{"id":404593,"date":"2026-01-10T17:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T17:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404593\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T17:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T17:55:11","slug":"mercedes-deeply-saddened-by-passing-of-legendary-former-f1-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404593\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes &#8216;deeply saddened&#8217; by passing of \u2018legendary\u2019 former F1 driver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mercedes paid tribute to the passing of Hans Herrmann, a historic Silver Arrows driver from the 1950s.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/breaking-news\/mercedes-amg-f1-reveals-first-look-at-w17-as-2026-era-begins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mercedes<\/a>\u2019 X account paid tribute to the German driver, who passed away yesterday at the age of 97: \u201cWe\u2019re deeply saddened by the passing of the legendary Hans Herrmann. \u201cHans raced for Mercedes in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1\" title=\"F1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a> during 1954 and 1955, enjoying a glittering and varied motorsport career with wins at Le Mans and the Targa Florio. Forever an icon of the Silver Arrows. Rest in peace, Hans.\u201dWho was Hans Herrmann?Hans Herrmann, born in Stuttgart on 23 February 1928, competed in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> between 1953 and 1961, lining up for teams such as Mercedes, Maserati and BRM.<\/p>\n<p>Although he never stood on the top step of a Grand Prix podium, he became well known for repeatedly escaping serious accidents unscathed \u2014 a trait that earned him the nickname \u201cHans im Gl\u00fcck\u201d (\u201cLucky Hans\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>His most competitive season in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> came in 1954, his first year with Mercedes, when he finished seventh in the drivers\u2019 standings. The following campaign proved far more difficult, ending in 22nd place and bringing his spell with the Silver Arrows to an end.<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20220619-0887-696225e0287e9.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"20220619-0887\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n<p>Herrmann\u2019s true legacy was forged in endurance racing. Alongside his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> commitments, he took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans every year without interruption from 1953 onwards, before later focusing fully on sports car racing.After leaving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a>, he became a Porsche works driver and reached the pinnacle of his career in 1970, when he claimed overall victory at Le Mans in the iconic Porsche 917K, shared with Richard Attwood \u2014 a historic success that marked Porsche\u2019s first outright win at the event.<\/p>\n<p>He retired shortly after that landmark triumph but remained a highly respected figure in motorsport.<\/p>\n<p>Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1\" title=\"F1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a> paddock? Then GPblog&#8217;s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog&#8217;s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes paid tribute to the passing of Hans Herrmann, a historic Silver Arrows driver from the 1950s. Mercedes\u2019&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,35119,813,816,189983,85],"class_list":["post-404593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mercedes-amg-f1-team","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}