Jacky Ickx

Jacques Bernard (Jacky) Ickx, (born January 1, 1945 in Brussels) is a Belgian racing driver known for his success in Formula One and his six wins in the 24 hours of Le Mans.

Formula One career

Jacky Ickx began his career by successfully riding trial motorcycles before driving touring cars and sportscars. He had already significant experience from taking part in the 1000km races at the Nürburgring before he entered his first Formula One career there in 1967, by driving a Matra F2 car, though. Despite the disadvantage of driving a less powerful F2 car, only two F1 drivers qualified in front of him: Denny Hulme and Jim Clark. He was forced by the regulations to start behind the entire F1 field; nevertheless after 4 laps he was already 5th, overtaking 12 full-blown F1 cars. Unfortunately his front suspension broke and he was forced to retire after 12 laps. Despite his retirement he made a strong impression on the F1 team managers.

Related Topics:
Nürburgring - 1967 - Matra - Denny Hulme - Jim Clark

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At Monza he made his official F1 debut in a Cooper-Maserati, finishing 6th. In 1968 Ickx drove a Formula 1 car for Ferrari. He retired from his first two races, but at his home race at Spa-Francorchamps he started from the front row and finished 3rd. At the French Grand Prix at Rouen he took his first win, in pouring rain! Ickx also finished third at Brands Hatch and fourth at the Nürburgring after driving almost the entire race in heavy rain without his helmet visor. At Monza he finished the race in third position. In Canada his luck left him when he crashed and broke his left leg, which meant he could not compete for the two following Grand Prix.

Related Topics:
Ferrari - Spa-Francorchamps - Brands Hatch - Nürburgring - Monza

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In 1969 Ickx choose to drive for the Brabham team, which was focussed around the owner and driver, Jack Brabham. His first results were poor, but when Brabham broke his foot, Ickx got use of the first car and his results immediately began to improve. Jacky finished third in France, second in England and won in Canada and in Germany on the Nürburgring, the last F1 race there before The Ring was made less bumpy and dangerous. In the Mexican Grand Prix Jacky finished second and became runner-up in the driver's world championship. He then decided to leave Brabham to return to Ferrari because he had become too good a driver to be the second man.

Related Topics:
Brabham - Jack Brabham - Nürburgring

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As in 1969, he had a weak start to the 1970 season. During the Spanish Grand Prix he had a crash and his car caught fire. He only managed to escape from the car after 20 seconds and ended up in hospital with severe burns. After 17 days he was already back in his car at the Monaco Grand Prix, but his Ferrari was no match for the Lotus of Jochen Rindt. The car started to improve and at the German Grand Prix, held at Hockenheim as his favorite Nürburgring was boycotted for safety reasons, he fought with Rindt for the win, but finished a close second in the end. At the Austrian Grand Prix it was Ickx that took the win. In Monza fate struck and Rindt lost his life during free practice. Ickx was the only driver with a chance to take the championship from Rindt who had already won 5 of 6 races in that season, with 4 more to go. Monza saw a win of Ferrari team mate Clay Regazzoni while Ickx' car broke down. The Belgian took the win at Canada but in the US GP at Watkins Glen he only finished fourth, with Emerson Fittipaldi scoring his first win for Lotus as well as the Championships for the team and his late team mate. Mathematically, Ickx could now not surpass the point total of Rindt anymore even by winning the last race in Mexico, which the did anyway, in style.

Related Topics:
Jochen Rindt - Hockenheim - Nürburgring - Clay Regazzoni - Emerson Fittipaldi

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In 1971 Ickx and Ferrari started as favorites, but the championship went to the other Jackie, Stewart with the new Tyrrell. This is due to the fact that Ferrari traditionally started the season with its full attention on the sportscar championship, a fact that already make John Surtees leave in the middle of 1966. Only halfway through the season, after the big races and especially Le Mans were done, the Italians turned their attention to the F1 championship.

Related Topics:
John Surtees - Le Mans

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Ickx was able to win the GP at Zandvoort in the rain with Firestone wet tires while Stewart had no chance with his Goodyear rubber. After that he had a lot of retirements, while Stewart took one win after the other, despite Ickx giving him a good challenge on the Nürburgring once again, where both drivers shared victories from 1968 to 1973. That long and very challenging track was the favourite of Ickx, while Stewart had called it the Green Hell as well as being a driving force behind the driver boycott of 1970 that urged the Germans to rework the layout of the track which had been built in 1927. Stewart said the only thing that had changed since then were the trees growing bigger. As requested, those near the track were cut and replaced with a small run-off areas plus armco. So, the Scot and the Belgian not only fought on the track, but also off the track. Stewart was constantly fighting for more safety in F1, while Ickx thought by doing that the challenge was taken out of F1.

Related Topics:
Nürburgring - Scot

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In 1972 Ickx stayed at Ferrari and finished 2nd in Spain and Monaco. After that the Ferrari only got noticed for its retirements. Yet, once again it was the Nürburgring where Ickx was eager to show it was his track, giving his great rival Stewart no chance at all. Like for Stewart one year later, and other champions like eg. Juan Manuel Fangio in 1957, it turned out that the last F1 win for Ickx came at Nürburgring, where superior driving skill could beat superior machinery.

Related Topics:
Nürburgring - Juan Manuel Fangio

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In 1973, the Ferrari 312B3 was no more competitive at all, and Ickx only managed one 4th place during the opening GP of the season. While being successful with their sportscars, which were driven to several wins by Ickx himself, the F1 program of the Italians was outclassed, and they even had to skip some F1 races at all, notably the Nürburgring. This was not acceptable to Ickx, who left the Scuderia in a fight halfway trough the season. Instead, he raced the German GP at the Nürburgring in a McLaren, and scored 3rd place behind the Tyrells of Stewart and Cevert.

Related Topics:
Nürburgring

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When Jacky signed with Team Lotus in 1974, a difficult period awaited him. Lotus had problems replacing the successful but aging Lotus 72 (which had its debut in 1970) and during the championship Ickx only managed a 3rd place in Brazil. Ickx could only prove that he was the Rain Master when he won the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch after having passed Niki Lauda by the outside at Paddock Bend. After the Brazilian GP it went downwards with the results of the Lotus-Ford.

Related Topics:
Lotus - Niki Lauda

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1975 was even more disastrous for Lotus and Ickx left the team halfway through the season, even though he managed a 2nd place in the chaotic GP of Spain which was overshadowed by accidents.

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It seemed like the end of his career was near. In 1976 Ickx signed at the new teams of Wolf and later at Ensign. Only now and then did he race a GP. In 1979 he ended his career as a GP driver at Ligier, but still continued to win a lot of races in various sportscar series, where Jacky had decided to concentrate on fully.

Related Topics:
Wolf - Ensign - Ligier

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Career overview

Figures

• 114 Grand Prix'
• 181 points
• 8 victories
• 25 podiums
• 13 poles
• 25 first rows
• 14 fastest laps