Swiss gladiator

Joseph Siffert was born in Fribourg, Switzerland in 1936, of a working class family. He began his racing career on motorcycles and later in cars, financing this activity by dealing in scrap metal and used cars. He was soon going to make his mark as a remarquable racing driver: fast and fearless.

Fast forward. Jo Siffert made his first Formula One appearance in 1962, driving a Lotus 24 in the Belgian Grand Prix. For the second half of the 1964 season, the Swiss bought a Brabham-BRM, and started to make his mark. He placed 4th at the Nürburgring and won a non-championship race in Enna (Sicily) defeating Jim Clark in the race.

These successes in Germany and Sicily, caught the attention of Rob Walker, who teamed Siffert with Sweed Jo Bonnier, beginning with the 1964 US Grand Prix in October. Repaying Walker’s confidence, Siffert achieved his first podium finish in the race, finishing behind Graham Hill and John Surtees.

Siffert stayed for the next few seasons with Rob Walker in F1 but in 1966 and 1967 started to make the transition to the world of sports cars where he will excel at the wheel of Porsches :  Carrera 6 first, then all kind of 908’s in all the important endurance races on the calender and finally in the mighty 917.

If you have the passion for motorsport history like we do, find more than 50 stories about Jo Siffert the Swiss gladiator in the blog The Human Side of Racing.