Wolfgang Seidel (racing driver)

Wolfgang Seidel (racing driver)

Nation:	BR Germany
Automobile world championship
First start:	1953 German Grand Prix
Last start:	1962 British Grand Prix
Constructors
1953 Veritas 1958 Maserati 1958, 1960 Cooper 1961 Lotus 1962 Emeryson Cars 1962 Lotus
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 10 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Wolfgang Seidel (born July 4, 1926 in Dresden , † March 1, 1987 in Munich ) was a German automobile racing driver who mainly drove sports car races and also started in Formula 1 on a case-by-case basis .

Career

Wolfgang Seidel was a trained businessman. His motorsport career began in 1950 with the Internationale Rheinlandfahrt. In the following three years he drove sports car races in a Veritas RS , with which he and Josef Peters finished fifth in the overall classification at the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1953 and in the same year he contested the German Grand Prix, which he ranked 16th finished.

formula 1

Seidel competed in ten races for the drivers' world championship and drove such different makes as the Maserati 250F , the Lotus 18 , the Lotus 24 and the Cooper models T45 and T43 . The best placing he achieved was ninth at the Italian Grand Prix in 1960. His last Grand Prix was the 1962 British Grand Prix in Aintree .

Sports car

Seidel celebrated his greatest successes as a sports car driver. At the Sebring 12-hour race in 1958 , he and Harry Schell finished third in the overall standings and won the sports car with a capacity of up to 2 liters (various sources also state that Jean Behra was the second driver). In 1959, he and Edgar Barth won the Targa Florio in a Porsche 718 RSK . Between 1955 and 1960 Seidel competed five times in the Le Mans 24-hour race . He only crossed the finish line in 1955 and 1960, when he and Edgar Barth finished eleventh overall. In 1955 he even achieved fifth place overall, which he shared with Olivier Gendebien in the Porsche of the Equipe Nationale Belge.

Revocation of the license

In 1962, the ONS Seidel withdrew his racing license after he had publicly criticized the sports authorities and the AvD as the organizer of the German Grand Prix. This was preceded by the fact that Seidel was not allowed to compete in the 1962 German Grand Prix because, instead of the at least five training laps required by the regulations at the time, he had only completed four training laps on the Nordschleife due to a technical defect. After the criticism, the AvD withdrew his membership and the ONS imposed a lifelong ban, which was however corrected to two years. By participating in a race in Mexico that was not part of the world championship, despite the ban, Seidel wanted his case to be heard by the FIA's international sports court, which it did not. As a result, and because he feared that he would lose touch with the level of performance of his competitors in two years, he ended his motorsport career and worked from then on as a car salesman.

Private

During his time as a racing driver, Wolfgang Seidel lived in Düsseldorf. He died of heart failure on March 1, 1987 in a Munich hospital.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1953	Wolfgang Seidel	Veritas RS	Veritas 2.0 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1958	Scuderia Centro Sud	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
	Rob Walker Racing Team	Cooper T43	Climax 1.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
1960	Wolfgang Seidel	Cooper T45	Climax 1.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1961	Scuderia Colonia	Lotus 18	Climax 1.5 L4	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1962	Ecurie Maarsbergen	Emeryson 1006	Climax 1.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
	Autosport Team Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus 24	BRM 1.5 V8	1	-	-	-	-	-
total				10	-	-	-	-	-	-

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1953
							16
1958
					DNF			DNF			DNF
1960
									9
1961
			DNS		17th	DNF	DNF
1962
	NC				DNF	DNQ

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
1955	Equipe Nationale Belge	Porsche 550 / 4RS 1500 Spyder	Olivier Gendebien	Rank 5
1957	Wolfgang Seidel	DKW Monza Coupé	Heinz Meier	failure	Engine failure
1958	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR 58	Wolfgang von Trips	failure	accident
1959	Porsche KG	Porsche 718 RSK	Edgar Barth	failure	Gearbox damage
1960	Porsche KG	Porsche 718 RS60	Edgar Barth	Rank 11

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1958	Porsche KG	Porsche 718 RSK	Harry Schell	3rd place and class win

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th
1953	Wolfgang Seidel	Veritas Comet RS	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
							5
1955	Porsche Equipe National Belge	Porsche 550	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
					8th	5	12
1956	Wolfgang Seidel	Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Porsche 550	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
					7th	DNF	11
1957	Wolfgang Seidel Scuderia Ferrari	Mercedes-Benz 300 SL DKW 3 = 6 Monza Ferrari 250TR	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
					DNF	21st	DNF	DNF	3
1958	John von Neumann Porsche Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR Porsche 718 RSK	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
			DNF	3	DNF	5	DNF
1959	Porsche	Porsche 718 RSK	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				1	DNF	DNF
1960	Wolfgang Seidel Porsche	Porsche 718 RSK	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
			DNF				11
1962	Peter Nöcker Wolfgang Seidel	Ferrari 250 GT Fiat-Abarth 700	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
								10	5

Web links

• Wolfgang Seidel at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Michael Behrndt, Jörg-Thomas Födisch, Matthias Behrndt: German racing drivers. Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2008, ISBN 978-3-86852-042-2
2. ↑ Anger at noon . In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 , 1962 ( online ).
3. ↑ Program for the Grand Prix of Europe 1961, page 40