Jochen Mass died, Formula 1 is in mourning
The’former Formula 1 driver Jochen Mass has died. The driver originally from Dorfen, in Upper Bavaria, died Sunday in Cannes at the age of 78 from the aftermath of a stroke suffered in February, his family confirmed to Germany’s DPA news agency. Mass drove 105 races in Formula 1 between 1973 and 1982, winning one Grand Prix.
Mass made his Formula 1 debut in 1973, but at Silverstone in his Surtees he went out already on the first lap due to a maxi-accident that cut short Andrea De Adamich’s career. His only Formula 1 victory was marked by tragedy: on the Montjuïc street circuit in Barcelona in April 1975, Rolf Stommelen lost control of his car and ended up in the stands, causing the death of several spectators.
The death of Gilles Villeneuve deeply marked Mass. The Canadian died in a terrible accident in May 1982 in Zolder, Belgium. Mass, at the wheel of a March, tried to make room for him, but he chose the same trajectory Villeneuve wanted to follow. The Ferrari driver rear-ended him and was thrown violently out of the cockpit.
Mass had two sons by his first wife Esti and two daughters by his second wife Bettina, to whom he had been married since 1994.
