Brands Hatch and in the Formula 1 debut at the Hockenheimring. In his home race at the Österreichring he was eliminated. However, with 45 points as the leader, he had every chance of winning the title.
Then came the Monza tragedy. Until the penultimate race, Ferrari driver Jacky Ickx had a chance to catch his dead rival. That was prevented by a defect and a fourth-place finish at Watkins Glen. The Belgian was relieved, as years later he admitted: “The best thing was seeing how the world title turned out for Jochen.”
