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| Wolfgang von Trips, minutes before his demise |
"I wanted to win, but not at
this price." - so remarked the 1961 Formula One champion Phil Hill. It was
a dream victory to have secured his maiden world title in Formula One driving
for Ferrari and to top it, in front of the several thousands of Tifosi at
Monza, Italy. Hill won the title by leapfrogging his teammate by one point.
Wolfgang von Trips, his colleague and the points leader coming into the race
needed a third placed finish to secure the driver's title, a first for a
German driver. His race ended on lap two, and a little later, his life ended
too!
DEATH AT THE TRACK
Growing up as a racer, Von Trips
was not new to accidents. In fact, he survived so many accidents before maturity and consistency became an integral part of his driving. And these new
attributes were on display when he was part of Ferrari's dream team of 1961.
Phil Hill, Richie Ginther, Ricardo Rodriguez, Giancarlo Baghetti and Wolfgang
von Trips won five of the seven races Ferrari took part in and the team and its
drivers were clearly miles ahead from rest of the pack.
Coming into the penultimate race
at Monza, Von Trips was leading the championship by four points over his
American teammate Phil Hill. They were friends off the track, but on the race
day they were fierce competitors as both wanted to be the first from their
country to win a driver's title.
Von Trips was in the best position to claim
the win as he qualified in the front row with the fastest time and all Hill
could manage was fourth. Thousands of fans had gathered with a prospect of
watching one of the Ferrari drivers winning the title.
The race started - Von Trips had
the worst start and by the end of lap one he was placed sixth and ahead of him
were - Phil Hill who led the race, followed by his other team mates Ginther and
Rodriguez; then came Jim Clark, followed closely by Jack Brabham and Von Trips.
Von Trips relying on Ferrari's
superior speed got past Clark and was chasing down Brabham. Clark with a
lighter fuel load was not in a mood to give up that easy and his pace and car
handling kept him within few metres of the German. As they duo approached the Parabolica
curve, Von Trips slowed down a bit to position himself better to take the
tricky right hander. Sensing an opportunity, Clark tried to overtake Von Trips
from the left and at this instant, Von Trips moved slightly to the left to
cover his position and next moment - bang!
The left rear of Von Trips made a
severe high speed contact with Jim Clark's right front wheel and in the next
few seconds, it was a catastrophe. The Ferrari took the aerial route, found
itself inverted and with no seat belts, Von Trips was thrown off the car and he
fell down with a great impact. The car with a high momentum went on to strike
the fence where spectators were placed, hit some of them before flipping back
on the track.
Von Trips died on the spot and so
too eleven spectators. Three more died the next day and one after five days.
THE AFTERMATH
"Trips was head of me,
driving on the centre of the track. Suddenly he slowed down. Since my Lotus was
faster than the Ferrari, I tried to overtake him. In the same instant the
Ferrari surprisingly pulled to the left, and a collision became
unavoidable..." - this was Jim Clark's take on that dreadful incident.
Recollecting the incident after
50 years, the second placed driver that day Dan Gurney gave an account on what
happened and what was the attitude back then in an interview with Daily Mail:
"'I had a very good seat for watching what happened. I was probably
running in about 10th place in my Porsche. There was a great group
of drivers, some of whom were braver and less experienced than they should have
been so the chance of something like that happening was pretty great."
Phil Hill knew there was a huge
accident, but the race continued. He completed the race in a little over two
hours before he enquired his manager about what had happened.
"And Trips? Is he
dead?"
"Come on,” said the manager.
"They want you for the awards ceremony."
In today's world, it is
unimaginable to think of such a response. But the times were different and as
Dan Gurney points out - "We were born at a different time and basically
were raised during the time of World War Two with many of us involved, or very
close to being involved in it. It seemed to be the general outlook, people
didn't complain about things and they had a World War Two attitude."
Robert Daley, who was a
journalist that day recalled - "The emotions are still right on the
surface. I was the same age as these guys and they were dying all around me."
In his book 'The Limit', the
author Michael Cannell covers Phil Hill's triumph and the 1961 Formula One season
- " I always felt like this was a proxy war. The British, Italians,
Germans - they were still in some way fighting World War II. They were putting
their handsome young men in the most sophisticated machinery and sending them
out to their deaths."
LEGACY
Wolfgang von Trips belonged to one of the
respected families in Germany. The Von Trips family lived in Castle Hemmerbach since
1751, and Von trips grew up in this grand building, with his ears attuned to the
sounds of the Silver Arrows at the Nürburgring, which was very close to the
castle grounds.
In 1961, a month prior to his
unexpected demise, a fan club was formed in his honour and continuing the name
of this great German post WW II, the members constructed a go kart facility in
Horrem. With time, the virus of karting spread across Germany and with constant
support from the Von Trips family, came a new facility in Kerpen-Mannheim.
Michael Schumacher's dad Rolf got
involved and leased the facility for some time and that is where the Schumacher
brothers first got the taste of racing. Other German drivers like Heinz-Harald
Frentzen, Nick Heidfeld and the four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel are
all the products of this facility. Michael Schumacher re-started the passion
and went on to complete the unfinished job of Von Trips in becoming the first
German driver champion of F1 and the trend continues......
ON AN END NOTE
Wolfgang Von Trips on the brink of becoming the first German
to win the championship was eager to get the 1961 Italian Grand Prix off his
back. He was visibly nervous and he disclosed his feeling to Robert Daley and
his wife over tea on the eve of the Grand Prix - "Every driver has a place
deep inside him where he's afraid of death." He went on to add -
"This could all end tomorrow, you never know."
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