At the location of his first F1 victory: Jo Siffert’s gruesome death by fire on lap 15

At the place of his first F1 victory
Jo Siffert’s gruesome death by fire in lap 15

Exactly 50 years ago, the Swiss Formula 1 racing driver Joseph “Jo” Siffert had an accident on the Brands Hatch Circuit in England, rolled over and burned in his car. The accident could have been prevented – because the race should never have actually taken place.

“His life was racing, racing was his death”, wrote the newspaper “La Liberte” on October 25, 1971. It didn’t need more words to describe the drama about the Swiss Joseph “Jo” Siffert. Death was omnipresent in motorsport at that time, and yet Siffert’s fatal accident on October 24, 50 years ago at Brands Hatch could have been prevented.

The race, which was not part of the Formula 1 World Championship, would never have taken place if the Mexican Pedro Rodriguez, Siffert’s team-mate at BRM and Porsche, had not died on July 11, 1971 at the Norisring. The Mexican Grand Prix was supposed to take place on October 24th, but after the death of the national idol Rodriguez, the organizers backed down. The British took this opportunity to celebrate the second world title of their compatriot Jackie Stewart with a race.

Like Ayrton Senna

Siffert, who won the Austrian Grand Prix in 1971 and had almost never finished the Formula 1 World Championship in fifth place, collided with the car of Swede Ronnie Petersson in the early stages of the insignificant sporting event. On the 15th lap, however, the suspension on Siffert’s BRM broke at high speed. The bolide hit an earth wall, overturned and caught fire. The unconscious Siffert died a gruesome death at the age of 35 – in the place where he won his first Formula 1 race in 1968.

At his funeral, around 50,000 people lined the streets of Friborg, where Siffert had grown up in poverty and gradually worked his way up. “The death of Jo Siffert shook people in Switzerland to the same extent as that of Ayrton Senna in Brazil,” wrote his biographer Jacques Deschenaux. In 1971 Siffert was posthumously named Sportsman of the Year in Switzerland.

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