Many drivers known from the F1 series have met their end outside the race tracks. Iltalehti tells the saddest fates.
The F1 driver won the world championship at the age of 29 and decided to end his career. Just three months later, he was dead.
Another F1 star’s life ended in a rough way when he collided with a truck trying to make an illegal u-turn in the middle of the highway.
Throughout history, motor sports have claimed many lives, but usually death in the middle of the race has been caused by an accident, not an illness. Someone has even made a sad decision by their own hand, when life without racing felt too heavy.
Iltalehti presents a few sad human fates. These F1 drivers survived their formula careers, but the thread of life was cut tragically outside the racetracks.
He would have died anyway
Mike Hawthorn won the Formula One world championship in 1958. The gentleman who always raced with a tie around his neck decided to end his career immediately.
The last race of the first ever British F1 world champion was the Moroccan GP on October 19, 1958.
Three months later, Hawthorn sought the charm of speed on public roads. The spree ended tragically when Hawthorn lost control of his car and crashed into a tree at high speed.
Hawthorn, who suffered fatal head injuries, was found thrown in the back seat of his wrecked Jaguar.
Hawthorn’s death was naturally a shock, but it was likely that his lifeline would have been severed very soon even without an accident.
Hawthorn suffered from serious health problems. The infection had damaged his kidneys so badly that doctors had given him just a couple of years to live a little earlier.
Even the legend was afraid
Giuseppe Farina drove hard both on racetracks and on public roads. PDO
The first world champion in F1 history also met his end at the wheel of a civilian car Giuseppe “Nino” Farina.
The 1950 world champion already became known as a risk-averse driver during his racing career. Hospitals became familiar, but despite a few near misses, he finished his career a healthy man.
He also liked to take risks in road traffic. Something about Farina’s driving style was told by the fact that it was not legendary Juan Manuel Fangio agreed to go aboard Farina.
Reckless driving was Farina’s fate. On his way to the 1966 French GP, the Italian overspeeding on a mountain road crashed his Lotus Cortina into a telephone pole with fatal consequences.
Farina was on his way to the race because he was supposed to act as one of the advisers on the cult film Grand Prix motorsport. Farina’s name can be found in the end credits of the tape.
A paralyzed F1 driver crashed into a truck
Andrea de Cesaris got the much-talked-about nickname “de Crasheris” in formula circles. The Italian scrapped one racing car or another in his career that lasted more than 200 GPs.
He drove his last accident 20 years after the end of his F1 career. The 55-year-old’s spree on a motorcycle on the autostrada ended with him falling and crashing into a metal railing.
Sadly, the news of de Cesaris’ death overlooked what happened on the same day Jules Bianchi due to serious injury.
In December 2006, the formula star of the 1970s Clay Regazzoni died when he crashed into the back of a truck at high speed near Parma, Italy.
Regazzoni’s F1 career had ended in 1980 with an accident that resulted in paralysis. Life continued in a wheelchair, but that didn’t stop him from driving a civilian car.
An illegal U-turn killed a father and daughter
Mike Hailwood and his nine-year-old daughter died in a traffic accident. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
Mike Hailwood had a decent F1 career, but he was a legend on two wheels.
“Mike the Bike” won no less than nine world championships in track motorcycles before he turned his interest completely to formula one. An F1 career of 50 GP starts and two podiums was ended by an injury, after which Hailwood returned to motorcycles for another couple of years.
Having survived the most dangerous period in formula and motorcycling, the manner in which Hailwood died seems extraordinarily tragic.
In 1981, Hailwood went to get her children Michelle’s and David’s with a traditional fish ‘n’ chips fast food serving for British culture.
On the way back home, Hailwood’s car collided with a truck that had made an illegal U-turn on the highway.
Nine-year-old Michelle died immediately, father Mike two days later.
The lorry driver who caused the accident was fined only one hundred pounds.
A cozy resting place on its own track
The Interlagos track, which serves as the stage for the Brazilian GP, has the right name Autódromo José Carlos Pace. The name honors someone who died in a plane crash in 1977 Carlos Pace.
Pace, who won one GP in his career, was supposed to grow up to be a world champion Emerson Fittipaldi heir to the mantle, before a small plane crash changed everything.
In 2024, Pace’s mortal remains were moved from a vandalized mausoleum to a burial site at the track that bears his name.
The master flew himself
The plane piloted by Graham Hill crashed into trees in heavy fog. In addition to the F1 champion, five team members died in the accident. PDO
Two years before Pace’s death, a plane crash claimed the life of one legend and one rising star.
After finishing his own race, the two-time world champion Graham Hill founded a racing team bearing his own name.
After tests in France, Hill, a promising driver Tony Brise and four mechanics headed home to London in a small plane that Hill himself flew.
The attempt to land in Sanka in fog ended tragically. The plane piloted by Hill hit the treetops and then fell on the golf course next to the airport. Everyone on board was killed instantly.
The reaper finally found
David Purley’s wrecked aerobatic plane. PDO
David Purley managed to trick the grim reaper a couple of times before fate finally took its toll.
Purley, who joined the paratroopers before his racing career, had died in training when his parachute did not open after jumping from the plane.
Purley somehow managed to land on top of the trainer’s already opened parachute. He got to the ground safely.
In his racing career, Purley is remembered for two things. His heroic action team mate by Roger Williamson to rescue from the sea of flames brought a medal of bravery and magazine photo of the year, but did not save Williamson’s life.
A couple of years later, Purley drove one of the worst crashes in F1 history. Purley’s body was momentarily subjected to a force of almost 180 g, when his car stopped from 170 km/h to zero in just twenty centimeters.
The legs were crushed, but the spirit remained. However, the F1 career was over.
Purley next sought his adrenaline from the upper air.
Purley, who was passionate about aerobatics, ended up plunging into the sea in 1985.
Death at sea
Didier Piron’s F1 career ended in an accident in 1982. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
Didier Pironi was on his way to the 1982 world championship until his legs were crushed at Hockenheim.
Piron’s F1 career was there, but his racing career was not. His hunger for speed found satisfaction in offshore racing of open sea boats.
In 1987, the racing boat piloted by Piron capsized when it collided with the waves raised by an oil tanker. The boat capsized at high speed, killing Piron and two other crew members instantly.
Couldn’t stand life without motorsport
Willy Mairesse didn’t want to live without his passion. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
Willy Mairesse loved motor sports. So much so that he didn’t want to live without it.
The Belgian’s F1 career, known as Rämäpää, ended with a serious injury at the German GP in 1963. After recovering, the man’s career continued with sports cars.
At the start of the 1968 Le Mans race, Mairesse closed his Ford GT40 badly in a hurry. While trying to close it on the Mulsane straight, the car went out of control at over 240 kilometers per hour.
Mairesse, who received serious head injuries in the run-out, was in a coma for weeks, but miraculously he physically recovered from the accident.
Mentally it was different. After the doctors found it impossible to continue his driving career, Mairesse became depressed. Just a year after the accident, he took his own life by locking himself in a hotel room and taking an overdose of sleeping pills.
When Mairesse was finally found, nothing could be done to save her.
Heart attack in the middle of the race
Denny Hulme died of a heart attack in the middle of the race. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
The fates chosen for this story happened outside the racetracks.
Let us allow one exception to this. Denny Hulme died behind the wheel of a racing car, but not in an accident.
The 1967 world champion took part in the Bathurst 1000 km race in 1992 at the age of 56.
Suddenly, the TV pictures showed rescue personnel swarming around Hulme’s car, which had stopped by the side of the track.
The replay showed that Hulme’s car had run very lightly into the wall on the straight road, from there across the track to the other side and finally stopped almost completely undamaged.
What the hell happened?
Hulme had suffered a heart attack in the middle of the race. With his last strength, he had managed to move his foot to the brake pedal and steer his car to the side of the track. When the track officials opened the car door, they encountered the lifeless F1 legend.
Sources: IL-Archisto, F1 Racing, F1 World, Life in the Game (WSOY)
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