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Jean-Pierre Beltoise

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Jean-Pierre Maurice Georges Beltoise ( French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃.pjɛʁ bɛl.twaz] ; 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 in Formula One from 1966 to 1974 . Beltoise won the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix with BRM .

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22-452: 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

44-530: A French-licensed team and a French engine, as well as the first all-French victory in the Formula One World Championship. The company was also successful in endurance racing with cars powered by their V12 engine. The sportscar racing team was based at first at Vélizy-Villacoublay and then moved to Le Castellet , near Marseille , France. The Matra MS670 car won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1972 , 1973 , and 1974 . It also delivered

66-500: A single season. The decision was even more radical given that Matra was seeking a partnership with Simca , which would preclude using Ford -branded engines for the following year. Stewart won the 1969 title easily with the new Cosworth -powered Matra MS80 car, which was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Bernard Boyer , and corrected most of the weaknesses of the MS10 car. The 1969 World Drivers' and Constructors' Championship titles were

88-572: Is Cevert's sister. Beltoise began his career in the Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0 in 1993, finishing tenth, and improving to seventh in 1994. He competed in the French Formula Three Championship in 1995 and 1996, finishing eleventh in 1995 and runner-up to Soheil Ayari in 1996. Beltoise competed in the 1997 International Formula 3000 season , although failed to score any points in seven races. Beltoise competed in

110-533: 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

132-690: The 1972 Monaco Grand Prix in heavy rain. In that same year, Jean-Pierre won a non-championship race in the end of the F1 season, at Brands Hatch, thus marking the last two victories of BRM make in Formula One. He spent three seasons with BRM, and finally retired from Formula 1 at the end of the 1974 season . He 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

154-586: The 1998 International Sports Racing Series season , finishing the season tenth. He then competed in the Renault Sport Clio Trophy between 1999 and 2002, finishing 4th, 11th, 3rd and 6th over the four years. He made his first 24 Hours of Le Mans appearance in 2000 , finishing second in the GTS class in an Oreca Chrysler Viper . He also drove for SMG in the LMP900 class in 2001 . Since 2004 he has competed in

176-629: 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 , he moved to the BRM team and won what turned out to be his only and BRM's final championship-qualifying Formula One victory at

198-581: The MS5 monocoque-based car, winning the French and European championships. In 1967 , Jacky Ickx surprised the F1 establishment by posting the third-fastest qualifying time of 8:14" at the German Nürburgring in his 1600cc Matra MS7 F2, which was allowed to enter alongside the 3000cc F1 cars . In the race, he failed to finish due to a broken suspension. Matra entered Formula One in 1968 when Jackie Stewart

220-780: The Porsche Carrera Cup France , winning it in 2005, 2006 and 2008. He has also regularly competed in the FFSA GT Championship . In 2007 he made a one-off appearance for Exagon Engineering in the World Touring Car Championship at Pau . Since 2007 he has often raced in the Le Mans Series . Anthony Beltoise regularly appears in the French Tv show AutoMoto (TF1). He is portrayed as the in-house racing driver and does high speed testing (comparing cars on

242-708: 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

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264-520: The Shadow DN7 car in two races of the 1975 season and then cars built and entered by the Ligier Formula 1 team from 1976 – 1978 , and again (under the name Talbot Ligier ) from 1981 - 1982 , winning three races (the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix , 1981 Austrian Grand Prix and 1981 Canadian Grand Prix ). Jacques Laffite ´s victory at the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix was the first Formula One victory for

286-558: The World Championship for Makes (in the category of sports prototypes ) to Matra in both 1973 and 1974 seasons. ( key ) ( key ) Anthony Beltoise Anthony Beltoise (born 21 July 1971, in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) is a French auto racing driver. He is the son of former Grand Prix motorcycle racer and Formula One driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise and nephew of fellow Formula One driver François Cevert , as his mother

308-452: The 50, 125, 250 and 500 cc classes. His best finish was a sixth place in the 1964 50 cc World Championship. In 1964 he 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

330-627: The Constructors' Championship without running its own works team. Like Cosworth , Lotus and McLaren , Matra experimented with four wheel drive during the 1969 season. Johnny Servoz-Gavin became the one and only driver to score a point with a 4WD car, finishing sixth with the Matra MS84 at the Canadian Grand Prix . The MS84, along with Brabham 's BT26A , was one of the last spaceframe cars to compete in Formula One. For 1970 following

352-467: 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. In fiction, Beltoise frequently appeared in the Michel Vaillant series of comic books, amongst others being part of

374-546: The agreement with Simca , Matra asked Tyrrell to use their Matra Sports V12 engine rather than the Cosworth. Stewart got to test Matra's V12, but since a large part of the Tyrrell budget was provided by Ford , and another significant sponsor was French state-owned petroleum company Elf , which had an agreement with Renault that precluded supporting a Simca partner, the partnership between Matra and Tyrrell ended. Matra V12s powered

396-485: The first titles won by a French constructor, and still remain the only titles won by a car built in France as well as a car entered by a privateer team. It was a spectacular achievement from a constructor that had only entered Formula One the previous year. France became only the third country (after the United Kingdom and Italy ) to have produced a winning constructor , and Matra became the only constructor to have won

418-527: The names of Matra Sports , Equipe Matra Elf and Equipe Matra Sports (after a takeover by Simca in 1969 as Matra-Simca Division Automobile ), was formed in 1965 and based at Champagne-sur-Seine (1965–1967), Romorantin-Lanthenay (1967–1969) and Vélizy-Villacoublay (1969–1979). In 1979 the team was taken over by Peugeot and renamed as Automobiles Talbot . In the mid-1960s, Matra enjoyed considerable success in Formula 3 and F2 racing, particularly with

440-436: The technology to be unsafe and decided to ban it for 1970 . Matra CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère made a strategic decision for the 1969 championship: the Matra works team would not compete in Formula One. Matra would instead focus its efforts on Ken Tyrrell 's privateer team (renamed Matra International ) and build a new Ford Cosworth DFV -powered car with structural fuel tanks, even though it would only be eligible for

462-631: The winning Vaillante Le Mans team. Beltoise died at his holiday home in Dakar, Senegal, on 5 January 2015, aged 77, following two strokes . ( key ) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points ( key ) (races in italics indicate fastest lap) ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) Equipe Matra The Matra Company's racing team, under

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484-512: Was a serious contender, winning several Grands Prix in the Tyrrell -run Matra MS10 which competed alongside the works team . The F1 team was established at Vélizy-Villacoublay in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. The car's most innovative feature was the use of aviation-inspired structural fuel tanks. These allowed the chassis to be around 15 kg (33 lb) lighter, while still being stronger than its competitors. The FIA considered

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