Hans Herrmann (born 23 February 1928) is a retired Formula One and sports car racing driver from Stuttgart, Germany.
In F1, he participated in 19 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 2 August 1953. He achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 10 championship points.
In sports car racing, he also scored the first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Porsche in 1970, in a Porsche 917. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Hans Herrmann had an impressive career in racing, contesting 19 World Championship Grands Prix (achieving one podium and scoring 10 championship points) though achieved his greatest successes in sports car racing. He competed in the legendary Mille Miglia and Carrera Panamericana road races, contested Le Mans 24 Hour races 14 times and had overall victories in the Targa Florio (1960) and the 24 Hours of Daytona (1968). He was one of the earliest Porsche drivers and in 1970 he and Richard Attwood became the first drivers to win Le Mans for Porsche with the legendary 917. After fortunately surviving some spectacular accidents, friends nicknamed him ‘Hans im Gluck’ (Lucky Hans/Lucky John) and even his autobiography was titled ‘Ich Habe Uberlebt’ (I Have Survived) though later in life he endured a traumatic kidnapping.
Born in Stuttgart on the 23rd February 1928, tragedy struck the family when he was only 8 years old when his father was murdered. Hans’ mother opened a coffee shop and it was expected he would one day take over the businesss. However, his passion was racing and while his friends wanted to be pilots or train drivers, his heroes were Bernd Rosemeyer and Rudolf Carraciola and his dream was to be a race driver. But he respected his mother’s wishes and trained for three years but as at this time during the War it was difficult to get flour, eggs and sugar and he never actually practiced his patisserie skills. His first car was a BMW 328 but his mother helped him purchase a second-hand Porsche 356 by giving him her gold bracelet and his career began in 1952’s Hessen Winter Rally and he then took his first victory when he won his class in only his second event, the Deutschland Rally.
In 1953 he and Richard von Frankenberg won their class in the Lyon-Charbonnieres rally, which encouraged him to enter the gruelling Mille Miglia, and he finished twenty eighth but took a superb class win. His driving had attracted attention and he was offered a works Porsche 550 for the Eifelrennen, winning the 1500cc race in the pouring rain, and was then teamed with Helm Glocker for Le Mans. The Porsches ran well but despite completing the same number of laps and taking the flag side-by-side, officials ruled that Richard von Frankenberg/Paul Frere’s car had covered the greater distance and awarded it the class win ahead of them.
In German Sportscar Championship races with the 550 he was second at Avus and had victories at Nurburgring and Schauinsland and raced a Maserati A6GCS he with Jack McAfee at the 1000km Nurburgring. Later that year he was invited by Porsche to race a 550 in the Carrera Panamericana, with the team being sponsored by Wendell Fletcher of Fletcher Aviation in the USA who had a licence to use Porsche engines in the light planes they were building. Hans led at the end of the first stage but later crashed when his steering arm broke. His progress was being watched closely during this time by Mercedes-Benz team manager Alfred Neubauer who was planning a return of Mercedes-Benz into Grand Prix racing. They already had Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling as drivers but were preparing to run three cars and decided to hold a test session at Nurburgring to choose the third driver. One morning while Hans was still in bed, the phone rang and he sleepily answered it. It was Neubauer’s Secretary Frau Heinze who said that Alfred Neubauer wished to talk to him, who told him “Herrmann we are going to the Nurburgring for three days testing, I have invited Hans Klenk and Paul Frere to test and would you like to join us?. I was speechless and still tired and so did not say anything for a moment or two and then Neubauer barked down the phone ‘well do you want to come with us or not?’ I said, of course, of course I am coming, yes I am coming”. Testing alongside Hans Klenk, Gunther Bechem and Paul Frere in 300SLs, they stayed in the Sporthotel but Hans slept through his alarm call and was only woken by the noise of the cars in the pits. He and Paul Frere were fastest at the end of the second day though Hans was offered the place in the Grand Prix team for 1954. A month after the test, he drove an F2 Veritas in the German GP, finishing ninth plus won the supporting sportscar race in the 550, setting a new lap record. Hans Klenk had suffered a serious accident testing the 300SL, which ended his career, and it was his Veritas Meteor that Hans raced at the Nurburgring. On top of his achievements that year, he also became the German Sportscar Champion.
His first event in 1954 was the Mille Miglia alongside Hebert Linge in a 550 Spyder and they took an impressive sixth place overall and won their class. However, the fact they were still in the race was remarkable considering they were involved in an incident that could have killed them or at least caused serious injury. After passing a checkpoint in Pescara they arrived at a level crossing. With the express train to Rome approaching, the gates began to close at the last moment but Hans couldn’t stop so accelerated and tapped Linge on the shoulder as they both ducked. The Spyder just made it under the barriers as it shot through the level crossing before continuing on its way at almost the same pace. Describing the incident, Herbert Linge told how “I was looking at a map of the circuit when Hans knocked me on the back of the helmet. I knew what that meant and ducked down in my seat.” He had spent the training runs noting down every level crossing on the circuit in minute detail but said he had “only made additional notes on where the car might sustain damage and where we could make up time…At 160 kilometres per hour, even the Porsche brakes wouldn’t have brought us to a stop in time-and the small windscreen meant that the Spyder was sleek enough to take it on.” Soon after this he was at Hockenheim for his first drive of Mercedes’ W196 streamliner but he had a nasty accident during the test, Hans describing how “a pipe broke and sprayed hot oil onto my feet as I braked for the Stadt kurve. I lost control, hit a house and was thrown out” and spent two weeks in hospital afterwards. Although he retired at the Eifelrennen Nurburgring and at Le Mans (with Helmut Polensky) the following races brought better results and he had a win and second place at German Sportscar Championship rounds at Rhineland Nurburgring and the GP Berlin. He took a third place finish at a non-championship British GP at Silverstone (the race winner was Colin Chapman) and his final event that year came at the end of November in the gruelling Carrera Panamericana where he was third overall and won his class with the 550 Spyder. His debut for Mercedes came in the French GP at Reims with one of the streamlined W196, where JM Fangio and Karl Kling finished first and second. Hans had problems adjusting to the W196, finding it “difficult after the Porsche, which was rear-engined and very light, whereas the Mercedes was front-engined, much bigger and much more powerful.” He took the fastest lap in the race but retired after his engine failed, telling how “I had a problem with the engine and tried to get back to the pits but retired. I don’t know what caused it but it could have been that I made a mistake.” In his other races he was an impressive third in the Swiss GP at Bremgarten and fourth at Monza, though retired with injection problems at Pedralbes in Spain and eventually finished sixth in the World Championship.
In January the following year Mercedes travelled to South America to contest the Argentine GP and Hans finished fourth (with Karl Kling and Stirling Moss). The race was run in extreme heat which led to 16 driver substitutions and he, Kling and Moss shared the driving duties and shared the 3 points for fourth place. Only Fangio and Roberto Mieres finished the race without a relief driver but Fangio suffered severe burns to his leg; it had been rubbing for the whole race against the chassis frame, which was being heated by the exhaust. Then came the Mille Miglia, with the debut of the new 300SLR, and Mercedes were determined to have a good result they had their drivers spend two months training on the course. JM Fangio and K.Kling chose to race alone but S.Moss had Denis Jenkinson with him and Hans had Fangio’s mechanic, Hermann Eger, alongside him. In the race he caught up with Fangio, though Moss was ahead and at Pescara was running fifteen seconds behind leader Piero Taruffi’s Ferrari, with Hans third. He then had his throttle jam but was able to free it and get to Rome where it was repaired. However at the Rome stop, after refuelling and continuing, while on the Futa pass the fuel cap came loose and soaked him and Eger in fuel. Some got into his eye, causing him to spin and damage the car but as soon as it stopped they both jumped out in case it burst into flames. They walked to the next village and found a small hotel where they got out of their soaking racing overalls and changed into borrowed pyjamas. Hans told how “during the race I had tried to look after my brakes as I knew Stirling Moss would be hard on his brakes. Our times were similar on the stages and my hope was that Stirling would have trouble with his brakes after the Futa and Raticosa passes and I might have a chance to overtake him but that loose fuel cap from the Rome stop finished our race. Our fuel filler was not properly closed at the Florence Control and on the Futa Pass the cap opened and fuel went everywhere. My passenger was Herrmann Eger. At first the fuel was cool but then it got hotter and Eger was all for jumping out because one spark could have set fire to everything. Then fuel got in my eyes, I hit a marker stone and spun. The cockpit was so full of petrol we could not go on, which was a shame as our brakes were perfect. We learned afterwards that Stirling had virtually no brakes left.” Unfortunately, a week later he crashed during practice at Monaco, putting the W196 into a stone balustrade and was lucky to escape with his life; “I was badly hurt but frightened of fire, so I pulled myself out of the cockpit and, with my elbows, dragged myself away from the car I had two broken ribs, a broken pelvis, my right thigh was broken in six places and my hip was dislocated. I spent three months in hospital.” However it marked the end to his Grand Prix career as by the time he recovered Mercedes had decided to withdraw from racing In the October Hans was well enough to go to the Targa Florio, where Mercedes were contesting the Sportscar World Championship but unfortunately when he got there “I practiced with the 300SLR but found that it took about half a second between deciding to brake and actually moving my foot. I had to tell Neubauer I could not race.” Mercedes went on to win the race but had already announced their withdrawal from competition.
Reuniting with Porsche the next year he had a busy schedule and in March he and Wolfgang von Trips finished sixth at Sebring and won their class with the 550 Spyder. In the following month he and Werner Enz retired in the Mille Miglia and there were later retirements from the 5 Hour Messina event plus at Le Mans with Umberto Maglioli. He was second in the GP Berlin, sixth in the 1000km Nurburgring (with R.von Frankenberg)and thirteenth at the GP Sverige and took victories at Solitude and Rhineland Nurburgring German Sportscar Championship races, comfortably winning the German Sportscar title. Away from Porsche there were two Ferrari drives and he was teamed with Olivier Gendebien in an 860 Monza at the Targa Florio but this was his first race in a Ferrari and he was not used to having a throttle pedal in the centre. He unfortunately rolled the car during practice though the team had a spare 860 Monza Ferrari and they finished fourth overall. The second drive came at the Supercortemaggiore with Wolfgang von Trips though they did not finish in their 500 Mondial.
He continued with Borgward the next year and had a victory at Aspern and was fourth at Rheinland Nurburgring though was back with Porsche for Le Mans. Despite having falling out with Huske von Hanstein the previous year, he raced there at the express wish of Ferry Porsche and he and Jean Behra finished third overall with the 718 RSK.
Four events in 1959 with a 718 RSK saw him and Chris Bristow retire in the Tourist Trophy while alongside Umberto Maglioli he contested the Targa Florio and Le Mans with their best placing being fourth at the 1000km Nurburgring. The first of his two Grands Prix ended in retirement with gearbox issues in Britain with a Centro-Sud Cooper-Maserati but the second saw him survive a terrifying accident with the BRP BRM P25 at Avus. His BRM suffered brake failure and after hitting a straw bale went cartwheeling off the track. Hans was thrown out and watched as his car disintegrated into the distance. Photographs of the incident showed his car shedding components, including Hans, who appeared to be kneeling on the road, watching as the car disintegrates. Incredibly, he walked away virtually unhurt from the accident and said “the brakes failed at the end of the three-mile straight. I was doing about 180 mph and the pedal went to the floor! I knew I was a dead man but amazingly I only suffered cuts and bruises. I wanted to get back in a racing car as soon as possible, so I asked Mr Porsche if I could do a hillclimb. He gave me a car for Klosters-Davos and I won.” Sadly, although Hans survived with bruising, his friend Jean Behra was later killed in the sportscar support race, after crashing his Behra-Porsche and being thrown from the car.
There were a number of F1 drives during this period with a Porsche 718, starting with a sixth place finish at 1960’s Italian GP and the following year he was ninth and thirteenth in Monaco and Germany and finally, racing an Ecurie Maarsbergen car at Zandvoort, he was fifteenth.
In four events in 1961 with Edgar Barth in a 718 RS they retired from the 12 Hour Sebring and 1000km Nurburgring races though were third at the Targa Florio and seventh at Le Mans. He moved to Abarth in 1962 and over the next four seasons took part in more than 70 races and hillclimbs for them, twice finishing third in the European Mountain Championship. Away from hill climbs, his best result in 1962 was fourth at the Preis von Tirol while there was a sixth place finish in a Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth at the Targa Florio alongside Herbert Linge. There were victories the following year at the 3hr Sebring, in a GT event at Aspern plus the 500Km Nurburgring (with Pilette) and an ADAC GT race at Norisring. There was a busy schedule in 1964 and in a mixture of events he was second at Monza and the Coupes de Paris, third at Aspen plus won the Coppa Citta di Enna and the Nurburgring 500km with Klaus Steinmetz. He was also fourth with a Mercedes 300 SE alongside Peter Lang at the 6 Hour Brands Hatch race. Competing in hill climbs the next year he won at Bologna-Ratiicosa and was third and fourth at Cesama-Sestrieres and Rossfeld while in other events he was second at the Nurburgring plus second (twice) and third at Aspen.
Returning to Porsche in 1966, in three seasons with them he took numerous podium places plus outright wins at Daytona and Sebring in 1968. Racing a 906 in the first year, he won at Tull-Langenlebarn and the 500km Zeltweg plus finished fifth at Le Mans with H.Linge. Other drives saw fourth place at the 12Hr Sebring (with Joe Buzzetta and Gerhard Mitter) and the 1000Km Monza with Mitter, plus third place finishes in a hill climb at Sierre Montagana and in a World Sportscar round at Hockenheim. He drove in what would be his final F1 outing in the German GP, piloting a Brabham BT18-Cosworth to eleventh overall and fourth in the F2 class.
Racing alongside Jo Siffert in 1967 his best results were second at the 1000km Spa and fourth in both the 24 Hr Daytona and 12 Hr Sebring events with a Porsche 910. He also took fourth at a 6 Hr Brands Hatch event with J.Neerspach, third in the 1000km Paris with Udo Schutz while he and Robert Buchet were third with a 906 in the 12 Hr Reims. He and Siffert formed a formidable pairing, achieving eight class wins, including victories at Daytona and Sebring in 1968 though he would eventually be switched to team with Rolf Stommelen. Alternating between a 907 and 908 in 1968, he had a number of shared drives though racing solo he won and was second at Hockenheim. He and Jo Siffert won the 12 Hr Sebring but in an unusual result were second, and listed in the winning car, in the 24 Hr Daytona race. At Daytona, Vic Elford took over the lead after Hans and Jo suffered a pitstop repair that cost them 22 minutes. Vic Elford was paired with Jochen Neerspach but, after he had leave the race due to illness, Vic was joined by Rolf Stommelen. Because of the pitstop delay, Huschke von Hanstein felt that Hans and Jo deserved the victory and asked if they could drive a number of laps in Vic/Rolf’s 907 in order to be included in the victory. Vic agreed, which saw the winning 907 with a 5 driver line up (V.Elford, J.Neerspach, J.Siffert, R.Stommelen and H.Herrmann) with the second car the J.Siffert, H. Herrmann, G.Mitter 907. Further shared drives saw him finish fourth in the Targa Florio with J.Neerspach then contesting 1000km events with Rolf Stommelen they won at Paris and were second and third at Nurburgring and Spa.
His 1969 season continued in a similar fashion and partnered again with Rolf Stommelen they were second and third in the 1000km Nurburgring and the Targa Florio plus fourth at the 1000km Spa. He took second in the 1000km Monza alongside Kurt Ahrens jr in a Porsche 908 while away from Porsches he won and was fourth in David Piper’s Lola T70 in two races at Hockenheim. Having only had very few single-seater outings since 1961, apart from F2 appearances at the Solitude and the Nürburgring, Hans rejoined his friend Gerhard Mitter for the F2 race held concurrently with 1969’s F1 German GP. Sadly, Gerhard was killed during practice and Hans withdrew from the race though in the following month he himself survived a heavy crash in the Imola 500km, barely without a scratch. Then came Le Mans where he starred in the event’s closest ever finish alongside Gerhard Larrousse in a long-tailed 908. Early in the race they lost twenty nine minutes while a front hub was changed but with less than thirty minutes left in the race Hans was leading, slightly ahead of Jacky lckx’s Ford GT40 and eventually took the flag just 100 yards ahead after 3100 miles of close competition. Writer Dennis Jenkinson’s description described how “The last few minutes of the race were unbelievable, for the two cars passed and re-passed in the sort of wheel-to-wheel racing we would like to see in Formula One.” Hans himself said “Ickx and I passed and re-passed each other three or four times every lap. There was a little red light on the dash to tell when the brake pads were worn down and it was on all the time now. I knew that if I stopped we would be second, so I decided to carry on and see what happened. Two laps before the end Jacky went into the sand on one corner but had enough speed to pull himself out. He won by about one second. It was a big disappointment for I really wanted to win Le Mans.”
However, he and Porsche would be rewarded a year later when they scored their maiden Le Mans victory and finished one-two-three, with Hans and Richard Attwood winning in a 917 ahead of another 917 then a 908. Racing in 1000km events with Richard Attwood they were second with a 908 in the 1000km Nurburgring and third at the 1000km Brands Hatch with a 917 and then they tackled Le Mans. John Wyer Racing was running Gulf Oil sponsored Porsche 917s in the World Sports Car Championship though Hans was signed with a second 917 team run by Porsche Salzburg. That year’s race was the first to be run with the drivers strapped into their cars and not running across the road for the traditional ‘Le Mans start’ and almost from the start it continually rained. At the end of the first lap they were in ninth place and, keeping a steady pace, they watched as the Gulf Cars retired along with the favoured Ferraris. Finally, at 4.00 pm they took the flag and gave Porsche their first outright win at Le Mans. He told later “I decided that 1970 was to be my last season, but I told no-one, not even my wife. Then as I was leaving my house to drive to Le Mans, she said, ‘If you win this year, will you please retire?’ With some emotion I agreed. After Le Mans I was contracted to race the Porsche at the Osterreichring and Watkins Glen, but I decided enough was enough and that anything else would be an anti-climax. I’d saved the best until last.” Ironically although Hans kept his promise and offered his resignation to the Piech family he was only released from the contract after managing to persuade Denny Hulme to replace him. “I told Herrn Piech that I had promised my wife I would retire if I won the race but he told me my contract with Porsche Salzburg was for the whole season and if I wanted to retire it was up to me to find a suitable driver to take my place. I spoke to the reigning World Champion Denny Hulme, who had driven one of the Salzburg Porsches in one of the races and both he and Ferdinand Piech agreed on Denny replacing me”.
After retiring from the sport he started a successful accessories company, Hans Herrmann Autotechnik and published his autobiography. Unfortunately, during the 1990s, one evening when he and Magdalena arrived home they disturbed masked intruders in the house. He was seized and his hands tied behind his back and after being taken to the cellar his wife was told they wanted 6 million German Marks to release him. The next day Hans was put into the boot of his Mercedes and driven to an autobahn service area whilst his wife was taken to the bank and withdrew the money. Once the kidnappers had the money they told Magdalena where they had parked Hans’ car and she phoned the police, who rushed to the service station and released Hans. However, the gang were never caught!
