Jo Siffert Fatal Crash Brands Hatch 1971 High Quality Footages. 

My dad and I were 30 feet - 10 metres - away. Can still smell it as I sit on my sofa writing this 51 years later. Jo Siffert was a great driver, more of a sports car expert than an F1 ace, but we consoled ourselves that he would've been killed instantly and not suffered in the searing flames. Whether that was the case or not nobody will know. So many were killed in motor racing back then; a different world with different standards.

"My husband didn't want to go, he was originally supposed to race in the Japanese Grand Prix on the same date but his Porsche couldn't get there. But Jo also loved Brands Hatch, he especially loved Jackie who lived in Switzerland like us and was a good friend. So he went..." - Simone Siffert

Still amazes me how safety crews were so unprepared for these types of incidents

We were there that day. The race was ironically a celebration of Jackie Stewart's winning the world championship and no points were at stake. A day to celebrate motor racing. After parking the car, we realized that somehow we had managed to get into the circuit without paying (I assume we had driven past someone who had thought we had tickets) so for the first time at a formula 1 race we treated ourselves to grandstand seats. During the race we suddenly saw a huge pillar of black smoke coming out of the woods, and then no more cars were racing any more. We could hear the cars but it was obvious that they were stopped. Then all the drivers switched off their engines and there was deadly silence. We didn't know what had happened and there was no information on the speakers until later on when I think they said that Seppi Siffert had crashed, but when we saw the burnt remains of the car being towed back, it was obvious that nobody had got out of the car. A day that started so well and ended so badly. EDIT: I wasn't sure whether to say it here or not, because I still find it distressing to think about, but here is some extra information. After races - especially at Brands Hatch where it could take hours to get out of the car parks, we used to walk around the circuit at the end of the day. When we came to the scene of the accident, a kid was shouting that he had found something in the mud and water, and held up Jo Siffert's watch. I simply can't believe that he only had a leg fracture because the watch was one of those diving watches with a face made of thick glass. The watch was completely smashed and the metal strap was bent and broken, so he must have had serious injuries to his arm too. Ironically I hadn't thought about it for years, but the recent debate about drivers wearing jewellery and watches reminded me.

I was there, somewhere in that film, I was 16 at the time and with my friend Graham. We were stood about half way up the hill when it happened. We ran up to the corner and the heat and smell hit you. Something I will never forget, very sad.

Today, he would have walked away without a scratch. It is sad how Jackie Stewart was criticized for demanding safer cars, safer tracks, better rescue/medical abilities, etc.

One of the most infamously striking accidents in F1 😥 Jo Siffert was a great driver and, particularly, one of the best sportcars driver we can remember. What a cruel coincidence that Siffert and Rodriguez died in secondary races with a short time of separation. In a short period of time we were robbed of a whole bunch of motorsport history.

I was there that day and still remember the horrific moment we saw the massive plume of black smoke rising over the trees. I was at Clearways at the time. The event was run to celebrate Jackie Stewart's second world championship but this sickening event cast a terrible shadow over what had been a very enjoyable event. Sadly there were many such dark days in that period of motor racing and too many lives were needlessly lost. Thank goodness things have changed so much during the past fifty years

I was at the meeting at Brands Hatch that day. I was watching from the bridge that goes over to the country section and was just past mid way over the bridge. The cars came through the section at high speed and the surface both under and just after was pretty bumpy and the cars were bottoming as they climbed an incline to the next corner. As Jo came through his car like the others bottomed and veered violently to the left and hit the dirt bank and turned over and exploded into flames. It seemed pretty clear that something in the suspension had broken, I thought at the rear. I was pretty shaken up with seeing it happen and didn't watch motor racing for quite a while afterwards. I did report at the time what I saw to the authorities. John

You can see all of the drivers on their cars watching not so far from a distance how their fellow driver is dying. I wonder how many of them closed their eyes. That's impossible to erase from their memories.

I was at that meeting - the whole place just fell absolutely silent - we left in utter shock. Louis Stanley was a disgrace stating it was driver error. Rob Walker, years later, managed to find the truth from an ex-BRM mechanic that it was a rose joint that pulled out of the monococque on the rear suspension. Apparently Walker had to use a fair bit of his family's produce to loosen the guy's tongue.

Watching older f1 and indycar races today makes you appreciate the advancement we've made in safety now days. Fatal accidents back then are nothing today. You have to respect any driver that had more than 6 year career.

I met him at Reims. There had a F2 race. He drove a BMW. Later I saw him two times at Spa-Francorchamps. Very great driver with Rodriguez.

I used to race MX with a guy named Milan Garrett back in the mid 70's. He went on to race cars and at some point had bought a March FA car. He got off into the dirt at Laguna Seca on the high speed section of old configuration track, the car flipped a couple of times and he ended upside down back on the tarmac. He said he was stuck in the car for what seemed like an eternity as fuel flowed down all around him from ruptured fuel cell. Scared the s**t out of him and he never road raced again. He did have a nice career racing sprinters though. Passed a few years ago of natural causes. RIP Milan.

"I saw it was Siffert's car, he was leading the race, then I got close the car was on the "start" of the curve I had time to stop pressing the pedal and start braking and when I got close I saw his head was still moving, his car upside down... _Starts crying"_ - Emerson Fittipaldi in the brazilian documentary "A Era Dos Campeões" "[...] then there was a very bad crash in 1971 in Brands Hatch. Jo Siffert with a BRM flipped I tried-I stopped the car to get him out of the car and his car blew up... He was a friend of mine, I lived in Switzerland too [...] and it was another hard blow..." - Emerson Fittipaldi in an interview

This is how it would still be today without Jackie Stewart's efforts.

Scary similar to Niki Lauda's crash 5 years later. Sad to think, but moments like these saved lives in the future 🙏🏼

I remember reading how the other drivers stopped their cars and could only watch one of their mates dying and there was nothing they could to help him . Rest In Peace Jo Siffert . I used to follow you while in India .

I was there that day sitting in the BRSCC stand on the pit straight. I had just told a guest that the worst injury I had witnessed at the track was a broken leg when the huge mushroom of smoke and flame erupted above the trees on South Bank. It was more than the loss of a great driver to me as I had the honour to shake his hand when he won the British Grand Prix in a borrowed Lotus 49 in 1968 when both Graham Hill and Jackie Oliver retired the Team Lotus cars.

He was trapped upside down and died from smoke inhalation. Can you just imagine how long it took to choke from smoke, being with your head so close to the ground...

Cela fait plus de 50 ans......j'en suis encore retourné .....RIP mon cher Jo

Magnesium carries its own oxygen. Once it starts burning, you cannot put it out .

Tragic. RIP Jo

I was there, on a school trip. We were given grandstand places (the school was for pupils who had Cerebral Palsy) so all we could see of the crash was the aftermath but we were in no doubt whatsoever as to the seriousness of the accident. It was still a great day out but severely marred; I remember it like it was yesterday.

Was there that day, saw the smoke, sad day.

It is criminal how underknown and underappreciated Siffert was. Few know, but he was leading the 1970 Le Mans by an extraordinary margin before missing a downshift, ending his run. Siffert was always fast, but extraordinarily unlucky

We were there that terrible day I remember the silence after all the noise of the cars and crowd you could hear the birds it was very strange .the column of smoke over the tree tops and Graham Hill pulling into the pits and throwing his helmet in frustration.

To think these car were petrol tanks on wheels basically.....these men were brave going out racing knowing this could happen to them.

So crazy dangerous, no real fire professionals, no safety people, no wonder so many perished

I saw Jo Siffert drive the Porsche 917/10 to 5th place finish in the Laguna Seca Can-Am one week before this happened. I believe his nickname was Seppi. Great driver and a shame how he died. Porsche was so distraught over the loss of their #1 driver, they turned their Can-Am project over to Roger Penske

Lorenzo Bandini. Roger Williamson. Seppi. Piers Courage. Peter Revson. Fire was , and can still be a terrible factor in F1 and other forms of motor sport.

Geez, What a horrible way to go. I hope he went quick. The poor onlookers wanted to help but couldn't.

Allways remember Seppi Siffert as Swiss i am. Clay Regazzoni also😢

One corner, One mistake , One crash , One life ends... This was the old f1 😥

There's a Emerson Fittipalti account about this crash, saying he saw the driver still moving his head. Fittiplati broke in tears

I was 15 and standing with my friend on the inside bend, something you will never forget and never want to see again.

That's horrible. It looked like the more they tried to extinguish the flames, it got even worse.

Safety at the time of infancy. Scary to look...

So where did the thumbnail image come from? It isn’t in the footage , would really like to know where that picture came from.

This was a terrible way for Jo Stiffer to go. Back then some of the engine parts were made out of magnesium which is super flammable. Four years later Niki Lauda almost suffered the same fate.

I was shocked. I use to live on his street. I delivered his newspaper.

I was there, a very sad day, a great driver lost.

Scary

Car is on fire. Race keeps going. They have ONE fire extinguisher for this. Jeez.

Why is there a graphic warning on this video?? You see nothing but a burning car.

It amazes me how often this sort of thing happened, but yet there was never the proper equipment or manpower to do anything about it other than stand and watch.

F1 until 1982 was pure carnage.

Siffert did not die instantly. Post mortem showed he only had a broken leg.

The guy in the fire suit is like "give me the fire extinguisher we need to save Joe"

Al margen de la inseguridad de aquellos autos, la inoperancia de los grupos de rescate daba miedo.

Man. That fire must have been a bitch for the Fire Marshal in Asbestos suit backing off.

La seule consolation devant ce terrible spectacle c'est de voir à quel point La sécurité a progressé lorsque l'on pense au crash de romain grosjean qui est sorti des flammes indemne.

He did not die I’m vain. Many safety features were introduced after his death to make cars safer with better marshalling and equipmemt

Rest in peace

3 f-e failed ??? Nice quality control

Y pensar que tantos años después sigue habiendo equipos de seguridad igual de ineficientes.

Such a dangerous sport even now, 2024 but thank God they seem to be few and far between nowdays. 😢

RIP Jo Siffert 🙏

The safety crews were like school nurses

C est en son hommage que toutes les Ligiers de course ont ete immatriculées J.S. In those days F1 was very dangerous Jochen Rindt, Francois Cevert , Ronnie Peterson, and so on give their lives fot this passion. Jacky Stewart said ” in sixties sex was safe and race dangerous , in nineties race is safe but sex very dangerous ”

Wasn't it bcuz there was magnesium in parts of the engine that the water just kept the flames exploding so they just let it burn until the truck got there with the dry foam to put it out? Something like 5mins must've felt like an eternity.

I was there , a very sad day

Wow. Nobody wanted to save a life. They were like yup he’s toast.

Ridiculous safety team...un-existed

Don't everyone run to the fire .oh my

Just trying to tie in the original description of this video & comments together. So, was it smoke inhalation or being burned alive that did this poor soul in?

丁度この頃、日本の富士グラチャンで優勝したポルシェ917は元々シファートが旧日本グランプリで走らせていたそのものだったんですよね。

So sad !!

Schrecklich wenn man bedenkt das die Konstruktöre die Autos aus Magnesium Bauten da die Wagen leichter und Schneller wurden !! Gelernt wurde erst daraus als einige Fahrer nach Schrecklichen Unfällen in Ihrern Wagen Verbrennen mussten 🥺🙈😭... Heute zu Tage Undenkbar das diese Raketen so an den Start gegangen sind 🙈 damals Starb in jedem 3 oder 4ten Rennen ein Fahrer bei einem Unfall weil die Autos alles andere als sicher waren 🙈🙈 das waren Bomben auf Rädern

Who was the idiot in the black with stripes that didn't know how to operate a fire extinguisher? Why was there so much confusion?

It's "BAD" when the guys in aluminum moon suits & fire extinguishers give up on you.

Took ages to put out that fire If was like they were on strike or something

Always drive within your limits is the best advice.

Did he die instantly? I hoipe so. Or was it a slow, very painful death as his flesh burned away? :(

so they had no safety trucks or trained firemen or anything ? in England where they don't let you spit off the curb ? shame on them all . Seppi was cool . I hated to always read in Auto Racing magazine every month of another popular driver being killed . That is where we got our news in the US back in the 60s . In that magazine .

While it is absolutely true that crash rescue and emergency medical teams were woefully inadequate, unless the crash happened directly in front of a track fire marshall or crash truck there was never any real hope of rescuing him or any other driver in a fire of that magnitude and intensity. The fire suits they had in those days were absolutely no match for a 2000⁰ aviation gasoline fire. And they had no respiratory protection what so ever. If there was a fuel tank rupture and fire, the drivers were fatally burned in a very few seconds. And every driver knew that.

O apelido também não ajudava......

Even the guy in the space man outfit says... Eff me that's hot.

Cars made of magnesium. Fire retardant just made the fire more intense. These types of cars were banned later.

jesus wept

Ele sabia dos riscos

So they didn’t even get him out they just let him burn. Took their time getting the fire out.

you think this is bad at a small circuit like brands hatch? try monaco where the fools let lorenzo bandini burn up. shame on the thick-skulled promoters for both events.

Lousy grammar.

There's nothing graphic to see, why the pansy warning?

Thumbs down.

what a way to go. BBQ'd

Break out the marshmallows kids

The Horror

Crash? All I see is a big alcohol fire.

So watching a car burn requires a warning? A set of burning racing tires is disturbing? Okay.