Sports: Happy 90th Hans Herrmann!
THIRD AT THE 1954 BERN GP Today, Friday, February 23, 2018, Hans Herrmann celebrates his 90th birthday. The Swabian won his only podium in Formula 1 at the last Swiss GP in a Mercedes Silver Arrow. With Jo Siffert, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1968 as a Porsche works driver. Hans Herrmann, who died on February 23, 2018 [...]
Hans Herrmann, who celebrates his 90th birthday on February 23, 2018, is the only living Mercedes factory driver from the legendary Silver Arrow era of Formula 1, along with Stirling Moss, who achieved his best result on August 22, 1954, at the last Swiss Grand Prix on the Bremgarten circuit in Bern.
In the 66-lap race (= 451 km!) won by world champion Juan Manuel Fangio in the new Mercedes-Benz W196, his teammate Herrmann finished third of the 16 drivers who had started, one lap behind. This was only the fourth GP for the German. In an exclusive interview with the author, Herrmann recalled that moment.
Hans Herrmann: "It was an uplifting feeling and a special honor to be able to stand next to a man like Fangio. I myself made a mistake at the start by not keeping the engine speed high enough. So a spark plug failed, but I was able to finish the whole race on seven cylinders, albeit with less power."
Because Daimler-Benz withdrew from motorsport after the disaster at Le Mans in 1955 - which famously led to a circuit ban in Switzerland - Herrmann subsequently competed for various other teams and manufacturers.
Winner at the 24 Hours of Daytona and Le Mans
He achieved most of his successes with Porsche, where Jo Siffert was one of his teammates. Together with the unforgettable man from Freiburg and three other drivers, Herrmann won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1968 (albeit only after a stable reign) and gave Porsche the 1969 win in the then prestigious one-make world championship.
Hans Herrmann celebrated his greatest victory in a Porsche 917 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970, after narrowly losing out to the Ford GT40 of Ickx/Oliver in the Porsche 908 L in a downright epic duel the year before. He then retired from racing at the age of just 42 because he had promised his wife that he would do so if he won.
