🇧🇪 Jacky Ickx

Jacky Ickx was an established professional racing driver who competed in Formula 1 across 13 seasons from 1967 to 1979. He drove primarily for Ferrari, the most successful team in the championship, and finished his career in 1979 with 116 starts and a championship ranking of 13th that season.[1]

Ickx took eight Grand Prix victories across his 14-season run in the championship, a return that placed him among the front ranks of his era. He finished runner-up in the World Drivers' Championship twice, in 1969 and 1970. His most regular opponents were Denny Hulme, the 1967 Formula 1 champion, and triple champion Graham Hill, both drivers with whom he was closely matched over their shared seasons. He finished ahead of Jackie Stewart, a three-time world champion and elite professional, in nine of their meetings, and ahead of Carlos Reutemann, another elite professional competitor, eleven times. His record shows sustained racecraft against the strongest drivers of his generation, though he did not claim a world title.[2]

Ickx's career extended beyond the single-seater grid. He won the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1983 and established himself in endurance racing with two World Endurance Championships and six victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the latter tally placing him among the most successful drivers ever at that event.