Wolfgang von Trips

Wolfgang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips (Template:IPA; 4 May 1928 – 10 September 1961), also known as Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips,Template:Efn was a German racing driver, who competed in Formula One from Template:F1 to Template:F1. Nicknamed "Taffy",Template:Efn von Trips was posthumously runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in Template:F1 with Ferrari, and won two Grands Prix across six seasons.

Born in Cologne and raised in Kerpen, von Trips was born into a noble Rhineland family as an aristocrat and count of the Free State of Prussia. After struggling with agriculture, von Trips moved into motor racing. He made his Formula One debut at the 1956 Italian Grand Prix with Ferrari, failing to qualify. Von Trips made further appearances for Ferrari in Template:F1 at the Argentine, Monaco and Italian Grands Prix, scoring his maiden podium at the latter. He made regular appearances with the team in Template:F1, taking another podium at the Template:F1GP. Von Trips made two appearances for Porsche in Template:F1 before returning to Ferrari at the season-ending Template:F1GP, with whom he scored regular points finishes throughout his Template:F1 campaign, finishing seventh in the championship.

Whilst leading the 1961 World Drivers' Championship, having taken his maiden victory at the Template:F1GP and claiming his second at the Template:F1GP, von Trips died as a result of an accident during the Template:F1GP at Monza. After a collision with Jim Clark, von Trips lost control of his Ferrari 156, fatally wounding himself and 15 spectators as his car went airborne. Ferrari withdrew from the remaining Template:F1GP—having already won the World Constructors' Championship—with teammate Phil Hill taking the title by one point to von Trips.

Early life and family

The son of a noble Rhineland family,<ref name="Los Angeles Times 1961">Template:Cite news</ref> von Trips was born in Cologne, in the Rhine Province, which at the time was part of the Free State of Prussia during the years of the Weimar Republic. He was an aristocrat and count.<ref name="Unique Cars and Parts 2014">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Regarding personal names, Graf is a German title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name; the feminine form is Gräfin. Von Trips grew up in a Romantic-moated castle in Horrem (now a district of Kerpen), Cologne. The inheritance of his parents, the castle, and the agricultural and fruit-growing possessions weighted heavily on the young von Trips, who one day had to take sole responsibility for all these lands. From 1951 onwards, he struggled to train to become a qualified farmer as his true passion was racing.<ref name="German Documentaries 2007">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Formula One and sports car driver career

File:Wolfgang von Trips.jpg

A statue of Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips in Kerpen, Germany

Von Trips had diabetes during his career and he always had high sugar snacks during the races to compensate for his low blood sugar levels.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Von Trips participated in 29 Formula One World Championship Grand Prix races, debuting on 2 September 1956. He won two races, secured one pole position, achieved six podiums, and scored a total of 56 championship points.<ref name="Small 2000, pp. 592–593">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Motor Sport 2017">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Motorsport Stats 2021">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Friends and fellow draws gave him the "Taffy" nickname.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Von Trips sustained a concussion when he spun off track at the Nürburgring during trial runs for a sports car race held in May 1957. His Ferrari was destroyed. It was the only one of its marque to be entered in the Gran Turismo car class of larger than 1600 cc.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Von Trips was forced out of a Royal Automobile Club Grand Prix at Silverstone, in July 1958, when his Ferrari came into the pits on the 60th lap with no oil.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The following August, he was fifth at Porto in the 1958 Portuguese Grand Prix, which was won by Stirling Moss in a Vanwall. Von Trips completed 49 laps and was one lap behind at the finish. Moss was more than five minutes ahead of Mike Hawthorn, who finished second in a Ferrari.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Von Trips at 1961 Dutch Grand Prix.jpg

Von Trips at the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix

In July 1960, von Trips was victorious in a Formula Two event in a Ferrari, with a newly introduced engine in the rear. The race was in Stuttgart and was called the Solitude Formula Two Grand Prix. It was a 20-lap event with the winner averaging Template:Convert over Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He won the Targa Florio, 10-lap Template:Convert race, in May 1961. Von Trips achieved an average speed of Template:Convert in his Ferrari with Olivier Gendebien of Belgium as his co-driver.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Von Trips and Phil Hill traded the lead at Spa, Belgium, during the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix. Hill led most of the way in front of a crowd of 100,000 people. Ferraris captured the first four places at the race conclusion with von Trips finishing second. The Formula One World Championship driver competition at this juncture in 1961 was led by Hill with 19 points followed by von Trips with 18.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1961, von Trips established a go-kart race track in Kerpen, Germany. The track was later leased by Rolf Schumacher, whose sons, Michael and Ralf, made their first laps there.<ref name="Unique Cars and Parts 2014"/> In the words of a 2007 German documentary film about von Trips, "If he had won then, he would have become as famous as Michael Schumacher later was – it would have been a kind of second miracle in Bern!"<ref name="German Documentaries 2007"/>

Death

The 1961 Italian Grand Prix on 10 September saw von Trips tightly locked in the battle for the Formula One World Drivers' Championship that year with his American teammate Phil Hill. On the second lap of the race at Monza, his Ferrari collided with Jim Clark's Lotus on the long straight before Parabolica, approaching what is now Curva Alboreto; he had made contact with Clark while he was trying to overtake him, which caused him to lose control of his car and went straight into the crowd at high speed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His car became airborne and crashed into a side barrier, fatally throwing von Trips from the car, and killing fifteen spectators.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Von Trips died before reaching the hospital.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The toll of the accident remains the highest in the history of Formula One.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As a result of the accident, the FIA banned Formula One from competing on circuits with steeply-banked corners.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Clark and his car were subjected to an investigation;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> he was initially accused of manslaughter, before the charges were dropped.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the time, Clark described the accident by saying: "Von Trips and I were racing along the straightaway and were nearing one of the banked curves, the one on the southern end. We were about 100 metres from the beginning of the curve. Von Trips was running close to the inside of the track. I was closely following him, keeping near the outside. At one point von Trips shifted sideways so that my front wheels collided with his back wheels. It was the fatal moment. Von Trips's car spun twice and went into the guardrail along the inside of the track. Then it bounced back, struck my own car and bounced down into the crowd."<ref name="Los Angeles Times 1961"/> Movie footage of the crash that surfaced after the race showed that Clark's memory of the incident was inaccurate; after colliding with Clark, von Trips's car rode directly up an embankment on the outside of the track and struck a fence behind which spectators were closely packed.<ref>Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref> At the time of his death, von Trips was leading the Formula One World Championship.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He had previous incidents at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, where he crashed cars in the 1956 Italian Grand Prix and the 1958 Italian Grand Prix, and was injured in both events.<ref name="Los Angeles Times 1961"/>

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	WDC	Points
Template:F1	Scuderia Ferrari	Lancia-Ferrari D50	Ferrari V8	ARG	MON	500	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA Template:Small				NC	0
Template:F1	Scuderia Ferrari	Lancia-Ferrari D50A	Ferrari V8	ARG 6 *											14th	4
		Ferrari 801			MON Ret †	500	FRA	GBR	GER	PES	ITA Template:Small
Template:F1	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 246	Ferrari V6	ARG	MON Template:Small	NED	500	BEL	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	POR Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	MOR	12th	9
Template:F1	Dr Ing hcf Porsche KG	Porsche 718 F2	Porsche Flat-4	MON Template:Small	500	NED	FRA	GBR	GER Template:Small	POR	ITA				NC	0
	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 246	Ferrari V6									USA Template:Small
Template:F1	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 246	Ferrari V6	ARG Template:Small	MON Template:Small	500	NED Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	POR Template:Small				7th	10
		Ferrari 246P F2										ITA Template:Small
	Scuderia Centro Sud	Cooper T51	Maserati Straight-4										USA Template:Small
Template:F1	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 156	Ferrari V6	MON Template:Small	NED Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	USA				2nd	33
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* Indicates shared drive with Cesare Perdisa and Peter Collins

† Indicates shared drive with Mike Hawthorn<ref name="CF1 Chicane 1997">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Formula One Non-Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
1957	Scuderia Ferrari	Lancia D50	Lancia V8	BUE Template:Small	SYR	PAU	GLV	NAP	RMS	CAE	INT	MOD	MOR
1961	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 156	Ferrari V6	LOM	GLV	PAU	BRX	VIE	AIN	SYR	NAP	LON	SIL	SOL DNA	KAN	DAN	MOD	FLG	OUL	LEW	VAL	RAN	NAT	RSA
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24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Driver(s)	Car	Class	Laps	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Porsche KG	Template:Flagicon Richard von Frankenberg	Porsche 550A Coupe	S 1.5	282	5th	1st
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Scuderia Ferrari	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang Seidel	Ferrari 250 TR/58	S 3.0	101	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Porsche KG	Template:Flagicon Jo Bonnier	Porsche 718 RSK	S 2.0	182	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Scuderia Ferrari	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	Ferrari 250 TR59/60	S 3.0	22	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon SEFAC Ferrari	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	Ferrari 246 SP	S 2.5	231	DNF	DNF
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See also

• Formula One drivers from Germany
• La Passione (1996 film)

Further reading

• Template:Cite book

External links

• Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips zwischen Rittergut und Rennstrecke – 2007 German documentary film C. Cay Wesnigk