Jo Bonnier

Bonnier was born in Stockholm to the wealthy Bonnier family, controlling family of the eponymous Bonnier Group. His father, Gert, was a professor of genetics at Stockholm College, while many members of his extensive family were in the publishing business. Bonnier spoke six languages and, although his parents hoped he would become a doctor, for a while it was his aspiration to enter the family publishing business. He attended Oxford University for a year, studying languages, then went to Paris planning to learn about publishing.

Bonnier began competitive racing in Sweden at age 17, on an old Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He returned home to Sweden in 1951 after his Paris trip, and later took part in several rallies as the owner of a Simca.

Bonnier entered Formula One in 1956, driving a Maserati. His racing career almost ended in September 1956 in a race at Imola. After a bad start, he was passing Luigi Musso and gaining on leader Eugenio Castellotti at around two seconds per lap when he lost control after another car pulled directly into his path at a fast corner. His Maserati struck a large rock and catapulted; the car skidded 75 feet into a ditch against a pole. Bonnier was thrown out and suffered concussion, several cracked ribs, and a broken vertebra.

Bonnier's greatest Formula One achievement was taking victory for BRM in the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, when the notoriously unreliable car worked well for once — Dan Gurney and Hans Herrmann had suffered bad crashes after brake failures. He also won the 1960 German Grand Prix with a Porsche 718, a race held for Formula Two in preparation for the rule change of 1961. Bonnier was one of the driving forces behind the Grand Prix Drivers' Association.

After his Maserati debut, Bonnier drove for his own Joakim Bonnier Racing Team and for Mimmo Dei's Scuderia Centro Sud in the late 1950s, before finding a spot in the BRM and Porsche teams. After Porsche quit Grand Prix racing at the end of the 1962 season, Bonnier switched to the Rob Walker Racing Team — the only privateer to have scored wins in World Championship events — where he drove Coopers and Brabhams with limited points.

In 1966 Bonnier reformed his own team as Anglo-Suisse Racing Team, later renamed Ecurie Bonnier. His interest in Formula One gradually diminished; his last full season was 1968, when he traded his old Cooper T86 for an old McLaren. He raced occasionally in Formula One until 1971.

In 1966, alongside American racing drivers Phil Hill, Richie Ginther, and Carroll Shelby, Bonnier served as racing advisor to the motor racing film Grand Prix starring James Garner. While filming the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Bonnier — along with more than half the field including Jackie Stewart, Bob Bondurant, Graham Hill, and Denny Hulme — crashed out on the first lap. According to Phil Hill, Bonnier went through an upstairs window at a house next to the track.

Alongside Formula One, Bonnier competed extensively in sports car races. He won the 1960 Targa Florio co-driving a works Porsche 718 with Hans Herrmann, and in 1962 took a Ferrari 250 TRI entered by Count Giovanni Volpi to victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring, sharing the car with Lucien Bianchi. In 1963 he won the Targa Florio again, with Carlo Mario Abate in another works Porsche 718.

1964 was Bonnier's best year in sports car racing. He co-drove a Ferrari 330P entered by Maranello Concessionaires with Graham Hill, taking second place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and winning at Montlhéry, while a 12-hour race at Reims also gave him a first place in a 250LM.

He won the 1000 km Nürburgring in a Chaparral in 1966 with Phil Hill — his last win in a major sports car event — and still secured victories in the 1000 km of Barcelona at Montjuïc in 1971 with Ronnie Peterson, and the 4 Hours of Le Mans in 1972 with Hughes de Fierlant.

Bonnier purchased a McLaren M6B to campaign in the 1968 Can-Am series. In the first outing at the Karlskoga Sweden GP, Bonnier had pole but an off-course excursion on the first lap caused him to finish second to David Piper in a Ferrari 330P3/4. He ran his McLaren in five of the six Can-Am races, with his best finish eighth at Las Vegas. In 1970 Bonnier drove a Lola T210 to victory in the European 2-Litre Sports Car Championship, securing the drivers title at the end of the season with 48 points.

Bonnier was killed in a crash during the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans. On the straight between Mulsanne Corner and Indianapolis, his open-top Lola T280-Cosworth collided with a Ferrari Daytona driven by Swiss amateur driver Florian Vetsch. His car was catapulted over the Armco barriers and into the trees next to the track; he was killed instantly. According to Vic Elford, who was driving a factory-entered Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 and had stopped to assist Vetsch escape from his burning Ferrari, the last he had seen of Bonnier's Lola was that it was "spinning into the air like a helicopter".

Until his death, Bonnier had been the chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.