Markus Winkelhock


Markus Winkelhock is a German professional racing driver, who has taken part in one Formula One Grand Prix, which he briefly led. He is the son of Manfred Winkelhock and nephew of Joachim Winkelhock, both of whom were Formula One drivers in the 1980s. Having switched to sports and touring car racing, he has also won the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2012 with team-mate Marc Basseng.

Early career

Born in Stuttgart, Winkelhock won races in a string of junior formulae including Formula König, German Formula Renault and the Formula Renault Eurocup from 1998–2000.
In 2001, Winkelhock joined the German Formula 3 Championship, where he remained until the championship became the F3 Euroseries in 2003. His record was fifth overall in 2001, seventh in 2002 and fourth in 2003.
He switched to touring car racing in 2004, with a season in the DTM in an AMG-Mercedes CLK. But he failed to score a point all year with the Persson team.
Winkelhock switched back to single-seater racing in 2005, joining the World Series by Renault with Draco. He won three times but there were also some less than shining moments – notably when he crashed at Monaco in qualifying and on the first lap of the race.

Formula One

On 24 January 2006, Winkelhock was confirmed as a test and reserve driver for the Midland F1 team for the Formula One season. He participated in Friday test sessions for the team at the Bahrain, Australian, German and Hungarian Grands Prix.
He was re-signed for by the team, which by then had been renamed as Spyker F1. He also made a brief return to the DTM in 2007, starting three races.
Following Christijan Albers's departure from Spyker after the 2007 British Grand Prix, Winkelhock was confirmed as his replacement for the European Grand Prix on 18 July. The deal was only for one race with Sakon Yamamoto set to race for Spyker for the rest of the season.

2007 European Grand Prix

In the race, Winkelhock started last on the 22-car grid alongside teammate Adrian Sutil. On the formation lap, with the rest of the field on dry-weather tyres, the team made a last-second decision to call Winkelhock into the pits to switch to full wet tyres. When pouring rain forced almost all the others to pit at the end of the first lap, Winkelhock was able to move into the lead, passing some cars as they pitted, and even passing Kimi Räikkönen on the track as the Finn tip-toed around to the pits, eventually building a lead of 19 seconds by the end of the second lap. By lap 4 he had a lead of 33 seconds over Ferrari's Felipe Massa in 2nd place.
As the rain got heavier, the stewards first sent out the safety car and then suspended the race following a series of spins in the first corner behind the safety car. The race restarted after the rain had eased. Winkelhock and his team chose to start on full wet tyres on a drying track in the hope of further showers, as the team expected he would be overtaken by faster cars anyway. The gamble failed and, having restarted the race from the lead, Winkelhock quickly fell down the order. He retired on lap 15 with hydraulic problems that caused a small fire. He had led for a total of six laps.
According to Bob Varsha of the Speed Channel commentary team, Winkelhock is the only driver in Formula One history to start last on the grid and lead the race in his first Grand Prix, and due to the red flag and restart, is also the only driver in Formula One history to start both last and first on the grid in the same Grand Prix.
Despite leading his debut race, the Spyker team opted against giving Winkelhock a drive for the remainder of the 2007 season for sponsorship reasons, and instead decided to give the drive to former Super Aguri driver Sakon Yamamoto.

Post-Formula One career

Winkelhock returned to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters after he lost his Spyker seat, and has remained in the series, driving for Team Rosberg, for 2008, 2009 and 2010.
In 2011, he competed in the FIA GT1 World Championship for the All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport team alongside team boss Marc Basseng driving a Lamborghini. They won the championship the following year, the team having switched to the Mercedes SLS due to a change in the regulations.
Winkelhock was to move with Münnich Motorsport to the World Touring Car Championship for 2013, however he left the team before the start of the season in order to focus on his GT racing commitments, and was replaced by defending champion Robert Huff.
Since 2013, he has more or less settled in the Blancpain Endurance Series and also won the 2017 Nurburgring 24 hours sportscar race.

Racing record

Career summary

‡ As Winkelhock was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.
* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

YearEntrantChassisEngine1234567891011121314151617181920DCPoints
2003ADAC Berlin-BrandenburgDallara F302/012HWA-MercedesHOC
1
3		HOC
2
4		ADR
1
Ret		ADR
2
17		PAU
1
21		PAU
2
Ret		NOR
1
Ret		NOR
2
5		LMS
1
8		LMS
2
18		NÜR
1
1		NÜR
2
2		A1R
1
4		A1R
2
6		ZAN
1
4		ZAN
2
4		HOC
1
Ret		HOC
2
2		MAG
1
1		MAG
2
9		4th71

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

YearEntrant1234567891011121314151617DCPoints
2005Draco Multiracing USAZOL
1
NC		ZOL
2
3		MON
1
DNS		VAL
1
11		VAL
2
12		LMS
1
1		LMS
2
5		BIL
1
Ret		BIL
2
7		OSC
1
Ret		OSC
2
3		DON
1
5		DON
2
1		EST
1
4		EST
2
2		MNZ
1
3		MNZ
2
1		3rd114

Complete Formula One results

YearEntrantChassisEngine123456789101112131415161718WDCPoints
2006MF1 RacingMidland M16Toyota RVX-06 2.4 V8BHR
TD		MALAUS
TD		SMREURESPMONGBRCANUSAFRAGER
TD		HUN
TD		TURITACHNJPNBRA – –
2007Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 TeamSpyker F8-VIIFerrari 056H 2.4 V8AUSMALBHRESPMONCANUSAFRAGBREUR
Ret		HUNTURITABELJPNCHNBRANC0

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

YearTeamCar1234567891011Pts
2004Persson MotorsportAMG-Mercedes CLK-DTM 2003HOC
15		EST
17		ADR
Ret		LAU
13		NOR
Ret		SHA
9‡		NÜR
Ret		OSC
16		ZAN
14		BRN
18		HOC
13		19th0
2007Abt SportslineAudi A4 DTM 2007HOCOSCLAU
Ret		BRH
14		NOR19th0
2007Futurecom TMEAudi A4 DTM 2005MUG
9		ZAN
13		NÜR
Ret		CAT
12†		HOC
13		19th0
2008Team RosbergAudi A4 DTM 2007HOC
12		OSC
6		MUG
7		LAU
Ret		NOR
11		ZAN
8		NÜR
9		BRH
11		CAT
12		BUG
11		HOC
Ret		11th6
2009Team RosbergAudi A4 DTM 2008HOC
4		LAU
Ret		NOR
13		ZAN
DSQ		OSC
Ret		NÜR
4		BRH
18†		CAT
Ret		DIJ
10		HOC
8		10th11
2010Team RosbergAudi A4 DTM 2008HOC
15		VAL
15†		LAU
10		NOR
Ret		NÜR
Ret		ZAN
DNS		BRH
15†		OSC
Ret		HOC
Ret		ADR
4		SHA
7		12th7

† - Driver did not finish, but completed 90% of the race distance.
‡ - Shanghai was a non-championship round.

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Complete FIA GT Series results

‡ — Guest driver – Not eligible for points.

Complete Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe results

† Winkelhock was ineligible to score points during the Moscow weekend due to Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof's absence.

Complete FIA World Rallycross Championship results

Supercar

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

YearEntrantClassMakeEngine1234567891011RankPoints
2014Flying Lizard MotorsportsGTDAudi R8 LMS ultraAudi 5.2L V10DAY
2		SEB
8		LBHLGAWGLMOSIMSELKVIRCOAPET56th34
2015Flying Lizard MotorsportsGTDAudi R8 LMS ultraAudi 5.2L V10DAY
10†		SEBLGADETWGLLIMELKVIRCOAPET58th1
2018Magnus RacingGTDAudi R8 LMSAudi 5.2 L V10DAY
6		SEBMDODETWGLMOSLIMELKVIRLGAPET52nd26
2019MoorespeedGTDAudi R8 LMS EvoAudi 5.2 L V10DAY
11		SEBMDODETWGLMOSLIMELKVIRLGAPET56th20

† Winkelhock did not complete sufficient laps in order to score full points.