STUCK, HANS JOACHIN

 

1/1/1951, Grainau, near Garmish Partenkirchen (Germany)

Starts: 72

Points: 29

Wins:0

Poles:0

Fastest Laps:0

 

The 30’s seemed to be so far away when young Stuck appeared on the scene. These were the days of German drivers such as Rosemeyer, Caraciolla, Lang, Von Brauchtisch and another man with a familiar name, Hans Stuck. The latter was, of course, Hans Jr.’s father, one of the most effective drivers of Auto Union cars, who raced well into his 60’s. So there was some expectation that Stuck might revive the German flag in GP racing, when he was hired by March for the 1974 season. The first couple of races were rather normal, typical learning curves for a young debutant. By South Africa though, Stuck had qualified a wonderful seventh place and finished 5th, earning his first points. In Spain he finished 4th, so right at the start of the year he had accumulated 5 points, more than the highly rated Jody Scheckter. The rest of the season did not go as well, though. The spark that was shown in these two races seemed to be gone, and spite of three other top ten grid starts, Stuck was not closer to the front the rest of the year, in fact, dnq twice. Above all a BMW driver, Stuck was slated to drive in the USA in 1975, so he was out of F-1, However, he retained his ties to March, and ended up appearing in five races at the end of the year. Again, Stuck showed the hallmark of his GP career, inconsistency. He was extremely fast in qualifying for the German and Austrian GPs, but totally indifferent in his other outings, mostly retiring. Even so, he was called back by March for the 1976 season. Hans did really well in Brazil, finishing 4th, but his performance dropped to the indifferent level, specially after the arrival of Ronnie Peterson in the team. In Monaco, though, Stuck qualified an excellent 6th and finished 4th, proving he was indeed skilful. After other indifferent outings, Stuck found qualifying pace in several of the last races of the year, including a 4th place start in the tragic German GP, the last one held in the Nordschleife. Mostly he failed to turn these scintillating qualifying performances into results, although he managed to score an additional 2 points from 5th in Watkins Glen, a race track where he seemed to excel. So Hans was not back on the grid for 1977, although he was called by March to race one of its by then hopeless cars in South Africa. Then a big opportunity arose. Brabham seemed to be on the verge of a turn around that year, with Alfa Romeo 12 cylinder engines. Lead driver Carlos Pace had led races, and appeared to be one of the favorites for the title, until disaster struck in the form of a light airplane crash. Pace and the other plane occupants died, leaving a spot open in the Brabham team. Ecclestone decided to give Stuck a chance. Again the pattern arose: in certain tracks, such as Monaco, Stuck seemed destined for bigger things; in others, he would qualify midfield and have lackluster performances. He did score points in 2 of the first four races for Brabham, but these were 6th places and nowhere near the form shown by Pace or Watson. The pressure was on Stuck, and he realized he had to perform to save his single seater career. He did well for a stretch, scoring points in three straight races, including two podiums, but by Holland he was off the pace again. Then in Watkins Glen his big day: Stuck qualified 2nd, and come race day, it rained: Hans was a known rain meister. He shot right into the lead and had his fifteen minutes of glory in F-1, however, ended up crashing and retiring. He did not show the same pace in the last two races of the year, and ended up replaced by no other than World Champion Niki Lauda. So Stuck went out looking for work in 1978, and found a berth at Shadow. This did not seem so bad, as Shadow had finally broken into the winner’s circle in 1977, however, the team underwent major upheaval early in 78: many of the top personnel left to form Arrows, including lead designer Tony Southgate. So soon it became clear that this would not be an easy year, and indeed it was not. Stuck barely qualified midfield most of the year, and finished in the points a single time, in Brand Hatch. Again in a spurt o qualifying bravado, he started 8th in Canada, but collided with Fittipaldi, so that was the end of that. For 1979 Stuck did not have many options besides joining the German ATS team. This was obviously a ‘survival” move at best, and besides a heroic 12th place grid spot in Monaco midseason, and improving qualifying pace towards the latter part of the year, it appeared the game was up for Stuck in F-1. He did manage another good performance in Watkins Glen, scoring 2 points in his last GP. He continued a long career driving sports cars and touring cars for several manufacturers (mostly German), avoiding single seaters until a recent appearance in the GP Masters category, where he drove with distinction. Germany would need to wait a few more years for a GP hero, but boy was it worth the wait!

OUTSIDE FORMULA 1

Stuck was runner up in the European Formula 2 Championship, 1974. He won the European Touring Car Championship and the DRM in 1972. He won Le Mans twice,

OTHER CARS:

Formula 2: March-BW, Brabham Ford, Ralt

Sports Cars: BMW (3.0 CSL, 320 Grup 5, M-1, V12), Sauber-Ford, Porsche (956, 962, 911, 911 GT1), Audi, Sehcar (Ford, BMW), Kremer Porsche

Touring cars: BMW, Opel, Ford, Audi