Wolfgang von Trips – Life & Career

One lunchtime in October 1960, I wandered into the Fontana Restaurant in Modena to find Wolfgang von Trips sitting alone. Having met him a couple of times, I asked if I might join him and he readily agreed. In those long departed days, having a casual meal with a racing driver was almost a commonplace with no managers, PROs or impenetrable motor homes in the way of an enquiring hack. And my companion was no plain, ordinary racing driver, being a real-life Count – Wolfgang Alexander Graf Berghe von Trips. However, he was known to one and all as Taffy, a nickname he had been given by his friend, the late Peter Collins, for no better reason than, “You look like a Taffy.” He also looked perplexed, for he had much on his mind.

As a staff writer for Autosport, I was in town on a working holiday to cover the Modena GP, an F2 race which had taken place a couple of days earlier. Taffy had finished 3rd, driving the prototype Ferrari 156, the mid-engined car developed from the chassis Richie Ginther had raced (with 2.5-liter engine) at Monaco. It was virtually Ferrari’s GP car for 1961 but not yet equipped with the sleek “sharknose” bodywork that would make it one of the most instantly recognizable Grand Prix cars of all time.

In the Modena race, von Trips had battled for the lead with the Porsche of Jo Bonnier, only to be slowed by failing brakes. Porsche had long been building 1500-cc cars, but these cars were a new departure for Enzo Ferrari, forced upon him (and everyone else) in 1958 by the FIA which, in its wisdom, had decided that the F1 engine capacity for 1961 onwards should be 1.5-liters. This had caused an uproar among the British constructors (Cooper, Lotus and BRM) who wanted the then 2.5-liter limit to be increased to 3-liters, not decreased.

But while the British teams huffed and puffed and tried to promote a 3-liter Intercontinental Formula, Ferrari quietly set about building 1.5-liter cars. Also, a lifelong advocate of front-engine, rear-drive, he bowed to the inevitable and followed Cooper and Lotus by putting the engine behind the driver.

The new Ferrari first appeared at Solitude in July 1960, and von Trips drove it to victory, ahead of the Porsches of Hans Herrmann, Jo Bonnier, and Graham Hill. With Porsche now active in F2, the Germans were very much for the new 1.5-liter formula, so much so that the German GP was made for F2 cars that year. Scuderia Ferrari stayed away and von Trips drove a Porsche, finishing just one second behind winner Bonnier in another Porsche. He drove the Ferrari again in the Italian GP, which the British teams boycotted because the Monza banking was included in the circuit. Ferrari predictably finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, with von Trips 5th in the F2 car.

So now Taffy knew at first hand that both the Ferrari and the Porsche were potential winners for 1961 and herein lay his lunchtime dilemma: Ferrari wanted him for the coming season as did Porsche, who were naturally very keen to have Germany’s finest driver leading their team.

“What would you do?” he asked me as he turned his spaghetti endlessly on a fork. Now, I was not exactly well-versed in giving career advice to Grand Prix drivers and I barely knew von Trips; however, he had asked the question seriously and obviously wanted a constructive answer. So, after a few moments thought, I said that Ferrari must be the better bet. Although Porsche had won the race a few days earlier, I felt it was far too early to proclaim the German car as a championship-winning proposition. Although Ferrari had suffered badly at the hands of Cooper in the previous two seasons, I reckoned that his luck was due for a change, and past experience showed that he was capable of designing and building a race-winning car in a matter of months.

“All things considered then,” I said, “for what it’s worth, I suggest you stay where you are for next season. Sign here!” I passed him the menu and a grissino stick. He grinned but said nothing. “Which way are you inclined?” I asked eventually.

“I don’t know,” he said, “I really don’t know,” and we left it at that, A few days later I learned that he had signed for Ferrari.

Rising Star

Wolfgang was born on May 4, 1928, the only child of Eduard Graf Berghe von Trips and his wife, Thessa. Four years later, Eduard inherited Burg Hammersbach, an extraordinary, moated castle in the town of Horrem, not far from Cologne. Here Wolfgang (known to his parents as Wolfchen) enjoyed a blissfully happy childhood until the outbreak of World War II. He was seventeen when the war ended and Germany lay in ruins, but luckily Horrem was in U.S.-occupied territory and Burg Hammersbach was soon full of GIs rather than Russians.

In 1950, his parents gave him a 125-cc Maico motorbike, which was then replaced by a pre-war 500-cc BMW. He joined a BMW club in Braunschweig, taking part in motorcross events as part of a trio called “The Wild Pigs” and winning several medals throughout 1951 and 1952. In the latter year, he also joined an agricultural college, as his parents wished him to take over the family estate. Although he was genuinely interested in agriculture, he was quickly developing a passion for competition on two wheels… and four.

Early in 1954, he borrowed some money from his friends to add to his savings and bought a 1300-cc Porsche. Driving with another of “The Wild Pigs”, Hans-Rolf Clasen, he won a Bronze Medal in a 500km night rally in March. A month later he won a Gold in another event and then took part in his very first motor race – the Mille Miglia! This time he was co-driver to Walter Hampel in a Porsche and they won their class.

Three weeks later, Wolfgang had his first taste of the Nürburgring, finishing 2nd with his own Porsche in the Eifel GP meeting. In August, he was 2nd there again in a support event for the German GP, under the name of Axel Linther as he now planned to make racing his career but had not yet told his parents.

In September, he finished 5th in the Berlin GP at Avus and “Axel Linther” was declared winner of the up to 1600-cc class for Sports and GT cars in the 1954 Deutschen Meisterschaft – pretty impressive for a man in his first season of motor racing. He began 1955 with a works Porsche drive in the Mille Miglia, finishing 2nd in class behind teammate Richard von Frankenberg. In the summer, he received a call from Mercedes Team Manager Alfred Neubauer, no less, offering him a 300SL for 2 races in Sweden. He crashed out of the first, but finished 3rd in the second.

He then won his class for Porsche in the Nurburgring 500kms, and Alfred Neubauer was now sufficiently impressed to include him in the Mercedes team for the Tourist Trophy. To give him a chance to get to know the mighty 300SLR before the race, Rudolf Uhlenhaut arranged for Taffy to drive his baby, the Gullwing coupe version, from Stuttgart to Dundrod. With this unofficial “practice” under his belt, von Trips acquitted himself well on the very tricky circuit, finishing 3rd with Andre Simon and making it a Mercedes 1st, 2nd, 3rd behind Stirling Moss/John Fitch and Juan Fangio/Karl Kling.

Any dreams von Trips may have had about joining the Mercedes team for 1956 were dashed in October when Daimler-Benz withdrew from racing altogether after winning the Targa Florio. So, he was back with Porsche and made his first visit to America with the Stuttgart concern, winning the 1500-cc class in the Sebring 12-Hours with Hans Herrmann.

He then drove a 300SL in the Mille Miglia and put up a truly sensational performance, initially. In pouring rain he was actually leading the race in the early stages, ahead of Eugenio Castellotti (the eventual winner) in his 3.5-liter Ferrari, only to crash just before Pescara when in 2nd place.

Another fine drive followed in the Nürburgring 1000kms, when he and Umberto Maglioli finished 4th overall and 1st in class with the works Porsche. By this time, he had now come to the attention of Enzo Ferrari who offered him a drive in the Swedish Sportscar GP. He finished 2nd with Peter Collins. This won him a place in the Ferrari team for the Italian GP at Monza.

Just when von Trips was getting the hang of his Lancia-Ferrari in practice, it suddenly went into the trees at Curva Grande. It was terribly battered, but Taffy walked away with only cuts and bruises. Unfortunately, no one at Ferrari believed him when he said that the car had turned right of its own accord. His crash was put down to inexperience; it was, after all, his first drive in a GP car. However, had the mechanics checked the wreck thoroughly, they would have noticed that a steering arm had broken. In the race, the same thing happend to the Lancia-Ferraris of Fangio, Castellotti and Musso.

Taffy signed with Ferrari again for 1957 and went with the Scuderia to Argentina for the Temporada, where his best result was 3rd place with Castellotti and de Portago in the Buenos Aires 1000kms. In May, he finished 2nd in the Mille Miglia, but his superb drive was completely overshadowed by the death of teammate Fon de Portago and 11 spectators, which brought an end to that classic road race.

At Monaco, he was in 3rd place with only 9 laps to go when his Ferrari’s engine blew up and he crashed. A week later he crashed again, and this time he was quite seriously hurt.

He was practicing at the Nürburgring for the 1000kms race in the Ferrari 250GT that Olivier Gendebien had driven to a stunning 3rd place in the Mille Miglia. This car had its throttle pedal on the right, whereas the sports Ferrari he had just been driving had a center throttle. He hit the wrong pedal at Wehrseifen and accelerated through the hedge, and into the hospital, with a broken vertebra.

Taffy was out of action until the Italian GP in September, but by mid-August he had recovered sufficiently to act as instructor for the Cologne AC’s race driving school at the Nürburgring. One of his pupils was Bernd Rosemeyer Jr., who recalls:

“For a while I wanted to be a racing driver like my father. Wolfgang and I became friends, and I went to his home in Horren quite often. The castle was very cold in winter as there was no central heating, so the family lived in just three or four rooms which were heated. It was a very nice family, but his parents were none too happy with his racing. They accepted it because he had become quite successful, but by this time, he had also had several accidents and was known as ‘Count von Crash.’

“He was the last of the line and so if he died his family died, too, unless he married and had a son. He was quite a catch; he had the title, the castle and he was very good-looking and charming. He was very fond of girls and there were several chasing him at any one time, but I don’t remember him with anyone who was special to him.”

Taffy began the next season with another crash. This time in the Formula Libre race in Buenos Aires run as two heats and a final. He was to drive a Dino Ferrari in the first heat, handing over to Phil Hill for the second. This was to have been Phil’s single-seater debut, but von Trips stuffed the car so badly that Hill never got his drive! By this time von Trips was regarded with awe by some racing enthusiasts who could not understand how he had lived as long as he had. There was even a wicked rumor making the rounds that if you gave von Trips a car for a race, it was because you had no further use for it!

Despite von Trips growing reputation, his best results in 1958 were in sportscars. Driving Ferrari Testa Rossas, he finished 3rd in both the Targa Florio (with Mike Hawthorn) and the Nürburgring 1000kms (with Olivier Gendebien). He was 4th in the tragic German GP, which claimed the life of Peter Collins. In addition to sportscars with Ferrari in 1958, von Trips was also very successful in hillclimbs with Porsche, winning three events outright and the European Mountain Championship.

He stayed with Porsche for 1959, driving both their sports and F2 machines, but for 1960, he went back with Ferrari. Driving a Dino, he won the Syracuse GP, becoming the first German to win a Grand Prix (albeit an F2 race) since Hermann Lang had won the Swiss GP for Mercedes-Benz in 1939. Driving a Testa Rossa with Phil Hill, he then finished 2nd in the Targa Florio and 3rd in the Nürburgring 1000kms.

As already recorded, he won the F2 race at Solitude with the new, mid-engined Ferrari, finished 2nd in the F2 German GP with Porsche, and 3rd at Modena with the Ferrari. Which is where we came in.

By signing with Ferrari for 1961, Taffy had done the right thing. Race Engineer Carlo Chiti not only produced the beautiful, sharknose 156 GP car with its V6 engine, but also a tremendous sports-racer with the same configuration, the 246SP. Driving the 246, Taffy won his first major endurance race, the Targa Florio, with Olivier Gendebien and was 3rd in the Nürburgring 1000kms with Phil Hill.

However, it was the Drivers’ World Championship that held Taffy’s main interest. By now he had matured considerably and his ‘Count von Crash’ days were behind him. The new Ferrari 156 was the class of the Grand Prix field in 1961 and von Trips drove it superbly. From the start, he and Phil Hill were locked in combat for the Championship. Much to their chagrin, Enzo Ferrari refused to nominate a “Number One,” preferring, as ever, to keep his drivers unsettled. This affected Phil, but not Taffy, as Hill recalled: “I had been to many races and many funerals, and a battle was mounting within me. There was an inner drive to race, to excel; but there was also a tremendous drive to stay alive and in one piece… Some drivers seem never to entertain that conflict. I think Wolfgang von Trips was one of them. He was tremendously turned on by everything about racing, the driving, the adoration. His inner image of himself seemed to be as a racing hero.”

Stirling Moss pulled off the first of his two remarkable victories that year at Monaco with Rob Walker’s Lotus. Hill was 3rd and von Trips 4th. Taffy then won the Dutch GP by a whisker from Hill, and they reversed the order in the Belgian GP. In the French GP, von Trips retired with a stone through his radiator and Hill finished 9th after throwing away his lead (and 9 Championship points) by spinning when trying to overtake Stirling Moss (Lotus), who was several laps behind. This silly mistake kept Taffy right in the title hunt, and he then rubbed Hill’s nose in it by winning the British GP at Aintree – Hill finished 2nd. Moss worked his magic once again at the Nürburgring to win the German GP ahead of von Trips, who finished just one second ahead of Hill.

Next was the Italian GP and von Trips was leading Hill in the World Championship by 33 points to 29. With just the USGP to come, if Taffy could win at Monza he would become Germany’s first World Champion, aligning himself with his great fellow- countrymen of the ’30s, European Champions Rudolf Caracciola, Bernd Rosemeyer and Hermann Lang.

There were five sharknose Ferrari 156s entered, four works cars for von Trips, Hill, Ginther and the brilliant young Ricardo Rodriguez. The fifth was entered by the Federation of Italian teams (FISA) for Giancarlo Baghetti, who had scored a sensational win in the French GP.

As in 1960, the race was held on the full circuit, including the banking. Taffy secured pole position on the two-by-two grid with Rodriguez beside him. Hill was on row two with Ginther and Baghetti on row three with Graham Hill (BRM). Behind them were Jim Clark (Lotus) and Jo Bonnier (Porsche). Taffy made a poor start and Phil surged into the lead. On the second lap, tragedy struck when von Trips and Clark collided. There have been many accounts of what happened and this one comes from Giancarlo Baghetti, who was only inches behind them and who recalled the accident for me in 1990:

“Clark started with only 30 liters of fuel in his Lotus in an attempt to stay with the Ferraris for a while. On the first lap, he passed all of us into the Parabolica. We got by him on the straight, and on the second lap, as we approached the Parabolica, the order was Phil Hill, Ginther, Rodriguez, Brabham (Cooper), von Trips, Clark and me. The Ferraris all had full tanks, so von Trips braked before Clark, who was just behind, with me now beside him.

“Clark didn’t seem to anticipate von Trips braking earlier than him and the nose of the Lotus struck the Ferrari’s exhaust pipes, which stuck out behind the car. The Ferrari went off the road and up the banking before it fell back onto the track. Trips was thrown out and broke his neck.”

The banking was, in fact, a grass slope about five feet high, topped by just a fence made of wooden posts and wire mesh. Behind that stood two or three rows of spectators. Taffy’s Ferrari slammed into the fence, killing fourteen spectators before bouncing back onto the track. Remarkably, the rest of the field managed to avoid it.

Clark walked away from his battered Lotus, but von Trips was an inert figure lying face down on the grass. Unaware of the tragedy, Phil Hill went on to win the race and the Championship, but there was no joy in either.

Back in London, I saw the news of the crash on TV. My mind raced back to that lunchtime in Modena less than a year before, and I felt sick at heart. I had not known von Trips well, but Giancarlo Baghetti spoke for everyone in racing with his epitaph for his teammate – “He was a true gentleman, a master driver and a dear friend.”