Hans-Joachim Stuck
Hans-Joachim Stuck is a German former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to. Nicknamed "Strietzel", Stuck jointly won the World Endurance Championship for Drivers in 1985 and is a [List of 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans|24 Hours of Le Mans winners|two-time winner] of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in and with Porsche. In touring car racing, Stuck won the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft in 1990.
Born in Bavaria, Stuck is the son of Grand Prix motor racing driver Hans Stuck, runner-up in the 1936 European Drivers' Championship. He began racing at the Nürburgring with his father throughout his childhood, winning the 24 Hours in 1970, aged 19. Stuck contested 81 Formula One Grands Prix between and for March, Brabham, Shadow, and ATS, achieving podium finishes at the German and Austrian Grands Prix in with Brabham.
Across a four-decade career in sportscar racing, Stuck took several major victories, including three at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, two at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and one at the Spa 24 Hours. He took eight victories in the World Sportscar Championship for BMW and Porsche, winning the title in 1985 and finishing runner-up in 1986 with the latter, driving the 962C.
Life and career
Stuck was born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, and is the son of Christa Thielmann and the legendary 1930s Auto Union Grand Prix driver Hans Stuck. His father taught him to drive on the Nürburgring as a young boy. In 1969 he started his first ever motor race at the Nordschleife. Speaking about that day he said, "Getting to the grid was extremely exciting. All of a sudden, my wishes to become a racer came true. I just wanted to start the race and give everybody hell!" The following year, at just 19 years of age, he won his first 24 hours race at the wheel of a BMW 2002ti. He won there again in 1998 and 2004, too, each time with a BMW touring car.In 1972, Stuck teamed up with Jochen Mass to drive a Ford Capri RS2600 to victory at the Spa 24 Hours endurance race in Belgium. His campaigns racing the BMW 3.0 CSL "Batmobile" were very successful in 1974 and 1975, in the German DRM as well as in the USA together with Ronnie Peterson. Later in the 1970s, he raced the turbo-charged BMW 320i.After some success in Formula 2 with a March-BMW, he also entered F1 with March. Overall, Stuck participated in 81 Grands Prix, debuting on 13 January 1974. He achieved two podiums and scored 29 championship points. Incidentally, Stuck was the first driver be born after the inaugural Grand Prix in 1950. Stuck was quite successful at Brabham-Alfa in 1977, leading the 1977 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in the rain, but was replaced by Niki Lauda in 1978. Stuck missed an opportunity to join Williams F1 just before this team became successful.
Stuck continued racing touring and sports cars all over the world, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice with a Porsche 962. Stuck says the 962 is the favourite racecar he has driven during his career, describing it as having the "perfect combination of power and downforce" and saying that he had "never sat in such a high-tech racing car as the Porsche 962C with the PDK semi-automatic transmission".
In the 1990s, Stuck tasted touring car success, winning the DTM Championship in 1990 with Audi, before returning to Porsche until the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998. He resumed an official role with BMW after that. In 2006, Stuck raced in the inaugural season of the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired Formula One drivers after scoring 6th in the first race event at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa on 11–13 November 2005.
January 2008 saw Stuck began his current position with Volkswagen Motorsport. This role has also seen him use his experience to help refine road cars, including the new Golf VI GTI.
Stuck announced the end of his 43 years active career as a race driver after the 2011 Nürburgring 24 Hours, in which he participated with a Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP600+ GT3 together with Dennis Rostek and his sons Ferdinand Stuck and Johannes Stuck. Team Stuck3 finished 15th overall following gearbox problems.
In April 2012, Stuck was elected President of the German Motorsport Association.
Racing record
Career summary
‡ Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points.
† As Stuck was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.
Complete European Formula Two Championship results
Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship pointsComplete World Sportscar Championship results
;Footnotes:Complete International Touring Car Championship results
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | Pts | |
| 1996 | Team Rosberg Opel | Opel Calibra V6 4x4 | HOC 1 5 | HOC 2 7 | NÜR 1 6 | NÜR 2 14† | EST 1 Ret | EST 2 7 | HEL 1 1 | HEL 2 1 | NOR 1 7 | NOR 2 4 | DIE 1 5 | DIE 2 4 | SIL 1 12 | SIL 2 15 | NÜR 1 22† | NÜR 2 12 | MAG 1 7 | MAG 2 Ret | MUG 1 5 | MUG 2 16† | HOC 1 17† | HOC 2 9 | INT 1 7 | INT 2 Ret | SUZ 1 18 | SUZ 2 18† | 9th | 112 |
- † — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.