On Sunday during the 2025 F1 Miami Grand Prix, one of F1’s oldest living GP winners, Jochen Mass, passed away aged 78.
Early career
Mass began his career in the late 60s. He progressed to Formula Two in 1972, but his main focus that year was the European Touring Car Championship. Mass won five times and took eight podiums. This was against a field which included former F1 drivers. He also debuted at the 24 Hours of Le Mans but retired from the race.
He impressed in F2 as well with two wins and two podiums in the opening six races. This helped him earn a promotion to Surtees’ F1 team.
Mass would finish second in F2 overall that year behind Jean-Pierre Jarier, beating Patrick Depailler for second in the standings. In Formula One, Mass averaged 15th in starting place. He also finished seventh in the British Grand Prix, which was a race of attrition.
In 1974, Mass started his first full season in Formula One. He retired from eight races of the ten he did with Surtees. Out of the eight retirements, none were crash-related, but mechanical. Compared to teammate Carlos Pace, he struggled in race trim, but outqualified Pace on several occasions.
Joining McLaren
McLaren needed a driver to replace the retiring Denny Hulme. Mass was hired to replace him for 1975, with him driving the final two races with Hulme and Emerson Fittipaldi.
After finishing 14th in Argentina, Mass scored points in four consecutive races. This included taking his maiden (and later only) victory in Formula One in the Spanish Grand Prix. The race however was marred by the deaths of four spectators. After this, the race was finished before 60% completion, so Mass’ win was more of a “half win.”
After three consecutive retirements, Mass had a mixed run of form, taking two third place finishes and a fourth, but several retirements.
The following year, McLaren’s performances simply weren’t as good as in 1976. Mass was much closer to Hunt however, as two podiums and another six points finishes put him 15 points behind Hunt, who took most of his points from three wins.
The following year is arguably one of the worst for a teammate of a world champion, as his teammate in 1976 was James Hunt and whilst Hunt had an incredible season and won the title, Mass scored only two podiums and was ninth in the standings. Although he scored eight points finishes which was more than Clay Regazzoni, Mario Andretti, John Watson and Jacques Laffite, who finished ahead of him in the standings.
End of F1 career, success in sportscars
After he was sacked by McLaren, Mass had several difficult years with smaller teams such as ATS, Arrows and March.
In 1982, Mass was involved in two serious accidents. He was involved in the death of Gilles Villeneuve, as a miscommunication between the two on track at Zolder caused Villeneuve to go over the top of Mass. The other major crash ended Mass’ F1 career when, at the French Grand Prix, he went through a catch fencing and into a spectator area. Thankfully no one died. Mass was seriously injured, as were several spectators.
Mass had done several Le Mans races since 1978. After he retired from F1, he especially focused on endurance racing and was extremely successful. He finished runner-up in the World Sportscar Championship twice in 1984 and 1989 driving for Porsche and Sauber. After nine attempts of winning Le Mans, Mass finally claimed victory at the famous French track in 1989 with Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens driving for Sauber Mercedes. Not only this, but Mass also won the DTM title in 1985.
He retired from racing at the end of 1995.
Mass dies, aged 78
Almost thirty years after he left the track, Mass, aged 78, passed away in Cannes, France, as a result of complications from a stroke he suffered in February. Mass won one F1 race, took 8 podiums and two fastest laps and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1989.
