Mikko Kozarowitzky
Michael "Mikko" Kozarowitzky (born May 17, 1948 in Helsinki , Finland ) is a former Finnish automobile racing driver. His favorite motorsport class was the formula V , and he also appeared in 1976 in the Formula 2 and 1977 of Formula 1 at but one race Formula qualified for no. Kozarowitzky was the second Finnish driver in the Formula 1 world championship after Leo Kinnunen .
Sports career
In his youth Kozarowitzky was active as a tennis player. In 1966 he was a member of the Finnish Davis Cup team.
Formula Vee and Super Vee
From 1968 to 1975 Kozarowitzky was involved in Formula Vee and Super Vee . At first, for financial reasons, he only competed in a few selected races on the European continent every year. In 1975, however, Kozarowitzky received support from Germany: the Palatinate rim manufacturer ATS , which took the first steps towards promoting sales in motorsport, financed the Finn's regular appearances in the European and US Super V series. In Europe Kozarowitzky competed with the Scandinavian racing drivers Keke Rosberg and Eje Elgh, among others . Kozarowitzky won the Super-V-Gold-Cup in 1975 with a Lola car and was second in the Castrol GTX Championship and the German Super-V Championship - behind Rosberg.
Formula 2
Debut with ATS
Kozarowitzky's successes in the Super V series prompted ATS owner Hans Günter Schmid to set up his own team in the Formula 2 European Championship with him for the 1976 season . This is how the ATS Racing Team came into being , which took part in the Formula 1 World Championship for several years from 1977 . Kozarowitzky's Formula 2 commitment was financially supported by the Marlboro Finnish subsidiary .
The ATS Racing Team appeared as ATS Wheels in the 1976 Formula 2 season with a Lola T450 . According to observers, this was an immature car that inexperienced teams and inexperienced racing drivers were unable to cope with. Kozarowitzky drove the Lola in the opening race, the Jim Clark memorial race at the Hockenheimring . He qualified but didn't finish the race. At the next run in Thruxton Kozarowitzky fell out with a technical defect. At the third championship run, the Gran Premio di Roma at the Autodromo Vallelunga , he missed the qualification. Then Kozarowitzky separated from ATS; his successors were the American Ted Wentz and the sports car driver and later team owner of Joest Racing , Reinhold Joest .
Project Four Racing
In the summer of 1976 Kozarowitzky moved to Project Four Racing , a racing team founded and run by Ron Dennis , which was connected to Marlboro and had participated in the Formula 2 European Championship since the previous year. Here he became a teammate of Eddie Cheever . Like Cheever, Kozarowitzky also drove a used March 752 with a Hart engine. Project Four reported Kozarowitzky to three championship runs. In one he missed the qualification, while in Rouen and Enna-Pergusa he failed for technical reasons. Kozarowitzky then ended his Formula 2 involvement before the last race of the season.
formula 1
With the support of Marlboro Finland, Kozarowitzky tried to get a cockpit in Formula 1 for the 1977 season. Initially, a use in the British Ensign was under discussion; here, however, the French Marlboro branch enforced an obligation by Patrick Tambay . Alternatively, Kozarowitzky took up negotiations with Frank Williams , who, after his former racing team Frank Williams Racing Cars had merged into Walter Wolf Racing , made a restart with the Williams Grand Prix Engineering team in early 1977 . Williams finally decided on the racing driver Patrick Nève , supported by a Belgian brewery , who brought more sponsorship money with him. Ultimately, Kozarowitzky was signed by the British private team RAM Racing , which had entered seven different drivers for five Grand Prix in 1976. In 1977 RAM Racing used two older March 761 racing cars (chassis 761/3 and 761/8). Both cars were 1,976 in March - works team run and been there several times each damaged in accidents.
The original plan provided that Kozarowitzky should compete as RAM's regular driver at every European world championship run. In the short term, however, the Dutch racing driver Boy Hayje prevailed, who in turn had more sponsorship funds than Kozarowitzky.
Kozarowitzky was finally entered for the first time in the sixth race of the year, the Swedish Grand Prix in 1977 . He received the chassis 761/8. Kozarowitzky had to take part in qualifying without having tested the car beforehand: RAM's founder and team boss John Macdonald had rejected previous test drives for financial reasons and for fear of possible damage by the inexperienced Kozarowitzky. In Anderstorp qualifying , Kozarowitzky drove the slowest lap. His best time was 5.5 seconds above the pole time of Mario Andretti ( Lotus ) and 2.6 seconds above the time required for qualification. His team-mate Hayje was two seconds faster.
Kozarowitzky's second report came about the RAM team's home race, the British Grand Prix . His teammate here was Andy Sutcliffe . In qualifying, Kozarowitzky came off the track while trying to avoid a collision with Rupert Keegan's slow-moving Hesketh on his first fast lap and crashed into the side barrier. Kozarowitzky broke his wrist in the impact. RAMs team boss John Macdonald let Kozarowitzky continue training in Sutcliffes March regardless. His lap time was more than 13 seconds longer than James Hunt's pole time ; Kozarowitzky was eleven seconds short of qualifying. Most observers saw the poor qualities of the March 761 or the allegedly unprofessional organization of the RAM team as the culprit for the failure; others doubted Kozarowitzky's driving skills.
There was no further report about a Formula 1 race. After his accident in the UK, Kozarowitzky never drove a racing car again.
Entrepreneur
After the failed Formula 1 commitment, Kozarowitzky tried, together with racing drivers Howden Ganley and Tim Schenken , to design a Formula 1 car for the 1978 season. The project known as Tiga Race Cars failed due to insufficient funding; Instead, Tiga constructed racing cars that were sold in small series. From 2001 Kozarowizky ran the Matson Motorsport team , which took part in the German Formula Volkswagen Championship for several years . The driver was Mikko Kozarowitzky's son Nikolai .
Race results in Formula 1
| season | team | chassis | engine | run | Victories | Second | Third | Poles | nice Race laps |
Points | WM-Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | RAM Racing | March 761 | Cosworth DFV | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 | 17th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 |
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| DNQ | DNPQ |
| 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 |
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| () | Streak results | |
| underlined | Leader in the overall standings | |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ In the English-speaking world, the spelling Kozarowit s ky is also common.
- ↑ a b Biography of Mikko Kozarowitzky on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on May 9, 2014).
- ^ David Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 140.
- ↑ a b Statistics of the 1976 Formula 2 season on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on May 9, 2014).
- ^ Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams - the inside story of the man behind the cars , London (Macmillan) 1998, ISBN 0-333-71716-3 , p. 61.
- ^ David Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 162.
- ↑ Mike Lawrence: March - the rise and fall of a motoring legend , UK 2001, ISBN 1-899870-54-7 , p. 116.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kozarowitzky, Mikko |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kozarowitzky, Michael |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish racing car driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 17, 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Helsinki |