Jacky Ickx

Interesting facts

Before four wheels, he excelled on two, beating future motocross legend Roger De Coster in the Belgian 50cc trials championship as a teenager and winning a European trials title before switching to touring cars. His first Grand Prix weekend, at the 1966 Nürburgring in an F2 Matra, ended in tragedy when a first-lap collision with John Taylor left Taylor with burns he later died from, a memory that stayed with Ickx for years. At the start of the 1969 Le Mans, he deliberately walked rather than ran across the track and carefully fastened his belt before setting off. That same year, privateer John Woolfe, who had not properly buckled in, was killed in a first-lap crash. From the following year onward, drivers were required to start the race already strapped into their cars. His Ferrari caught fire after colliding with Jackie Oliver's BRM in practice for the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix, and it took him roughly 20 seconds to climb out of the burning car, yet he was back racing just 17 days later at Monaco. After Jochen Rindt's fatal accident at Monza in 1970 left him with a mathematical chance at the title, Ickx later said he was relieved he did not become champion that way, unwilling to win it against a man who could no longer defend his own chances. His favourite of six Le Mans wins came in 1977, when he was switched mid-race from his own failing Porsche into a sister car running 42nd, then dragged it back to the lead by early morning while the crew nursed the engine through a misfiring cylinder. He walked away from circuit racing for good after the 1985 season, when a collision with young German driver Stefan Bellof at Eau Rouge during the Spa 1000km cost Bellof his life. He never raced circuits professionally again, though he kept competing in the Paris-Dakar Rally, winning it outright in 1983. Jacky Ickx made his Formula 1 debut in 1967 and raced until 1979, 13 seasons in total as a Belgian driver. He scored a total of 181 championship points over his career.