Jo Siffert

Interesting facts

Born into a poor family in Fribourg, the son of a dairyman, he attended the 1948 Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten with his father at age 12, an experience that sparked his racing ambition. Before ever racing a car, he won the Swiss 350cc motorcycle championship in 1959. He made his Formula One debut as a privateer in 1962, driving a Lotus-Climax at the Monaco Grand Prix. He won the non-championship Mediterranean Grand Prix in both 1964 and 1965, beating Jim Clark by a razor-thin margin on each occasion. His 1968 British Grand Prix win at Brands Hatch, in a Rob Walker Racing Team Lotus, came after a race-long battle with Chris Amon's Ferrari and is regarded as the last Grand Prix victory by a genuine privateer. He found even greater fame in sports cars: in 1968, with Hans Herrmann, he won both the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours in a Porsche 907, Porsche's first major outright victories at those events, and in 1970 he won the Targa Florio alongside Brian Redman. On 24 October 1971, at the non-championship World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch, a lap-one collision with Ronnie Peterson damaged his BRM's suspension, which later failed; the car crashed and caught fire, the trackside extinguishers malfunctioned, and Siffert died of smoke inhalation - 50,000 people attended his funeral in Fribourg, led by a Gulf-Porsche 917, and the accident led directly to mandatory onboard fire extinguishers and piped-air helmets in Formula One. Jo Siffert made his Formula 1 debut in 1962 and raced until 1971, 10 seasons in total as a Swiss driver. He scored a total of 68 championship points over his career.