“I hadn’t met Enzo Ferrari yet, it should have happened in Maranello after the summer. I had reached an agreement with Peter Schetty, who at that time worked a lot with the Cavallino. But in that 1972 I was thinking only of BRM. The first time I got a fairly new one, of the right weight, I was immediately competitive. I had already finished fourth at the Interlagos GP not valid for the championship. On average, I was aiming for the podium. But in France everything went wrong. I remember a downhill curve: I was in front of Ronnie Peterson’s March, when I felt a big blow in the face and immediately a terrible pain. But I knew I had many cars behind me, I raised my hand to signal that I had problems and he managed to pull over to the right. Relief in those days was a bit like that. They loaded me into the back seat of a small car and tried to disinfect the eye at the circuit hospital. There was blood everywhere, and that terrible pain. I knew immediately that it was a serious problem. I was taken to a hospital not far away, but they couldn’t get me the right treatment there. We went to another hospital, but the surgeon was at a barbecue and only arrived at eight in the evening. I was injured shortly after two o’clock. Eventually I was operated on in France, but not until the next day. The eye was already lost. Patience: I lived another life, and I’m happy with it. “
Interview by Roberto Boccafogli with Helmut Marko, FormulaPassion.it, November 2021
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