Karl Kling
Nation: | BR Germany | ||||||||
Automobile world championship | |||||||||
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First start: | 1954 French Grand Prix | ||||||||
Last start: | 1955 Italian Grand Prix | ||||||||
Constructors | |||||||||
1954–1955 Mercedes-Benz | |||||||||
statistics | |||||||||
World Cup balance: | World Cup fifth ( 1954 ) | ||||||||
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World Cup points : | 17th | ||||||||
Podiums : | 2 | ||||||||
Leadership laps : | 18 over 15,676 km |
Karl Kling (born September 16, 1910 in Gießen ; † March 18, 2003 in Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance ) was a German automobile racing driver .
Life
Kling joined the Mercedes team in 1936 and although he achieved good lap times on test drives , he had to work in the manufacturing department. Racing director Alfred Neubauer favored Rudolf Caracciola , Manfred von Brauchitsch and Hermann Lang .
After 1945 he competed for BMW and Veritas in races in Germany, as the Germans were excluded from participating in international races from 1945 to 1949. Kling became German sports car champion with Veritas in 1948 and 1949 in the 2-liter sports car class, the largest sports car class at the time.
In 1951 he returned to the Mercedes sports car team and in 1952 was able to achieve victory in the Carrera Panamericana across Mexico after a 19-hour drive and second place in the Mille Miglia . He was the first automobile racing driver to be voted German Sportsman of the Year 1952 . In 1953 he had to take a break after a training accident.
In the 1954 Formula 1 season , Kling was part of the newly established Mercedes Formula 1 team, but could not prevail against his teammate Juan Manuel Fangio . He finished second at the French GP in Reims . In the 1955 season , Fangio and Stirling Moss dominated . In the quadruple success of the Silver Arrows at the Grand Prix of Great Britain , he was third on the podium a second time.
At the end of 1955, Mercedes withdrew from Formula 1. Racing director Alfred Neubauer retired and Kling became his successor. Under him as race director, Mercedes won a number of international rallies at the beginning of the 1960s , such as the Rally Poland four times in a row , Monte Carlo 1960, Acropolis 1960, 1000 Lakes 1961, Sofia-Liège-Sofia 1962 and 1963, Grand Road Prize of Argentina 1961 to 1964. His team provided the 1960 European rally champion Walter Schock and 1962 Eugen Böhringer at a time when there was no rally world championship. Kling himself competed in smaller races, his last two victories being in the 1959 Marathon Rallye Mediterranee - Le Cap and in 1961 the Rallye Algiers-Zentralafrika-Algiers .
In 1968 Kling retired and lived in his house in what is now the Gaienhofen district of Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance , where he died in 2003.
He was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf on March 19, 1953 for his athletic achievements .
statistics
Statistics in the automobile world championship
general overview
season | team | chassis | engine | run | Victories | Second | Third | Poles | nice Race laps |
Points | WM-Pos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1954 | Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz W196 | Mercedes 2.5 L8 | 6th | - | 1 | - | - | 1 | 12 | 5. |
1955 | Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz W196 | Mercedes 2.5 L8 | 5 | - | - | 1 | - | - | 5 | 11. |
total | 11 | - | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | 17th |
Single results
season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1954 | |||||||||
2 | 7th | 4th | DNF | DNF | 5 | ||||
1955 | |||||||||
4th | DNF | DNF | 3 | DNF |
Legend | ||
---|---|---|
colour | abbreviation | meaning |
gold | - | victory |
silver | - | 2nd place |
bronze | - | 3rd place |
green | - | Placement in the points |
blue | - | Classified outside the point ranks |
violet | DNF | Race not finished (did not finish) |
NC | not classified | |
red | DNQ | did not qualify |
DNPQ | failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify) | |
black | DSQ | disqualified |
White | DNS | not at the start (did not start) |
WD | withdrawn | |
Light Blue | PO | only participated in the training (practiced only) |
TD | Friday test driver | |
without | DNP | did not participate in the training (did not practice) |
INJ | injured or sick | |
EX | excluded | |
DNA | did not arrive | |
C. | Race canceled | |
no participation in the World Cup | ||
other | P / bold | Pole position |
SR / italic | Fastest race lap | |
* | not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered |
|
() | Streak results | |
underlined | Leader in the overall standings |
Le Mans results
year | team | vehicle | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1952 | Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz 300 SL | Hans Klenk | failure | Electrics |
1953 | SPA Alfa Romeo | Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM | Fritz Riess | failure | drive shaft |
1955 | Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR | André Simon | withdrawn |
Individual results in the sports car world championship
season | team | race car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1953 |
Alfa Romeo Porsche |
Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM Porsche 550 |
SEB | MIM | LEM | SPA | ONLY | RTT | CAP |
DNF | DNF | DNF | |||||||
1955 | Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR | BUA | SEB | MIM | LEM | RTT | TAR | |
DNF | DNF | 2 | 2 |
Fonts
- with Günther Molter: Devil's Journey through Mexico . Blüchert, Stuttgart 1953.
- with Günther Molter: the hunt for victory. A racing driver tells . Blüchert, Stuttgart 1954.
Web links
- Karl Kling in a Mercedes AMG F1 ( Memento from September 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
- Karl Kling ( Memento from September 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- Kling as a book author in the DNB catalog
- Fascination oldtimers ( Memento from February 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sports report of the Federal Government of September 29, 1973 to the Bundestag, printed matter 7/1040, page 67
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Kling, Karl |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German automobile racing driver |
DATE OF BIRTH | September 16, 1910 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | to water |
DATE OF DEATH | March 18, 2003 |
Place of death | Hemmenhofen (Gaienhofen) |