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| Jacky Ickx Tribute Page | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1966-1968; The Early Years |
Jacky Ickx, born as Jacques-Bernard Ickx on the 1st of january 1945 in Brussels, starts his F1 career at the Nurnburgring in 1966, where he drives a F2 car. He immediately drives 21 seconds faster as the second car in the field and only two F1 drivers are in front of him, Hulme and Clark. Forced by the regulations he has to start behind the entire F1 field but after 4 laps he's already 5th. Unfortunately he retires after 12 laps. Although his retirement he makes a strong impression at the F1 teammanagers. On the 10th of september he makes his official F1 debute at the GP of Monza in a Cooper-Maserati, he finishes 6th. in 1968 Ickx drives F1 for the Scuderia Ferrari. He retires from his first 2 GP's, but at his home GP at Spa-Francorchamps he starts from the front row and finishes 3d. At Zandvoort he finishes 6th. At the French GP at Rouen he takes his first win, in the pouring rain!! Ickx also finishes 3d at Brands Hatch and 4th at the Nurnburgring. At Monza he ends the race in 3d position, after driving almost the entire race without his vizir. In Canada luck leaves him when he crashes and brakes his left leg. With this crash his season is over. | |||||||||||||||||||
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In 1969 Ickx drives for the team of Jack Brabham, triple champion. But the team is focused on owner Brabham. His first results are poor, but when Brabham breaks his foot, Ickx gets the first car and things immediately start to improve. Jacky finishes 3d in France, 2nd in England and wins the GP's of Canada and Germany, which he sees as his best win ever! In the GP of Mexico Jacky finishes 2nd and becomes vice-champion. He decides to leave Brabham because he has become a too great driver to be the 2nd man. In 1970 Jacky returns at Scuderia Ferrari. As in 1969 he starts his season weak. During the GP of Spain he has a crash and his car catches fire, he can only escape from the car after 20 seconds and ends up in the hospital with sevear burns. After 17 days he's already back in his car and re-enters at the GP of Monaco, but his Ferrari is no match for the Lotus of Rindt. The car starts to improve and at the German GP at Hockenheim he fights with Rindt for the win, but he finishes 2nd. At the Austrian GP it's Ickx that takes the win. In Monza faith strikes and Rindt looses his life during the free practice. All of a sudden Ickx is the only driver who's able to take the championship from Rindt. Ickx takes the win at Canada but during the next GP he only finishes 4th. So he has to give up his championship dreams. Maybe for the better, because there's not much honour in taking the title from a driver that's passed away. The GP of Mexico is again for Jacky. In 1971 Ickx and Ferrari start as the favorites, but as we all know the championship went to the other Jacky, Stewart, and Tyrrell. This is due to the fact that (as always) Ferrari starts the season with its full attention on the prototype-championship, and only half trough the season it turns its attention to the F1 championship. Ickx is able to win the GP at Zandvoort, but after that he has a lot of retirements, while Stewart takes one win after the other. The Scot and Belgian not only fight on the track that season but also off the track. Stewart's constantly fighting for more safety in F1, while Ickx thinks by doing that you take the challenge out of F1 (spoken as a true racer!!). in 1972 Ickx stays at Ferrari and finishes 2nd in Spain and Monaco. After that the Ferrari only gets noticed by its retirements. At the Nurnburgring Ickx is eager to show it's his track and gives his great rival Stewart no chance at all. | 1969-1972; The Glory Period | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 1973-1979; The Aftermath |
In 1973 the Ferrari is not competitive and Ickx only manages one 4th place during the opening GP of the season. Halfway trough the season Jacky leaves the Scuderia in a fight. He races the next GP in a McLaren and gets the 3d place. When Jacky signs with the Team Lotus in 1974 a difficult period awaits him. Lotus has difficulties to replace the succesful Lotus72 and Ickx only manages a 3d place in Brasil. After the Brasilian GP it downwards with the results of the Lotus-Ford. 1975 is even more disastrous and Ickx leaves the team halfway troughout the season, eventhough he manages a 2nd place in the chaotic GP of Spain. It seems like the end is near. In 1976 Ickx signs at Wolf and later at Ensign. Jacky now concentrates fully on the long distance races (where he has been very succesful)and rallying. Only now and then does he race a GP. In 1979 he ends his career as a GP driver at Ligier, but still continues to win a lot of races in various sportscar series (he's a 6 times winner of the 24h race at Le Mans !!). It is obvious that during 10 years of racing in F1 Ickx has put his mark on this glorious sport. And he should not be forgotten !!! I hope you enjoyed this "brief" summary of jacky's career, that contains more than GP racing, but also endurance racing and rallying, both in which Jacky was very succesful !!! Jacky's career; *114 Grand Prix' *181 points *8 victories *25 podiums *13 poles *25 first rows *14 fastest laps Please mail your comments to me, thanks !!! | |||||||||||||||||||
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