Hans Herrmann (23 February 1928 – 9 January 2026) was a German Formula One and sports car racing driver from Stuttgart.

In F1, Herrmann participated in 19 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 2 August 1953. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 10 championship points.

In sports car racing, Herrmann also scored the first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Porsche in 1970, in a Porsche 917.

After the death of Tony Brooks in 2022, Herrmann became the last surviving F1 podium finisher from the 1950s.

Early career The racing career of Herrmann, who was a baker by trade, spans from cooperation with pre-war legends like Alfred Neubauer to the beginning of the dominance of Porsche at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He took part in now legendary road races like Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and Carrera Panamericana and was one of the few remaining witnesses of this era. Hans im Glück (lucky John) escaped from several spectacular incidents or accidents.

Herrmann had a remarkable Mille Miglia race in 1954, when the gates of a railroad crossing were lowered in the last moment before the fast train to Rome passed. Driving a very low Porsche 550 Spyder, Herrmann decided it was too late for a brake attempt anyway, knocked on the back of the helmet of his navigator Herbert Linge to make him duck, and they barely passed below the gates and before the train, to the surprise of the spectators.

Mercedes-Benz From 1954 to 1955, Herrmann was part of the Mercedes-Benz factory team, as a junior driver behind Juan Manuel Fangio, Karl Kling, Hermann Lang and later Stirling Moss. When the Silver Arrows came back for the 1954 French Grand Prix to score a 1–2 win, Herrmann drove the fastest lap but had to retire. A podium finish at the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix was his best result in that year as he had to use older versions of the Mercedes-Benz W196, or the least reliable car.

In the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix, his teammates Kling and Moss had to abandon early due to the extremely hot conditions on the southern hemisphere in January. Herrmann was called in to share his car with them for a fourth-place finish, giving one point each. Fangio won with two laps more. Herrmann was quick in the 1955 Mille Miglia with the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, comparably or even faster than Moss, but was less lucky than in 1954, as he had to abandon the race.

A crash in practice for the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix put Herrmann out for the ill-fated 1955 season, even though a comeback in the Targa Florio was intended.

Various marques The next years saw Herrmann racing for many marques, in F1 for Cooper, Maserati and BRM. In Berlin's AVUS during the 1959 German Grand Prix the brakes of his BRM failed, he crashed in a spectacular way, being thrown out of the car and sliding along the track with the car somersaulting in the air.

With different versions of the Porsche 718 being used as a sportscar and as a Formula Two car, Herrmann scored some wins for Porsche, mainly both the 1960 12 Hours of Sebring and 1960 Targa Florio. When the open wheeled single seater version of the 718, the Porsche 787 became eligible for Formula One in 1961 due to the rule changes, the results in F1 were disappointing. Herrmann finished 15th (last) in the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix, which was the first ever F1 World Championship race to have no retirements. He left Porsche at the beginning of the 1962 season feeling that he as a local from Stuttgart was No Prophet In His Own Land compared to Californian Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier from Sweden. Gurney scored two F1 wins (one non-championship) with the new flat-8 Porsche 804, but Porsche retired from F1 anyway at the end of 1962, to return to GT and sportscar racing.

Abarth With the small cars of the Italian Abarth marque Herrmann spent 1962 to 1965 driving in minor races and hillclimbing events. He only took outright wins in lesser sports car racing events, such as at AVUS or the 500 km Nürburgring. The Abarths were hard to beat in their classes from 850cc to 1600cc, though. Being the only pro in a small team Herrmann learned a lot about testing and developing, which helped him later. However, being dissatisfied with the preparation of his car for the 1965 Schauinsland practice, Hans went home to witness the birth of his son, Dino. At the end of the year, he left Abarth for good to return to the manufacturer closer to his home.

Porsche

In 1966, Herrmann returned to Porsche for a comeback with the brand in which he had started his career in 1953. Led by the young engineer and grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, Ferdinand Piëch, Porsche started a serious effort in the 1966 World Sportscar Championship, with the Porsche 906 Carrera 6 that featured the first flat-6 engine, related to the one in the Porsche 911. It was run as a prototype until 50 were built and homologation as a Group 4 sportscar was completed. Starting the season in North America, Herrmann scored the best Porsche 906 results at the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona and the Sebring 12 Hours, important to win customers.

Following several podium finishes with the still underpowered two liter Porsche 906 and later models, he won the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche 907 as well as the Sebring 12 Hours again, now together with Swiss Jo Siffert. The overall win of the 1000km Nürburgring always eluded him, even though Herrmann had taken part in each of these races at the Nürburgring since they were introduced in 1953, and had finished second three times in a row from 1968 to 1970, behind teammates Jo Siffert and/or Vic Elford. Herrmann could not repeat a win at the Targa, a special race for which Porsche prepared its factory drivers with nauseating onboard films, and private early morning practise runs in the weeks before the race in May. At the 1969 Targa Florio Porsche entered no less than six brand new open top Porsche 908/02 for a dominating 1-2-3-4 finish.

Herrmann missed the win in the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Porsche 908 by only 120 meters , but it was he who finally scored the long-awaited first overall victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours for Porsche in 1970. He was assigned to Porsche Salzburg, the Austria-based factory-backed team owned by the Porsche family, which mainly entered cars painted red and white, the Austrian colors. In heavy rain, he and his teammate Richard Attwood survived with their Porsche 917K #23 as the best of only seven finishers.

Retirement and death Half jokingly, Herrmann had promised to his wife before the Le Mans race that he would retire in case of a win there. Having witnessed fatal accidents of colleagues too many times, e.g. before the 1969 German Grand Prix when his teammate and neighbor Gerhard Mitter died, the 42-year-old announced his retirement on TV, after having driven the winning car in a parade through Stuttgart from the factory to the town hall. To get out of his contract with Porsche Salzburg, Herrmann had to recommend a replacement driver to Louise Piëch.

Using his contacts, Herrmann built a successful company for automotive supplies. He was kidnapped once in the 1990s and kept in a car trunk for many hours before escaping.

Herrmann remained engaged in the racing community through his retirement, demonstrating historical cars at events such as the Solitude-Revival.

Herrmann died on 9 January 2026, at the age of 97.

Racing record

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1953 Porsche KG Helmut Glöckler Porsche 550 Coupé S 1.5 247 16th 2nd 1954 Porsche KG Helmut Polensky Porsche 550/4 RS 1500 Spyder S 1.5 148 DNF DNF 1956 Porsche KG Umberto Maglioli Porsche 550A/4 RS S 1.5 136 DNF DNF 1957 Automobiles Porsche Richard von Frankenberg Porsche 500A RS S 1.5 87 DNF DNF 1958 Porsche KG Jean Behra Porsche 718 RSK Spyder S 2.0 291 3rd 1st 1959 Porsche KG Umberto Maglioli Porsche 718 RSK S 2.0 78 DNF DNF 1960 Porsche KG Maurice Trintignant Porsche 718 RS 60 S 2.0 57 DNF DNF 1961 Porsche System Engineering Edgar Barth Porsche 718/4 RS Coupe S 2.0 306 7th 2nd 1962 Porsche System Engineering Edgar Barth Porsche 356B Abarth GT 1.6 287 7th 1st 1966 Porsche System Engineering Herbert Linge Porsche 906/6L Carrera 6 P 2.0 338 5th 2nd 1967 Porsche System Engineering Jo Siffert Porsche 907/6L P 2.0 358 5th 1st 1968 Porsche System Engineering Jo Siffert Porsche 908 P 3.0 59 DNF DNF 1969 Porsche System Engineering Gérard Larrousse Porsche 908 Coupé P 3.0 372 2nd 1st 1970 Porsche KG Salzburg Richard Attwood Porsche 917K S 5.0 343 1st 1st

Complete Formula One World Championship results (key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pts Hans Herrmann Veritas Meteor Veritas 2.0 L6 ARG 500 NED BEL FRA GBR GER SUI ITA NC 0 Daimler Benz AG Mercedes-Benz W196 Mercedes M196 2.5 L8 ARG 500 BEL FRA GBR GER SUI ITA ESP 7th 8 Daimler Benz AG Mercedes-Benz W196 Mercedes M196 2.5 L8 ARG MON 500 BEL NED GBR ITA 22nd 1 Officine Alfieri Maserati Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 ARG MON 500 FRA GBR NC 0 Scuderia Centro Sud GER PES ITA Scuderia Centro Sud Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 ARG MON NED 500 BEL FRA GBR GER POR NC 0 Jo Bonnier ITA MOR Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper T51 Maserati 250S 2.5 L4 MON 500 NED FRA GBR NC 0 British Racing Partnership BRM P25 BRM P25 2.5 L4 GER POR ITA USA Porsche System Engineering Porsche 718 Porsche 547/3 1.5 F4 ARG MON 500 NED BEL FRA GBR POR ITA USA 28th 1 Porsche System Engineering Porsche 718 Porsche 547/3 1.5 F4 MON GER ITA USA NC 0 Ecurie Maarsbergen NED BEL FRA GBR 1966 Roy Winkelmann Racing Brabham BT18 (F2) Ford Cosworth SCA 1.0 L4 MON BEL FRA GBR NED GER ITA USA MEX NC 0 1969 Roy Winkelmann Racing Lotus 59B (F2) Ford Cosworth FVA 1.6 L4 RSA ESP MON NED FRA GBR GER CAN ITA USA MEX NC 0 Notes – Shared drive with Karl Kling and Stirling Moss

References

Further reading Frank Wiesner: Hans Herrmann Story, Motorbuch Verlag, 2008, Bernhard Völker: Hans Herrmann – Ein Leben für den Rennsport, Motorbuch Verlag, 1998, Hans Herrmann – Ich habe überlebt, Motorbuch Verlag, 1971

External links

official Homepage of Hans Herrmann