“Hans in luck.” This is how he described himself, Hans Herrmann, the racing driver. A look at his statistics makes it a bit doubtful: 18 Formula 1 races with Mercedes, among others, ten points, one fastest race lap. In terms of results, Herrmann was not one of the greatest in German Formula 1 history. But the Swabian, who was born in Stuttgart in 1929 and trained as a pastry chef, never baked small rolls. This was also due to the fact that he didn’t take over his mother’s café, but instead dedicated himself to motorsport. It wasn’t nearly as structured as it is today. Talented drivers like Herrmann had to get behind the wheel everywhere in order to make ends meet. During Mercedes’ brief return to the Grand Prix business, he met the star of Formula 1, Juan Manuel Fangio, as a teammate, as well as the revered Stirling Moss. His home on four wheels, however, became Porsche, his territory the sports car competition, for example with the endurance races, from the Mille Miglia to the legendary “24 Hours” of Le Mans: perseverance at a high level. This image characterizes Hermann’s career. Activate external content It may also have been his instinct to take his foot off the accelerator for just a tad where others pushed the pedal into the floorboard. His happiness depended on seeing what was possible. And if that included a closing railway barrier that he and his co-driver drove under on the way to triumph in the 1954 Mille Miglia – crouched in the flat Porsche 550 Spyder. The express train arrived not a moment too soon. Hans im Glück.More on the topicOne picture exemplifies this fortune: In 1959, at the AVUS (Berlin), the brake on the B.R.M. fell off. out of. Herrmann’s racing car overturns several times, the pilot is thrown out, slides behind the wreckage, but gets up just as it comes to rest. The marshals cheered. They saw which generation of racing driver Herrmann belonged to: the one who didn’t know in the morning whether they would see the hotel room again in the evening. And so it wasn’t just the great successes – Porsche’s first overall victory at Le Mans in 1970 in Herrmann’s last professional race at the age of 41 – that shaped this career. Surviving it is a tremendous achievement that only depends to a small extent on luck. Herrmann died last Friday at the age of 97.
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