Soren Vinter

Bergen, Norway

**Søren Vinter** (1962 - 1994) was a Norwegian racing driver.

Vinter passed away shortly after the 1994 British Grand Prix after a head-on collision with McLaren's Ezequiel Zarco.

## Early Years

Vinter started his racing career in local motorbike races in Bergen at the age of 13. At the age of 15 he started racing in Bilcross in addition to the motorbike racing. In 1980 he moved to Denmark to race in the Danish Formula Ford Championship, winning three races and earning two podiums in his first and only season. In 1981 he moved to Paris and made the switch to the French Formula Renault Championship. His first year went winless but saw him stand on the podium twice. The second year was much better as he adapted to the car, and managed to win twice and stood on the podium for all races but two. This performance caught the attention of Volkswagen who brought Vinter into the German Formula Three championship for 1983.

## Formula One

### 1986-1987 Zakspeed

Vinter was hired on a race-by-race contract for 1986 with Zakspeed. For the first year with the team he scored 0 points while his teammate scored one point over the entirety of the season. Both drivers were retained for the 1987 season, where Søren scored 14 points overall with a best finish of 4th at the 1987 Formula One Season German Grand Prix.

### 1988-1990 Williams

For the 1988 season, Williams lost their 1987 World Championship winning driver Eduardo Ventura, who left the team to join McLaren at the same time as Honda made the same switch. Once it was clear that Danilo Koren was also leaving the team, Williams were forced to look all over the paddock to find two drivers to join the team. Vinter's race-by-race contract with Zakspeed became highly beneficial as he could switch to the prestigious British team without any hassle. The second seat was harder to find and was originally given to Bruce Kerrigan before the team opted to go for their reserve driver William O'Conner, who had been out of the sport for two years.

The first half of the season was a struggle for the Norwegian, as he was on pace for 7th in the 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix, before suffering brake issues at the half-way mark of the race. The next five races all were retirements for Vinter, three of which were caused by other drivers causing collisions. In Great Britain and Germany, Vinter's luck improved to finish 7th and 3rd respectively. With his podium in Germany, Williams signed him on for another year in the team, hoping to build on the odd performances of the 1988 season into a more regular occurance.

During the 1988 Austrian Grand Prix, Søren re-entered the track after having spun in T2, and unknowingly go straight into the path of Fabiano Margheriti. Both drivers suffered injuries from the incident, with Fabiano coming off worse with a major leg fracture to Vinter's punctured lung. Vinter returned for the last race of the season at the 1988 Japanese Grand Prix, where a suspension failure occured after hitting a kerb at Spoon Curve on lap 16, just after teammate William O'Conner spun between T2 and T3.

In 1989, Vinter's luck seemed to have turned from the 1988 season, where he scored two podiums. One of these occurred with a third place finish in Germany and a the other was a second place finish in Belgium. While the odd results helped Vinter retain his Williams contract for another year, the team had started to look for other drivers to join the team, and as such Vinter spent most of 1990 looking for another team to join for the 1991 season onward.

### 1991-1992 Jordan

Having heard news of Eddie Jordan planning to make a Formula One entry with Eddie Jordan Racing - later renamed to Jordan Grand Prix - Vinter immediately reached out to the Irish businessman, offering to drive for free to secure the seat, with the caveat to be paid for the 1991 season should they renew the contract for the subsequent season.

Ahead of the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix, Vinter signed with Red Bull to become the first ever Red Bull affiliated motor-racing athlete.

At the end of the 1991 season, Eddie Jordan re-signed the Norwegian with the hopes to make a more reliable car for the subsequent season, and hopes for better luck to improve the overall consistency with points.

The 1992 season saw Vinter achieve his best ever result in the championship, achieving 10th in the overall standings, while getting one win and one podium. Despite this performance he was outperformed by his new teammate Jimmy Russell by just three points.