F1 Jarama 1970, Ickx is saved by a miracle
We are used to dividing the history of Formula 1 between pre and post-Imola 1994. Certainly a very important turning point which definitively motivated the FIA and the teams to improve the safety of the circuits and the cars. Since then “Motorsport is dangerous” has remained a present phrase, but at least in Formula 1 it has lost much of its strength, precisely because the Circus has done an exceptional job, to the point of making us almost forget that this is a dangerous sport. Even in the years in which the dead were counted every year and it took a considerable stomach hair to drive the cars, one could be saved. And the weekend of Jarama of April 19, 1970 – 53 years ago – he is there to testify to it with Jacky’s accident Ickx.
The weekend
In Spain Jack Brabham comes as a favourite, after winning at Kyalami: it is expected that the March and the McLarens will however be able to battle the 1959, 1960 and 1966 world champion. On Saturday there will be endless controversy: Chris Amon, Jean-Pierre are arbitrarily and automatically qualified for the Grand Prix Beltoise, Brabham, Graham Hill, Denny Hulme, Ickx, Jochen Rindt, Pedro Rodriguez, Jackie Stewart and John Surtees, in alphabetical order. The locked grid (later “opened” to only six other contenders) enrages Frank Williams, which has its own team with De Tomaso chassis and Ford Cosworth engine. Driving it is Piers Courage, which however in the warm up ends up against a guard rail at full speed. He emerges incredibly unharmed, unlike what will happen to him just three races later in the terrible Zandvoort fire.
The pre-race
The confusion continues on Saturday evening and Sunday as well: the night before the Grand Prix nobody – except the ten admitted by “law” – knows if he is qualified, there were times not considered by the marshals. So it was decided that 17 should start for the race: out of Adamich, Miles, Siffert, Eaton and Soler-Roig, a local driver who drives a private Lotus 49C. Clamorously, the Count of Villapadierna – president of the Spanish Automobile Club – circulates a petition to admit even Soler-Roig and, in order not to attract too much attention, also the other unqualified ones. At first he succeeds, to the point that the “excluded” are actually on the starting grid, but the International Sports Commission (which will later become FISA) keeps the point and in order not to be overtaken even calls the Civil Guardwhich escorts drivers, personnel and machines off the track, in some cases with quick methods.
Ickx in flames
So the race. No less than 90 laps, and in spite of what was predicted on the eve, Stewart wins. Brabham was let down by the engine as he battled Sir Jackie for the lead after nearly throwing the Grand Prix away with two spins. The first of the Australian’s two mistakes comes when they are trying to shut down a fire. On the first lap, in fact, on the descent towards the Bugatti curve, Jackie Oliver breaks a drive shaft and hits Ickx’s Ferrari full force, which spins, and above all on fire. Oliver manages to get out of his car immediately, but the Belgian is unable to unfasten the harness and gets trapped in 312B many seconds. Nobody comes to his rescue: the commissioners don’t even have a fire extinguisher and the first one who arrives to lend a hand to the Belgian threatens to strangle him because he wants to take off his helmet without undoing it. Ickx understands that if he entrusts himself to those who in theory should save his life, he will end up dying; he manages to extricate himself between the plates and the fire that he has on his back. He lies down on the grass to put out the flames, other commissioners come comically and try to free him from the fire with their bare hands but end up getting burned. Transported to Madrid, Ickx leaves the hospital with some superficial burns. The Belgian he can consider himself a survivor, almost a miracle worker. And Formula 1 once again understands how far it takes to consider itself a safe sport.
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