Swiss driver Joseph Siffert originally made a name for himself at a national level racing motorcycles winning the Swiss national championship for the 350cc class in 1959. Shortly afterwards he made the jump to four wheels in Formula Junior. By 1962 he had made his way up to Formula One as a privateer, making his debut at the 1962 Monaco GP with a customer Lotus chassis. He scored victories in a few non-championship F1 races and in 1964 he joined Rob Walker’s successful private Lotus team where four years later he would score his maiden Grand Prix win at the British GP held at Brands Hatch. His win is considered by many to be the last GP win by a true privateer team.

While his F1 career was one of steady growth and consistent, if not spectacular, results he was an undisputed ace in the world of Sports Car racing winning the 24 Hrs of Daytona, the Sebring 12 Hour race and in 1970 the fabled Targa Florio (below) all for Porsche. Siffert was also instrumental in the development for Porsche’s CanAm racing program.

By 1970 Siffert was being courted by Ferrari for both its Sports Car and F1 programs, rather than lose its driver to a rival Porsche bank rolled a seat in the March F1 team for Siffert but the relationship didn’t work out. In 1971 he switched to the BRM team for F1 and scored he second Grand Prix victory in Austria (below)

Siffert was killed on October 24th, 1971 competing in an end of season non-championship F1 race at Brands Hatch, the site of his first GP victory. His suspension had been damaged in a first lap incident and later in the race it collapsed sending Siffert’s BRM into the barriers. Siffert was trapped in the burning car and couldn’t escape the flames.

Subsequent investigations found that although his injuries were non-fatal (having suffered only a broken leg from the crash impact) Siffert had died from oxygen starvation and smoke inhalation. His death lead to immediate changes in the sport including more fire retardant overalls,  the introduction of on-board fire extinguishers and piped air into the drivers helmets.

Jo Siffert’s life was the subject of an excellent documentary, “Jo Siffert – Live Fast, Die Young” released in 2005.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Drivers, Formula One, Racers Past, Sports Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.