A McLaren winner and Le Mans champion

Jochen Mass won the shortened 1975 Spanish Grand Prix for McLaren and later won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Sauber in 1989.

Jochen Mass was born in Dorfen, Bavaria, Germany, on September 30, 1946. He raced in Formula Super Vee, Formula Three and European Formula Two, finishing second in the Formula Two championship in 1973. A year earlier he had won the 24 Hours of Spa with Hans Joachim Stuck.

Surtees gave him his Formula 1 debut at the 1973 British Grand Prix, and after occasional outings he drove for the team full time in 1974. Late that season he moved to McLaren, starting from the Canadian Grand Prix. In 1975 he finished third in Brazil and then won the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix, a race that was stopped early, for the only victory of his Formula 1 career.

Mass stayed at McLaren through 1977 and collected several more podiums, finishing sixth in the 1977 championship, the best placing of his career. He spent 1978 with ATS and the next two seasons with Arrows, and he was injured in a practice crash at the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix. After a year away he returned with March in 1982 and retired after the 1982 French Grand Prix.

Our record shows 105 starts, 1 win, 2 fastest laps and 8 podiums with Surtees, McLaren, ATS, Arrows and March. Sports cars brought him lasting success: he entered Le Mans 12 times, won it in 1989 with Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens in a Sauber, and took the 1985 Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft title. He later worked as a commentator for RTL. Mass died in 2025.

0 world titles, 1 wins, 0 pole positions, 105 starts.

Teams

Victories

• Spanish Grand Prix 1975