Karl Kling

This article deals with the Formula 1 driver Karl Kling; for the civil engineer, local politician, former member of the Bavarian State Parliament, and President of the Allgäu-Swabian Music Association from Krumbach (Swabia): see Karl Kling (politician)

Karl Kling

Nation:	BR Germany
Automobile world championship
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 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 11 - - 1
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.

Karl Kling in the "Silberpfeil" W 196

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

Commons : Karl Kling  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• 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

1. ↑ Sports report of the Federal Government of September 29, 1973 to the Bundestag, printed matter 7/1040, page 67