Heroes and Legends.

Andrew came up with an interesting comment in a facebook message the other day, he mentioned the deaths of Donald Campbell, Yuri Gagarin, Bruce McLaren and Jochen Rindt. There seems to have been a bit of a glut of high profile deaths at that time.

Andrew stated that he clearly remembered was playing out in the road with Richard Neep when Mum came out and told him about Campbell.

Well, I've looked into this, and found the following: Campbell died on January 4th 1967. Gagarin died the day before I was born, March 27th 1968. McLaren died June 2nd 1970  and Rindt died September 5th 1970.

Campbell was clearly doing something very dangerous, as was Gagarin, but Formula One was clearly the most dangerous thing you could do in the 1950, 60s & 70s short of signing up to shoot Vietnamese people. It has only become comparatively safe due the the efforts of Sid Watkins & Jackie Stewart.

35 Drivers have lost their lives in Formula One cars since the inception of the World Championship in 1950.

• Charles de Tornaco     September 18, 1953     Ferrari     Modena Test
• Onofre Marimón         July 31, 1954         Maserati    German Grand Prix Practice
• Eugenio Castellotti     March 14, 1957         Ferrari     Modena Test
• Luigi Musso         July 6, 1958         Ferrari     French Grand Prix Race
• Peter Collins         August 3, 1958         Ferrari        German Grand Prix Race
• Stuart Lewis-Evans     September 19, 1958     Vanwall     Moroccan Grand Prix Race
• Ivor Bueb         August 1, 1959         Cooper         Charade Circuit    Test
• Harry Schell         May 13, 1960         Cooper        International Trophy (Silverstone) Qualifying
• Chris Bristow        June 19, 1960         Cooper        Belgian Grand Prix Race
• Alan Stacey         June 19, 1960         Lotus         Belgian Grand PrixRace
• Giulio Cabianca     February 17, 1961     Cooper        Modena Autodrome Test
• Wolfgang von Trips     September 10, 1961     Ferrari     Italian Grand Prix Race
• Ricardo Rodríguez     November 1, 1962     Lotus        Mexican Grand Prix Practice
• Carel Godin de Beaufort August 2, 1964         Porsche        German Grand Prix Practice
• John Taylor         August 7, 1966         Brabham     German Grand Prix Race
• Lorenzo Bandini     May 7, 1967         Ferrari        Monaco Grand Prix Race
• Bob Anderson         August 14, 1967     Brabham        Silverstone Test
• Jo Schlesser         July 7, 1968         Honda        French Grand Prix Race
• Gerhard Mitter         August 2, 1969         BMW        German Grand Prix Practice
• Piers Courage         June 7, 1970         De Tomaso    Dutch Grand Prix Race
• Jochen Rindt         September 5, 1970     Lotus        Italian Grand Prix Qualifying
• Jo Siffert         October 24, 1971     BRM        Brands Hatch Victory Race Race
• Roger Williamson     July 29, 1973         March         Dutch Grand Prix Race
• François Cevert     October 7, 1973     Tyrrell        United States Grand Prix Qualifying
• Peter Revson         March 30, 1974         Shadow        South African Grand Prix Pre-race test
• Helmut Koinigg         October 6, 1974     Surtees        United States Grand Prix Race
• Mark Donohue         August 19, 1975     Penske        Austrian Grand Prix Practice
• Tom Pryce         March 5, 1977         Shadow        South African Grand Prix Race
• Ronnie Peterson     September 11, 1978    Lotus         Italian Grand Prix Race
• Patrick Depailler     August 1, 1980         Alfa Romeo    Hockenheimring Test
• Gilles Villeneuve     May 8, 1982        Ferrari        Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying
• Riccardo Paletti     June 13, 1982         Osella        Canadian Grand Prix Race
• Elio de Angelis     May 15, 1986         Brabham        Paul Ricard Test
• Roland Ratzenberger     April 30, 1994         Simtek        San Marino Grand Prix Qualifying
• Ayrton Senna         May 1, 1994         Williams     San Marino Grand Prix Race

Comments

[Alison]

I remember the death of Jochen Rindt - except I thought it was Joch and Rindt - a famou car-driving duo. Never could understand how they both fitted into such a small car- no wonder they crashed!