1968: Jochen Rindt interview in AUTOSPORT
The speaker is Jochen Rindt, the acknowledged King of Formula 2 and one of the most colourful figures in Grand Prix racing. Watching him for the first time it is easy to get the impression he is just a tearaway, but further investigation coupled with inspection of the record books shows that he is consistent as well as fast, and that his exuberant driving is ideally matched to the handling characteristics of the Repco Brabhams and Cooper-Maseratis in which he has made his name.
It also helps that Jochen has just about the quickest set of reflexes in present day racing. He has proved this many times in both Formula 1 and Formula 2, and he certainly showed presence of mind when his throttle stuck open during practice at Indianapolis last year.
"I don't know if I was lucky, but I had worked out beforehand that if I had trouble going into a corner it would be better to turn into the wall to avoid hitting it at too much of an angle," he says. "I hit the wall at about 20 deg, which definitely lessened the impact, but it was a long time (over 600yds) before the car stopped, and while I was sliding along the wall I looked in my mirror and saw that the engine was on fire.
"My first instinct was to get out, but I realised that I would get hurt if I jumped out at that speed, so I undid my belts, stood up, and then stepped out when the car finally stopped by which time the fire trucks had almost caught up with me. You've got to have luck to be able to do things like this, but it helps if you figure out what to do beforehand."
Not surprisingly, in view of his ability to minimise the effects of a 190 mph emergency, Jochen has a very realistic assessment of his driving ability and his place in Grand Prix racing.
"I think I can drive as fast as most people, and I have a strong instinct of self-preservation which prevents me from doing anything really stupid. When I went to Spa for the first time I soon realised that the speeds there were way beyond anything I was used to, and I took things fairly easily for a while. Now I am more accustomed to high speed, but I appreciate that you can't treat a 3-litre car like the 1 1/2-litre car I first drove there."
Jochen didn't have a normal childhood, for both his parents were killed in a bombing raid on Hamburg when he was only a year old. He was brought up in Austria by his mother's parents, who were very fond of him, and has never been really short of money because he inherited his father's spice importing business when he was 21. His grandfather was a lawyer, " very respectable," and this may have been one of the reasons why Jochen finally broke out and took up motor racing. He was always good at sport he was the best skier and the best tennis player in his school and this no doubt helped to develop the competitive spirit which is an essential part of every racing driver's make-up.
"I was always in trouble at school, partly because I didn't work very hard, and partly because I was always fighting. I was quite good at mathematics, but I didn't find the other subjects very interesting, so I didn't bother much with them. And once I almost ran down one of the teachers on my motorcycle. In the end I got thrown out and went to England to learn English, but I spent most of the time sailing.
"I was staying not far from Goodwood, and one Saturday, because I had nothing else to do, I went to a club race meeting. There were no famous drivers there but there were some D-type Jaguars, and I thought they looked marvellous.
"I learned to drive while I was in England, but I was too young to get a licence. Then, when I went back home, I broke my leg skiing, and had to have a car to get to school I had been re-admitted by then so my grandfather bought me a Simca Montlhery. At first a colleague drove me, but then I decided I was perfectly capable of driving myself even though I had no licence and one leg was in plaster. I actually drove without a licence for 18 months, and then got caught the day before I was eligible to collect it!
"As soon as I had a driver's licence I started to tune the Simca and enter it in rallies, but I was in the same class as the Alfas and they were too fast for me. Then my grandfather died, and my grandmother bought me an Alfa. I had it tuned by Conrero and won almost everything I went in for I even went to Italy and blew off the local champion in a hillclimb.
"My intention had been to have a bit of fun with the Alfa and then get down to studying economics. But when I was 21 I came into some money and bought a Formula Junior Cooper. My first race was at Vallelunga, near Rome, and I was second fastest in practice, but on the grid my starter jammed. My second race was at Cesenatico, also in Italy, and I won it. Then I went to Monaco, where the opposition was much tougher, and I was lying fifth in the final when my engine broke. I was really wild then. I wore a red shirt and I kept going off the road, but I enjoyed it tremendously.
"The next race was at the Nurburgring, and that was where I had my first big shunt. I came round a corner flat out, found a slow car in the middle of the road, and went straight through the hedge. Fortunately I wasn't hurt very much."
Jochen used a Cosworth-Ford engine in his Formula Junior Cooper, and this stood him in good stead in 1964 when he wanted one of the hard-to-get Cosworth SCA Formula 2 engines. Martin Pfundner, one of the leading figures in Austrian motor sport, got him an equally hard-to-come-by Brabham chassis, and for the first time he was able to race against the Grand Prix stars even if only in junior league machinery.
"The first race was at Aspern, in Austria, and was no good because of carburetter trouble. Then I finished fourth at the Nurburgring behind Clark, Attwood and Spence, and I might have done better if I hadn't over-revved the engine. After that I went to Mallory Park in England, and in practice I asked Denis Hulme if I could follow him in order to learn the circuit. He said OK, and I finished up in pole position! But at the start of the race I was so tweaked up I didn't get in gear properly, and I was last away. In the end I was third behind Clark and Arundell.
"Next day there was a race at Crystal Palace, and I had my first Formula 2 win after a big dice with Graham Hill. Most of the British papers had never heard of me, and next morning one of them said I was a young Australian; they seem to think all racing drivers come from Australia or New Zealand.
"As a result of this race I was offered a certain amount of financial support by BP. Until then I had had no backing except a little bit from Ford Austria, and I had sold my road car to pay for the Brabham. I realised this was my big chance, and decided I had better make the best of it. I didn't do very much in the remaining Formula 2 races that year, partly due to poor preparation and partly due to lack of experience, but Dennis Druitt of BP persuaded Coopers to give me a drive in the 1965 South African Grand Prix, and after that I signed a three-year Formula 1 contract.
"I joined Coopers as number 2 to Bruce McLaren, and for a long while I didn't do very much. Quite honestly the cars weren't really competitive, and our Coventry Climax engines weren't anything like as good as the ones Lotus had. But I managed to finish fourth in the German Grand Prix and sixth at Watkins Glen, and I learned a lot about the proper way to go motor racing.
"1965 was also the year I won Le Mans. I was driving a Ferrari 250LM with Masten Gregory, and we would never have won if all the works cars hadn't dropped out. I also did most of the Formula 2 races and managed to beat Jim Clark at Rheims."
In 1966 the capacity limit for Formula I went up to three litres, and Cooper changed over to Maserati engines. With more power to play with Rindt was really in his element, and after being an also-ran in 1965 he was suddenly a leading contender. At Monaco he was in the first four until his engine went sour. At Spa he spun at 180 mph while in the lead, but continued to finish second.
He was fourth at Rheims, fifth at Brands Hatch, third at the Nurburgring, fourth at Monza and crashed at Zandvoort. Time after time victory eluded him, but he came second again at Watkins Glen to finish third in the World Championship standings not bad for somebody who two years earlier had been an " unknown Austrian."
In 1967 everybody else had new cars, but the Cooper-Maserati was virtually unchanged and therefore less successful. But there was also a new Formula 2 and Jochen Rindt completely dominated this, winning nine of the 15 major races and finishing second in four more. In Formula 2 he has always driven Brabhams, and this year he is in the Brabham Formula 1 team alongside three-times World Champion Jack Brabham. He had his first race for the team in this year's South African Grand Prix, and although he had about 80 bhp less than the Lotus-Fords he finished a good third, 30.4 secs behind Jim Clark and 5.1 secs behind Graham Hill.
"It was just like Christmas Day every time I got into the car. When we get the four-cam engine right it will really go."
To date the four-cam engine has been more of a hindrance than a help, what with dropped valve seat inserts, repeated fuel system problems and chronic oil leaks. The only time it has really worked properly was in practice at Rouen, where Rindt was over a second faster than all his rivals; in the race a puncture and a leaking fuel tank put him right out of the running.
He also started from the front row of the grid at Zandvoort, but was running without an alternator (due to alternator driveshaft trouble) and had to stop after only 13 laps for a new battery. He finished third at the Nurburgring despite a persistent misfire, but a recurrence of oil seal trouble at Oulton Park indicates that the Repco engine is still not entirely reliable.
Under the circumstances Jochen has remained remarkably philosophical. After all, there is always next year and it seems quite likely that next year he will be at the wheel of the four-wheel-drive Cosworth Ford.
Jochen made the headlines last year following a row with officialdom at Indianapolis, during the course of which he said he would never race there again.
"I go racing basically because I like it. I am now making money out of it, which I am very happy about, but I would never do it just for the money. When I started racing in Europe I was left alone, but when I went over to Indianapolis I had to listen to all sorts of officials and obey all sorts of rules. I just didn't think it was necessary for them to treat me like that. I'm not a kid, and even if they didn't like me wearing two-piece overalls they only had to say so they didn't have to tear them off me. On top of this the car wasn't really competitive, so I didn't feel very happy. I wouldn't have gone back again if Jack hadn't wanted me to.
"The trouble with Indianapolis is that the people there can't think of anything else. They don't know about anything except left turns and yellow lights and keeping women out of Gasoline Alley. They try to make up rules to cover all possible eventualities, and they act as if it is the world's one and only motor race. When I did my rookie driver's test they made me rest after every 10 laps in case I got too tired, but when you get down to it you need less skill to drive at Indianapolis than on almost any road circuit; I would say it's about 85 per cent car and 15 per cent driver.
"Then there is all the ballyhoo, the practising for a whole month, the pre-race activities and the publicity. One of the big problems for a racing driver is autograph hunters and people who just want to talk to you. I think it is very important to be nice to them, but I don't want to talk to anybody just before a race and after wards I am usually too tired. It's very difficult. I am usually more nervous at the beginning of the season than at the end, and I feel worse at some circuits than others. I also feel worse at a Grand Prix than at a Formula 2 race, because Formula 2 is not so serious, not so important.
"In a race I never go faster than I want to, and I try to avoid getting too close to other people unless I feel I can trust them. If I can, then it's OK. Last year, for instance, I had a big go with Jackie Stewart at Albi. Jackie is a very clean driver and we had equally matched cars, so we were able to pass each other two or three times every lap. I could have stopped him overtaking and he could have stopped me, but then it would have been nasty business. It's the same with almost all the top Grand Prix drivers; you can rely on them not to do anything stupid. But it's entirely different at Indianapolis.
"When I started racing I drove as much as I could, just to get experience. In 1965 I did Formula 1, Formula 2, sports cars, touring carsanything I could get my hands on. Now I am concentrating on Formula 1 and Formula 2, because I like them best.
"If you only do Formula 1 you only have about 10 races a year. I love to drive, and Formula 2 is very good because it's equal cars. Unfortunately some race organisers are spoiling it by taking a lot of ungraded drivers, who don't cost them anything, and having just a few big names to attract the public. I think they should have all the top drivers, or at least all of those who do Formula 2 racing, or none at all. The French organisers have the best system; they only take 12 or 14 cars, but they are all potential winners."
Unlike some drivers, Jochen doesn't believe in fiddling with his car any more than necessary. " I like to get it sorted out before the start of the season and then leave it alone. I don't know enough about car design to make any major changes, and I think there are very few drivers who do."
In 1965, at the age of 23, Jochen organised a Racing Car Show in Vienna. It started as a hobby, but was so successful that it has become an annual event. In 1966 he sold the family spice business and invested the money, but now he is looking for something which will give him both financial security and an additional interest outside racing.
"I plan to go on driving as long as I enjoy it, but I don't want to feel I am dependent on it. Too many drivers go on racing too long just for the money, and they usually end up getting killed. I want to be able to pull out when I have had enough."
One of Jochen's plans is to build a multi-storey car park in Vienna, and to have an apartment on the top floor. "That way I will have both an income and a nice view." He doesn't want to get involved in making racing cars, but it would obviously be foolish for him to sever his connections with automobiles altogether particularly as he is already a national hero in Austria.
Last year Jochen married Nina Lincoln, a beautiful Finnish girl who works as a model, and they had a baby daughter on August 14. He doesn't subscribe to the view that racing drivers shouldn't have children, because he feels that in his case at least they will always be well provided for. And Nina knows all about the dangers of motor racing, for her father was a well-known driver and is still one of the leading lights in Finnish racing.
Because of tax problems, Jochen is officially a resident of Switzerland. But he still regards Austria as home, and will probably settle there when he gives up racing. So if you are passing through Vienna in a few years time, make a point of parking at Autohaus Rindt; there will probably be a whole chain of them by then.