Harald Ertl (31 August 1948 – 7 April 1982) was an Austrian racing driver and motorsport journalist. Ertl was born in Zell am See and attended the same school as Grand Prix drivers Jochen Rindt and Helmut Marko.
Ertl sported an impeccable Inspector Clouseau-style moustache and beard. Basically a journalist, he worked his way through the German Formula Vee and Super Vee, and then on to Formula Three, before a successful switch to Touring Cars. During this period, he gained sufficient sponsorship to enter Formula One, where he drove with various outfits between 1975 and 1980. Ertl is probably best remembered as one of the four drivers who helped to get Niki Lauda out of his burning Ferrari in the 1976 German Grand Prix. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
A motorsport journalist and racer who drove in 28 Grands Prix, Harald Ertl was born in Zell am See in 1948 and attended the same school as Jochen Rindt, Helmut Marko and Niki Lauda.
After his family moved to Mannheim, in Germany, he developed a taste for mechanical engineering in school and after graduating furthered his mechanical education with manufacture engineering studies at university in Karlsruhe. Following this he took up a career in journalism, which would continue throughout his racing days.
He started his racing career in 1969, racing with his own Austro Formula Vee car in Austria and Germany and won six races with it but fortunately escaped injury when he rolled the car at the Nurburgring. He finished third in the Austrian championship and in the following year switched to a Kaimann chassis and went on to finish second in both the Austrian championship and the European Cup.
1970 also saw his first taste of Formula 3 when he raced an Eifelland-backed March at the Nurburgring. He finished third, and following further races in France, Scandinavia and the Netherlands he was encouraged to continue in the following year. Harald remained a successful Formula Vee regular until 1974, winning the Battle of the Nations against American opposition in 1973. He unfortunately suffered a number of spectacular accidents and Kaimann boss Kurt Bergmann described him as alternately “constantly between genius and madness” while writer/journalist Denis Jenkinson referred to him as ‘Harry Hurtle’.
For 1971, he teamed with Alfa Romeo dealer Helmut Hahn to contest F3 with an Alfa-powered Lotus 69 plus raced in the European Touring Car Championship, his best finish being third in the Monza 4 Hours. He switched to the BMW-Alpina team for 1972’s DRM and international events, his best result of the season came with a fourth place in the first race, Internationale ADAC-Eifelrennen at the Nurburgring. He also contested the German F3 championship with Manfred Weissmann though it would be a disappointing period 1973 saw him continue to mix F3 and touring cars and in the September he and Derek Bell took victory with a BMW 3.0 CSL in the Tourist Trophy, taking an aggregate win after they both won their respective heats. Harald earned the Driver of the Day award but he had earlier told team boss Andreas Bovensiepen that he would shave off his trademark beard if they won. Andreas duly presented him with the razor to honour his promise.
He raced in 1974’s Formal Super Vee Gold Pokal plus made his debut that year in F2, competing in two races and he contested the second half of the Polifac Trophy in a Rheinland-Toyota. As the season progressed he took class podiums and fourth place (and class win) at the Nurburgring and was fifth in the German championship. There was also a drive in a De Tomaso Pantera for Hannen Alt Racing in the ADAC race at Mainz-Finten. He continued his F2 racing the following year, now signed for Fred Opert Racing, and after his fourth race for them he was on the podium at the Nurburgring. The year also saw drives in a KMW SP30 in the 1000km Nurburgring plus he raced a Rex SP1 to victory and a fifth place at Hockenheim.
Harald had by now started dreaming of reaching Formula One and contacted his old F3 rival James Hunt to ask for advice, but though he advised him to do a further year of F2, Harald’s mind was set. After obtaining sponsorship from Warsteiner brewery he contested F1 with a Hesketh 308, painted in the company’s gold livery. The Hesketh team at that time was run on a tiny budget from a workshop near Hockenheim and even their rain tyres were acquired from Max Mosley in exchange for a crate of beer. Harald’s sponsorship allowed three races and his debut came at Germany. Despite stalling at the start of the parade lap, he made up several places by the end of the first lap and progressed through the field but his rear brakes began to suffer and he eventually finished eighth. He retired in Austria with electrical issues but Monza saw a better race and at one point he was running twelfth. After pitting for a new wheel, he resumed in seventeenth but a strong drive saw him finish ninth out of fourteen finishers. Denis Jenkinson wrote he was “well aware of his ability, but he wants to race for enjoyment and to succeed at the game and satisfy the people who are sponsoring his efforts, and this he is doing eminently.”
He attempted to buy a drive with RAM but there came an opportunity to stay with Hesketh. After they secured sponsorship from Penthouse and Rizla, a deal was struck and Harald would be racing full time for 1976. The team missed the first race and appeared in Kyalami, where he finished fifteenth. The next races saw failure to qualify and retirements although he just missed out on a points finish with seventh at the British GP. In Belgium, he qualified ahead of B.Lunger, G.Edwards, both Williams and even E.Fittipaldi though his race ended after 30 laps due to engine failure. At this time, the fastest non-qualifier was usually kept as reserve and in France he was twenty seventh. Although Damien Magee and Ingo Hoffmann were meant to be the reserves, Harald took the start, which was immediately investigated by the stewards but before the issue could be sorted a differential failure ended his race. At Brands Hatch he avoided the first-lap chaos and went on to finish eighth, though this would become seventh after James Hunt’s disqualification. Then came the Nurburgring! After Niki Lauda’s Ferrari snapped into the barriers and bounced into the middle of the track, Brett Lunger was unable to avoid him and ploughed into the burning wreckage. Harald arrived at the scene and managed to swerve around the wreck and ended up on the grass then got out and ran back to the scene. Despite the flames and overpowering heat, he, B.Lunger, Guy Edwards and Arturo Merzario eventually pulled Lauda out of the Ferrari. They were all awarded a medal at the next race in Austria, where Harald qualified twentieth and came home eighth. He impressed in Monza, running in a strong twelfth place of the nineteen runners, until his transmission failed two laps from the finish. At the Canadian GP he was involved in a practice accident with Chris Amon and the resulting back pain caused him to withdraw while in Watkins Glen he was thirteenth. He was the only Hesketh to contest the Japanese Grand Prix and the wet weather saw him running seventh and only losing the position to Jacques Laffite on the final lap.
Harald contested a number of European races with Hesketh in 1977 alongside Rupert Keegan. At the team’s first appearance in Spain, his race ended after his radiator was punctured by contact with another car and he failed to qualify at Monaco. At Zolder, he was seventh before pitting for slicks and as the track dried he was in eighth place until passed by Hans Joachim Stuck near the finish. He was sixteenth in Sweden due to mechanical problems but after failing to qualify in France he left the team. In 1978, aided by sponsorship from Sachs, he raced an Ensign N177 for three races. Starting in Hockenheim, he gained several places on the first lap and was eventually running sixth with only a few laps remaining but an engine piston failed and he came to a halt in the Stadium. He retired in Austria and failed to pre-qualify at Zandvoort. At the next race in Monza, he was given the chance to race with ATS, replacing an injured Jochen Mass, though did not qualify. There came a second chance in 1980 to race for ATS at the German GP but F1 had changed significantly since his last race in 1978, particularly regarding ground effect aerodynamics. However, as he knew Hockenheim well and was adept at wet-weather driving he did well on the wet Friday but as the weather improved on Saturday he struggled to adjust to the different handling of the ATS D4 and did not qualify.
During his F1 racing he also had a works BMW drive alongside Rikky von Opel and Helmuth Koinigg, though apart from a pole position at Monza it was a disappointing time. After leaving Hesketh he returned to the DRM in 1977 plus drove Toyota Deutschland’s Celica and he immediately won at the non-championship ADAC Trophy in Zolder, plus took pole position at the Kyalami 1000km with Klaus Ludwig. There were also drives in an Audi 80 at the Nurburgring and Salzburgring plus with a Porsche 935 at the Hockenhem 6 Hour. He commited to another DRM season for the following year and against tough opposition took five wins with a BMW 320 at the Nürburgring, Avus, Kassel-Calden, Hockenheim and the Norisring to claim the title. For 1979, he reunited with Erich Zakowski, racing a Zakspeed Capri, but despite wins at Zolder and Mainz-Finthen, there were a number of retirements and he was tenth in the championship. The following year proved more successful, but despite four wins at the Nurburgring, Spa, Norisring and Hockenheim plus podiums at Salzburgring, Donington and Hockenheim he finished seventh. In 1979 he also shared a Lotus Europa with Hans Heyer at the Nurburgring 4 Hours and 1000km races, plus an Interserie event at Hockenheim while in 1980 he was third overall and won his class at the Donington International.
He then decided to return to journalism but in 1981 was back racing, this time attempting to break speed records. Harald and Gerhard Freudenberg were hired by BP to promote Autogas and used a retrofitted BMW M1 to try to beat the record for a liquid petroleum gas-powered car. Extra funding was secured through technical partners, with bodywork designed by Walter Wolf and springs came from Harald’s sponsor Sachs. In October 1981 it was reported they drove the car up to a speed of 301.4km/h but unfortunately the attempt wasn’t independently adjudicated.
Following this, he planned a return to racing for 1982 to compete in the Renault 5 Turbo Cup. Sadly, on April 7th 1982, Harald was flying to his holiday home when his Beechcraft Bonanza crashed after its engine failed and though his wife Vera and son Sebastian survived, Harald, his brother in law Jorg, wife Gabi and daughter Becker were all killed.
