Death came at Monza: Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips died 65 years ago

Some racing drivers’ careers come to an abrupt end, just moments before a hard-won victory. This was also the case for Wolfgang Alexander Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips: On 10 September 1961, at 3.04 pm, just a few metres before the Curva Sud at the Monza Autodrome, a German Formula 1 prodigy lost his life, taking 14 spectators with him. Travelling at 240, his Ferrari 156 had suddenly slowed down; Jim Clark, driving a Lotus behind him, was about to overtake when von Trips’ car veered to the left and the two racing cars collided.

The red racing car skidded, rolled over and crashed into a wire fence, behind which a large crowd of spectators stood packed tightly together. Had the accident not happened on the second lap, the German could have become world champion that day – at that point, he was just a single point behind his team-mate Phil Hill (USA), who went on to win the championship.

Yet the young count could have led a very different life during his 33 years. As the last scion of a noble family whose origins can be traced back to the 12th century, he came from a distinguished lineage. After a sheltered upbringing at the family seat, Hemmersbach Castle near Kerpen, the only son of Imperial Count Eduard Berghe von Trips and his wife Johanna Adelheid attended grammar school, lived at a boarding school and eventually trained as a farmer, graduating with a diploma. He joined a Munich bank as a trainee and had every opportunity for a secure future in his Lower Rhine paradise.

But the motor racing bug had already taken hold of him at the age of 22. At first, despite not being in good physical shape due to childhood illnesses, he competed on a BMW motorbike and, under the pseudonym Axel Linther – ‘so as not to worry my parents’ – took part in small races in a VW Beetle. Success came quickly, as did his first Porsche 356 A. In 1954, he became German Champion in the GT class up to 1,600 cc; just one year later, he had risen to become a Mercedes works driver, racing a 300 SL.

His path to the highest echelons of motorsport seemed all but mapped out, but Mercedes withdrew from Formula 1. Now, in 1956, he became the first German driver to receive an offer from Enzo Ferrari to drive for his Scuderia; together with the Italian Umberto Maglioli, he contested the 1,000-kilometre race at the Nürburgring and promptly finished fourth. He also competed here in 1958, this time in a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, and finished third.

Topic of the week

2027 MotoGP grid: Almost a quarter of the riders are new – implications for SBK

The 2027 MotoGP grid will feature five new regular riders, with at least three of those dropped set to move to the World Superbike Championship. The ones to suffer as a result are Alvaro Bautista and Danilo Petrucci.

Ivo Schützbach

Read more

TV program

Live

Madrid: Das Rennen Re-Live

FIA Formula One World Championship

13.09.2026 - 17:30

In 1957, however, ‘Count Crash’ – as the count was quickly nicknamed due to his numerous crashes – had an accident on the Nordschleife. Whilst braking before the Breitscheid section of the track, he mistook the pedals in a Ferrari 250 GT – at that time, the accelerator pedal was still positioned in the centre. Three months in a plaster cast were the painful consequence for the hapless driver.

Following further successes in sports car racing, driving both Ferraris and Porsches, von Trips made his Formula 1 debut on 13 January 1957 at the Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires. He then scored his first points that same year at the race in Monza, finishing third behind Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio. Following a rather lacklustre Formula 1 season in 1958 and a crash at the first Lesmo corner in Monza involving Harry Schell’s BRM, Enzo Ferrari sent him back to his sports car team – a great act of leniency from the otherwise rigorous team owner.

Nevertheless, the fast Count remained loyal to the racing single-seaters, driving a Formula 2 Porsche, but had little luck there either: as early as the first race of the season in Monaco, he crashed at the Saint-Devote corner. In 1960, he was finally allowed back into the Ferrari team, scoring ten World Championship points in the Dino 246 and finishing seventh in the overall standings. In 1961, when a change to the regulations meant Ferrari had a superior car in the new Type 156, he went on to secure his only two Grand Prix victories at Zandvoort and Aintree (Great Britain).

Von Trips beim Grossen Preis der Niederlande 1961

Foto: Grand Prix Photo

The Ferrari 156 was the first mid-engined Ferrari Formula 1 car; its six-cylinder engine produced around 190 PS and, weighing just 420 kilograms, it was in a class of its own compared to the competition. Connoisseurs still appreciate this model today for its ‘shark’s snout’; von Trips once described this car as a pike in comparison to a whale – the earlier, front-engined Dino 246, which was somewhat more cumbersome to drive.

However, Count Berghe von Trips was not only interested in Formula 1 cars; he also had an idea for how young drivers could get their hands on a junior racing car. To this end, together with the Italian coachbuilder Medardo Fantuzzi and designer Valerio Colotti, he had developed a small car for formula racing, powered by a three-cylinder two-stroke mid-mounted engine designed by the German racing driver Gerhard Mitter, which delivered no less than 85 PS.

Unfortunately, the car was not (yet) competitive with British racing cars when it was first introduced. Trips would have liked to have continued its development, despite a fatal accident during test drives. But his own fatal crash not only brought this interesting project to an end, but also the life’s work of a man who had once said of himself: “It’s not the thrill of speed that makes me happy. I drive because I enjoy it.”