Albert Fran�ois Cevert Goldenberg (February 25, 1944 in Paris� October 6, 1973 at Watkins Glen) was a French racing driver, who took part in the Formula One World Championship. Cevert was the son of a Paris jeweler and brother-in-law of Grand Prix driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise.

The son of Charles Goldenberg (1901-1985), a successful Parisian jeweller, and Huguette Cevert, Fran�ois Cevert was born in Paris in early 1944. His father was a Russian-Jewish emigre who had been brought to France as a young boy, by his parents, to escape the Russian Revolution of 1905. During World War II, with France occupied by the Nazis, as a registered Jew Charles Goldenberg joined the French Resistance to avoid forced deportation to Poland. In order not to draw the authorities' notice to his continuing presence in the heavily controlled capital, Charles and Huguette's four children were all registered with her surname rather than his. Some years after the liberation of France, Cevert's father wanted to rename his children Goldenberg, but the family objected as by now they had become known as Cevert.

Fran�ois Cevert began his motorsport career on two wheels, rather than four, initially racing his mother's Vespa scooter against friends, before graduating to his own Norton at the age of 19. After completing his National Service, Cevert switched his attention to cars. In 1966 he completed a training course at the Le Mans school, before enrolling at the Magny-Cours racing school. At the same time he registered for the Volant Shell scholarship competition, which offered the top finisher the prize of an Alpine Formula Three car. Cevert duly qualified for the final race and won.

His first season in F3, at the wheel of his prize Alpine, did not go well. He lacked the funds and experience to properly set up and maintain his car. After finding sponsorship for the 1968 season, Cevert traded in his Alpine for a more competitive Tecno car. With his new mount Cevert finally started to win races, and by the end of the season he was French Formula 3 Champion, just ahead of Jean-Pierre Jabouille.
After winning the French Formula 3 Championship, Cevert joined the works Tecno Formula Two team in 1969, and finished third overall, as well as driving in the F2 class of the 1969 German Grand Prix. At the time, Formula Two was an ideal training ground for ambitious drivers, as many top Grand Prix drivers also competed in the F2 class, when their Formula One schedules permitted. When Jackie Stewart had a hard time getting around Cevert in an F2 race at Crystal Palace the same year, Stewart told his team manager Ken Tyrrell to keep an eye on the young Frenchman. This personal recommendation was to pay off in 1970, as when Tyrrell needed a new driver at short notice Stewart's recommendation was still in his mind. Tyrrell later commented on the reason for Cevert's appointment to the Formula One team that "everybody said it was [French oil company and Tyrrell sponsor] Elf, but it was really what Jackie said about him."

When Johnny Servoz-Gavin suddenly retired from the Tyrrell Formula One team three races into the 1970 season, Tyrrell called upon Cevert to be his number two driver, alongside defending World Champion Stewart. Over the next four seasons, Cevert became the veteran Stewart's devoted prot�g�. After making his debut at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort in Tyrrell's second customer March-Ford, he increased his pace and closed the gap to Stewart with virtually every race. He earned his first World Championship point by finishing sixth in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
In 1971, with the Tyrrell team now building their own cars, Cevert finished second in France and Germany, both times behind team leader Stewart. Then, in the season-ending United States Grand Prix at the newly-extended Watkins Glen race course, the Frenchman earned his first and only Grand Prix win:
Having started from fifth spot, Cevert took the lead from Stewart on lap 14 as the Scot's tires began to go off in the 100� heat. At about half-distance, Cevert finally began to struggle with the same understeer that had plagued Stewart much earlier. Jacky Ickx was closing, and his Firestones were getting better as the race went on. On lap 43, Ickx set the fastest lap of the race, and the gap was down to 2.2 seconds. Then, on lap 49, the alternator on Ickx's Ferrari fell off, punching a hole in the gearbox and spilling oil all over the track! Denny Hulme's McLaren hit the oil and spun into the barrier, bending his front suspension. Hulme was standing beside the track when Cevert came by and also slid off and hit the barrier, but he kept going, now 29 seconds in the lead! Cevert coasted home, taking both hands off the wheel to wave as he crossed the line.
Cevert became only the second Frenchman to win a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix (Maurice Trintignat won at Monaco in 1955 and 1958), and it was the high point of his career, helping him take third place in the 1971 Driver's Championship behind Stewart and Ronnie Peterson.

Great expectations for Cevert, Stewart and Tyrrell were not fulfilled in 1972 as Emerson Fittipaldi and Lotus won the Driver's and Constructor's Championships. Cevert finished in the points only three times, with second places at Belgium and the US, and a fourth at his home race in France at the Clermont-Ferrand circuit. One bright spot in a disappointing year for Cevert was his second place finish at the 24 hours of Le Mans, driving a Matra-Simca 670 with New Zealand's Howden Ganley.

In 1973, the Tyrrell team was back on top in Formula One and Cevert showed he was capable of running with Stewart at almost every race. He finished second six times, three times behind Stewart, who acknowledged that, at times, the Frenchman had been a very "obedient" teammate. As Cevert began to draw even with Stewart's driving abilities, the Scot was secretly planning to retire after the last race of the season in the United States. For the 1974 season, Cevert would be Tyrrell's well deserving team leader.
Tragically, at Watkins Glen, with Stewart having already clinched his third World Championship, Cevert was killed during Saturday morning qualifying, while battling for pole position with Ronnie Peterson. In the fast right-left uphill combination called "The Esses" Cevert's car was a little too much toward the left side, getting a bump from the kerbs described by Niki Lauda in his book The Art and Science of Grand Prix Driving as unbelievably dangerous (the kerbing at the circuit was not changed until 2005 when the Indy Racing League began racing at the circuit). Due to the bump, Cevert's car swerved too much to the right-hand side of the track, where it touched the track's signature powder blue safety barriers causing the car to spin and crash into the barriers on the other side of the track at a near 90� angle, uprooting and lifting the barrier. Cevert died instantly of massive injuries inflicted by the barrier.
Jackie Stewart was one of the first on the scene of Cevert's accident and said later "They had left him in the car, because he was so clearly dead." When practice resumed, Stewart went out on the track in his car on a personal fact-finding mission. His conclusion was that his preference was to take The Esses complex in fifth gear in the Tyrrell, hence he would be at the low end of the engine's rev range. Cevert however preferred to use fourth gear and be at the top end of his engine's power range: it was always something of a compromise because of the need to accelerate through the combination of corners. Stewart noted that the Tyrrell always felt jumpy through this section of the Watkins Glen track owing to its short wheelbase; he felt that this was somewhat counteracted by driving in the higher gear even though this meant a time penalty if he got his line wrong through the corner. Thus Cevert's driving technique may have been a contributory factor in the accident. Stewart did not run his final race because of Cevert's death.
Cevert was 29 years and 224 days old. Fran�ois Cevert is buried in the Cim�ti�re de Vaudelnay in the village of Vaudelnay, Maine-et-Loire. His grave is covered with a brass of fine black marble and a black relief attached to the wall behind showing his portrait.

All photos with permission from www.f1-photo.com Mr paul Henri Cahier

French F1 Drivers, Sebastien Bourdais

S�bastien Bourdais

S�bastien Bourdais was born February 28, 1979 in Le Mans and is a current Formula One race car driver. He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of the Champ Car World Series having won four successive championships from 2004 to 2007.

In Paris August 2008...

Born into a racing family (his father Patrick races in touring cars, hill climbs, and sports cars), Bourdais began his racing career at age 10 in karts. During the early 1990s, he competed in a variety of karting championships, winning the Maine Bretagne League in 1991 and the Cadet France championship in 1993. Bourdais was part of the winning Sologne Karting team which won the 1996 24 hour Le Mans kart race at the Circuit Alain Prost on a Merlin chassis with Atomic motors.

Bourdais progressed to single-seater racing in 1995, finishing 9th in the Formula Campus Championship. He then spent two years in the French Formula Renault Championship, ultimately finishing second in points in 1997 after winning four races and five pole positions. In 1998, he won five races to become Rookie of the Year (6th overall) in French Formula 3. He won the series outright in 1999, with eight wins and three poles.

Following his success in the lower formulae, Bourdais joined the Prost Junior Team in the International F3000 Championship. He finished ninth in the series with one pole and a best finish of second. In 2001, Bourdais moved to the DAMS team in Formula 3000 and took his first win in the series at Silverstone. He changed teams again for 2002, taking his Super Nova Racing car to three victories and seven pole positions. He beat Giorgio Pantano to the championship by two points after Tom� Enge, who had scored the most points, was penalised for failing a drug test

Champ Days...

Bourdais won his second Champ Car title in 2005.
Following in the footsteps of recent F3000 graduates such as Juan Pablo Montoya and Bruno Junqueira, Bourdais moved to Champ Car racing in the United States and joined Newman-Haas Racing for the 2003 CART World Series season. At St. Petersburg, FL, Bourdais became the first rookie since Nigel Mansell to claim pole position for his very first race. However, he did not finish higher than 11th until his fourth race, when he led 95 laps en route to his first Champ Car victory at Brands Hatch.
He followed this up with another victory at Lausitzring. By the end of the season, he had earned five more podium finishes, including a win from pole at Cleveland. With a runner-up finish in Mexico City, he clinched the Rookie of the Year title and finished 4th in the overall standings.
Staying with Newman-Haas for 2004, Bourdais dominated the Champ Car series with seven wins and eight poles in his McDonald's-sponsored Lola, beating his team mate Junqueira by 28 points. His record also included podium finishes in 10 out of 14 events and qualifying results no lower than third all season.

Bourdais successfully defended his Champ Car title in 2005 with five wins in six races towards the end of the season, again with the Newman-Haas/Lanigan team. That May, he also finished 12th in his first Indianapolis 500.
Bourdais won a third consecutive Champ Car title in 2006. His season began with four consecutive victories at Long Beach, Houston, Monterrey, and Milwaukee, although his winning streak was ended by the emergence of A. J. Allmendinger, who won three races in a row through the middle of the season. Bourdais responded with a commanding victory from pole at San Jose, leaving him leading the Champ Car points standings.
However, an incident with his arch-rival Paul Tracy that knocked him out on the final lap of the following race in Denver, and a subsequent win by Allmendinger narrowed the gap between the two. Bourdais's win in Montreal and Allmendinger's DNF had widened his points lead to 62 points with three races left, and Bourdais clinched the championship at the next race in Surfers Paradise despite a weak performance in that race. Bourdais became the first Champ Car driver to win three consecutive titles since Ted Horn achieved the hat trick in 1948.
Bourdais won a fourth consecutive Champ Car title in 2007 with victory at Lexmark Indy 300 on October 21.

In 2002, Bourdais got his first F1 test with the Arrows team and was signed on to drive for the team but the team were on the verge of bankruptcy. In December he tested for Renault at Jerez but fellow Frenchman Franck Montagny secured the test drive instead of Bourdais- rumours suggested that Bourdais did not wish to sign a management deal with Renault boss Flavio Briatore in addition to a Renault contract.

Bourdais returned to F1 in 2007 after being given several tests with Scuderia Toro Rosso. On August 10, 2007 it was announced that Bourdais would race for Toro Rosso in 2008, replacing Vitantonio Liuzzi and partnering Sebastian Vettel. On March 16 2008, Bourdais competed in his first Formula One Championship race, the 2008 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. After qualifying in 17th position he took advantage of mistakes made by other drivers, in the first Formula One race since 2001 without traction control, and worked his way up to fourth. However, with three laps remaining an engine problem forced Bourdais to retire, but he was still classfied 8th having completed more than 90% of the race distance. He later inherited seventh place (and two Championship points) after the disqualification of Rubens Barrichello.
Bourdais qualified ninth for the Belgian Grand Prix. During the race he quickly gained places and held on to fifth place for much of the distance, and was on course for a podium position, but following a chaotic last lap finished in seventh position. After the race an emotional Bourdais was in tears following the result. This marked his best weekend of the season and his first World Championship points since Melbourne.

Malaysia GP '08 on board

Bourdais qualified in fourth place for the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. However, his car would not select first gear on the grid and had to start from the pit lane, a lap down (as the race started behind the safety car, there was no warm-up lap). Although he eventually finished a lap behind the race winner, team-mate Vettel, he set the second fastest lap of the race; only Ferrari's Kimi R�ikk�nen went faster. At the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix he was 6th on the road, but received a 25-second penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Felipe Massa dropping him to 10th. Few agreed with the decision - ITV's Martin Brundle had stated during live TV coverage of the race that he felt Massa may receive a penalty, whilst his colleague James Allen states that 99% of experts he spoke to felt that Bourdais did not deserve a penalty.

24 Hours of Le Mans
Bourdais has frequently contested the famous 24 hour race of his home town, entering for the first time in 1999 (aged only 20) in a Porsche 911 GT2 run by Larbre Competition. The car, which he shared with Pierre de Thoisy and Jean-Pierre Jarier, retired after 134 laps with engine failure.
He returned in 2000, finishing fourth with Emmanuel Clerico and Olivier Grouillard for the Pescarolo team behind the three dominant Audis.
His next three appearances did not go so well. He shared a Courage C60 with Jean-Christop Boullion and Laurent Redon in 2001 but it retired after 271 laps. He drove the same model the next year and finished ninth in the LMP900 class with Bouillon and Franck Lagorce. He missed the 2003 race and returned in 2004, only for the car he shared with Nicolas Minassian and Emmanuel Collard to retire after 282 laps.
Bourdais' next assault on Le Mans would come at the wheel of a factory-backed Peugeot 908 in 2007. The car he shared with Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy finished the race second behind the winning Audi R10 TDi, despite an embarrassing slide on the first lap in wet conditions that cost Bourdais a place to one of the Audis, and car problems forcing him to park the car for the last minutes of the race, waiting for the lead R10 to cross the line.

While racing in the junior formulae and Champ Cars, Bourdais made several appearances in other championships. He won the Spa 24 Hours in 2002 with Christophe Bouchut, David Terrien and Vincent Vosse in a Larbre Comp�tition Chrysler Viper GTS-R. He also won his class at the 2006 12 Hours of Sebring in a Panoz Esperante. In 2005 he also competed in the International Race of Champions, winning his first stock car race at Texas Motor Speedway.

French F1 Drivers, Jean-Christophe Boullion

Jean-Christophe Boullion

Jean-Christophe Boullion was born 27 December 1969 in Saint-Brieuc, near C�tes d'Armor and is a former Formula One driver who raced for the Sauber team.

He started karting in 1982 and moved to cars in 1988 after attending a racing school outside Paris. He started racing in Formula Ford 1600 in 1989. The following year he won the French title and moved to Formula 3. In 1993 he entered Formula 3000 and won the FIA International Championship in 1994. Although he was signed to test for Williams, he was loaned to Sauber to replace Karl Wendlinger for much of the 1995 season, scoring points twice but rarely matching team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The following year he returned to his testing role at Williams, and he later tested for Tyrrell.

In 1996 he raced briefly in the Renault Spider Eurocup, and he campaigned a Renault Laguna touring car for the Williams team in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) in 1999, acquiring the nickname 'JCB' from commentator Charlie Cox. In 2000 he turned to sports car racing with some success, and has raced several times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He earned a third place in the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans, along with Emmanuel Collard and Romain Dumas a Pescarolo Sport entry.

French F1 Drivers, Eric Bernard

Eric Bernard ( Left)

Eric Bernard

�ric Bernard was born August 24, 1964 in Martigues, near Marseille, France and is a retired Formula One racing driver, who drove for the Ligier, Larrousse and Lotus teams.

He started karting in 1976 and in the seven years that followed, won four French titles. In 1983 he attended racing school at Paul Ricard and was one of the finalists at the Volant Elf competition. He beat Jean Alesi and Bertrand Gachot to the prize, earning himself a fully-sponsored drive in Formula Renault for 1984. He finished sixth in the series, but won the following year, and entering French Formula 3 in 1986. He won the series the following year, finishing in second place for the championship, behind his old rival, Alesi. In 1988 he entered Formula 3000.
In 1989, he was called up to the French Larrousse team for the French Grand Prix, replacing Yannick Dalmas. On an assured debut, he ran as high as 5th place, and was still in 7th when his Lamborghini V12 engine failed a few laps from the end. Bernard stood in again at the following British Grand Prix, before returning to his Formula 3000 commitments with DAMS.
He was rewarded with a full-season drive for Larrousse in 1990. There, he attracted many positive notices for his smooth style and set-up skills, with several observers likening him to a young Alain Prost. He took his first point for 6th place at the Monaco Grand Prix, and his best result would come at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix, where he took 4th place.

A flying lap with Eric

Bernard elected to stay on at Larrousse for the 1991 season, but the team were in trouble, losing their Lamborghini engines to the quasi-works Modena team, having their 1990 points stripped by the FIA and also losing sponsors. Bernard would take 6th place in the Mexican Grand Prix, which was the last points finish for Larrousse with Lola Cars, but slipped back down the field, failing to qualify for the first time in his career at the Italian Grand Prix - partially due to a bereavement. Worse was to come, however, when Bernard broke his leg in the first practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix
Bernard fought back to fitness, and for the 1993 season his old sponsors Elf managed to get him into a test driver seat for the Ligier team. The two-year testing contract would pay off, as a team backer was jailed for fraud before the 1994 season, and the reduced budget saw Bernard promoted to a race seat, alongside rookie Olivier Panis. Sadly for Bernard, Panis would largely outpace him, and the team's Renault V10 engine was counterweighted by the team using a "B"-spec version of the 1993 JS39 chassis - by this time a very unusual practice in Formula One which greatly harmed competitiveness. Bernard would take third place in the high-attrition German Grand Prix, but by the European Grand Prix he was dropped in order to accommodate Johnny Herbert.

3rd Place in Germany

He was engaged by Herbert's previous team, Team Lotus, to fill the seat at the European GP, but it was to be his last F1 drive, with Mika Salo taking over later in the season.
For 1995, he was linked to a return to Larrousse, but the team folded before the season began. Bernard would move to sportscars, enjoying considerable success in GT and ALMS series.

French F1 Drivers, Jean-Pierre Beltoise

Jean-Pierre Maurice Georges Beltoise was born April 26, 1937 in Paris, France and is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver who raced for the Matra and BRM teams.
Beltoise won 11 national motorcycle titles in three years. He competed in international Grand Prix motorcycle racing from the 1962 to 1964 seasons in the 50, 125 and 250 cc classes. His best finish was a sixth place in the 1964 50 cc World Championship.

He made his four-wheel debut at Le Mans in 1963, winning the Index of Performance, but a year later his career was nearly ended when a horrendous accident at Reims left him with burns and multiple injuries, the most serious of which was a left arm so badly broken that its movement was permanently restricted. Nevertheless he was back in 1965 racing the F3 Matra (the aerospace company having taken over the Ren� Bonnet concern) and scored a great first win for the marque at Reims. His pre-eminence in this formula was later to be confirmed when he won the 1966 Monaco F3 race, and all four rounds of the Argentine Temporada series early in 1967. This success encouraged Matra to continue with their racing activities, and Beltoise was the spearhead of the team's Formula 2 programme from 1966, winning the F2 class of the German GP and later the European F2 championship for non-graded drivers in 1968 when he won rounds at Hockenheim, Jarama and Zandvoort.
In 1969 he was recruited by Ken Tyrrell to the Matra team, driving alongside Jackie Stewart, finishing second in the 1969 French Grand Prix, while development work was undertaken on the V12 project and scored seven point-scoring finishes, but the following season he raced the new Matra MS120-V12 and was unlucky not to win the French GP when a puncture robbed him of the lead. Athough Jean-Pierre had done well enough on occasion, Matra signed Amon for 1971, frustrating the Frenchman's F1 aspirations, and it was not a happy season for Beltoise.

In 1971, racing in the Matra sports car team, he was involved in the accident which killed Ignazio Giunti in Buenos Aires, and his international racing license was suspended for some time. In 1972 he joined the BRM team and won what turned out to be BRM's final Formula One victory at the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix under heavy rain.

Monaco 1972

He finally retired from Formula 1 at the end of the 1974 season.

An established member of the Matra squad, Jean-Pierre enjoyed a tremendous year in sports car racing, winning four championship rounds (the N�rburgring, Watkins Glen, Paul Ricard and Brands Hatch) but at season's end he was looking for work on two fronts. With Matra out of endurance racing, Beltoise was forced to scratch around for drives and the prospect of an F1 return with Ligier in 1976 evaporated when the seat went to Laffite. Jean-Pierre was involved with both the Ligier and Inaltera sports car projects before successfully switching to the French touring car scene, where he was to drive and gain much enjoyment for many years.
He won the French title twice for BMW before entering rallycross in an Alpine-Renault with which he won the French title. In 1981 he returned to touring cars and raced for Peugeot throughout the 1980s. He is also a regular ice racer.

He has two sons who are both race drivers.

In fiction, Beltoise frequently appeared in the Michel Vaillant series of comic books, amongst others being part of the winning Vaillante Le Mans team.

French F1 Drivers, Paul Belmondo

Bertrand Gachot leads Paul Belmondo as the dynamic Pacific duo take on the Aida track.

Paul Belmondo

Paul Belmondo was born April 23, 1963 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine and is a French racing driver who raced in Formula One for the March and Pacific Racing teams. He is the son of actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and grandson of sculptor Paul Belmondo. Around 1981, Paul gained publicity for becoming the lover of Princess St�phanie of Monaco.

Through 1987 he participated in Formula 3 and Formula 3000, although he was never a top 10 championship finisher in either. In 1992 he joined the March F1 team as a pay driver, getting a ninth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but only qualifying 4 more times before he ran out of money and was replaced by Emanuele Naspetti. Two years later he became a member of the uncompetitive Pacific Grand Prix team, where he only qualified for two races and was usually behind team-mate Bertrand Gachot.

Thereafter he concentrated on GT racing, at the wheel of a Chrysler Viper GTS-R. He started his own team, Paul Belmondo Racing which raced in the FIA GT Championship and Le Mans Endurance Series championship before folding in 2007.

A not so happy Paul, going in the sand

French F1 Drivers, Jean Behra

Jean Behra


Jean Marie Behra was born in Nice, France, February 16, 1921 - was a Formula One driver who raced for the Gordini, Maserati, BRM, Ferrari and Porsche teams.
Behra was small in stature, stocky, and weighed 178 pounds. Behra had big shoulders and was scarred from 12 crashes. In 1955 he had an ear torn off from a collision. He sometimes drove magnificently and at others he drove with a lack of enthusiasm.

He raced motorcycles for Motor-Guzzi prior to changing to sports cars and Grand Prix racing. Behra began driving cars competitively in 1952. Joakim Bonnier claimed that he learned the majority of his racing skill from Behra. Although he never achieved victory in a World Championship Formula 1 race, he managed an unquenchable thirst for motorsport, being considered a formidable competitor to the day he died. He hit the headlines when he won the non-title 1952 Reims Grand Prix. Between then and 1959 he scored many victories, but none in Formula 1 championship races.

Behra @ French GP 1959

Gordini
Behra was in a Gordini in the Pan-American road race in the Mexican state of Oaxaca in November 1952. He won the first stage of the five-day race from Mexico's southern border to the United States border at Ciudad Ju�rez near El Paso. He started 19th and finished with a time of 3 hours, 41 minutes, and 44 seconds. On the second day of competition Behra crashed his car on a curve approximately fifty miles from Puebla. In April 1954 Behra passed the leader in the last ten minutes on his way to victory in the Grand Prix of Pau, France. He finished 180 m ahead of Maurice Trintignant after having to make many pit stops due to mechanical trouble. Behra drove a six cylinder Gordini.

Monaco 1955

Maserati
Behra finished first at the Grand Prix de Pau for a second consecutive year, this time at the wheel of a Maserati.

Grand Prix de Pau 1955

Alberto Ascari led until the 19th lap but dropped back after brake failure. A crowd of 50,000 watched as only eleven of sixteen starters finished the race. Behra and Luigi Musso were teammates in the 1,008 kilometer super-Cortemaggiori Grand Prix at Monza, Italy. The two Italians shared a 3,000 cubic centimeter Maserati that won and established course and lap records for 6.3 kilometer track.
Behra had surgery on his leg in June 1956, forcing him to miss a 1,000 kilometer Monza Grand Prix. He earned the pole position for a Grand Prix at Rouen, France in July 1956. His Maserati was clocked at an average speed of nearly 155.46 kilometers per hour. Behra drove a Maserati to capture the Grand Prix of Rome, a 2,000 cubic centimeters sports car event, in October 1956. His winning distance was 166.030 kilometers. He covered one lap in 2 minutes, 16.9 seconds, to average 174.003 kilometers an hour. This established a record for the Catelfusano track.

Grand Prix France at Reims 1956

In April 1957 Behra turned in the quickest time for the Pau Grand Prix. He circuited the 2.77 meter course in 1 minute 35.7 seconds, which was a half second slower than his lap record time. The race covered a distance of 304.6 kilometers or about 310 km. Behra won the race which was run through the streets of Pau, with an average speed of 100.9 km/h. Behra was injured while testing a car for the Mille Miglia in May 1957. He recovered and entered a Maserati in the 24 hours of Le Mans on June 22. He was again triumphant in a Maserati at Kristianstad, Sweden in August 1957. He drove in a Swedish 6-hour Grand Prix at the Rabelov, 6,537 meter, asphalt track. He followed this with a win in the Grand Prix of Modena, Italy in September.
In 1957 he was cast as number two to Fangio, but still had his moments, none more memorable than the British GP when he left them all - Fangio, Hawthorn, Moss and Collins - in his wake until his Maserati's clutch failed.

Behra (46) @ Monaco 1957

Porsche
Behra drove a Porsche to victory in the 6th Rouen Grand Prix. He bested the British drivers, Graham Hill and Alan Stacey. Behra took 4th place at Oporto in the 1958 Portuguese Grand Prix, driving for British Racing Motors BRM. He drove a Porsche to achieve first place in the Grand Prix of Berlin, Germany held in September. He navigated the twenty circuits of the 8.35 km track with a time of 206.3 km/h. in 48 minutes, 14.8 seconds. Altogether he scored wins in 8 straight European races in 1958. In each sports car event he piloted a Porsche Spyder. In Formula 1 he drove exclusively for BRM that year. Behra finished 4th at Riverside International Raceway in a small Porsche RSK, in October 1958. He made a quick exit and took an airplane to Europe, where he left for the Grand Prix of Morocco at Casablanca. He was in such a hurry that he left Riverside, California in an ambulance to make his flight.

Behra @ Morroco GP 1957

Final season and death
In 1959 he moved to Ferrari where he partnered with Tony Brooks. Behra won a 320 km international race of Formula 1 cars at Aintree, in April 1959. He averaged 88.7 miles per hour in an event in which Brooks took second place, 10 seconds behind. When he retired in the French Grand Prix at Reims-Gueux after a piston failure, Behra was involved in a strong discussion in which he punched team manager Romolo Tavoni, and was instantly dismissed from the team.

Less than a month later he crashed his Porsche RSK in rainy weather in the sports car race that preceded the German Grand Prix at AVUS, in Berlin, Germany. He was thrown from his car and fatally injured when he hit a flagpole, causing a skull fracture.
The sports car race featured entries of small, under 1,500 c.c. engine capacity. After three laps Behra was third behind Wolfgang von Trips and Bonnier, who eventually finished one and two. The AVUS was unique among race tracks. It used a strip of the Autobahn 4.0 km in length. The north and south bound lanes were fifty feet apart. At one end was a hairpin turn which drivers negotiated at around 48 km/h. At the other end was a 9.1 m high, steeply banked loop. Behra lost control in the pouring rain, while going 180 km/h. The Porsche began to fishtail with the tail of the car going higher and higher up the slick, steep bank. Then the Porsche spun and went over the top of the banking, with its nose pointing toward the sky. It landed heavily on its side on top of the banking. It remained there wrecked, while the race continued on underneath. Behra was thrown out and for a fleeting moment he could be seen against the background of the sky, with his arms outstretched as though attempting to fly. He impacted one of eight flagpoles arranged at the summit of the embankment which bore the flags of the competing nations. The flagpole toppled over when Behra collided with it, about halfway to its top.
Behra came down into trees and rolled almost into a street where drivers and cars often waited in a paddock to practice. A doctor arrived from a Red Cross ambulance close by. He examined Behra briefly and shook his head. A hospital bulletin stated that Behra broke most of his ribs in addition to the skull fracture which killed him. Currently AVUS is a vital part of the German public highway system as Autobahn A 115.

Behra was buried in Nice, France six days after the crash in which he died on August 1.

3,000 mourners in Nice lined the streets from wall to wall. The first funeral service was in Berlin, followed by another in Paris.
Behra left a nineteen-year-old son, Jean Paul. Behra's demise left only Maurice Trintignant among living French drivers of fame. Trintignant comforted Behra's family and called on the young men of France to defend the colors of their country in international motor racing. Conspicuously absent among those present in the racing community was Enzo Ferrari. He dropped Behra as a factory driver ten days before his death and sent no remembrance to the funeral masses.

All photos with permission from www.f1-photo.com Mr paul Henri Cahier

French F1 Drivers, Elie Bayol

Racer 500 from Elie Bayol - 1950

Elie Bayol

�lie Marcel Bayol was born on 28th February 1914 in Marseille, who raced in Formula One for the O.S.C.A. and Gordini teams.

He started his career in 1950 racing 500cc Formula 3 DB-Panhards and progressed to Formula 2 races and hillclimbs around France. His best result was a fourth place in the Circuit de Cadours, in 1951 driving a "Rene Bonnet" 750cc, giving him a budding speedster reputation.

In 1952 he ran his own OSCA F2 car, built by the Maserati Brothers, and finished fourth at Pau.

In 1953, he ran 3 Grand prix, France, Switzerland and Italy driving an Osca with Louis Chiron.

Bayol @ Italian GP 1953

he was fourth again at Pau and obtained a pole position at Albi on the local racing calendar.

He also succeeded the same year to win the Aix les Bains Circuit du Lac Grand Prix (Formula 2).

His Formula One World Championship career consisted of entering 8 races over a 5 year span. After two years with an OSCA, he joined the Gordini team in 1954 with Jean Behra. He was fired on the spot by Amedee Gordini at the "Bordeaux GP" for failing to listen to team order asking him to let Behra take over the drive and finish the race. He then had to finish the race on foot.

In 1955,Gordini calls him back and he drives a "Gordini 16" in Argentina and Monaco. He scored his only 2 championship points with a fifth place finish in Argentina. He also finished fourth at a non-championship event at Pau.

Gordini T16

He then proceeded to race at the "24 hrs of Le Mans" until 1954 - when he suffered head injuries during practice in 1955

In 1956 he raced a few times - mainly Monaco driving a "Gordini T32" and at the "12 hrs of Rheims" - but disappeared from single-seater racing after that.

Gordini T32

He died on 25th May 1995 in La Ciotat, outside of Marseilles.

All photos with permission from www.f1-photo.com Mr paul Henri Cahier

French F1 Drivers, Marcel Balsa

Marcel Balsa


Marcel Lucien Balsa (January 1, 1909 in Creuse � August 11, 1984 in Maisons-Alfort) was a French racing driver.


His first mention in a racing event was at 38 years old in the French Grand Prix of Pau in 1939
Balsa started racing competitively after World War II, when he acquired a Bugatti Type 51 and became quite competitive in the French national events.

• in 1945 "Coupe des Prisoniers" ( Prisoner's Cup) in Paris he finishes 5th
  
• Then in 1946 at the second leg of the Marseilles GP manages to get Pole position but only finishes 5th once again.

He later built a BMW-engined Formula 2 car, being disapointed with being always left behind with his Bugatti, and had a good reputation. he manages a 4th position in the Luxembourg GP.


He then tried a Jicey-BMW developed by Jean Caillas. With it he finished third in the Grand Prix of Cadours, the same event where fellow racer Raymond Sommer was killed. Spectators could even spot his Jovial self in Paris GP starting grid in 1952. ( F2 Race)


Marcel Balsa was another one-time guest in Germany, taking part in the 1952 German Grand Prix with his special, when he retired after the 5th lap with a broken rear axle. The car is reported to have been based on a Gordini chassis with a BMW engine installed... Quite strange indeed.!

While Felice Bonetto spins his Maserati on the opening lap of the 1952 German Grand Prix, Marcel Balsa in his BMW special (110, in the foreground) and Hans Klenk in the Veritas Meteor (128) manage to avoid collision.

He was then 51 years old, making him the 9th oldest driver to ever compete in an international F1 event.

In 1953 he won a race at Montlhery facing little opposition from a few local drivers.

His last apparitions will be in Montlhery and in Cadours where he finishes 5th, in 1954.

Here is what his daughter had to say about him upon his death:

"C��tait un homme heureux, il n�a fait de sa vie que ce dont il avait envie�, et il m�a appris � �couter un moteur."

"He was a very happy man, he only did what he loved to do..., and taught me to listen to an engine roar"

All photos with permission from www.f1-photo.com Mr paul Henri Cahier

French F1 Drivers, Rene Arnoux

Rene Arnoux

Ren� Alexandre Arnoux was born July 4, 1948, in Grenoble and is a retired French racing driver who is a veteran of 12 Formula One seasons (1978 to 1989). In 2006 he raced in the inaugural season of the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired F1 drivers.

European Formula Two champion in 1977, Ren� Arnoux graduated to Formula One in 1978, with the small French Martini team of Tico Martini. In an organisation with insufficient means to figure in the highest echelon of the sport, Arnoux was unable to demonstrate his abilities. Martini abandoned Formula One during the season, having run short of money. Arnoux found refuge at the end of the season at the Surtees team, but once again found himself in a team on the edge of failure.

For the 1979 season, Arnoux joined the Renault team, which entered two cars for the first time since its debut in 1977. The team's only victory of the year was taken by Arnoux's teammate Jean-Pierre Jabouille at the French Grand Prix at the Dijon-Prenois circuit, but Arnoux took the headlines due to a fierce but good-natured wheel-banging battle with Gilles Villeneuve for second place.


In the 1980 season, Arnoux took his first two Formula One victories, but a lack of reliability prevented him from playing a part in the fight for the world title, although he took three pole positions. Arnoux's situation was complicated in 1981 by the arrival of Alain Prost at Renault. Inevitably their rivalry on track flared up off the track and relations between the two men deteriorated, dividing the small world of French sport. The conflict reached its peak at the 1982 French Grand Prix at Le Castellet.

The drivers took the first one-two in Renault's history in Formula One, Arnoux finishing ahead of Prost. Prost was furious, considering that his teammate had not kept to the team orders agreed before the race, according to which he should have ceded the win to Prost, who was better placed in the championship. Arnoux replied that no orders had been given before the race and that he was free to drive his own race. He took one other win at the Italian Grand Prix at the end of the season. He was also lucky to walk away from a high speed crash after brake failure at the end of the long straight in the Dutch Grand Prix.

The pairing of Prost and Arnoux having become unsustainable, Arnoux left Renault at the end of 1982 to join Scuderia Ferrari. With three victories, at the Canadian, German, and Dutch Grands Prix, he was in contention for the world title for much of the season, but was left behind by his rivals Prost and Nelson Piquet in the championship run in.

After a less successful second season at Ferrari, during which his new teammate Michele Alboreto progressively took the initiative from him, Arnoux was suddenly dismissed after the first Grand Prix of the 1985 championship, the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Without a drive for the majority of the 1985 season, Arnoux made his return to Formula One in 1986 for the Ligier team, where he delivered several good performances. However, despite maintaining his motivation, Ligier were not competitive and Arnoux went through three seasons at the back of the grid before leaving Formula One after the 1989 season.

Towards the end of his career Arnoux attracted some controversy; he was frequently accused of blocking faster cars in qualifying and when being lapped. He finished his career with 181 World Championship points.



Ren� Arnoux has since started an indoor karting business called Kart'in, consisting of four tracks in France, two in the Parisian area, one in the suburbs of Lyons and one near Marseille. He also owns and manages two factories, frequently appears and drives in historical events on behalf of Renault and resides in Paris.
Arnoux was one of the drivers invited to take part in the Grand Prix Masters championship in 2006 and 2007, restricted to former Formula One drivers. In 2007 and 2008 he drives for the Renault H&C Classic Team, e.g. presents and drives Alain Prost's F1 car from 1983 at World Series By Renault events.

French F1 Drivers, Phillipe Alliot

Phillipe Alliot

Philippe Alliot was born 27 July 1954 in Voves, Eure-et-Loir, France and is a former racing driver who participated in Formula One from 1984 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1994. He raced for RAM, Ligier, Larrousse and McLaren.
From a well-to-do family in Reims, Alliot watched racing when he was a child, his heroes being Chris Amon and Graham Hill, but he did not get involved in karting and it was not until he had finished his military service with the elite Chasseur Alpines regiment and was studying political science that he decided to enroll for a course at the Motul racing school at Nogaro, in the south-west of France.

He finished second in the Volant Motul competition but Motul was sufficiently impressed to give him some support in Formule Renault in 1976. At his first event Alliot won one heat while a youngster called Alain Prost won the other. But Prost's domination of the series made it difficult for Alliot and his brother Frederic, who was also racing, to survive. They struggled through the 1976 and 1977 seasons but Philippe's efforts were finally rewarded when he was offered a drive with the BP Racing team in 1978.

He won the French Formula Renault championship and graduated to French Formula 3 with BP. He finished third in his first season behind Prost and Jean-Louis Schlesser and moved to the European Formula 3 Championship in 1980 but failed to win a race but finished fifth in the series. In 1981 he partnered Alain Ferte in the Martini factory team and won at Magny-Cours and La Chatre to finish third in the series.

He stayed on in 1982 but has a less successful year, winning only one race. In 1983 he moved to Formula 2 but hit the headlines that year when he finished third in the Le Mans 24 Hours with Michael and Mario Andretti in a Kremer Porsche. After another difficult year with Martini in Formula 2 he joined the Skoal Bandit RAM Formula 1 team in 1985. He tested for Ligier that winter but went back to Formula 3000 in 1986 with ORECA and won at Spa. After Jacques Laffite was injured at Brands Hatch, Alliot joined Ligier as his replacement before getting a full-time drive with the new Larrousse Lola team in 1987. He stayed with them for three seasons but proved to be fast but rather erratic, having some spectacular accidents.

He returned to Ligier for the 1990 season but it was not a success and at the end of the year he took the opportunity to join the Peugeot Sport sportscar team for the 1991 season. This resulted in one victory in 1991 (which he shared with Mauro Baldi) but other good results enabled them to finish third in the Sportscar World Championship.

In 1992 the pair won two victories and helped Peugeot to the World Sportscar Championship. This resulted in Philippe being named as a McLaren-Peugeot driver in 1994 in F1 although he only took part in one race for the team after Mika Hakkinen was banned from taking part in the Hungarian GP.

In August that year he rejoined Larrousse for one race in Belgium but at the start of 1995 announced his retirement from racing and decided to try a career in politics. He did TV commentary work for a while and also competed in ice racing and on the Paris-Dakar Rally but then moved on to set up Force One Racing with David Hallyday, running Chysler Vipers in GT racing. The pair won the 2001 French GT title and competed internationally until 2004. They continue to race in France. Alliot has also lent his name to a karting circuit run by his brother Franck at Belleville-sur-Vie, in the Vendee region of western of France.

French F1 Drivers.

With more time on my hands now, I decided to go back to my roots and check out, current and former French F1 drivers.
I was actually surprised to see so many unfamilliar names in the list.
The obvious ones that come to mind would be Alain Prost, Jean Alesi, Rene Arnoux, J.Pierre Jabouille and so on..
So over the next few weeks, I will dedicate a post each to my fellow Frenchman who made our country proud in some time or another.
Here is the list of the drivers that will be featured ( in alphabetical order)

A
Jean Alesi

Philippe Alliot
Ren� Arnoux

B
Marcel Balsa

�lie Bayol
Jean Behra
Paul Belmondo
Jean-Pierre Beltoise
�ric Bernard
Jean-Christophe Boullion
S�bastien Bourdais

C
Fran�ois Cevert
Eug�ne Chaboud
Bernard Collomb
�rik Comas

D
Yannick Dalmas
Patrick Depailler
Jos� Dolhem

E
Philippe �tancelin

F
Pascal Fabre

G
Patrick Gaillard
Yves Giraud-Cabantous
Aldo Gordini
Jean-Marc Gounon
Georges Grignard
Olivier Grouillard
Andr� Guelfi

H
Fran�ois Hesnault

J
Jean-Pierre Jabouille
Jean-Pierre Jarier
Max Jean

L
Robert La Caze
Jacques Laffite
Franck Lagorce
G�rard Larrousse
Michel Lecl�re
Pierre Levegh
Guy Ligier
Henri Louveau
Roger Loyer
Jean Lucas
Jean Lucienbonnet

M
Guy Mairesse
Robert Manzon
Eug�ne Martin
Fran�ois Mazet
Fran�ois Migault
Franck Montagny

P
Olivier Panis
Henri Pescarolo
Fran�ois Picard
Didier Pironi
Jacques Pollet
Charles Pozzi
Alain Prost

R
Pierre-Henri Raphanel
Louis Rosier

S
St�phane Sarrazin
Jean-Louis Schlesser
Jo Schlesser
Johnny Servoz-Gavin
Andr� Simon (racing driver)
Raymond Sommer

Mike Sparken
Philippe Streiff

T
Patrick Tambay
Andr� Testut
Maurice Trintignant

As each driver is revealed, you will notice many of them only had a few races to their name. Nevertheless they deserve to be noted down in memory of their contribution to the sport.

I will try and get as much details as possible for each one but should you notice errors or misses do not hesitate to comment and I will amend accordingly.