Lunch with Jochen Mass

For most of 2009, a quarter of the drivers on the grand prix grid were from Germany. And, thanks to the long reign of Michael Schumacher, that country is statistically one of the more successful in Formula 1’s history. Yet, in the first two decades of F1, the only German front-runner was Wolfgang von Trips, whose career ended tragically at Monza in 1961.

Then, in the early 1970s, a brilliant young protégé of Ford of Cologne started to attract attention, and was soon being tipped as a future world champion. But it didn’t turn out quite like that for Jochen Mass. His highly successful racing career lasted through three decades; but, out of 105 grands prix, his only victory was in the accident-shortened Barcelona race in 1975. Today he’s relaxed about that. He lives a busy life indulging his wide-ranging interests, from the development of wind-powered nautical freighters to the writings of the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. Maybe that broad-minded approach to life got in the way of reaching the top of the motor racing tree, for Jochen was never a man to take things too seriously, and his laid-back, good-humoured approach was maybe out of synch with the way motor racing was already going in the ’70s. Had he been a grand prix driver in the 1930s, or even the ’50s, he would have fitted in perfectly. But the speed, and the racing intelligence, was always there.

For more than 20 years Jochen and his beautiful wife Bettina have lived in the South of France, half an hour’s drive from the beach and, in the winter, an hour from good skiing. Their rustic cottage perches high above the gorge of the Loup river, with awe-inspiring views along the silent valley. His favourite ride, an ancient Harley now on its third engine, is in the shed. On the terrace, overhung with vines which filter the warm October sun, Bettina serves tomato salad heaped on French bread rubbed with garlic, a little pasta, tender fillet steak with sliced ratatouille, local goats’ cheese and iced coffee, helped along by a Provençal rosé. Having lived in Germany, England, South Africa and France, Jochen is a polyglot: he speaks German to Bettina (who is half-American), English to his kids and French to the locals, and reads all three with equal facility.