Frederick "Rikky" von Opel (born 14 October 1947) is a former racing driver, who competed under the Liechtenstein flag in Formula One from 1973 to 1974. Von Opel remains the only Liechtenstein driver to compete in Formula One.
Von Opel started out racing in Formula Ford in 1970, under the pseudonym "Antonio Branco".[1] After his year in Formula Ford, he moved on to Formula 3, where he competed for two years.[1] He raced a Lotus 69 in 1971 in the BRSCC Shell British Formula 3 series (six starts, one pole position, eight points), but changed over to Ensign Racing in 1972 and followed the team into Formula One.[2] He won the 1972 Lombard North Formula 3 championship, one of three concurrent regional championships (along with the John Player, and Forward Trust) in the United Kingdom.
Formula One
1973
Opel's Ensign N173 in 2012
Opel's Formula One debut coincided with that of the team that provided him with his big break, Ensign. Both began at Paul Ricard in France, the eighth race of the 1973 season, with Opel qualifying his N173 25th and finishing 15th, three laps down. Great Britain was next, while Opel finished 13th, six laps down, after starting from 21st.
More promising signs appeared to be on the horizon at Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix where he qualified a very creditable 14th, ahead of former World Drivers' Champions Emerson Fittipaldi and Graham Hill. However, on the morning of the race, cracks were found in the chassis. With too little time to make repairs, Opel was unable to start and the same issues prevented the team from starting in Germany too. Fuel system issues curtailed Opel's Austrian Grand Prix where he qualified 19th, and an overheating engine ended his Italian Grand Prix, after qualifying 17th.
The North American climax offered little better; he qualified 26th and last in Canada and was unclassified in the race, finishing 12 laps down, whilst in that year's United States Grand Prix he once again qualified dead last, 27th, and retired on the opening lap with his throttle jammed open. Opel's debut season produced no points, and he was unclassified in the Drivers' Championship.
1974
Ensign's car for the new season, the N174, was much like the N173, but at the opening round of 1974 in Argentina, Opel discovered how little progress had really been made. He qualified 26th, again dead last, more than seven seconds slower than pole-sitter Ronnie Peterson and almost one and a half seconds slower than Guy Edwards, who qualified 25th. The handling of the car was so flawed that he chose to withdraw from the meeting.[3] Shortly afterwards Opel quit the team.
Retiring with an oil leak in Spain, after qualifying 24th, and again a fortnight later in Belgium with a blown engine, from which he started 22nd, were not the lift in performance Opel wished for. Monaco was worse still, where he was the only driver that failed to qualify. Brief respite was found in Sweden and the Netherlands with his first top-10 finishes, 9th on both occasions (after qualifying 20th and 23rd respectively).
The promise was short-lived though, as failure to qualify next time out in France was the final straw for Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone, and Opel was replaced by Carlos Pace. For the second year running he was unclassified in the Driver's Championship with no points. A little over a year after his debut, the career of Liechtenstein's only Formula One driver was over.
After his stint in Formula One, von Opel retired to a Buddhist monastery in rural Thailand and became a monk. His exact whereabouts are unknown and his only contact with the outside world comes in the form of a post office box, the location of which is known by only a select few of his acquaintances.[1]
