1,000 Greatest Drivers: Jochen Rindt

A tribute to the sole posthumous F1 champion.

54 years ago, Jochen Rindt, the only posthumous F1 champion, died in a crash at Monza and it seems fitting that I am covering him shortly after I covered his onetime teammate Bruce McLaren, who had arguably one of his best-ever seasons when he blew out Rindt as a rookie. I do tend to regard the F1 drivers of this period more highly than the equivalent drivers in other eras simply because F1 drivers in this era competed in so many other series, including sports car races, IndyCar races, Tasman Series races, non-championship F1 races, F2 races, touring car races, and so on. Both because the drivers of that era were substantially more diverse than being just F1 drivers and because the sport was so dangerous, I am more inclined given my druthers to rate a championship-caliber season from this era higher than a season with a similar number of wins from this era (granted, there are vastly more races now too so Rindt had a higher winning percentage in 1970 than a LOT of other champions who won more races). I still did not rank Rindt as the highest-rated driver of 1970 because I decided I was more impressed by Al Unser’s 10-win IndyCar season (which tied A.J. Foyt’s record for the most IndyCar wins in a season if you don’t count that wacky 1946 when IndyCar randomly decided to add 70 sprint car races to the schedule), but it was a close decision.