Maurice Bienvenu Jean Paul Trintignant (French pronunciation: [mɔʁis bjɛ̃v(ə)ny ʒɑ̃ pɔl tʁɛ̃tiɲɑ̃]; 30 October 1917 – 13 February 2005) was a French racing driver and winemaker, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1964. Trintignant won two Formula One Grands Prix across 15 seasons. In endurance racing, Trintignant won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1954 with Ferrari.
Maurice Trintignant | |
|---|---|
 Trintignant at the 1954 Buenos Aires Grand Prix | |
| Born | Maurice Bienvenu Jean Paul Trintignant 30 October 1917 Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes, Vaucluse, France |
| Died | 13 February 2005 (aged 87) |
| Relatives | Jean-Louis Trintignant (nephew) |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Nationality |  French |
| Active years | 1950–1964 |
| Teams | Gordini, Rosier, Ferrari, Vanwall, Bugatti, Walker, Centro Sud, BRM, Aston Martin, Serenissima, Parnell, privateer BRM |
| Entries | 86 (81 starts)[a] |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 2 |
| Podiums | 10[b] |
| Career points | 72 1⁄3 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 1 |
| First entry | 1950 Monaco Grand Prix |
| First win | 1955 Monaco Grand Prix |
| Last win | 1958 Monaco Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 1964 Italian Grand Prix |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |
| Years | 1950–1962, 1964–1965 |
| Teams | Gordini, Rosier, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Serenissima, Maserati, Ford |
| Best finish | 1st (1954) |
| Class wins | 2 (1953, 1954) |
Trintignant competed in Formula One for 11 teams, winning two Grands Prix across 15 seasons. He finished fourth in the 1954 and 1955 World Drivers' Championships with Ferrari. He entered 15 editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1950 to 1965, winning in 1954 alongside José Froilán González, driving the Ferrari 375 Plus, and finished runner-up in 1959.
After retiring from motor racing, Trintignant moved into the winemaking trade, owning a vineyard in Languedoc-Roussillon, where he named his vintage Le Petoulet.[c] Trintignant's nephew, Jean-Louis, was a highly successful actor in post-World War II France.
Racing career
editHe began racing in 1938, and won the 1939 Grand Prix des Frontières, but his career was interrupted by the Second World War, during which his own Bugatti was stored in a barn. When he rebuilt it for an event of 1945, the Coupé de la Liberation, he overlooked a clogged fuel filter, which caused him to drop out of the race. It transpired that the filter was plugged with rat droppings, earning him the unenviable nickname, from another celebrated racer, Jean-Pierre Wimille, of 'Le Petoulet, "the rat-droppings man".[4]
In 1948, Trintignant suffered a very serious accident during a support race for the Swiss Grand Prix. He was thrown in the air, and landed in the middle of the race track. His heart stopped beating for one minute and 15 seconds at the hospital, and he was pronounced dead. However, he survived, and woke up after a week-long coma. He kept a very peculiar looking abdomen scar, as the surgeon stitching a large wound did it at a very irregular pace while his heart had stopped beating. For six months, he suffered from amnesia and a loss of motor skills, but he eventually made a near complete recovery.[5] The corner at which he crashed was later named after him.[6] His wife offered him a stuffed teddy bear during his recovery, and as a superstition, Trintignant kept it in his pocket while he was racing for the rest of his career. He returned to racing in 1949 and won a Formula Two race at the Circuit des Remparts that year.[7]
By 1950 Le Petoulet was successful enough to be offered a works drive for the Gordini team, in the newly formed Formula One World Championship racing series. He competed in Formula One every year until his retirement after the 1964 season. During this long career Trintignant scored two victories, both at the Monaco Grand Prix, in 1955 and 1958.[8] Unusually for Monaco, both victories came from relatively far down the field, as Trintignant started those races from 9th and 5th respectively. 1954 and 1955 were his best Championship years and he finished fourth in the Drivers' Championship in both.
Trintignant won the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans with José Froilán González in a Ferrari 375 Plus, despite a seven minutes pitstop with one and a half hour to go, due to a faulty ignition wiring caused by the torrential rain.[9]
Known for his conservative and reliable driving style,[10][11] Trintignant drove a huge variety of cars, for many different teams: both works and privateer. Unusually, at the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix Trintignant shared both second and third places, a product of the Scuderia Ferrari policy of passing cars to their top drivers, should their original car break down. In 1956 he drove the Bugatti Type 251 in the French Grand Prix, becoming the last driver to represent the famed marque at a Grand Prix race.[12] Even in his final season, driving his own BRM P57, he scored points, taking fifth place at the 1964 German Grand Prix on the intimidating Nürburgring. Between 1959 and 1966, Trintignant held the record for most World Championship Grand Prix starts.[13] Following his retirement from racing, Maurice Trintignant returned to a quiet life as a wine-grower (naming his vintage Le Petoulet),[14] near the town of Vergèze, in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine growing region.
Trintignant competed in the 2000 Historic Grand Prix of Monaco, reunited with the Cooper T45 he had driven to victory there in 1958.[15]
Trintignant died, aged 87, in 2005.
Major career wins
edit- Rheinland-Pfalz Preis – 1950
- Mont Ventoux Hill Climb – 1949, 1960, 1964
- Buenos Aires Grand Prix – 1954, 1960
- Swedish Grand Prix – 1956
- RAC Tourist Trophy – 1954
- Circuit des Nations – 1950
- Moroccan Grand Prix – 1956
- Grand Prix Avignon – 1947
- Albi Grand Prix – 1951
- Grand Prix de Caen – 1952, 1954
- Grand Prix de Cadours – 1952, 1953
- Pau Grand Prix – 1958, 1959 (F2), 1962 (F1)
- Grand Prix de Rouen-les-Essarts – 1954
- Grand Prix de Roubaix – 1952
- Grand Prix des Frontières – 1938, 1939, 1953
- 2 Hours of Dakar – 1956
- 12 Hours of Hyères – 1954
- 10 Hours of Messina – 1955
- Monaco Grand Prix – 1955, 1958
- 24 Hours of Le Mans – 1953, 1954
Racing record
editComplete Formula One World Championship results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
- * Indicates shared drive with Harry Schell
- † Indicates shared drives with José Froilán González and Giuseppe Farina (2nd place) & Giuseppe Farina and Umberto Maglioli (3rd place)
- ‡ Indicates shared drive with Peter Collins
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
edit
Complete 12 Hours of Sebring results
edit| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 |  Ferrari Factory
|
 Peter Collins
|
Ferrari 315 S | S5.0 | 187 | 6th | 5th |
Complete British Saloon Car Championship results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)
| Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Pos. | Pts | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Ford Motor Company | Ford Zodiac Mk 3 | C | SNE | GOO | AIN | SIL ? |
CRY | AIN | BRH | OUL | 22nd | 6 | 3rd |
Source:[17]
| ||||||||||||||
Trivia
edit- He was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1960
- Was the mayor of Vergèze between 1958 and 1964.
- Was married to Louise on 10 December 1938
- Took over his father's vineyard
- On 10 October 2010 a bronze statue of a Bugatti Type 51 was unveiled in Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes in his honour
Notes
edit- ^ Trintignant was initially credited with starting the 1951 Italian Grand Prix, as he was secretly replaced by Jean Behra. Gordini team principal Amédée Gordini did not inform the race organisers about the switch as it would have increased the team's starting fee. Some sources still credit Trintignant with the start.[1][2]
- ^ Including both second and third place at the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix.
- ^ In French, Le Petoulet means "The Rat-Droppings Man", a popular nickname given to Trintignant by Jean-Pierre Wimille.[3][4]
References
edit- ^ "Jean Behra - Biography". MotorSportMagazine. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ "Seasons - Italy 1951". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ "Drivers - Maurice Trintignant". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
- ^ a b Michael Kettlewell, World of Automobiles (Orbis, 1974), Volume 20, p.2368
- ^ Vergès, Patrice (6 October 2017). "Maurice Trintignant, 48 victoires et 1000 histoires". Classic Courses (in French). Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ "Motorsport Memorial -". www.motorsportmemorial.org. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
- ^ "La fabuleuse histoire de Maurice Trintignant, légende de la Formule 1, qui a vécu dans le Gard". midilibre.fr (in French). Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ Daily Express page 9 Monday 19 May 1958
- ^ "Le Mans 1954". www.sportscars.tv. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
- ^ "8W - What? - Bugatti T251". www.forix.com. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
- ^ Vergès, Patrice (13 October 2017). "Maurice Trintignant , 48 victoires et 1000 histoires - 2/2". Classic Courses (in French). Retrieved 18 December 2023.
- ^ Mattijs Diepraam, Colombo's flawed brilliance, 8W, October 1998.
- ^ "Statistics Drivers - Grands Prix - Chronology of the record • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
- ^ ibid.
- ^ "The Ex-Rob Walker Racing Team/Maurice Trintignant 1958 Monaco Grand Prix Winning, 1958 Cooper-Climax Type 45 — Polson Motor Company". polsonmotorco.com. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ No points awarded for shared drive with Stirling Moss in the 1960 Argentine Grand Prix
- ^ de Jong, Frank. "British Saloon Car Championship". History of Touring Car Racing 1952-1993. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
External links
edit- Mattijs Diepraam, Colombo's flawed brilliance, 8W, October 1998.