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Karl Wendlinger

Karl Wendlinger
  • Surname
    Wendlinger
  • First name
    Karl
  • Date of birth
    20.12.1968

This Tyrolean, who was born in Kufstein, started his career in karting from 1983 to 1986, where he achieved remarkable results and staked his claim for bigger driving roles. In 1987, he was promoted to the Austrian and German Formula Ford championships, where he also took top places, which brought him to the Austrian and German Formula 3 championships in 1988 and 1989. He completed the latter in 1989 with the championship title.

In the same year, Wendlinger competed in the German Touring Car Championship in the Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution DTM of Dr Helmut Marko's team. He finished his debut season in 30th position, but showed his potential with a second and a fourth place at the Hockenheim and Nürburgring races.

in 1990, Wendlinger was busy: in addition to the DTM, now under contract to AMG, he was again competing for Marko in the International Formula 3000 Championship and, following his appointment to the Mercedes-Benz Motorsport junior team, in the World Sports Car Championship in a C 11. There, he won the 480-kilometre race at Spa-Francorchamps alongside Jochen Mass and the following year in the Mercedes-Benz C 291 at the race at Autopolis in Japan, this time with Michael Schumacher as his team partner.

In the same year, he came a good deal closer to his goal of a regular place in Formula 1 when he competed in two Grand Prix races in a Leyton House March. Two years later, he got the hoped-for permanent cockpit with the Swiss Sauber team. A serious accident, which Wendlinger only just survived in the Sauber-Mercedes C 13 during training for the Monaco Grand Prix in the 1994 season, effectively put an end to his Formula 1 career despite further entries in the following season.

In the following 15 years of his active career, the Austrian competed in touring cars, LMP1 prototypes and GT cars and celebrated numerous successes. As of 2012, he was back in GT racing, this time in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. In the same year, Wendlinger became a Mercedes-AMG Brand Ambassador and slowly wound down his active career.

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