Karl Kling

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Karl Kling

Karl Kling demonstrating a Mercedes W196 at the Nürburgring in 1976.
Nationality German
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1954 - 1955
Teams	Mercedes-Benz
Races	11
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	2
Career points	17
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First race	1954 French Grand Prix
Last race	1955 Italian Grand Prix

Karl Kling (b. 16 September 1910, Gießen – d. 18 March 2003, Gaienhofen on Lake Constance, Germany) was a motor racing driver and manager from Germany. He participated in 11 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on July 4, 1954. He achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 17 championship points.

It is said, that he was born too late and too early. Too late to be in the successful Mercedes team of the '30s and too early to have a real chance in 1954 and 1955. Unusually, Kling found his way into motorsport via his first job as a reception clerk at Daimler-Benz in the mid-1930s, competing in hillclimb and trials events in production machinery in his spare time. During the Second World War he gained mechanical experience servicing Luftwaffe aircraft, and after the cessation of hostilities he resumed his motorsport involvement in a BMW 328.

Kling was instrumental in developing Mercedes' return to international competition in the early 1950s, and his win in the 1952 Carrera Panamericana road race, driving the then-experimental Mercedes-Benz 300SL was a defining point in assuring the Daimler-Benz management that motorsport had a place in Mercedes' future. Called up to the revived Mercedes Grand Prix squad in 1954 he finished less than one second behind the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio on his Formula One debut, taking second place in the 1954 French Grand Prix at the fast Reims-Gueux circuit. This promising start was not to last, and with the arrival of Stirling Moss at Mercedes in 1955 Kling was effectively demoted to third driver. However, away from the World Championship, Kling took impressive victories in both the Berlin Grand Prix (at AVUS, another high-speed circuit) and the Swedish Grand Prix. He left the Formula One team at the end of the season, to succeed Alfred Neubauer as head of Mercedes motorsport. He was in this post during their successful rallying campaigns of the 1960s, occasionally taking the wheel himself. On one such occasion he drove a Mercedes-Benz 220SE to victory in the mighty 1961 Algiers-Cape Town trans-African rally.

[edit] Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	WDC	Points
1954	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes W196	Mercedes straight-8	ARG	500	BEL	FRA 2	GBR 7	GER 4	SUI Ret	ITA Ret	ESP 5	5th	12
1955	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes W196	Mercedes straight-8	ARG 4*	MON	500	BEL Ret	NED Ret	GBR 3	ITA Ret			11th	5

* Shared drive with Stirling Moss and Hans Herrmann.

[edit] References

• "DRIVERS: KARL KLING". GrandPrix.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
• "Mercedes Racing Driver Karl Kling Dies", Automobile. Retrieved on 2007-04-11. 

[edit] Further reading

• Karl Kling, G. Molter, Pursuit of Victory (Bodley Head, London, 1956)

Awards
Preceded by Paul Falk	German Sportsman of the Year 1952	Succeeded by Werner Haas