Jean-Pierre Beltoise

Biography

Jean-Pierre Maurice Georges Beltoise (26 April 1937 – 5 January 2015) was a French racing driver and motorcycle road racer, who competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1962 to 1964, and Formula One from 1966 to 1974. Beltoise won the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix with BRM. Beltoise competed in Formula One for Matra and BRM, finishing fifth in the 1969 World Drivers' Championship with the former. Beltoise was also a class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1976 with Inaltéra. Beltoise won 11 French national motorcycle road racing titles in three years. He competed in international Grand Prix motorcycle racing from the 1962 to 1964 seasons in the 50, 125, 250 and 500 cc classes. His best finish was a sixth place in the 1964 50 cc World Championship. In 1964, Beltoise was racing a 1.1-litre René Bonnet sports car. His career almost ended with a huge crash in the Reims 12-hour sports car endurance race, in which he suffered a broken arm, so severely damaged that its movement was permanently restricted. However, he returned in 1965 and won the Reims Formula 3 race, after which he graduated to Formula 2 for the following season. In 1966, Beltoise drove in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in a Formula Two (F2) one litre Matra MS5-Cosworth. He finished one lap down but won the F2 class. However, it was his only Grand Prix that season. In 1967 Beltoise competed in three Grands Prix with a Formula Two Matra MS7 1.6 litre Cosworth, and finished seventh at both Watkins Glen and Mexico City. He also won the 1967 Buenos Aires Grand Prix, which was not part of the World Championship calendar. In 1968, Beltoise began the season again with an F2 car but from the second race onward had Formula One machinery and finished second in the 1968 Dutch Grand Prix. In 1969, he was placed in Ken Tyrrell's Matra team, whilst the works V12 engine was developed driving alongside Jackie Stewart, and finished second in the French grand Prix. Beltoise returned to the works Matra team for both 1970 and 1971. In 1971, racing in the Matra sports car team, he was involved in the accident in which Ignazio Giunti died during the 1000 km Buenos Aires, and his international racing license was suspended, although he was allowed to compete while on appeal. For 1972, Beltoise moved to the BRM team and won what turned out to be his only and BRM's final championship-qualifying Formula One victory at the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix in heavy rain. In that same year, he won a non-championship race in the end of the F1 season, at Brands Hatch, thus marking the last two victories of the BRM make in Formula One. He spent three seasons with BRM, and finally retired from Formula 1 at the end of the 1974 season. Beltoise later did most of the testing for the Ligier F1 team, although a proposed Formula One drive for 1976 went instead to Jacques Laffite and he thereafter turned his attention to touring car racing in France, twice winning the French title 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 was also a regular ice racer. His two sons, Anthony and Julien, are both race drivers. ... Source: Article "Jean-Pierre Beltoise" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.