Why it's not exactly good to be a German F1 driver.

Germany, home to some of the most successful race cars, the most daunting race tracks and the greatest highway ever. So in a country that essentially created the motor car why is it that there has only been one German F1 champion, the great Michael Schumacher? One by one there has been a string of bad luck when it comes to Germans and F1, so lets start where it begun.

1961: Wolfgang von Trips

On of F1's wealthier entrants, Trips was primarily known for being really fast or being involved in epic crashes. In 1961, Trips was on his way to becoming Germany's first F1 world champion. With 6 races completed [2 wins, 2 2nd places a 4th place and a DNF] a 3rd place in the Italian GP would guarantee him as world champion even without needing to score points at the final race in America. Unfortunately his race was cut short, after a slight collision with Jim Clark, his car spun violently and collided with a wall, he was thrown for the car and died on the spot. 15 spectators also lost their lives in the aftermath. His teammate Phil Hill won the race and ultimately won the Driver's Championship. Hill refused to race at his home Grand Prix in the US partly because he didn't need to but mainly because he was in such shock of Trip's death.

1970: Jochen Rindt

Ok let's get this straight, Jochen Rindt was born in Germany but moved to Austria to live with his grandparents after his parents died. Despite this he never received Austrian citizenship but because he raced under an Austrian licence, his nationality was claimed as being Austrian. Just like Wolfgang von Trips, Rindt was as fast as he was reckless. In 1969 he moved to Lotus as a full time replacement for Jim Clark, he either went fast or broke. By 1970 the car got reliable and Rindt still was going faster than ever. In practice for the 1970 Italian GP, Rindt's car had a failure in the right braking system causing him to crash. He died on the spot from a seatbelt incident. Despite his death and 4 races left in the season, due to his 5 previous wins, he had a dominant lead in the points race and became the first and only posthumous F1 driver's champion.

1975: Jochen Mass

Jochen's career was covered with DNSs, DNFs and mediocre finishes, his one win however came at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix which in itself was a high profile race. It was primarily known for a high fall out rate from the top drivers, one of the DNFs included Rolf Stommelen [another German] who's car crashed and killed 4 spectators after slipping in oil. Jochen's name would not be mentioned again until 1982 when he was involved in the incident that killed Gilles Villeneuve. Mass finally retired from F1 that year after his car flew into the spectator stands upside down and on fire [luckily no deaths]

1985: Stefan Bellof

Stefan Bellof is said by some to have been as great as Senna had he lived out his life. In 1984 during the Monaco GP, now known as Senna's magic moment, few know that right behind Senna was Bellof [well Bellof's team was disqualified after they discovered they were cheating hence as to why his 3rd spot is not recorded]. Despite his relatively good performance as a rookie, Bellof is known primarily for holding the overall Nurburgring lap records [qualifying: 6:11.13 & race: 6:25.91] during the 1000km of Nurburgring in a Porsche 956. Up to now neither time has been beat by any form of vehicle. He was killed later that year in the same car at the 1000km of Spa.

2005: Ralf Schumacher

Not exactly as successful as his older brother, but without a doubt Rolf was never a bad driver. He managed to collect a hand full of wins and podiums in his career but still couldn't match his brother's record list. At the United States GP he showed a bit of German luck. In the 2004 edition his car experienced a severe tyre failure on corner 13 which flung his car into the wall so hard he experienced severe spinal damage which sidelined him for most of the season. In 2005 he crashed in similar fashion but this time during practice. Although not as bad as the previous year's crash, it lead into an investigation into Michellin's tyres. All cars using Michellin tyre eventually pulled out of the race leaving only 6 people to race. The rest of the drivers were upset, the crowd was upset and the FIA signed Bridgestone as the sole tyre manufacturer.

2008 Adrian Sutil

Currently racing for Force India, a team that has risen from back marker to mid points placing positions. It is still to early to tell of how great Adrian Sutil is but his greatest drive has had to be the 2008 Monaco GP where he reached as far as fourth. In the closing stages of the races, a rear end shunt by Kimi Raikkonnen ended his race. In the 2009 Monaco GP, Sutil was up to 2nd when Raikkonnen crashed into his car again this time as he was exiting the pics, although he could still race he ended up 15th after repairs to the car.

When you check your facts even further you'll notice that German F1 drivers usually end up with mediocre results or as the ones mentioned above, close to becoming great. Michael Schumacher however seems to have taken up the burden of the entire German race by being statistically the greatest F1 driver ever. The primary reason however for this is that I've noticed that Sebastian Vettel could up a normal German driver or a Schumacher.

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