Mercedes has led the sport in paying tribute to Hans Herrmann — a pillar of the Silver Arrows’ earliest grand prix adventures and one of Porsche’s defining endurance men — who has died aged 97.
Herrmann, the oldest surviving Formula 1 driver at the time of his passing, raced 17 grands prix in the 1950s and stood on the podium at the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix, finishing third behind Mercedes teammate Juan Manuel Fangio and Ferrari’s José Froilán González. It was a brief F1 résumé, but one that put him on the same entry lists as the giants and set the tone for what came next.
Because endurance racing is where Herrmann truly left fingerprints. The Stuttgart-born driver won the Targa Florio in 1960, the Daytona 24 Hours in 1968 and, most memorably, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 with Porsche. That Le Mans victory didn’t just complete his CV; it closed the book. Herrmann had promised his wife, Magdalena, he’d retire if he ever won at La Sarthe. He did, and he kept his word, stepping back before the season was out.
He carried another name in the paddock too: “Hans im Glück” — Hans in Luck — a nod to surviving several enormous crashes in an era that took too many. The most famous image of his daring remains the 1954 Mille Miglia shot: a Porsche 550 Spyder skimming under descending rail barriers rather than ceding time to a train. Herrmann later turned it into a postcard, captioned simply: “You have to be lucky.”
Mercedes-Benz Heritage chief executive Marcus Breitschwerdt remembered not just the racer, but the presence. “It is with great gratitude that we remember Hans Herrmann, an outstanding racing driver who had a decisive influence on the history of Mercedes-Benz,” he said. “As part of the legendary Silver Arrows team in the mid-1950s, he impressed with his speed and mastery in races. His likeable charisma and his passion for motorsport made him very popular with fans and fellow drivers alike. After his active career, Hans Herrmann remained closely associated with our brand as a representative of Mercedes-Benz Heritage and helped to preserve the heritage of our vehicles.”
Porsche, the marque with which Herrmann became a fixture in endurance racing, was equally direct about the scale of his impact. “The passing of Hans Herrmann has deeply affected us all,” said Thomas Laudenbach, head of Porsche Motorsport. “He was one of Porsche AG’s most successful factory racing drivers. With the victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 in the Porsche 917, Richard Attwood and he made history.”
Herrmann’s grand prix career arrived in the middle of Mercedes’ return to top-level motorsport, making him one of just 13 German drivers to race in Formula 1 with the team. He brought speed, mechanical sympathy and a dry, unflappable approach that served him across disciplines. If Fangio was the maestro, Herrmann was the consummate professional who could be trusted to bring a car home fast — and bring it home intact.
Those who met him later in life often found him the same way he raced: precise, gracious, utterly present. He was a fixture at historic events, a living link to an era of open-faced helmets and roadside hay bales, generous with stories but never self-important. When people spoke to him about the daring photo at the railway crossing, he didn’t sell it as bravado. He sold it as survival, the split-second calculation of a racing driver long before carbon tubs and energy-absorbing barriers.
Herrmann is survived by his wife, two sons and a grandson. The record books cover the numbers; the paddock remembers the man. And for those who came up through Stuttgart, in silver or in white-and-red, the line is simple: he helped build the road they now travel.
