Rudolf Schoeller (27 April 1902 in Düren, Germany – 7 March 1978 in Grabs) was a racing driver from Switzerland.
He participated in a single Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, on 3 August 1952. He retired from the race with shock absorber problems, and scored no championship points.
He was a member of the Ecurie Espadon. Info from Info from Wiki
Bio by Michael Müller
Swiss amateur racing driver who drove a Ferrari 212 in the 1952 German Grand Prix for Ecurie Espadon.
Rudolf Schoeller was born in Düren, Germany, though he was Swiss. He participated in a single Formula One World Championship race driving a private Ferrari 212 in the German Grand Prix on August 3, 1952 for Rudi Fischer’s Ecurie Espadon team (Team Swordfish). He retired from the race with shock absorber problems and scored no points.
Apart from his German Grand Prix drive, he was a reserve for Peter Hirt at the non-championship Formula 2 races at both Rouen and Avus but didn’t get to drive.
At the end of the year he bought the team along with the Ferrari 500 (0184) and the older tipo 166/212 (0110). The team was renamed Ecurie Suisse. Fischer had arranged to have the older tipo 166/212 at his disposal for use in some national Swiss hill climbs while Schoeller, now over 50, decided that he would be better as a team manager and retired from driving, leaving Kurt Adolff to race the Ferrari 500.
By the end of 1953 Schoeller had lost interest. Schoeller must have been very wealthy as the Espadon cars were not sold only put aside and forgotten. They were saved in the 1960s by the Schlumpff brothers and taken to their museum in Mulhouse.
There may have been some connection to the Schoeller textile company that was founded in Germany in 1847 but moved to Zürich in 1867. The Schoeller family had various factories in Germany and Switzerland, but somewhere in history the family split into 2 independant lines, one in Germany, the in Switzerland. Today there are no connections between the German Schoeller Textil in Düren and the Swiss Schoeller Textil AG at Sevelen, which is now part of the Albers Group.
Interestingly the Schlumpfs had also been involved in the textile industry.
