Siegfried Stohr

Born on the 10th October 1952 in Rimini, Italy, Siegfried Stohr’s early career involved Formula Abarth, Formula 3 and Formula 2, winning two Italian championship titles, before contesting F1 with Arrows in 1981. His racing started in karts, after he completed his studies and graduated with a degree in psychology, and he went on to take 3 Italian championship titles in different classes. He then contested the 1976 Italian Formula Abarth series and finished second in his rookie season while the following year saw him take the Championship title with five wins in fourteen races.

After that success he repeated it by becoming the Italian Formula 3 champion in 1978 with Trivellato Racing’s Chevron B43. His season started with victory in the first three rounds at Misano, Varano and Vallelunga though his run was halted when he came second at the fourth race at Varano, beaten by Mauro Baldi’s Ralt. He took another second place finish, to a Chevron driving Elio de Angelis, but ahead of Alain Prost and Jan Lammers, at the prestigious Monaco race though this was followed by retirement in the next race at Imola due to engine problems. He resumed his winning ways with victory at Misano and took second at Magione but only finished in two of the remaining races, with eighth at Enna-Pergusa and third at Monza. He retired at a very wet Gran Premio della Lotteria Di Monza (mechanical issues), Vallelunga (accident) then the final round at Magione. He also scored several points contesting several rounds of the B.A.R.C BP British F3 Championship.

After these championship victories he moved into Formula 2 with Trivellato in 1979, racing a Chevron B48 in the majority of the races. He retired from the Silverstone International Trophy due to an accident and mechanical issues ended his race at Thruxton’s Jochen Rindt Trophy. He was fourth at Nurburgring, fifth at Misano, eleventh at Mugello and ninth at Hockenheim, with his best results two second place finishes at Vallelunga (to Marc Surer) and at Pau (to Eddie Cheever). He switched to a March 792 for four rounds though was not classified at Hockenheim, finished seventh at Zandvoort and retired due to mechanical issues at Enna-Pergusa and because of an accident at Donington Park.

Siegfried joined the Docking/Spitzley team for the following year and, racing the Beta sponsored Toleman TG280, started with fourth and fifth at the Nurburgring and Vallelunga, on both occasions two places ahead of team mate Huub Rothengatter. The next races saw eighteenth at Silverstone’s Marlboro Trophy, second at Pau, sixth at Mugello then a third place at Zolder (which was won by team mate Rothengatter). He did not finish at Zandvoort due to mechanical issues but at the beginning of August he took his first victory, winning from pole at Enna-Pergusa’s Gran Premio del Mediterraneo, ahead of B.Henton’s similar Toleman TG280 and Manfred Winkelhock’s March 802. He was then thirteenth at Misano but took fourth at the Gran Premio dell’ Autodromo di Monza followed by a third place podium result in the final round at Hockenheim. At the end of the year his victory and three podiums saw him fourth in the final standings.

Then came his F1 opportunity with Arrows in 1981 but though he struggled initially and was outpaced by team-mate Riccardo Patrese his confidence began to increase. The orange and white liveried A3 ran with Beta and Ragno Ceramiche sponsorship (ragno meaning ‘spider’ in Italian) and the first race came at Kyalami. The South African GP was originally supposed to be the first round though it was stripped of its championship status but after qualifying eleventh he retired from the race with engine problems. He did not qualify for the US GP West at Long Beach after damaging the suspension of his car in the morning session and suffering an engine failure at the beginning of the final qualifying session; however, team mate Patrese took pole position, clinching his, and Arrows’, first pole. Although he started in Brazil there was a retirement due to an accident after 20 laps when he was hit by a spinning Patrick Tambay though he came home ninth in Argentina. The San Marino round at Imola saw a further non qualification but then came the Belgian GP at Zolder, which proved to be a traumatic weekend. The circuit’s narrow pit lane had long been criticised and during practice, Osella mechanic Giovanni Amadeo slipped from a ledge and into the path of Carlos Reutemann’s Williams in the pit-lane. Reutemann had no time to brake nor room to swerve to avoid him and he suffered a double skull fracture. Although he was rushed to hospital, the sad announcement came after the race weekend that he passed away from his injuries. There was also anger from the drivers that their request to have the maximum number of cars allowed in qualifying be reduced was refused. During qualifying Siegfried had been getting more acclimatised to the car and track and had qualified thirteenth. At the start of the race many drivers climbed from their cars on the grid in protest, with the aim of delaying the start and mechanics and some team owners joined them on track. By the time the cars were eventually ready, Patrese’s fourth placed Arrows had stalled and he began waving his arms, so mechanic Dave Luckett jumped down onto the track to help start the car. The race was started while he was behind the car and in a harrowing scene, although some cars avoided him, Siegfried ploughed into the car and D.Luckett who was working at the rear of it. Poor Stohr was distraught and after stumbling from the car was led away from the scene. Dave Luckett fortunately survived, albeit with broken legs, but though an ambulance was on the scene within seconds the race continued. No signal was given to stop and it was only after Didier Pironi slowed his Ferrari and stopped that the organisers were forced to halt the race. The race was restarted forty minutes later and Reutemann took a hollow victory after the weekend’s tragic events. Siegfried contested eight more races with the team though his confidence was affected by the accident and his performance throughout the rest of the season suffered. He qualified fourteenth at Monaco but retired with fuel injection problems and did not finish at Jarama due to engine problems. The following qualifying results were not as strong and he did not qualify in France and retired because of an accident at Silverstone though came home twelfth at Hockenheim. His Austrian race ended due to a spin though at Zandvoort he achieved his highest finish when he came home in seventh place. He did not qualify at Monza but this was his last drive for Arrows as he lost his seat and was replaced by Jacques Villeneuve for the final races at Canada and Caesars Palace.

At the end of the season Siegfried left Formula One though made one more start in F2 and raced a Ferrari powered Minardi 281B at Mugello in May 1982 though it ended after an accident. He went on to found the Guidare Pilotare safe driving school at the Autodromo Santamonica at Misano, in co-operation with BMW Italia, with over 30,000 people having taken one of his courses. He was also a columnist for a number of publications, writing about motorsport and safe driving, plus published several books on safe driving on public roads and about his F1 career, entitled ‘La Mia Formula Uno.’