French Formula 1, from the 60s to the present day

Matra, under the leadership of its Managing Director, Jean-Luc Lagardère, and with the support of the oil company ELF, gave the British team led by Ken Tyrrell an MS 10 chassis powered by a Ford-Cosworth V8. For its part, the French firm was using a vehicle based on an MS 11 chassis powered by an in-house V12 engine. Both vehicles were on the starting grid at the Monaco Grand Prix, with Johnny Servoz-Gavin and Jean-Pierre Beltoise behind the wheels, but they were soon forced to retire their cars.

One month later, with the Zandvoort track hit by driving rain, the two French single seaters took the chequered flag. This one-two was a taste of what was to come: in 1969, Matra won the Constructors’ championship while its lead driver, Jackie Stewart, became World Champion. Despite this success, the Matra-Tyrell couple went their separate ways just before the following season. In 1972, Matra permanently cut ties with Formula 1.

1975 saw the return of a French racing team. Former racing driver Guy Ligier, who had already embarked on a career as a car manufacturer, dreamed of joining F1. He obtained the advertising budget that SEITA had until then given to Matra and, with a touch of audacity and nerve, obtained the leasing, operation and overhaul of V12 engines from Matra. Add to that the arrival of key figures, such as the engineer Gérard Ducarouge, and the dream became reality: the JS5 Formula One car, recognisable by its huge airbox above the engine, was ready to race. Although Beltoise took part in trials and was approached at one point to become a driver, the French team preferred Jacques Laffite in the end. The “Bleu de France” team recorded promising results: 2nd in Austria, 3rd in Belgium and in Italy. The first all-French World Championship victory happened on 19 June 1977 in Anderstop, Sweden, despite a disappointing start to the season. This success was so unexpected that Laffite did not get to hear the Marseillaise on the podium, as the organisers had never for a moment thought that the Frenchman could win.

With the JS11, the Vichy-based team got off to a roaring start to the season, but then experienced a slump, aggravated by Depailler’s hang-gliding accident. The seven Mercenaries were down to six. In 1981, the French performed their swan song: up until the final Grand Prix, Laffite was in the running for the title with his Ligier-Talbot. In vain.

Times change, players too. The big generalist manufactures then came to join F1, led by a brand very familiar to the general public: Renault.

At the end of 1980, when Ferrari announced it had hired Pironi, Jabouille was injured in Montréal. Renault then hired a 26-year-old prodigy, about whom Hugues de Chaunac, boss of the Oreca team, spoke very highly: Alain Prost. But 1982 was Pironi’s year. With just five races left, all onlookers agreed in thinking that the driver would become the first Frenchman to become World Champion. But in Formula 1, as in life, fate can be cruel. At the German Grand Prix, in torrential rain that made it impossible to see, his Ferrari hit the back of Prost’s car and took off like an aeroplane. When it hit the ground, the red racing car shattered and Pironi suffered serious leg injuries. He would never race in F1 again.

In 1983, the Renault was one of the best-performing single-seaters on the grid, and until the final Grand Prix, in Kyalami, the Prost-Cheever duo was in the running for the title. As fate would have it, the Renault’s turbo failed, and BMW and Piquet became World Champions. The Renault-Prost combination would not survive this failure, and Prost sought refuge with McLaren, with whom he would win no fewer than three World Championships (1985, 1986, 1989). Then, following a brief spell at Ferrari, Prost joined Williams, where he was reunited with Renault. The company with the diamond-shaped logo, which had retired from F1 in 1985, took advantage of a change in regulations from 1989 to return as an engine manufacturer with a V10. Renault dominated the discipline: in 1993, it gave Prost a fourth title; in 1995 it was the turn of Michael Schumacher with his Benetton powered by Renault, then in 1996 Damon Hill raced his Williams-Renault to the top of the rankings.