Gerhard Mitter

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Gerhard Mitter
Nationality
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1963 - 1967, 1969
Teams	Ecurie Maarsbergen, Team Lotus, BMW, non-works Brabham
Races	7 (5 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Career points	3
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1963 Dutch Grand Prix
Last race	1969 German Grand Prix

Gerhard Karl Mitter (born 30 August 1935 - died 1 August 1969 ^[1]) was a German Formula One and sportscar driver.

Mitter was born in Schönlinde (now ) in the Sudetenland, 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.

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, eg. 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.

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.

[edit] Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

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		-	0
1965	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax V8	RSA	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	NED	GER Ret	ITA	USA	MEX		-	0
1966	Ron Harris / Team Lotus	Lotus 44 F2	Cosworth Straight-4	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	NED	GER DNS	ITA	USA	MEX			-	0
1967	Gerhard Mitter	Brabham BT23 F2	Cosworth Straight-4	RSA	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER Ret	CAN	ITA	USA	MEX	-	0
1969	BMW	BMW 269 F2	BMW Straight-4	RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER DNS	ITA	CAN	USA	MEX	-	0

Preceded by Jo Schlesser

Formula One fatal accidents August 1, 1969

Succeeded by Piers Courage

[edit] External links

[edit] References