Porsche

Interesting facts

Porsche entered single-seater racing in the late 1950s with single-seat versions of its 718 RSK sports car in Formula Two, before stepping up to Formula One in 1961. While still under contract to Ferrari, Jean Behra ran his own Formula Two project, 'Behra-Porsche,' built around a 718 RSK-based car; when Hans Herrmann finished second in it at the 1959 Reims F2 race, beating Ferrari's own entries, it infuriated Enzo Ferrari. Behra was fired from Ferrari after the ensuing row, and on 1 August 1959 he was killed driving a Porsche RSK sports car on the rain-soaked banking of the AVUS circuit, on the support bill for the German Grand Prix. Porsche's breakthrough came in 1962 with the flat-eight-engined Porsche 804: Dan Gurney won the French Grand Prix in it, the only World Championship race Porsche ever won as a constructor. Gurney repeated the win a week later in a non-championship race at the Solitude circuit near Stuttgart. Porsche withdrew from Formula One at the end of that same 1962 season, citing high costs just after acquiring the Reutter coachbuilding works, with neither Volkswagen nor German parts suppliers keen to keep funding an F1 programme. Porsche raced in Formula 1 from 1958 to 1964, across 7 seasons as a German team. The team scored a total of 46 constructors' championship points.