Hubertus (Huub) Rothengatter (born 8 October 1954) is a former racing driver from the Netherlands.
He participated in 30 Formula One (F1) Grands Prix, debuting on 17 June 1984. He scored no championship points. He drove for Spirit, Osella and Zakspeed, and his drives all either started or became available midseason. He tried to get Dutch sponsors in various ways, such as by putting a one-page advertisement in De Telegraaf newspaper. Reputedly, when Niki Lauda was asked about him, he referred to him as “rattengott” – literally “God of the rats”.
Rothengatter later entered into Formula One management, as a manager for Dutch driver Jos Verstappen. Info from Wiki
Bio by Hans Hulsebos
This tall Dutchman was a Grand Prix tail-ender during mid 1980s who brought enthusiasm and welcome sponsorship to the wrong end of the grid. Once he put his own Formula 1 ambitions aside, Huub Rothengatter managed the career of rising star Jos Verstappen.
A race winner in Formula 3 and F2
He made his Formula 3 debut in 1976 with a private March 763-Toyota. He twice won German Championship races at Zolder during his three seasons in the category – that 1978 success coming after he had switched to Rota Racing’s Chevron B38-Toyota.
Rothengatter graduated to Formula 2 in 1979 with a Chevron B48-Hart and finished sixth at Thruxton and fifth at the Nürburgring. The team acquired a pair of Toleman TG280-Hart chassis for the Dutchman and Siegfried Stohr to race in 1980. Rothengatter’s finest race once more came at Zolder. He qualified on the front row before leading a Toleman clean sweep of the top four by winning his only European F2 Championship race.
Despite that success, his was only a limited schedule in 1981 that included second at Enna-Pergusa on his first start in Chuck Graemiger’s March 812-BMW.
Formula 1 with Spirit, Osella and Zakspeed
Rothengatter replaced Mauro Baldi in the one-car threadbare Spirit-Hart team at the 1984 Canadian GP. He finished eighth at Monza before his funds ran dry and Baldi was reinstated. Another half season with an Osella FA1G-Alfa Romeo in 1985 ended at the Australian GP with Rothengatter finishing in a career-best but distant seventh.
Zakspeed expanded its F1 team into a two-car operation for the first time at the 1986 San Marino GP with Rothengatter joining Jonathan Palmer for the balance of the season. The car failed more often than not in what was the Dutchman’s final year as F1’s amiable backmarker.
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born on the 8th October 1954 in Bussum, nr Hilversum in the Netherlands, Hubertus (Huub) Rothengatter started in karts and eventually participated in 30 Grands Prix between 1984 and 1986, driving for Spirit Racing, Osella Squadra Corse and Zakspeed Racing. He constantly tried to attract Dutch sponsors into the sport and on one occasion placed a double-page advertisement in De Telegraaf, a Dutch newspaper. After racing, he became a manager for Jos Verstappen.
He started racing in karts at the relatively late age of 18, then Dutch Formula Ford, before 1976 saw the first of several seasons with a private entered March 763 in a mixture of European, German and British F3 races. He was seventh and eight at Hockenheim and Sembach, eleventh at Knutstorp, thirteenth at Monza and twenty second at Zandvoort with his best results third at Hockenheim plus victory from pole at the final race at Hockenheim in November. He also contested a European F2 round with the 763 and was sixth at Mengen.
In the following year he won from pole at Zolder and was fifth, sixth and seventh at Zandvoort, Jarama and Thruxton, ninth at Knutstorp and twelfth at Silverstone though was disqualified at Wunstorf.
1978 started with victory in February from pole at Stuttgart though at the next round he was with Racing Team Holland and was sixth with their Ralt RT1 at Zolder. Further races with the Toyota powered Ralt saw fifth at Monza, seventh at Nurburgring and Monaco, ninth at Zandvoort plus thirteenth at Imola and Dijon-Prenois. He was fifth at Kassen-Calder airfield, eighth at Magny Cours and Karlskoga, ninth at Donington and sixteenth at Osterreichring and August saw another victory, from pole, at Zolder. From September he was with Alan Docking Racing and drives with their Chevron B38 saw second at Snetterton and third the following week at Silverstone. In October he was fourth and fifth at Mallory Park and Thuxton and the following month was second (plus recorded the fastest lap) at Hockenheim.
He then moved up to F2 with a Chevron B48 Hart and spent three years in the class. Racing Docking Spitzley’s B48 in 1979 the car used a Hart engine in the first round and he was eighth at Silverstone though used a BMW power plant at Thruxton, where he was sixth. He was back with Hart power for the following races and results included fifth at Nurburgring, eighth at Enna-Pergusa, twelfth and thirteenth at Zandvoort and Donington then third (behind Geoff Lees and Riccardo Patrese) in the final race, the Grande Premio de Macau (using a Ford power plant). The team acquired a pair of Toleman TG280s for him and Siegfried Stohr to race in 1980 and he had probably his best year. In the first three races in April he was sixth at Thruxton, fifth at Hockenheim and sixth at Nurburgring then followed this with seventh at Vallelunga though retired at Pau and was fifth at Silverstone. His finest race once again came at Zolder, where he qualified on the front row before leading a Toleman clean sweep of the top four, winning ahead of his team mate plus the works TG280s of Brian Henton and Derek Warwick. There was a retirement at Mugello and seventh at Zandvoort then in August he had consecutive fourth place finishes at Enna Pergusa and Santa Monica then thirteenth at Hockenheim. November saw a Japanese F2 race at Suzuka, finishing seventh with the American Roller Team’s March 792-BMW and the following week he was in Macau but suspension problems ended his run in the Team Honest Datsun March 782. At the end of the season, he finished seventh in the standings.
There was only a limited schedule in 1981 and he only started late in the season, finishing second to Thierry Boutsen with Lista Racing’s March 802. He was eleventh at Santa Monica and thirteenth at Spa while one drive in a Stichting Autorace entered car saw eighth at Donington. He had another Japanese F2 outing but did not finish at Suzuka’s Great 20 Racers Race with Suzuki Racing’s Toleman TG280.
Although he entered 1983’s Spa 1000km with Kees Kroesemeijer in a Kremer Porsche CK5, they did not start due to an accident. After spending almost two seasons out of racing, he returned to single seater competition in June 1984 with an F1 debut with Spirit though before this he contested two World Sports Prototype races. Unfortunately he and Clemens Schickentanz did not start with the Porsche powered Procar Automobiles Sehcar 830 at Monza due to engine problems though they were fifteenth at Silverstone. Spirit contested the F1 World Championship with their 101 and Emerson Fittipaldi and Fulvio Ballabio were down to drive but Fittipaldi eventually chose to race Indycars and Ballabio was refused an FIA Super Licence. Mauro Baldi was nominated as the team’s sole driver as Stefan Johansson was released as he could not raise the funding to continue. At the start of the season the car used a Hart engine and become the 101B, with new sidepods. A new chassis was built and debuted at San Marino while the first was later modified as 101C, to adopt the Ford Cosworth DFV, with the previous year’s side pods and after Detroit was refitted with Hart engines to be used as t-car. Huub replaced Baldi for Canada but was not classified and at Detroit, the Hart was replaced by the Ford Cosworth DFV but he failed to qualify. He returned to the Hart-powered car for the rest of the season though retired at Dallas (fuel leak) and Zandvoort (throttle problems) and was not classified at Brands Hatch and Osterreichring. His only finishes saw eighth and ninth at Monza and Hockenheim but Baldi was back in the seat for the final two races.
For 1985 he moved to Osella though as in the previous year he started late and only contested half a season, making seven starts and recorded one dnq. He retired the Alfa Romeo powered FA1F in his first start at the ninth round at Nurburgring due to gearbox problems then finished ninth in Austria, but was not classified at Zandvoort, retired at Monza (engine) and was not classified in Belgium. He failed to qualify for the European GP at Brands Hatch and retired at Kyalami due to electrical issues but finished in a career best seventh at the season-closing race at Adelaide.
1986 saw almost a full season with Zakspeed, who were already an established racing and tuning company and had entered F1 in 1985 with their own turbo-charged engine. The team’s small size limited it to building just two chassis during the season, which also meant that only one car would be entered for contested events and for financial reasons, the team would not travel out of Europe, limiting itself to a maximum of eleven of the sixteen Grands Prix. As the final two races of the season were outside Europe, they did not enter and turned their attention to designing and building the chassis for the following season. In 1986 they introduced their 861, which was a development of the car used during the previous season and changes were largely to reduce weight and complexity over its predecessor. During 1985 the team had entered a single car for Jonathan Palmer at only the European and British races and the original intention for the new season was to continue with one car for Palmer. However, Huub brought funding to the team and was entered in a second chassis from early in the year. The team did not employ a test driver as they could not afford one and the car raced in the red and white corporate colours of West cigarettes, which remained as the title sponsor. The car started the season with conventional steel brakes but they experimented with carbon brakes from Monaco and raced them from Germany. Despite the improvements over the previous year’s car, by the end of the year the chassis (whose concept dated back to 1983) was considered outdated and technical director Helmut Barth stated “it was too big and had too much drag”. Ten finishes were recorded by the two drivers during the year, the best of them eighth-place finishes for Palmer at Detroit and for Huub in Austria. It proved a disappointing season for Huub though as he retired in San Marino (turbo), Belgium (electrical), Brands Hatch and Monza (both engine), Hockenheim (gearbox), Hungary (radiator), Estoril (transmission) and due to suspension problems in Australia. He did not qualify at Monaco and did not start in Detroit (electrical) plus suffered accident related retirements in France and Mexico and besides Austria his only other finish was twelfth in Canada.
This would be his final season and he later entered into F1 management, as a manager for Jos Verstappen, and in 2010 co-founded EVBox (with Bram van der Leur), an electric vehicle supply equipment company based in Amsterdam.
