This is a photo which will never be taken again. Not only does it show two Formula One drivers holding their own umbrellas instead of being protected from the elements by a massive entourage, but the guy on the left would go on to become a three-time world champion while the guy on the right was but a silly Dutch lord racing his Porsche at the Nürburgring for the sheer hell of it. His name was Carel Godin de Beaufort, and they competed in the same race.
The picture was taken before the start of the 1962 German Grand Prix, on August 5 at the Nürburgring, and what you can’t see is that de Beaufort’s car was painted a crazy orange, the livery of his own Ecurie Maarsbergen racing team. It was a Porsche 718, the same car Dan Gurney drove to two second-place finishes in the 1961 season, and it was rather outdated by the time de Beaufort got to it. Who didn’t really care, because he was in it for fun. One of the last gentleman racers, he was killed at the Nürburgring two years later, at the 1964 German Grand Prix, when he drove his orange Porsche into a tree. After doing practice laps in a Beatles wig instead of a helmet. Awesome guy. 8W has a great story about his lovely life and sad but kind of inevitable death.
The other guy is Sir Jack Brabham, the oldest Formula One world champion alive today, at 85 and going. He was already a two-time champion at the time this picture was taken, and he went on to claim the 1966 title.
Photo Credit: STF/AFP/Getty Images