We need to talk about: Stefan Bellof.
Fast, fearless, and ambitious.
Stefan Bellof was born to be a champion, the truth is that he had everything for it: natural talent, determination, and an even temper. Despite having so much to show off, fate, unfortunately had other plans for him.
Stefan's passion for racing was already in his family since his father Georg had previously taken part in rallies and mountain races. With his dad as his role model Stefan and his brother Goa grew up with a great interest in fast-paced sports like karting. Their grandfather gave to them two karts and got their karting careers on the road.
Bellof made his karting debut in 1973 in the Oppenrod Karting Club a very normal career start that many racing drivers go through. Three years later in 76, Bellof claimed his first karting title by winning the International karting championship of Luxembourg. Stefan was officially involved in all the junior disciplines.
In 1980 things started taking off for Stefan, Walter Lechner the team boss of Formula Ford was so enthusiastic about the young german that he allowed Bellof to drive in Formula Ford despite limited financial resources. Overall 1980 was a good year for Stefan because in that year he also became the German karting champion and that was the perfect end to his karting career and the start of his new journey through motor racing.
The following year was good for the German as well. Stefan showed everyone that he wasn’t there just for fun, he won the German Fomula Ford title and started getting recognition for his talent inside the tracks. Also in 81, Stefan is invited to drive a Pro car - BMW M1 race which he declines affirming that there’s no way he will drive a car with a roof. (which is ironic and funny since he achieved some of his greatest successes with them) He is then sent to Bertram Schäfer who lets this exceptional talent drive in Formul 3. With that, he drives in both Formula Ford and Formula 3 at the same time (even though he only got into Formula 3 in the middle of the season) At the end of the season, Stefan wants to switch to the Formula 2 but to accomplish that the young german has to get out of his oppressive contract that he had with his sponsor Georg Loos. In the end, to follow his dream Stefan pays an expensive fee that was a bit much..but he couldn’t slow down now, now that he needed his career to be driven forward.
His goal of driving in Formula One is finally getting closer !!
In 1983, Stefan had his first long-awaited contact with Formula One, being able to test drive for McLaren. Standing along side to both rising talents of that time Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle. The result is Senna is a bit faster than Bellof, but the British team is also happy with the German.
Also, in 83 Beloff gets into the World sportscar championship and with that, we have one of Stefan’s most remarkable moments in motor racing or perhaps the most remarkable moment in his short but fascinating career. Stefan Bellof was behind the wheel of the Porsche 952 and made the best use of the excellent fit of the car and the perfect weather conditions to set an almost error-free lap. Bellof set the time 6:11:13 seconds. Stefan admitted shortly after that he did not make a perfect lap. “I could’ve done it faster but I made two mistakes” even though he claims that he didn’t pull the perfect lap, his lap record was unbeaten for 32 years.
In March 1984, Stefan finally achieves his long-awaited dream, to race in Formula One. He gets into the sport with Tyrrel but not everything is perfect. He was finally in Formula One, however, he had a hard time due to the difference between his competition having a considerably more powerful turbo engine, while he had an inferior aspirated engine.
But even with this disadvantage, Stefan showed everyone why he was there for. At the Monaco Grand Prix (1984), the German starts from behind but works his way up to third place. He is one of the stars of that day, alongside Ayrton Senna, that had also driven an amazing race. Some people even claim that if the race wasn't red-flagged due to the bad weather, Stefan would've caught both Ayrton and Alain Prost and possibly win the Grand Prix.
Unfortunately, due to car irregularities, Stefan was disqualified at the end of the race. And got replaced on the podium by René Arnoux.
Stefan continued driving for Tyrrell in 85, however, he gives the team an ultimatum, that they need to change to turbo engines by the middle of the year, otherwise he’s out.
The team does purchase a turbo engine, but they also have two drivers who have to share it, therefor Stefan only gets little use of it.
With the aspirated engine, it becomes difficult for Stefan to achieve his goal in the sport. But in 1986 there is a hint of hope, a contract is already signed with Ferrari. this is Stefan’s big chance, being personally chosen by Enzo Ferrari himself, the boss recognized Stefan’s incredible talent.
Everything was going even better than what Stefan had wished for, but this is when fate changed the route of the German’s life…forever.
Stephen does not want to compete. His car even breaks down on his way to the airport as if it was trying to tell him something, but he just ignores it and calls for his brother to pick him up. A friend finally takes Stefan to spa, his final destination. He lines up to race there, let’s not forget that there have been only a few weeks since the fatal accident involving Manfred Winkelhock and that got to Stefan's head ever since making him question himself if he should race that day, he decides to leave all the intrusive thoughts outside of the car and gets ready to race. The race is going well but on the 78th lap after a pitstop, Jacky Ickx is back on the track faster than Stefan. Bellof fought for the leadership of the race with Ickx and gets ready for a risky overtaking maneuver, The German tried to take the lead in the Eau Rouge curve, which at that time had no escape area. The cars touched each other and went directly to the guard rail. Ickx walked away, while Beloff who had hit head-on got stuck in the hardware. The car got caught on fire but the flames were extinguished quickly. Stefan suffered several internal injuries and was unfortunately declared dead shortly after. The news that Stefan had passed away came when the race was still happening and the organizers decided to call it all off. That day the motorsport world didn’t lose only an incredibly talented driver but also lost a cheerful, down-to-earth, hero. Stefan Bellof came out of nowhere and captured the hearts of racing fans all over the world. Unfortunately, his career and his life ended tragically and far too early. Otherwise, we might have experienced the “Schumi” miracle a lot earlier.
“If Stephen had not been killed in an accident, my career might never have existed. Everything in motorsport would have been about Bellof because he would have become the Formula One world champion and PS superstar”
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