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Jo Bonnier
Bonnier in 1966
Born	Joakim Bonnier (1930-01-31)31 January 1930 Stockholm, Sweden
Died	11 June 1972(1972-06-11) (aged 42) Circuit de la Sarthe,Le Mans, France
Cause of death	Injuries sustained at the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans
Spouse	Marianne Ankarcrona ​ (m. 1960)​
Children	2
Parent	Gert Bonnier (father)
Family	Bonnier family
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Swedish
Active years	1956–1971
Teams	Maserati,Centro Sud,privateerMaserati,BRM,Porsche,Walker,Bonnier
Entries	109 (104 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	1
Podiums	1
Careerpoints	39
Pole positions	1
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1956 Italian Grand Prix
First win	1959 Dutch Grand Prix
Last entry	1971 United States Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1957–1966,1969–1970,1972
Teams	Maserati,Porsche,Serenissima,Ferrari,Chaparral,Filipinetti,Bonnier
Best finish	2nd (1964)
Class wins	0

Joakim "Jo" Bonnier (31 January 1930 – 11 June 1972) was a Swedishracing driver and team owner, who competed inFormula One from1956 to1971. Bonnier won the1959 Dutch Grand Prix withBRM.

Born and raised inStockholm, Bonnier was the son of geneticistGert Bonnier and born into the wealthyBonnier family, the controlling family of the eponymousBonnier Group. Bonnier competed in Formula One forMaserati,Scuderia Centro Sud,BRM,Porsche,Rob Walker Racing andEcurie Bonnier, winning theDutch Grand Prix with BRM to become thefirst Swedish Formula One Grand Prix winner and finishing eighth in theWorld Drivers' Championship that year.

Outside of Formula One, Bonnier entered 13 editions of the24 Hours of Le Mans from1957 to1972, finishing runner-up in1964 alongsideGraham Hill, driving theFerrari 330P. During the latter,Bonnier died when hisLola T280 collided with traffic and left him critically injured. Until his death, Bonnier had been the chairman of theGrand Prix Drivers' Association.

Bonnier was born inStockholm, to the wealthyBonnier family.^[1] His father,Gert, was a professor ofgenetics at Stockholm College, while many members of his extensive family were in the publishing business. He spoke six languages and, although his parents hoped that he would become a doctor, for a while it was his aspiration to enter the family publishing business. He attendedOxford University for a year, studying languages, then went to Paris, France, planning to learn about publishing.

Bonnier began competitive racing in Sweden at age 17, on an oldHarley-Davidson motorcycle. He returned home to Sweden in 1951 after his Paris trip, and later took part in several rallies as the proud owner of aSimca.^[2]

Bonnier entered Formula One in1956, driving aMaserati. His racing career almost ended in September 1956 in a race atImola. He debuted a 1500cc Maserati and moved up through the field following a bad start, passingLuigi Musso, and was gaining on leaderEugenio Castellotti at around two seconds per lap when he lost control after another car pulled directly into his path as they negotiated a fast corner. His Maserati struck a large rock at the edge of the road and catapulted. The other driver went underneath him as he turned over and over in the air and, while he was upside down, the crash helmet of his competitor made contact with his. Bonnier's Maserati landed on its side before skidding 75 feet and heading into a ditch, where it came to a stop against a pole. Bonnier was thrown out of the car and suffered concussion, several cracked ribs, and a broken vertebra. His car was completely written off.

Bonnier's greatest achievement in Formula One was taking victory forBRM in the1959 Dutch Grand Prix atZandvoort, when the notoriously unreliable car worked well for once (Dan Gurney andHans Herrmann had bad crashes after brake failures). He also won the 1960 German Grand Prix with aPorsche 718, a race held forFormula Two in preparation for the rule change of 1961. Bonnier was one of the driving forces behind theGrand 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 forLotus,Brabham andHonda. After his debut in a works Maserati, he then drove for his ownJoakim Bonnier Racing Team and for Mimmo Dei'sScuderia Centro Sud in the late 50s, before finding a spot in the BRM andPorsche teams.

After Porsche quit Grand Prix racing at the end of the1962 season, Bonnier switched toRob Walker Racing Team, the only privateer to have scored wins in World Championship events, where he droveCoopers and Brabhams, scoring few points.

In 1966, Bonnier reformed his own team as Anglo-Suisse Racing Team (later to be renamed Ecurie Bonnier), but his interest in Formula One gradually diminished. His last full season was 1968, in which he traded his old Cooper T86 for an oldMcLaren. He raced occasionally in Formula One until 1971.In 1966, along with American racing driversPhil Hill,Richie Ginther andCarroll Shelby, he was racing advisor to the 1966 motor racing epicGrand Prix starringJames Garner. All the aforementioned (including Garner, who did all his own driving) were employed as drivers for the racing scenes. While filming the1966 Belgian Grand Prix at the notorious and extremely fast Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Bonnier, along with more than half the field includingJackie Stewart,Bob Bondurant,Graham Hill andDenny Hulme, crashed out on the first lap of the race. According to Phil Hill, Bonnier went through an upstairs window at a house next to the track and could not take part in the later filming on the circuit.

Alongside Formula One, Bonnier also took part in many sports car races. He won the 1960Targa Florio, co-driving a works Porsche 718 withHans Herrmann, and in 1962 took aFerrari 250 TRI entered byCount Giovanni Volpi to top honours in the12 Hours of Sebring, sharing the car withLucien Bianchi. In 1963 he was once again winner at the Targa Florio, withCarlo Mario Abate in another works Porsche 718.

1964 was Bonnier's best year insports car racing, where he co-drove aFerrari P entered byMaranello Concessionaires withGraham Hill, taking a 330P to second place in the24 Hours of Le Mans and to a win atMontlhéry, while a 12-hour race inReims also gave him a first place in a 250LM.He then won the1000km Nürburgring in aChaparral in 1966 (withPhil Hill), his last win in a major sports car event, but still managed to snatch victories in the minor 1000 km of Barcelona atMontjuïc in 1971 (withRonnie Peterson), and the 4 Hours ofLe Mans in 1972 (with Hughes de Fierlant).

Bonnier purchased a McLaren M6B to campaign in the 1968Can-Am series. In the first outing at the Karlskoga Sweden GP, Bonnier had the pole but an off course excursion on the first lap caused him to finish second to David Piper in a Ferrari 330P3/4. He then ran his McLaren in five of the sixCan-Am races with his best finish an eighth at Las Vegas.^[3] He was plagued with mechanical problems most of the season. However, he finished 3rd in the M6B at the Mt Fuji 200-mile race.^[4]

In 1970, Bonnier drove aLola T210 to victory in theEuropean 2-Litre Sports Car Championship, securing the drivers title at the end of the season with 48 points.^[5]

By the early seventies, Bonnier had taken to managing his team, entering several cars inWorld Sportscar Championship events, and taking a backseat to driving.

Bonnier had also taken a lead in the fight for track safety, which had started around that time.

Bonnier was killed in a crash during the1972 24 Hours of Le Mans. On the straight between Mulsanne Corner and Indianapolis, his open-topLola T280-Cosworth collided with aFerrari Daytona driven by a Swiss amateur driver Florian Vetsch. His car was catapulted over the Armco barriers and into the trees next to the track and he was killed instantly. According toVic Elford, who was driving a factory-enteredAlfa Romeo Tipo 33 and who had stopped to assist Vetsch escape from his burning Ferrari, the last he had seen of Bonnier's Lola was that it was "spinning into the air like a helicopter".^[6]

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Notes

• ^1 – Bonnier was 6th at1967 German Grand Prix but he was given points for the 5th place because F2-drivers who competed in the same race were ineligible to score points.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position)(Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1957	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Giorgio Scarlatti	Maserati 300S	S 3.0	73	DNF	DNF
1958	Francisco Godia	Francisco Godia-Sales	Maserati 300S	S 3.0	142	DNF	DNF
1959	Porsche KG	Wolfgang von Trips	Porsche 718 RSK	S 2.0	182	DNF	DNF
1960	Porsche KG	Graham Hill	Porsche 718/4 RS	S 2.0	191	DNF	DNF
1961	Porsche System Engineering	Dan Gurney	Porsche 718/4 RS Coupe	S 2.0	262	DNF	DNF
1962	Scuderia SSS Republica di Venezia	Dan Gurney	Ferrari 250 TRI/61	E 3.0	30	DNF	DNF
1963	Porsche System Engineering	Tony Maggs	Porsche 718/8 GTR Coupe	P 3.0	109	DNF	DNF
1964	Maranello Concessionaires	Graham Hill	Ferrari 330P	P 5.0	344	2nd	2nd
1965	Maranello Concessionaires Ltd.	David Piper	Ferrari 365 P2	P 5.0	101	DNF	DNF
1966	Chaparral Cars Inc.	Phil Hill	Chaparral 2D-Chevrolet	P+5.0	111	DNF	DNF
1969	Scuderia Filipinetti	Masten Gregory	Lola T70 Mk.IIIB-Chevrolet	S 5.0	134	DNF	DNF
1970	Scuderia Filipinetti	Reine Wisell	Ferrari 512S	S 5.0	36	DNF	DNF
1972	Ecurie Bonnier Switzerland	Gérard Larrousse Gijs van Lennep	Lola T280-FordCosworth	S 3.0	213	DNF	DNF
Source:[9]

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Media related toJoakim Bonnier at Wikimedia Commons

• 1930 births
• 1972 deaths
• Racing drivers from Stockholm
• Racing drivers from Stockholm County
• Swedish racing drivers
• Formula One race winners
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• 12 Hours of Reims drivers
• Swedish Formula One drivers
• Racing drivers who died while racing
• Sport deaths in France
• Maserati Formula One drivers
• Scuderia Centro Sud Formula One drivers
• Ecurie Bonnier Formula One drivers
• Giorgio Scarlatti Formula One drivers
• BRM Formula One drivers
• Porsche Formula One drivers
• Rob Walker Racing Team Formula One drivers
• World Sportscar Championship drivers
• Bonnier family
• 12 Hours of Sebring drivers
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