JEAN-PIERRE BEL TOISE
Jean-Pierre Beltoise
French
about him in sixties
Post 1945 DriversA FRANC INJECTION by the French government will result in Matra-Sport running a 3-liter V -12
Formula 1 car next season and their number one driver will undoubtedly be lean-Pierre Beltoise. In the brave old days French drivers were among the best, but lately-until Beltoise came along-there have been few French sons to wave the Tricolor. Beltoise is 29. and although he has yet to drive a 3-liter Formula I car, nobody is underrating his chances.
You could be excused if you think of fast Frenchmen as graduated Paris taxi drivers-and Beltoise isn't far off that! He gained his early lessons in fullblooded, half-controlled slides, spins, phenomenal avoidances and sometimes prangs, driving a meat van for his father's butcher shop. After this he studied engineering for a couple of years, becoming interested in motorcycles and buying one of his own to go racing. But the ancient mounts. he could afford weren't equal to their enthusiastic young rider and in 10 races he won one and racked up a formidable list of did-not-finishes. He spent two and a half years in the French army but was back on bikes and winning as soon as he was let out. In the three years that followed, Beltoise won II national championships on two wheels but he had a burning desire to race cars. His first chance at a sit-down drive was at the Targa Florio-of all places for a beginner-in a works 1liter Renault-Bonnet prototype. His practice laps were faster than those of his co-driver, but the same gentleman brought the car to a halt in the Sicilian countryside before Beltoise had a chance to drive in the race.
At this time Beltoise was hopping Hailwood-style between bikes and cars,'
with a rosy future in both fields. He signed with Rene Bonnet at the beginning of 1964, but the season progressed with differing disasters ranging in magnitude from running out of gas to a mighty shunt at Reims that nearly killed him. He was driving a Bonnet in the 12-hr race and lost control on spilled fuel. The Bonnet crashed in flames. Beltoise was badly injured and it was six months before he was back on his feet, having lost some use of his left arm and left leg. By the time he was fit enough to drive again, Rene Bonnet had been taken over by Matra and it was in one of these smart but unsorted French monocoques that he set about making his comeback. But his luck was still bad. A succession of maddening mechanical failures with the new Matras, plus the fact that his wife had been tragically killed in a car accident on the way to the Le Mans test weekend, gave his critics reason to think he was driving himself beyond his limit. After a crash early in a race at Clermont-Ferrand, pressure was even brought to bear on M atra to retire Beltoise before he hurt himself.
But he soon settled down and when the Matras became reliable, he began winning. In 1965 he won the French F3 championship; in 1966 he won the F2 class when Fl and F2 cars were mixed in the German GP at Nurburging, he won the F3 race at Monaco and he was often able to worry the BrabhamHondas when nobody else was able to in F2 racing. He started 1967 well with wins in the Argentine Temporada F3 series, and people like Clark, Surtees and Brabham often have to follow his Matra in F2 races now.
Ken Tyrrell, the team manager who was responsible for sorting out the brilliantly built but sometimes clumsily set-up Matras, says that Beltoise's arm and leg injuries could sap his stamina in the hard slugging of Fl racing next year, but we shall have to see whether the wiry little Frenchman's ten-tenths enthusiasm and dedication can overcome any lingering physical disabilities
Author: ArchitectPage
