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Jochen Rindt is remembered principally for one thing. The Austrian holds the tragic record of being Formula 1's only posthumous World Champion. It is only natural that this has come to overshadow the rest of his career but his death in 1970 also robbed the sport of one of its most popular and talented competitors.

Born in 1942 Jochen was raised by his grandparents after both of his parents were killed in an allied bombing raid. Despite his ability the early years of his Formula 1 career were hardly encouraging as he continually found himself in uncompetitive machinery. His Grand Prix debut came at the 1964 Austrian Grand Prix driving for the famous British privateer Rob Walker. It was his only Formula 1 outing of the year but for 1965 he joined the Cooper works team. His time there brought little success with an unwieldy and often overweight car. The only bright spot came at Le Mans in 1965 where he won partnering Masten Gregory. For 1968 he moved to Brabham, who had won the title in the previous two seasons, but unreliability hindered any championship assault. In 1967 and 1968 Jochen also competed in the Indianapolis 500, again with little success.

The turning point in his career came in 1969 with a move to Lotus. Jochen recognised that the team offered him the best chance of winning the World Championship but it was not always a happy relationship. The fertile mind of designer Colin Chapman produced winning cars, but at a cost. Jochen felt that the cars were often under-engineered and prone to failures. After an enormous accident following a wing failure at Montjuich Park in 1969 Rindt became so concerned that he wrote directly to his boss:

Dear Colin,

I just got back to Geneva and I am going to have a second opinion on the state of my head tomorrow. Personally I feel very weak and ill. I still have to lay down most of the day. After seeing the new Doktor [sic] and hearing his opinion we can make a final decision on Monaco and Indy
I got hold of this incredibly [sic] picture which pretty much explains the accident. I didn't know it would fly that high.
Now to our whole situation, Colin. I have been racing F1 for 5 years and I have made one mistake (I rammed Chris Amon at Clermont-Ferrand) and I had one accident at Zandvoort due to gearselektion [sic] failure otherwise I managed to stay out of trouble. This situation changed rapidly since I joined your team. Levin, Eifelrace F2 wishbones and now Barcelona.
Honestly your cars are so quick that we would still be competitive

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