Mike Beuttler

Mike Beuttler
Born(1940-04-13)13 April 1940
Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt
Died29 December 1988(1988-12-29) (aged 48)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Formula One World Championship career
NationalityUnited Kingdom British
Active years1971–1973
TeamsNon-works March
Entries29 (28 starts)
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points0
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1971 British Grand Prix
Last entry1973 United States Grand Prix

Michael Simon Brindley Bream Beuttler (13 April 1940 – 29 December 1988) was a British Formula One driver who raced privately entered March cars. He was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of Colonel Leslie Brindley Bream Beuttler, Duke of Wellington's Regiment, O.B.E., and a descendant on his mother's side of the Scottish ornithologist William Robert Ogilvie-Grant, grandson of the 6th Earl of Seafield.[1][2]

He was a talented Formula Three driver from the late 1960s, who then graduated to Formula Two and then to Formula One in 1971.[3]

The finance for the team came from a group of stockbroker friends from whom the team took its name – at first Clarke-Mordaunt-Guthrie Racing, and in 1973 it became Clarke-Mordaunt-Guthrie-Durlacher Racing. This approach of funding the team earned his car the nickname of the "Stockbroker Special".[4]

He raced on one occasion, at the 1971 Canadian Grand Prix, for the works March team. Beuttler's best result was a seventh place in the 1973 Spanish Grand Prix.[5][6]

While Beuttler did not achieve a points-scoring finish during his career in Formula One, he did achieve six top-ten finishes in the 28 races in which he competed, results that would have delivered points by today's championship regulations.[7]

When his backers suffered amid the 1973 oil crisis, Beuttler retired from racing the following year, at the age of 34, after competing in the 1000 km of Brands Hatch.[8][9]

  1. ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 2003, vol. 3, p. 3551
  2. ^ Alan Clark: The Biography, Ion Trewin, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009
  3. ^ "Drivers Mike Beuttler". Grandprix.com. Inside F1. 2023. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  4. ^ Martin Williamson (1 November 2009). "Mike Beuttler (Great Britain)". ESPN. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  5. ^ Andrew Marriott (19 September 1971). "1971 Canadian Grand Prix race report". Motor Sport Magazine. Mosport Park. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  6. ^ "1973 Spanish Grand Prix race report". Motor Sport Magazine. Montjuich Park, Barcelona. 29 April 1973. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  7. ^ Mark Wessel (25 October 2012). "F1 statistics for Mike Beuttler". Formula 1 points. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  8. ^ Christopher Sharp (8 May 2020). "Mike Beuttler: The Pioneer in Yellow". Racing Pride. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  9. ^ "Mike Beuttler was to this day the only openly gay driver in F1 history". globoesporte.globo.com. Globo. 13 April 2020. Retrieved 1 August 2023.