1970 Formula 1 Dutch GP Zandvoort Holland - Piers Courage

During the Dutch GP at Zandvoort the de Tomaso of Piers Courage slid wide, ran up a bank and crashed. The red car rolled over and burst into flames, and the unfortunate Piers stood no chance. Investigations revealed that Courage probably died before the flames started; his helmet was found at the point of impact with a large smear of rubber on the front, most likely from a wheel detached on impact. You can see the helmet near the marshal dressed in black (stop at 0:35)

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• F1
• 1970
• grand
• prix
• zandvoort
• holland
• piers
• courage
• rindt

[wanker4761]

I was behind the camera doing the shooting at the 8 and 13 second parts. Same camera. A 21 year old Canadian student me, on my first trip to Europe. There for practice and time trials and learned how to sneak in to the best seat in the house. Free, and access to the pits. German kid and I made a deal with the cameraman on race day that if we stayed out of his way and kept him in beer and schnitzel we could stay. Tragedy about Courage. Rindt won the race and was killed later in the season.

[UltraNinjas]

Probably should clarify: Pier's was not decapitated in the accident - it was only his helmet that flew off, due to being hit by one of his front tyres. This is clarified by Frank Williams who was given the helmet later in the afternoon. Got to admire Courage - he didn't need to race in order to make a living, but he did it as he loved the sport. He was also much, much more than a hobby racer too - he was really very good, and at one stage Enzo Ferrari wanted him for his F1 team.

[staporinac]

Anybody knows what the announcer is saying on 0.21?

[Zoomer30]

Also the one weapon they had to fight fire in those days, water, would just make a Mag fire worse, may as well just poured light fluid on it.

[gcmc2]

Car was Williams De Thomaso. Way overweight, the chassis design was revised using magnesium to address this. Mag is usually only used for wheels, suspension uprights, engine & gearbox castings etc. It burns so intensly it set fire to the surrounding woods. He may have been doomed anyway when fuel tanks ruptured & fuel ignited. He remained in the car trapped or unconcious. The mag can make it much harder for marshalls to extinguish the blaze or even get close enough with the heat.

[mouloudo]

@wanker4761 cool story

[thegreatbasher]

Absolutley horrible. Well done sir for having the guts to race in Formula One! Nasty nasty stuff. To find out that his head for rolling off down the track in his helmet was nasty! RIP Piers Courage,and boy did you have some Courage!

[MissEgasMoniz]

This hurt Frank for a long time. Incredibly dangerous times in F1.

[375GTB]

I've read that his head was inside that helmet... rolling down the track a bit....

The Tecno-DeTomaso-Williams monocoque was MAGNESIUM.

With belts.

Dan Gurney wore no belts, in his magnesium Eagle....

J.C.

[ysgol3]

Interesting and terribly sad to see Piers's helmet beside the burning car, which is what Jackie Stewart said made him realise as he was still driving that Piers must be still in the car and therefore dead.