The history of F1 is full of legendary champions, but only one managed to win the World Championship when he was already dead.
Motorsport is very popular all over the world, it doesn’t matter whether it’s cars or motorbikes and above all there are many categories in which you can show off. There F1 However, it is the queen competition, with great legends who have highlighted themselves in these iconic races. However, the risks of these competitions are unfortunately high, and there has been no shortage of dramatic moments.
Unfortunately, many champions have lost their sight on the track, some of them were among the greatest of their era. This can be seen for example in the striking case of Gilles Villeneuve, with the Canadian becoming perhaps the greatest driver in history to never win even a World Championship, before his tragic death in Zolder in 1982.
Another demise that shocked fans is the one involving Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian who unfortunately died in Imola on 1 May 1994, what is perhaps the black date of motor racing. Since then we have tried to increase security more and more so as to no longer have to mourn the passing of great champions.
However, the credit for these safety-related processes goes to a generation that fought for its rights when no one wanted to grant them to the pilots. At the end of the 60s the “milk and honey pilots”, ironically renamed by the press as spineless compared to their predecessors. It’s a shame, however, that among him there was also a champion who lost his life too soon.
The case of Jochen Rindt: world champion after his death
One of the main exponents of the new generation of pilots who should have taken on the legacy of legends of the caliber of Jim Clark, Graham Hill and John Surtees, it was the Austrian Jochen Rindt. The latter was seen as one of the purest and most crystalline talents in all of F1, with Great Britain pampering him for several years.
First the Brabham on its F1 debut, then the Cooper, where he finished third in the drivers’ standings, his return to Brabham and finally his definitive consecration in Lotus. With the Hethel company he won his first race in the USA in 1969, but 1970 was the season that allowed him to take off and in that year there was none for anyone.
In those years, Lotus was always a very fast single-seater, but at the same time also full of technical problems. For this reason he missed several World Cups in the 1960s and in that season there were only successes or withdrawals for Rindt. The four consecutive triumphs, however, allowed him to gain a huge lead over his rivals, above all Ferrari by Jacky Ickx.
In Monza only the triumph of was expected Rindt, but a tragic accident cut short his life. Tragic news for F1, with the Austrian not yet world champion when he died Ickx he was getting closer. At the penultimate race the success of Fittipaldi, the successor of Rindt, gave the Austrian the arithmetic world title, obtained a month after his death.
