(born
January 31 1930 in
Djurgården ,
Stockholm ,
Sweden ; died
June 11 1972 ) was a
Sportscar Racing and
Formula One driver who raced for various teams.
A member of the wealthy
Bonnier Family , he entered Formula 1 in 1956 with a
Maserati . His greatest achievement in F1 was getting a victory for
BRM in the
1959 Dutch Grand Prix at
Zandvoort , when the notoriously unreliable car worked well for once (
Dan Gurney and
Hans Herrmann had bad crashes after brake failures). He also won the
1960 German Grand Prix with a
Porsche 718 , a race held for
Formula 2 in preparation for the rule change of 1961. Bonnier was one of the driving forces behind the
Grand Prix Drivers' Association .
Despite his win for BRM, Bonnier did not drive for many works teams throughout his career, with only one-offs as a replacement driver for
Lotus ,
Brabham and
Honda . After his debut in a works Maserati, he then drove for his own ''Joakim Bonnier Racing Team'' and for Mimmo Dei's
Scuderia Centro Sud in the late 50s, before finding a spot in the BRM and
Porsche teams.
After Porsche quit Grand Prix racing at the end of the
1962 Season , Bonnier switched to
Rob Walker Racing Team , the only privateer that had scored wins in World Championship events, where he drove
Coopers and Brabhams, scoring few points.
In 1966 he reformed his own team as Anglo-Suisse Racing Team (later to be renamed Ecurie Bonnier), but his interest in F1 gradually diminished. His last full season was 1968, in which he traded his old Cooper T86 for an also old
McLaren M5A. He raced occasionally in F1 until 1971.
Alongside F1, Bonnier also took part in many sports car races. He won the 1960
Targa Florio , co-driving a works Porsche 718 with
Hans Herrmann , and in 1962 took a
Ferrari 250 TRI entered by
Count Giovanni Volpi to top honors in the
12 Hours Of Sebring , sharing the car with
Lucien Bianchi . In 1963 he was once again winner at the Targa Florio, with
Carlo Mario Abate in another works Porsche 718.
1964 was his best year in
Sports Car Racing , where he co-drove a
Ferrari P entered by ''Maranello Concessionaires'' with
Graham Hill , taking a 330P to second place in the
24 Hours Of Le Mans and to a win at
Montlhery , while a 12 hour race in
Reims also gave him a first place in a 250LM.
He then won the 1000km of
Nürburgring in a
Chaparral in 1966, his last win in a major sports car event, but still managed to snatch victories in the minor 1000km of Barcelona at
Montjuich in 1971 (with
Ronnie Peterson ), and the 4 Hours of
Le Mans in 1972 (with
Hughes De Fierlandt ). By then, he had taken to managing his team, entering several cars in
World Sportscar Championship events, and taking a backseat to driving, but was nevertheless killed at Le Mans in 1972 when his
Lola -
Cosworth T280 collided with a
Ferrari Daytona driven by
Florian Vetsch .
