Happy birthday JACKY ICKX!!!!!!!!!!!!! (01/01/1945) ⚡💜
“The fact that I am still alive after 100.000 laps is my championship.”
Jacques Bernard Ickx, better known as Jacky, was born in Brussels. He's the son of Jacques and Marie, he also has an older brother called Pascal, who was an aviator that later would also become a racing driver before his younger brother. Motorsport was part of Jacky's life since the beginning: his father Jacques was involved in racing before switching career to become a renowned motorsport journalist; thanks to that Jacky picked up the interest in racing and speed, and slowly wanted to be able to take part in the world of mototrsport. His chance came at the age of 16 years old, when he started racing, not on four, but two wheels: the young Belgian started his journey riding a Zündapp, in categories such as trial, enduro and pure speed. It turned out that he was extremely successful, especially in the 50 cc trials, winning both the Belgian and European championships. But quickly his interest turned to the world of four-wheel racing, he began in touring car racing, at the wheel of a Lotus Cortina, with which soon he gained in 1965 the national saloon car championship. The following year will turn out to be an extremely busy one for Jacky, at only 21 years old he took part in more than 50 races, like the 24 hours of Daytona, winning the 24 hours of Spa and partaking for the very first time at the 24 hours of Le Mans; that very same year he also made his first entry in Formula 1, thanks to the racing programme created by Elf and Matra to help french-speaking aspiring drivers.
At the wheel of an F2 Matra MS5-Cosworth, on the infamous circuit of the Nürburgring, Jacky took part in his unofficial first F1 race, although it would be a disappointing one: after colliding with another car, he was forced to retire from the race after only one lap. From that race on, in 1967, Jacky kept racing for Matra, both in Formula 2 and 3, to be able to gain more experience that would help him to win the F2 Championship. It's at the Italian GP that he had a proper and official Formula 1 entry: at the wheel of a Cooper-Maserati, the young Belgian performed brilliantly, finishing in 6th place. After such an impressive performance, teams started to advance their offers, but the most important one was from Franco Lini, sporting director for Scuderia Ferrari. In '68 it was announced that he would be the new Ferrari driver, joining Kiwi Chris Amon in the Italian team, becoming the youngest driver line-up at the time. In his first year in F1, Jacky managed to score his first victory at the French GP and had brilliant performances like the one at his home Grand Prix, at Spa, the one at Brands Hatch and Nürburgring, where he drove almost the entire race without his helmet visor under the heavy German rain. Yet, it came as a surprise when the Belgian driver decided to move to Brabham for the following season, but it turned out that the decision was mainly influenced by John Wyer, manager of the Wyer sports car team, whom didn't want to lose the talented driver to the Ferrari's sports car team. The season started with a series of poor results, but his performance definetely improved in each race. He stepped on the podium in France and Great Britain, he took victories in Canada and at the Nürburgring, where he also took pole position and fastest lap, scoring his first grand slam, and finished the year as runner-up for the championship. For the '70 season Jacky moved back to Ferrari, a decision he made since the '69 Italian GP; he would stay with Scuderia Ferrari for the next three season, which turned out to be not particularly significant: he still gained a few more successes but often the car would have relibility issues, leading him to the decision to leave the team halfway the season. His next move was to move to Lotus, but unfortunately he joined the British team in a very precarious situation: the performance of the car was poor, and often Jacky outperformed the uncompetitive car; once again the Belgian left halfway the '75 season. From 1976 Jacky started racing for the Wolf-Williams team, slowly heading towards the end of his F1 career, since from '77 on he would sporadically race for teams like Ensign and later for Ligier, in which he ended his career in 1979.
Despite having quite a good F1 racing career, often showing his worth and talent, Jacky actually shoned in endurance racing. He partook in endurance races like the Spa 24 hours, 6 hours of Daytona, he won twice the 12 hours of Sebring, three times the 1.000 km of Monza, but the one race in which he excelled at the most was the 24 hours of Le Mans, which he won 6 times and held the record for most wins at the French competition for 23 years.
In the early 80s he also participated in off-road races like the Paris-Dakar, which he would win in 1983 before retiring from racing.
Jacky always showed to be particularly good at racing in wet conditions, joining the list of the few rain masters. He also excelled on the extremely dangerous circuit of the Nürburgring, where 'superior driving skills could beat superior machinery'.
Despite retiring from Formula 1, Jacky has always remained involved with the sport, for example during the mid 80s he became the race director of the Monaco GP. Till to this day Jacky visits F1 paddocks regularly.