Obituary for racing driver Jochen Mass
Jochen Mass, a racing driver who took part in many series, has died in Cannes as a result of a stroke. He was 78 years old.
Jochen Mass at the Classic Days Schloss Dyck 2017
(Image: Mercedes-Benz)
The former German Formula 1 racing driver Joachim "Jochen" Mass is dead. As confirmed by his family, Mass died on May 4 in Cannes as a result of a stroke he suffered in February. Mass was 78 years old. Originally from Dorfen near Munich, he moved to the Palatinate in the mid-1950s, was initially a sailor in the merchant navy and only found his way into motorsport through a girlfriend. He started his new life from scratch: He trained as a car mechanic at the Helmut Hähn Alfa Romeo branch in Mannheim. Not because he is so enthusiastic about wrenching, but rather because of the in-house Alfa racing team. With the Alfa GTA used there, he soon proves that he can drive fast – but with brains.
Rapid rise to Formula One
This did not go unnoticed by Ford, who hired him as a works driver for the Capri in 1971. He competed in Formula 3 in England and was promoted to Formula 2 in 1972, winning the Eifel race in a works march in 1972. He was then entered by John Surtees for the Formula 2 European Championship and the first Grands Prix. After victories in Kinnekulle, Sweden, and at the Hockenheimring and three second places, team boss John Surtees entered him in Formula 1 at the 1973 British Grand Prix in Silverstone, England.
Mass drove a total of 105 races in the premier class, including for the traditional British team McLaren, collecting 71 world championship points in the process. He finished on the podium eight times, one of them at the top of the podium: On April 27, 1975, he won the Spanish Grand Prix on the MontjuĂŻc circuit in Barcelona in a McLaren-Ford Cosworth. "Like scoring a goal in your international career," says Mass about his only Formula 1 victory. It was a bitter triumph, as the race had to be stopped after an accident that claimed the lives of a spectator, two journalists and a fireman. Rolf Stommelen's car had left the track due to a broken rear wing.
Retirement after almost ten years
In the 1982 season, Mass took part in his last Formula 1 race after colliding with Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve as a result of a misunderstanding. Gilles did not survive the collision. Mass, with his self-reproach and doubts after another potentially fatal accident for him, did not want to contest any more Formula 1 races that season.
Having already specialized in endurance racing in the 1980s, this became his new path. In 1982, he had already finished second in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche 956, and in 1987 he won the 12 Hours of Sebring for Porsche. In 1989, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the one-make world championship for Sauber-Mercedes with Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens in the Sauber C9.
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In demand as an expert
After his active career, Mass remained a sought-after pundit, officially for RTL's Formula 1 broadcasts between 1994 and 1997. In 1999, he drove one last race in an Audi TT at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. He became president of the club of former Formula 1 drivers and remained active at numerous events over the past decades, particularly classic car races and as a brand ambassador. As an experienced advisor, Jochen Mass is said to have advised Michael Schumacher in 1995 not to switch to the superior Williams team. So Schumacher went to Ferrari – and the rest is history.
After almost six decades of motorsport, what he once said on the occasion of his 70th birthday is all the more true on the anniversary of his death: "... that you can experience this in racing! Others have paid a much higher price for it, so I'm more grateful than sad". Joachim Mass had obviously found his ideal line not only on the track, but also in real life. He is survived by his wife Bettina, four children and five grandchildren.
(fpi)