Piers Courage

Piers Raymond Courage is a racing driver English, born the May 27th 1942 in Colchester and deceased at 28 years, the June 21st 1970, in Zandvoort, in an accident at the time of the GP of the Netherlands. Courage in particular disputed four seasons of championship of the world of Formule 1, of 1967 to 1970. In 27 GP, it registered 20 points, traversed 2 turns at the head and took down two podiums (2nd in Watkins Glen and Monaco in 1969). Its best classification in championship of the world is one 8th place in 1969.

Beginnings in competition

Piers Courage begins in the automobile race thanks to the generous financial support from his father who directs thrives it industrial brewery of Colchester. He thus makes his first weapons at the time of local competitions in 1962 on a Lotus seven.

In 1964, it disputes a whole series of races of Formule 3 in Europe, on Lotus 22, and starts to forge a pretty prize list; (3rd place in Rheims, then 2nd place with Zandvoort) which is worth to him to be committed since 1965 in the stable of Charles Lucas who aligns Brabham. Piers takes down 4 successes at the time of this second countryside. In 1966, Lucas exchanges its Brabham for Lotuses 41 and Piers Courage removes the Craven Trophy has while being essential on Pau, Rouen and Albi.

Formulate 2 and Formulates 1

Piers Courage begins in championship from the world at the time of the GP of South Africa 1967 within the reg. Parnell Racing. He is classified 18th and last on the grid at the wheel of a Formule 2 Lotus 25-BRM V8. It should be recalled that at that time, F1 and F2 dispute the race together. He gives up with the 52e turn on mechanical breakage. He qualifies himself in 13th position in Monaco on a BRM P261 V8 but must give up on slew-round with the 64e turn. They will be its two only participations in 1967.

In 1968, Courage cumulates the championships of the world of F1 (always within the reg. Parnell Racing) and of F2 (within the stable of Frank Williams which entrusts to him the wheel of Brabham BT23). Courage takes down its first success in F2 at the time of the GP of Buenos Aires during the Argentinian temporada. In Formula 1, it disputes 11 GP at the wheel of the new BRM P126 to engine V12. Six abandonments on mechanical breakdown finally do not prevent it from registering its first points in championship of the world: it finishes 6th GP of France then 4th of the GP of Italy and is classified 19th championship of the world.

First promising season with Williams

In 1969, Frank Williams, which decides to engage in F1, recruits it to control Brabham BT26A motorized by V8 Cosworth. Courage disputes 10 GP in the season and is emphasized as of the second race, with the GP of Monaco which it finishes 2nd behind the champion of the test, untouchable the Graham Hill. It is classified in honourable a 5th place in England and repetition in Italy (where it finds leader in the course of GP twice). It takes down a new podium at the time of the Grand Prix of the USA with Watkins Glen, gained by his inseparable friend Jochen Rindt. With 16 points, it is classified 8th pilot championship. Courage, according to its practice, also runs Formulates of them 2 where it gains the GP of the Mediterranean, disputed in Sicily with Enna.

Broken in its dash

In 1970, the good performances of the private small structure draw the attention of the Argentinian industrial rich person of Italian origin Alejandro de Tomaso. He proposes in Frank Williams to engage a frame of Tomaso 505 conceived by Giampaolo Dallara and mû by V8 Cosworth. Out-championship, Courage takes down one 3rd place with BRDC International Trophy. In championship of the world, the results are more disappointing and association Williams-with Tomaso turns quickly to the fiasco: the car is hopelessly slow and not very reliable. Courage does not receive the flag with checkerworks at the time of the first four GP of the season. Then it is the GP of the Netherlands, disputed in Zandvoort. Of Tomaso, to fight its ponderal surplus, used a frame out of magnesium, metal light but sensitive to the flashover. Courage is victim of an exit ramp and its single-seater blazes up quasi-instantanément, the temperature is so high that certain trees neighborhood also take fire. It seems however which Piers Courage did not die not carbonized but that he succumbed at the time of the impact, its helmet having been found far from the blazing inferno.

Three years later, Roger Williamson will be killed at the same place in circumstances close in spite of the efforts desperate to David Purley to extract it from its single-seater in flames. The magnesium used in the design of the frame also at the origin of had died of OJ Schlesser, in 1968 with the GP from France to Rouen-the-Essarts when its Honda RA302 left the track and blazed up following a shock against the slope.

Jochen Rindt

Piers Courage and Jochen Rindt were inseparable friends. They travelled together of one circuit to the other and went down in the same hotels where, with their charming respective wives, they made common table. Jochen Rindt gained the GP of Zandvoort where his/her friend had just found death. In race, on the place of the accident, he saw only one gigantic blazing inferno. Impossible to know which pilot was in the flames or if it had been able to be extirpated some. Rindt taught it tragic news as of the descent from its Lotus 72. On the podium, attacked despair, it will remain impassive (however this GP will certainly remain like one of the more great victories of Rindt in F1).

5 Grand Prix later, on September 5th, 1970, during the tests of the GP of Monza, Jochen Rindt found death in its turn.

Results in F1

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