Home race on Österreichring August 16, 1970, was supposed to be the summer peak for Jochen Rindt, who chased his fifth victory in a row and his sixth season in Styria. The man with the striking nose had won before Monte Carlo, Zandvoort, Clermont-Ferrand, Brands Hatch in Hockenheim ring. Appropriately, then-championship leader Rindt made his race car Lotus 72 put in the first starting position, his compatriots were impressed.
But unfortunately there was nothing to do with the home win, because both race cars Ferrari, in which they sat Clay regazzoni in Jacky Ickx, they had a great start, swung to the first two places, in the second round Regazzoni dropped Ickx in front of him and this order of the first two was maintained until the finish.
Jochen Rindt he was in fourth place when his Cosworth engine in Lotus buttocks lowered his soul. Horrified compatriots in the stands could not believe that their local hero had resigned after 21 laps. To the many typhus who arrived in Austria, but it didn't matter. Both of their racers celebrated as passionately and emotionally as if they were in Monza.
However, no one at the time could have guessed it was Jochen Rindt performed on his last Grand Prix race. The Austrian was in training GP of Italy in Monza, 5. September 1970, fatally injured.
It was four years ago Niki Lauda, today also the late Austrian champion, said on the anniversary of the death of his compatriot: “That's when I was racing in Formula 3 in Zolder. On Saturday, a guy I didn't know came up to me and said, 'Rindt is dead.' Of course I didn’t believe him, I thought he was some fool who wanted to be important. However, I was still bitten and on the way from the racetrack to the hotel, I wanted to find a radio station that communicated this news. Then I had to believe."
Niki Lauda he never raced against Jochen Rindt, but he experienced some adventures with it. “1968, when I was 18, I competed with Mini for the first time in a mountain race. I was a completely unknown newcomer. In the autumn, Jochen made a presentation in Vienna for his future Rindt-Show. I was standing behind a fence among reporters when he suddenly approached and addressed me. We didn't even know each other yet, but he obviously knew about me. This made a huge impression on me."
When it's Rindt in 1970 he won the race for British GP v Brands Hatchu, Lauda performed there with Formula 3. "In one turn, I watched a Formula 1 training session where it was raining. That’s when someone on the wet track whizzed past me with incredible speed. I just thought about who this fool is. It was Rindt."
V Formulas 1 today only a handful of the journalists present at Monza when Rindt was fatally injured are still working. A legend among journalists, Roger benoit from a Swiss newspaper View, says: “Jackie Stewart introduced me to Jochen Rindt and said, 'This is a Swiss who smokes just as constantly as you do.' Then we smoked a cigarette together on the edge of the pits.“A German legend among photographers Rainer Schlegemilch he also immortalized them.
Benoit's countryman, Jacques Deschenaux, who was at Monza at the time as a close friend by Jo Siffert, recalls: “On Sunday, Regazzoni won for Ferrari and the entire Monza racetrack was like a madhouse. Almost no one remembered Rindt."
Italian George Piola he even lost his job because of Rindt. “My life partner at the time was a close friend of Nina Rindt, Jochen’s wife. We were in boxing when Bernie Ecclestone came back with a Jochen helmet and just shook his head. I was so shocked that I immediately left the racetrack and no longer reported Sunday’s race. My magazine fired me for it. Pino Allievi became my successor.“The latter has been reporting on Formula 1 in the Italian newspaper for decades Journal of Sport.
If a long - standing Formula 1 promoter Bernie Ecclestone, who was not only a friend but also a business partner with Rindt, talks about Jochen, at which time his voice is even quieter than usual. The former first man of the royal motorsport class is still convinced today: “Jochen was one of the best racers of all time."Ecclestone believed that Rindt would be at the end of the year In 1970 he was posthumously crowned world champion - soon finished racing and became a manager.
