Jo Siffert

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Jo Siffert
Nationality	Swiss
World Championship Career
Active years	1962 - 1971
Team(s)	Lotus, Cooper, Brabham, March, BRM
Races	100
Championships	0
Wins	2
Podium finishes	6
Pole positions	2
Fastest laps	4
First race	1962 Monaco Grand Prix
First win	1968 British Grand Prix
Last win	1971 Austrian Grand Prix
Last race	1971 United States Grand Prix

Joseph Siffert (July 7, 1936 – October 24, 1971) was a Swiss race car driver.

Siffert was born in Fribourg, Switzerland, the son of a dairy owner. He initially made his name in racing on two wheels, powering his way to the Swiss 350cc motorcycle championship in 1959 before switching to four wheels with a Formula Junior Stanguellini. Affectionately known as "Seppi" to his family and close friends, Siffert graduated to Formula 1 as a privateer in 1962 with a four-cylinder Team Lotus-Coventry Climax, later driving under the Swiss Scuderia Filipinetti banner and in 1964 joined Rob Walker's private British Rob Walker Racing Team.

In 1968, Siffert drove into the F1 history books by winning the 1968 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in Rob Walker Racing Team's Lotus 49B, beating Chris Amon's Ferrari into second place after a race-long battle. This is regarded as the last GP victory by a privateer.

While Siffert's status in F1 grew slowly, his fame came as a leading driver for the factory Porsche effort in its quest for the World Sportscar Championship. In 1968, Siffert and Hans Herrmann won the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in a Porsche 907, marking the first major outright wins for the company, apart from a few earlier victories on twisty tracks.

Later on, Siffert's driving displays in the Porsche 917 were legendary, earning him several major wins in Europe. In addition, Siffert was chosen by Porsche to help launch its CanAm development program, driving a Porsche 917PA spyder in 1969 and finishing fourth in the championship despite few entries.

In 1970 he teamed up with Brian Redman to drive a Porsche 908/3 to victory at the Targa Florio. That same year, Porsche bankrolled Siffert's seat in a works March Engineering F1 since the German company did not wish to lose one of their prize drivers to rival Ferrari. His association with March in F1 was disastrous, so he was delighted to join rival Porsche racer Pedro Rodriguez at BRM the following season.

Jo Siffert won the 1971 Austrian Grand Prix, but then was killed in an end-of-season non-championship F1 race at Brands Hatch, the scene of his first and greatest victory. The suspension of his BRM had been damaged in a lap 1 incident with Ronnie Peterson, and broke later. The BRM crashed and Siffert could not get out of the burning car.

This accident led to a rapid overhaul of safety, both in-car and on circuit. In the subsequent RAC (Royal Automobile Club - the UK organising and regulatory representative of the FIA at the time) investigation, it was discovered that apart from non-fatal injuries, Siffert had been killed by oxygen starvation and smoke inhalation. None of the trackside fire extinguishers worked: and it was found impossible to reach the car and extract Siffert. On-Board fire extinguishers (using BCF: Bromochlorodiflluoromethane: an aircraft product) became mandatory and piped air for the drivers, direct into their helmet. Thus, perhaps one of the sad epitaphs of Seppi, was the focus on vehicle and driver safety in Formula One and lesser formulae and far better fire retardant driving overalls.

His funeral in Switzerland was attended by 50,000 people, and a Gulf-Porsche 917 of Team John Wyer accompanied the hearse.

In 2005, a very informative 90 minute-documentary about his life was made by director Men Lareida: Jo Siffert - live fast, die young[1] "DVD"[2].

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Team	WDC	Points
1962	Lotus	DUT	MON DNQ	BEL 10	FRA Ret	GBR	GER 12	ITA DNQ	USA	SAF					Lotus	-	0
1963	Lotus	MON Ret	BEL Ret	DUT 7	FRA 6	GBR Ret	GER 9	ITA Ret	USA Ret	MEX 9	SAF				Lotus	14th	1
1964	Brabham	MON 8	DUT 13	BEL Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 11	GER 4	AUT Ret	ITA 7	USA 3	MEX Ret				Brabham	10th	7
1965	Brabham	SAF 7	MON 6	BEL 8	FRA 6	GBR 9	DUT 13	GER Ret	ITA Ret	USA 11	MEX 4				Brabham	12th	5
1966	Brabham	MON Ret	BEL Ret	FRA Ret	GBR NC	DUT Ret	GER	ITA Ret	USA 4	MEX Ret					Cooper	14th	3
1967	Cooper	SAF Ret	MON Ret	DUT 10	BEL 7	FRA 4	GBR Ret	DEU Ret	CAN DNS	ITA Ret	USA 4	MEX 12			Cooper	12th	6
1968	Cooper	SAF 7	SPA Ret	MON Ret	BEL 7	DUT Ret	FRA 10	GBR 1	DEU Ret	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	USA 5	MEX 6		Lotus	8th	12
1969	Lotus	SAF 4	SPA Ret	MON 3	DUT 2	FRA 9	GBR 8	DEU 11*	ITA 8	CAN Ret	USA Ret	MEX Ret			Lotus	5th	21
1970	March	SAF 10	SPA DNQ	MON 8	BEL 7	DUT Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	DEU 8	AUT 9	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	USA 9	MEX Ret	March	-	0
1971	BRM	SAF Ret	SPA Ret	MON Ret	DUT 6	FRA 4	GBR 9	DEU DSQ	AUT 1	ITA 9	CAN 9	USA 2			BRM	5th	19