Gerhard Mitter

Gerhard Mitter

Born	(1935-08-30)30 August 1935 Krásná Lípa, Czechoslovakia
Died	Nürburgring Circuit, Germany
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	German
Active years	1963–1967, 1969
Teams	Ecurie Maarsbergen, Team Lotus, BMW, non-works Brabham
Entries	7 (5 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	3
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1963 Dutch Grand Prix
Last entry	1969 German Grand Prix

Gerhard Karl Mitter (30 August 1935 – 1 August 1969) was a German Formula One and sportscar driver.

Mitter was born in Schönlinde (Krásná Lípa) in Czechoslovakia, but his family was expelled from there, to Leonberg near Stuttgart.

After racing motorbikes, he switched to Formula Junior, becoming the best German driver with 40 victories. In addition, he sold Two-Stroke-Engines for FJ. In 1963, Gerhard Mitter won the Formula Junior Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring.

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Gerhard Mitter driving Lotus in 1965 at the Nürburgring

Mitter also participated in seven Grands Prix, debuting on 23 June 1963. He scored a total of three championship points in his home 1963 German Grand Prix with an old Porsche 718 from 1961. Impressed by this, Team Lotus gave him a chance in the following years.

In sportscar racing and hillclimbing for Porsche, he scored many wins, e.g. the 1966-1968 European Hillclimb Championships against Ferrari, the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona (Porsche 907) and the 1969 Targa Florio (Porsche 908) as his final major win.

Gerhard Mitter driving the BMW F269 at the Nürburgring shortly before he was killed, August 1, 1969.

Due to the long Nürburgring track, it was possible to take part in the German Grand Prix with Formula 2 cars that were classified in their own contest. Mitter was killed there at Schwedenkreuz while practising for the 1969 German Grand Prix with BMW's 269 F2 project. As a suspension or steering failure was suspected, the BMW team with Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester withdrew from the race, as did Mitter's teammate at Porsche, Hans Herrmann. Udo Schütz, his driving partner at Porsche in the 1969 World Sportscar Championship season which whom he had won the Targa three months earlier, had survived a bad crash at the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, and retired.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	WDC	Points
1963	Ecurie Maarsbergen	Porsche 718	Porsche Flat-4	MON	BEL	NED Ret	FRA	GBR	GER 4	ITA	USA	MEX	RSA		12th	3
1964	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax V8	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER 9	AUT	ITA	USA	MEX		NC	0
1965	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax V8	RSA	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	NED	GER Ret	ITA	USA	MEX		NC	0
1966	Ron Harris / Team Lotus	Lotus 44 F2	Cosworth Straight-4	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	NED	GER DNS	ITA	USA	MEX			NC	0
1967	Gerhard Mitter	Brabham BT23 F2	Cosworth Straight-4	RSA	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER Ret	CAN	ITA	USA	MEX	NC	0
1969	BMW	BMW 269 F2	BMW Straight-4	RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER DNS	ITA	CAN	USA	MEX	NC	0

External links

Preceded by Jo Schlesser

Formula One fatal accidents 1 August 1969

Succeeded by Piers Courage