The 47 German Formula 1 Drivers

So far, 47 drivers from Germany have driven at least one Formula 1 race. Michael Schumacher towers over them all. From the hobbyists of the 50s to Vettel.

The most successful driver of the first 1000 World Championship races comes from Germany: Michael Schumacher. His seven World Championship titles and 91 GP victories are currently being hunted by Lewis Hamilton, but are still unequaled. Schumi has made Formula 1 popular in Germany, brought up to 20 million fans to F1 races in front of the TV screen and shaped the Formula 1 like no other driver - with his meticulousness, his ambition and ultimately his success. This year, the record champion, recovering from a head injury since a serious skiing accident in 2013, was 50 years old. For this occasion, ABMS has also presented various stories about Schumi - from his meteoric rise to his sensational comeback at Mercedes. You can read them again HERE. But Schumacher is not the only German who ever drove in Formula One. 47 drivers from Germany drove at least one Grand Prix. They bring it to a total of 2124 races (Fleißigster is with 306 races Schumi), thanks to Michael Schumacher (91), Sebastian Vettel (52), Nico Rosberg (23), Ralf Schumacher (6), Heinz-Harald Frentzen (3), Wolfgang Count Berghe von Trips (2) and Jochen Mass (1) on 178 victories and thanks to Schumi (7), Vettel (4) and Rosberg (1) on twelve titles. This makes Germany the second most successful Formula One nation after Great Britain. Only two Germans will tackle the 1000th Grand Prix - Vettel for Ferrari, Nico Hülkenberg in the Renault. In 2010, there were seven Germans, with Schumi (Mercedes), Vettel (Red Bull Renault), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Timo Glock (Virgin Cosworth), Nico Hulkenberg (Williams-Cosworth), Nick Heidfeld (Sauber Ferrari ) and Adrian Sutil (Force-India-Mercedes).

Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips was the first German Formula One hero. And that was not even the race with most Germans at the start. That was the 1953 Grand Prix of Germany - within the largest starting field of all time with 35 vehicles. 14 pilots came from Germany. Hans Herrmann came in Veritas in ninth place as best local hero to the finish. In the 50s, it was teeming with hobbyists in the racing scene in Germany. It was drivers who also had fun rebuilding the cars and optimizing them themselves. Most of them drove in Formula 2. When the World Cup 1952 and 1953 was advertised for Formula 2 cars, struck their big hour.

Almost a fourth german champion

Of the 14 Germans at the Germany GP in 1953, seven drove with race cars of sports car company Veritas, three with AFM racers, a racing car forge of Alexander Freiherr von Falkenhausen, equipped with 2.0-liter straight-six engines from BMW. The served also as a basis for bizarre own buildings such as the Greifzu BMW Paul Greifzu and the rear BMW Ernst Klodwig. They did not all have a resounding success. The first German who was really successful is Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips. In 1961 he was almost world champion in the Ferrari. The World Championship decisive run was Monza: Von Trips collided in the starting phase with Jim Clark, his Ferrari was thrown into the spectators. 14 people died - including trips. His team-mate Phil Hill became world champion. Jochen Mass and Hans-Joachim Stuck made a name for themselves in the 70s. Mass won the Spain GP in 1975 - a sad victory. His German compatriot Rolf Stommelen flew into the audience, tore five fans to their deaths. The premature demolition brought Mass in McLaren-Ford the victory. He stood in the shadow of his dazzling Playboy team-mate James Hunt, who also became world champion in 1976. Stuck's dad was in F1 in the 1950s. But he could not continue the prewar successes. There he was with Auto Union the mountain king of Europe, but also in GP races he was successful. In 1935 he won the Italian GP. Stuck junior did not manage that. Two third places in the 1977 Brabham-Alfa-Romeo were the best result of his 74 World Championship races. The breakthrough could have come in 1979, when an offer from Williams was on his table. But in the years before, Williams was still a backbench team, always closer to bankruptcy than breakthrough. Stuck preferred to switch to the German ATS team. Williams made his breakthrough in 1979. "It was the biggest mistake of my career," confesses Stuck. The 80s were extremely sad from a German point of view. With Stefan Bellof and Manfred Winkelhock two hopefuls died in sports car races with Porsche. Above all, Bellof was considered a great talent, which already had a Ferrari pre-contract for 1986 in 1986. After Michael Schumacher made his debut in Formula One in 1991 and brought the first title to Germany in Benetton-Ford in 1994, the boom led several young drivers in the karts scene and from there to Formula 1. With Sebastian Vettel found a worthy successor. And for the future is already the next generation of Schumis in the starting blocks. Michael Schumacher's son Mick Schumacher is already in the junior program of Ferrari and will start in Formula 2 in 2019. Cousin David Schumacher wants to make the promotion to one of the various Formula 3 series in 2019. He is the son of Ralf Schumacher, who followed his brother Michael into the Formula 1 and after all has won six races.

*This article was first published in German at autobild.de