F1 Retro: The fearless Manfred Winkelhock
Extraordinary tales from the Motor Sport digital archive
Getty Images
F1 Retro August 2005
Manfred Winkelhock would have celebrated his 70th birthday this month. He might not have been the absolute fastest on the 1980s Formula 1 scene, but certainly was one of its bravest.
“Manfred was always a rock in the German racing landscape,” says Christian Danner in our August 2005 archive piece.
“Whether I rated him as super or not is a different question, but I always rated him for being very strong.”
The Stuttgart native fought his way to the 1976 Scirocco Cup title, before making it into F3 and then to F1, always giving it everything on and off track.
“He was a wild animal, hugely competitive,” said journalist Norbert Haug. “If you played darts with him, you couldn’t forget it if he did not win.”
This was demonstrated by the German busting a gut to prove he could beat Ronnie Peterson in a cross-country ski race and having his licence suspended for brake-testing a German politician’s limousine.
After years struggling at Arrows, ATS and RAM, Winkelhock decided to try his luck in sports car with a Porsche 962 instead. However, it all came to a tragic end when he fatally crashed at Mosport in 1985.
“I lost my only true friend in racing,” said team-mate Marc Surer. “It went so deep.”