Wolfgang von Trips

Count Wolfgang von Trips was a German racing driver and aristocrat who came agonisingly close to becoming his country's first Formula 1 World Champion. Born in 1928 into a noble family near Cologne, he was a charismatic and increasingly polished performer who rose to lead Ferrari's challenge at the dawn of the 1.5-litre era. Nicknamed "Taffy", he was one of the most popular figures on the grid.

He scored 2 wins, 6 podiums, 1 pole position and 56 points across 28 starts, racing chiefly for Ferrari with appearances for Porsche and Cooper. The 1961 season was his finest: driving the dominant "Sharknose" Ferrari, he won the Dutch and British Grands Prix and arrived at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix leading the championship from his team-mate Phil Hill.

Tragedy struck on the second lap at Monza on 10 September 1961. A collision sent his Ferrari into the barriers, killing von Trips and fifteen spectators. The title passed to Phil Hill, and von Trips was remembered as a driver denied the championship at the very moment it lay within his grasp.

Early in his career von Trips earned the rueful nickname "von Crash" for a string of accidents, but he matured into a fast and increasingly disciplined competitor who was leading the title race when he was killed. His death, along with that of the spectators at Monza, became a defining moment in motorsport's reckoning with safety. He is remembered as a gifted and gracious driver whose championship was lost not on merit but to the brutal dangers of his time.