The Winkelhock dynasty

Formula 1 dynasties are not that unusual. Just recently, Nico Rosberg, son of Keke, emulated his father’s 1982 feat and became world champion. Before that, Damon, son of Graham Hill, also managed to repeat his dad’s feat and became a world champion. There have been less successful dynasties: Michael Schumacher,  the F1 records  destroyer until second notice, was a seven-time world champion, however his brother Ralf only managed to win a few races, not bad for some families. Some children did better than their dads: Max Verstappen is this generation`s hot shoe and may yet be a world champion, while his father Jos only managed a couple of podiums.  Jacques Villeneuve, the son, won a championship, yet most, including this writer, consider his father much better. At any rate, the son was better than the uncle, the eponymous Jacques. Emerson Fittipaldi raced against his brother for a short while, and there is very little comparison between their F1 results. Later on, Wilson’s son Christian also raced in F1, with little success, and there may still be a Fittipaldi driving in F1. There were also the Scheckters: Jody a champion, Ian never scored a point. Plus the Magnussens: another case in which the son has been better than the father. The Rodriguez brothers, the Stewarts, the Piquets, the Andrettis, Senna and his nephew, etc.

You get the picture.

Then, there were the Winkelhocks.

Manfred first came to notice in 1977, when he was chosen as one of the BMW Junior Team Drivers. In a very competitive DRM small engined class, Manfred beat the likes of Hans Stuck, Eddie Cheever, Marc Surer, all BMW drivers and Ford’s Hans Heyer and Toine Hezemans.  The impressive Manfred was soon added to the BMW F2 team for 1978, as a third driver. Although March-BMW won both the 1978 and 1979 championships, Manfred did not fare well. He was fast, but his team mates got all the glory.

Eventually, Manfred reached Formula 1, while racing Porsches, BMWs and Fords in sports cars. His first try was in an Arrows, in the 1980 Italian GP that ended in a DNQ. In 1982, 83 and 84, Manfred suffered driving Cosworth and BMW engined ATS, under the recalcitrant leadership of Mr. Schmidt. In spite of the barely tolerable ride, Manfred managed to qualify the car better than most would expect, starting with a fifth place start in Detroit in 1982, and several Top 10 in 83 and 84. However, his only points were scored in his third entry, the Brazilian GP of 1982, and basically because the first and second on the road were disqualified.

In the last race of 1984 Manfred finally had a chance to drive a competitive car, a Brabham-BMW. He did not do well, and ended in 10th place.

For 1985 Manfred was signed up by RAM, and his performance dropped. He retired from most races, but the worse was yet to come. After winning in a Kremer Porsche at Monza, in the World Sportscar Championship, Manfred had an accident in Mosport and died from his injuries.

His brother Joachim had a much shorter F1 career, with an even worst car than Manfred’s rides, the AGS Cosworth in 1989. This was the age of over subscribed entry lists, and Joachim did not prequalify in the seven races he was entered. After the French GP, Joachim who was a promising German F3 Champion, was dropped from the team, never being considered for a F1 ride again.

Joachim did find a very successful career in Touring Cars and Sports Cars, managing to win the extremely competitive BTCC for BMW in 1993, and then the Le Mans 24 Hours of 1999, quite possible the most competitive ever in terms of field depth, aided by Yannick Dalmas and Pierluigi Martini, also driving a BMW. He drove a few more years after that, and then retired.

The third Winkelhock was perhaps the least rated of the three, and certainly had his detractors! Markus was Manfred’s son, and admittedly, did not really have a very brilliant career in the lower formulae.  Not withstanding, he was listed as Midland’s test driver for the 2006 season.  Then, he had a chance in 2007, and was entered as one of the drivers for Spyker, which was the renamed Midland team, in the European GP. Manfred got the drive because the team’s driver, Christjan Albers,  had left the team after the British GP. Markus got a deal for a single race in his native Germany.

The race looked bleak. Markus would start dead last, but there were weather related issues. As the driver with the least to lose in the lot, Spyker deciced that Markus should go to the pits, and his tires were changed to intermediates, while everybody else was on slicks. Winkelhock then started from the pits, and suddenly, a downpour came, and Markus was the only driver in the field who had tires to withstand the tempest. All hell broke lose, and as unlikely as it sounds, Markus Winkelhock passed many cars, and the German ended up in the lead of his first GP, driving a Spyker!   By the end of the second lap he was 19 seconds ahead of second place, and 33 seconds by the third lap! In total, Winkelhock led 6 laps, but his luck ran out. The race was red flagged, and restarted with Markus on pole (he started last and first in the same race, also very unusual), but the team rolled the dice once more and placed rain tires on the car, but the rain never came back.

A most unusual F1 career, for this was his first and last race in the category! As he retired after 15 laps, he led almost half of his laps in Formula 1.  And Winkelhock actually managed to lead more laps than GP winners Peter Gethin and Jochen Mass.  The nasty Spyker was taken over by Sakon Yamamoto in the next race and by the end of the year the team was sold to Viljay Mallya, who created the Force-India team.  Markus continued racing GTs and Touring Cars,   having won a few races and the 2012 FIA GT1 Championship.

As for the Winkelhocks, at least one their lot led a Grand Prix.  The last one in which a family member was entered. Such an unusual dynasty.