Stefan Bellof

Former F1 driver
Name = Stefan Bellof
Nationality = flagicon|Germany German
Years = F1|1984 – F1|1985
Team(s) = Tyrrell
Races = 22 (20 starts)
Championships = 0
Wins = 0
Podiums = 0
Points = 4
Poles = 0
Fastest laps = 0
First race = 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix
First win =
Last win =
Last race = 1985 Dutch Grand Prix

Stefan Bellof (born in Gießen, Germany on November 20, 1957 – died in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium on September 1, 1985) was a Formula One driver who raced for the Tyrrell team. He was also the Drivers Champion for the World Sportscar Championship in 1984 driving for the factory Rothmans Porsche team.

Career

Early racing career

After taking the German FF1600 title in 1980 he made his debut mid-season in German Formula 3, almost winning the championship. In 1983, with BMW backing, he got a place in Willy Maurer’s European F2 team, winning the first two races of the season. Maurer would later become his manager.

Formula One and World Sportscars

He also joined the Rothmans-backed Porsche factory team for the World Sportscar Championship the same season. Partnering Derek Bell for most of the season, he was noted for setting the fastest lap at the 1000km Nürburgring race and was still leading when he crashed his Porsche 956 onto its roof. His pole time for that race of 6:11.13 is unofficially the fastest lap ever driven on the old 20km Nürburgring, and his fastest lap during the race of 6:25.91 to this day is still the official Nordschleife lap record for all cars. He joined Tyrrell in 1984 and in the rain-soaked Monaco race was catching up with race leaders Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna when the race was flagged to a halt at half the distance. Unfortunately, he was stripped of his five championship points, along with team mate Martin Brundle's eight points, after their Tyrrell cars were discovered to have illegal lead ballast in their fuel tanks at the Detroit Grand Prix. He won the World Endurance Championship for drivers, and helped Porsche to win the manufacturer's title, in the same year.

Always saddled with uncompetitive cars in F1 (the Tyrrell team of 1984–85 were the only team still using the normally aspirated Ford Cosworth engines, giving away in excess of 150 hp to their turbo rivals, though in the final stages of his Grand Prix career Tyrrell did use Renault turbo engines), Bellof never truly had the opportunity to show his talent.

Death

Regarded as a likely future F1 World Champion, he was killed at the 1985 1000 km of Spa sports car race. Driving for Brun Motorsport, his privately-entered Porsche 956 touched with Jacky Ickx's works 962C at Eau Rouge corner, with both cars catching fire and halting the race. Bellof was pronounced dead one hour later at the circuit medical center. This crash, coming only three weeks after the death of Bellof's compatriot Manfred Winkelhock in another Porsche, prompted the Porsche engineering department to hurry through the development of the better-protected 962 model.

The effect of Bellof's accident

After his death and that race where Jonathan Palmer was also injured in an unrelated crash but with the same type of car, teams became unwilling to allow their expensive drivers to compete in other races that were not part of the championship, and some would have drivers' contracts tightened to prohibit them from competing outside the championships. According to [http://www.stefanbellof.de/ The Official Stefan Bellof Website] , there was an offer from Ferrari for the 1986 Formula One season.

Today, he is often mentioned as Michael Schumacher's childhood racing idol.Fact|date=February 2007 and during an interview for the January 2007 issue of the 911 and Porsche World magazine, teammate Derek Bell felt Bellof's death was caused by lack of discipline in his driving style, and that the blame for his death lay with those around Bellof, including team personnel, who should have allowed him to mature.

Recently, Bellof's family donated his racing mementos to the local Sammler und Hobbywelt museum for public display. The donated items included his go-kart from his early racing days, his racing overalls and helmets from his works Porsche and Tyrrell days and trophies. [http://www.suhw.de/Hobbywelt/Stefan-Bellof-Memorial/stefan-bellof-memorial.html Stefan-Bellof-Memorial] [ [http://www.thx.org/Bellof/HTML/Memorial/SBMemorial.htm Die Stefan Bellof Website / © by Thomas Guthmann ] ] There is a karting circuit named in his honour known as Motorsportarena Stefan Bellof.

Complete Formula One results

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* - Tyrrell was stripped of all championship points for 1984 after the team's cars were discovered to have illegal lead ballast in their fuel tanks at the 1984 Detroit Grand Prix.

References

External links

* [http://www.stefanbellof.de/ Official site]
* [http://www.kv-oppenrod.de/arena/framesetarena.html Motorsportarena Stefan Bellof official site]
* [http://www.suhw.de/Hobbywelt/Stefan-Bellof-Memorial/stefan-bellof-memorial.html Stefan-Bellof-Memorial]
* [http://www.ausringers.com/2008/09/18/stefan-bellof-611-the-ultimate-nordschleife-record.html Short clip of Bellof's Nürburgring qualifying record]