Gerhard Mitter

Gerhard Karl Mitter (30 August 1935 – 1 August 1969) was a German Formula One and sportscar driver.

Mitter was born in Schönlinde (Krásná Lípa) in Czechoslovakia, but his family was expelled from there, to Leonberg near Stuttgart.

After racing motorbikes, he switched to Formula Junior, becoming the best German driver with 40 victories. In addition, he sold two-stroke engines for FJ. In 1963, Mitter won the Formula Junior Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring.

Mitter also participated in seven Grands Prix, debuting on 23 June 1963. He scored a total of three championship points in his home 1963 German Grand Prix with an old Porsche 718 from 1961. Impressed by this, Team Lotus gave him a chance in the following years.

In sportscar racing and hillclimbing for Porsche, he scored many wins, e.g. the 1966-1968 European Hillclimb Championships against Ferrari, the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona (Porsche 907) and the 1969 Targa Florio (Porsche 908) as his final major win.

Due to the long Nürburgring track, it was possible to take part in the German Grand Prix with Formula 2 cars that were classified in their own contest. Mitter was killed there at Schwedenkreuz while practising for the 1969 German Grand Prix with BMW's 269 F2 project. As a suspension or steering failure was suspected, the BMW team with Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester withdrew from the race, as did Mitter's teammate at Porsche, Hans Herrmann. Udo Schütz, his driving partner at Porsche in the 1969 World Sportscar Championship season with whom he had won the Targa three months earlier, had survived a bad crash at the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, and retired.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	WDC	Points
1963	Ecurie Maarsbergen	Porsche 718	Porsche Flat-4	MON	BEL	NED Ret	FRA	GBR	GER 4	ITA	USA	MEX	RSA		12th	3
1964	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax V8	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER 9	AUT	ITA	USA	MEX		NC	0
1965	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax V8	RSA	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	NED	GER Ret	ITA	USA	MEX		NC	0
1966	Ron Harris / Team Lotus	Lotus 44 F2	Cosworth Straight-4	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	NED	GER DNS	ITA	USA	MEX			NC	0
1967	Gerhard Mitter	Brabham BT23 F2	Cosworth Straight-4	RSA	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER Ret	CAN	ITA	USA	MEX	NC	0
1969	BMW	BMW 269 F2	BMW Straight-4	RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER DNS	ITA	CAN	USA	MEX	NC	0
Source:

Complete Formula One Non-Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
1962	Ecurie Filipinetti	Lotus 21	Climax	CAP	BRX	LOM	LAV	GLV	PAU	AIN	INT	NAP	MAL	CLP	RMS	SOL 6	KAN	MED	DAN	OUL	MEX	RAN	NAT
1963	Ecurie Maarsbergen	Porsche 718	Porsche Flat-4	LOM	GLV	PAU	IMO	SYR	AIN	INT	ROM	SOL 5	KAN	MED	AUT	OUL	RAN
1964	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax V8	DMT	NWT	SYR	AIN	INT	SOL Ret	MED	RAN

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1964	Porsche System Engineering	Colin Davis	Porsche 904/8	P 3.0	244	DNF	DNF
1965	Porsche System Engineering	Colin Davis	Porsche 904/8	P 2.0	20	DNF	DNF
1967	Porsche System Engineering	Jochen Rindt	Porsche 907/6L	P 2.0	103	DNF	DNF
1968	Porsche System Engineering	Vic Elford	Porsche 908	P 3.0	111	DNF	DNF
1969	Porsche System Engineering	Udo Schütz	Porsche 908L	P 3.0	199	DNF	DNF

Complete 12 Hours of Sebring results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1965	Porsche Automobile Co.	Herbert Linge	Porsche 904/8	P 2.0	184	9th	1st
1966	Porsche System Engineering	Hans Herrmann Joe Buzzetta	Porsche 906	P 2.0	209	4th	1st
	Porsche System Engineering	Günther Klass	Porsche 906	P 2.0	120	DNF	DNF
	Porsche System Engineering	Günther Klass	Porsche 904 GTS	S 2.0	114	DNF	DNF
1967	Porsche Auto	Scooter Patrick	Porsche 910	P 2.0	226	3rd	1st
1968	Porsche Automobile Co.	Rolf Stommelen	Porsche 907 2.2	P 3.0	46	DNF	DNF
1969	Porsche System Engineering Ltd.	Udo Schütz	Porsche 908/02	P 3.0	232	5th	4th