Of all the lost talents spread so liberally across the history of Grand Prix racing, the story of Stefan Bellof is perhaps the most tragic. His all too brief career encompassed twenty Grands Prix for Tyrrell and nine World Sportscar Championship wins, a cache which does no justice whatsoever to his talent.

By the early eighties Germany was something of an underachiever in modern Formula One. Pre-war great Hans Stuck had appeared in a small handful of Grand Prix, but was to close to retirement to have any impact on the Championship. Wolfgang von Trips seemed to have taken the title, but Death was to cheat him, almost at the final hurdle. Since then, only Jochen Mass had taken a Grand Prix win for Germany. Stefan Bellof was another man who seemed to be ready to break that duck.

He was something of a late starter, with his first car race coming at the age of 23. Bellof entered the German National Formula Ford 1600 Championship, and took the title at his first attempt, and won the International version in 1982. He was signed to drive a Ralt in the last seven rounds of the Formula Three Championship, and caused a stir when he won his third race in the category. He would add a further two victories, and move up to Formula Two for 1982. Signing for Willi Maurer's team, using their own chassis and powerful BMW engines, the outlook was good, although Maurer was heavily criticised for signing the youngster over the proven Mike Thackwell, for the third car alongside Beppe Gabbiani and Peter Schindler.

Bellof silenced his critics by dominating the wet International Trophy race at Silverstone, equalling Dave Morgan's long-standing record of winning his category debut. A fortnight later he took the Jim Clark Memorial Trophy, with a superb win at Hockenheim. However, a valve failure at Thruxton was just the start of a decline in form for the team, with engine troubles, and a chassis which was too delicate for Bellof's aggressive style, meaning he didn't win another race that year.

He stayed on with Maurer in 1983, but his main focus was shifting already. Porsche, quick to realise the potential of having the young German star in one of their cars, signed him for its Rothmans-backed works team. He astonished those in the sport by driving the big 956 in exactly the same fashion he threw his single-seaters around, and his form was devastating. Paired with Derek Bell, he demolished lap records wherever possible. At the last international race held at the old Nordschleife circuit in May, for example, he lapped the beast in an amazing 6:11.13, a full 20s faster than Bell had managed the day before in the same car, and 5.5s faster than Mass in the second Rothmans Porsche. In the race itself Bellof tore away, pulling away 6s per lap from Mass. However, Bell drove at a more reduced rate after their switch, and old 'Ring-master Jacky Ickx, taking over from Mass, passed him. Bellof's next stint rather summed up his whole season. He shot off after Mass, passing him, leading him by 29s then engaging in a titanic duel with the stopwatch, resulting in a 6m 25.91s lap (with an average speed of 120.75mph) before spinning at Pflanzgarten and managing to almost completely destroy the car after a 160mph shunt into the barriers. If Stefan was rather unfazed by this, Mass crept past the wreckage, fully expecting the young German to be dead, but instead seeing Bellof standing on the other side of the barrier, waving at him...

Bellof had a great season: after teething troubles with the latest evolution of the 956 saw him 7th at Monza, he came good at Silverstone, his second drive for the team, where he and Bell drove to a fine win. At Spa, where the duo came second after team orders kept them behind local hero Ickx (the team manager Norbert Singer made sure Bell had the final stint, as he was not sure that Bellof would listen). A lengthy pit-stop at Brands Hatch saw Bellof undertake a breathless charge to finish third, but it was his fault as he had spun the Porsche and lost a piece of the bodywork. With the Championship all but wrapped up, he and Bell then took wins at the closing two rounds - Kyalami, lapping the field in the rain, and Fuji.

F2 was less successful, with more reliability trouble, to which Maurer's answer was to blame everyone else. His character, which rival Jonathan Palmer would liken to that of ATS (and later Rial) boss Günter Schmidt, meant an unhealthy turnover of staff and engineering crew, and thus no stability or organisation, so important in F2. He was, however, awarded a win at Jarama after the dominant Casio Ralt-Hondas of Palmer and Thackwell, as well as the third-placed AGS of Philippe Streiff, were disqualified, giving Bellof and Alain Ferté a Maurer one-two.

Formula One teams were beginning to pay attention: Ickx, Mass and Bell were no slouches, and yet on raw speed Bellof was eating them alive. However, as a first priority he was tied to Rothmans Porsche for 1984, and this tended to scare off the big teams, who wanted first call, and also Rothmans didn't want him to drive for a team with tobacco sponsorship, ruling out the likes of McLaren and Lotus. He did test for the former, along with Brundle and Senna, and impressed, but the Rothmans veto, and the sudden availability of Alain Prost undid chances of a seat with the team. A seat in Formula One did come his way, though. Ken Tyrrell reasoned that signing the next great driver, and only running him at the races where he wasn't driving for Porsche, was better than not running him at all. Also, the Tyrrell team didn't have to worry about a big money Camel or Marlboro contract annoying Rothmans, as the team was incredibly poor. They were the only team not to run a turbocharged engine in 1984, relying on the DFY version of Costin & Duckworth's classic V8.

Despite Michele Alboreto's win at Detroit, finances were as strained as ever at Tyrrell. The Italian had left for Ferrari, and only scored on one other occasion. American Danny Sullivan had proven a costly flop, with just a 5th at Monaco to his name. The lucrative United Colours of Benetton sponsorship had also gone, to Euroracing and Alfa Romeo. So Tyrrell ran their cars in different liveries, with the number 3 car usually running in Yardley Gold colours, and the number 4 in Maredo colours. Martin Brundle was signed for the first car, hot from his classic F3 battle with Ayrton Senna, and Bellof was placed in the second. With a Grand Total of no Grands Prix between its two drivers, an engine which was basically 17 years old and no money the Tyrrell team didn't seem to be in for a very happy year.

However, things got better: firstly the calendars of the Sportscar and Formula One championships revealed just two clashes, the German and European Grands Prix, although Rothmans retained the right to refuse Tyrrell the use of Bellof. Also, Tyrrell's 012 proved a nimble chassis, and the DFY, much lighter than most of the turbos, meant a well-balanced car. It perfectly matched the style of its drivers.

The season-opener at the Jacarepagua circuit in Rio saw Bellof qualify 22nd, four places behind Brundle. He ran with the British driver early on, but his throttle jammed after 11 laps and he span off. Brundle went on to finish a determined 5th. The second round, at Kyalami saw him start 24th, a place ahead of Brundle, and another strong race was ended by a loose wheel. He again out-qualified his team-mate at Zolder, in 21st, but his race was what everyone was talking about. An electrifying drive saw him pass cars as if they weren't there, and a tigering performance was rewarded with 6th place. His finesse and aggression were again on display at Imola, where he started 21st again, and outdid himself by finishing in 5th.

On the Sunday morning before the Monaco Grand Prix, faces were long in the Tyrrell garage. Hopes had been high of a good result on the circuit where power didn't matter as much, but Brundle had suffered a brake failure in the closing minutes of qualifying while on a quick run, and had written off his car at Tabac. On the plus side, this meant Stefan kept his place in 20th, and last, on the grid. Torrential rain graced the race itself, and Tyrrell told Bellof to take it easy, and hope that enough of the turbo boys aquaplaned off. But Stefan was having none of this. On the first lap, he moved past five people, leaving him 13th as the two Renaults had been squeezed by Arnoux. He then began to pick off some of the leading lights of the day on a circuit not exactly renowned for passing opportunities, to say the least. He had an extended tussle with Keke Rosberg, but even the gritty Finn was forced to concede. He moved up to fourth when Nigel Mansell slammed his Lotus into the wall, and then third as he forced his way past Arnoux. He then reeled Ayrton Senna in at a rate of knots as the Brazilian carved into Alain Prost's lead. However, it was not to be and despite the rain being no worse than it was at the start, the red flag was held out after 31 laps. People are quick to point to this as a race robbed from Senna, but had the current pace continued, Bellof would have passed both. The biggest question is whether he would have thrown it into the barriers or not, however...

Montreal saw an inevitable downturn, a broken drive-shaft ending his race, although he did appear in the Drivers v Press football match. At Detroit he ran with Brundle, who ended up second, but clouted the pit wall, and he limped round a lap before retiring. However, this was small potatoes compared to what the team was about to go through. In post-race scrutinising officials tested the water and found impurities and lead shot. Samples were sent away for proper analysis, and Ken Tyrrell was summoned to Paris for a meeting on July 18. Until then the team was allowed to race under appeal. At the shambolic Dallas Grand Prix things got worse when Brundle broke his ankles after a crash in Friday Practice. Bellof clipped a wall and retired early on.

Between the Dallas race and the British Grand Prix the Paris meeting resulted in the expulsion of the team from any further participation in the Championship, and the negating of all points (13) and places already achieved. The FISA (FIA sporting organisation at the time) banned Tyrrell under Article 152 of the International Sporting Code. A press release was issued explaining the decision:

Tyrrell appealed, and gained the right to run the cars at Silverstone, thanks to the support of the RAC, with Stefan Johansson replacing Brundle. To fend off possible complications should Tyrrell be found guilty, 27 cars were allowed to start. Bellof ran near the back, narrowly avoiding Palmer's race-stopping shunt and coming home 11th. His home race saw him absent with Porsche, and Mike Thackwell stood in. His return couldn't help the ever more beleaguered Tyrrell team at the flat-out Österreichring, as the power nature of the circuit saw him and Johansson fail to qualify. To add to this, his 27th best time was disallowed as his car was 3kg underweight. Another low-key outing a Zandvoort followed. Then came the final hearing on the ballast problem. Tyrrell had been busy and had discovered that the two analyses carried out on the water samples were both in error. The analyses had stated that the sample "contained 27.5% Aromatics", whereas this figure was the percentage of Aromatics in the hydrocarbons present in the sample, not the percentage of the whole sample, the true figure being around 1%. The Appeal Court merely revised the wording regarding the presence of hydrocarbons and amazingly introduced a completely new charge, that "holes existing in the flat bottom of the Tyrrell car was an infraction under Art. 3.3" These holes were supposedly to allow air to escape after it was displaced by the water added to the tank during pit stops. The holes were deemed illegal at the British Grand Prix and were in fact closed off from that time. The hearing lasted two days before the appeal was rejected. The main findings were: