brazilyellowpages.com

BELTOISE, JEAN PIERRE

4/26/1937, Paris, France

Starts:86

Points: 77

Wins:1

Poles:0

Fastest Laps:4

IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE OR INITIATE A DISCUSSION ON THIS DRIVERS' CAREER, CLICK HERE

Very few GP wins were as popular as Beltoise’s Monaco runaway victory in 1972. In addition to being a worthy winner that day, Beltoise had come close a few times, and had had a difficult career. In fact, in 1964 Beltoise, a former motorcycle racer, had a very nasty accident at Rheims that almost ended his 4-wheel career, the effects of it were felt for the rest of his racing days. He was one of Matra’s stalwarts from the beginning, racing their F-3, F-2, prototype and then F-1 cars for many years. His first GP was the German race of 1966, driving a 1.0 F-2 Matra. He came 7th and won the F-2 category (back in those days the German GP also took F-2 entries). He did a few GPs driving a F-2 Matra in 1967,  by then  with a 1.6 liter engine. The company was getting mileage to learn more for an all out attack in 1968, but in spite of a down on power car, Beltoise got two 7th places for his trouble. For 1968, Matra would be fielding its first GP car proper, a Cosworth engined machine for the Tyrrel team (Matra International, for Jackie Stewart), and a V12 Matra engine car for Matra Sports. In South Africa Jean Pierre was still driving the F-2 car, but by Spain he handled the Cosworth engined machine, leading a few laps, posting the fastest lap and finishing 5th, scoring his first points. The rest of the year he drove the V12 proprietary engined car, which was only very effective in Zandvoort, where Beltoise finished 2nd, posting fastest lap again. However, Beltoise won the European Formula 2 championship that year. For 1969, Beltoise was slated to drive a Ford engined Matra alongside Stewart, in the Matra International (Tyrrel) team, and it was clear that the Cosworth powered car was better than the one with the Matra proprietary engine. Beltoise was a good understudy for Stewart, who won the title handsomely, finishing in the points on several occasions, including a popular second place finish in Clermont Ferrand. Beltoise continued to drive for Matra in 1970, but without Ford power. Performance dropped, and a couple of third places were the best Jean Pierre could do. The beginning of 1971 was terrible for Beltoise. He was blamed for the death of Ignazio Giunti in the 1000 km of Buenos Aires: Beltoise was pushing his dead Matra in a dangerous position, Giunti collided and died from the crash. Jean Pierre’s competition license was suspended for a while, but he still raced a few times alongside new team mate Amon. Points were few that year, only a single one, so Beltoise felt it was time to move on. He got a good offer from BRM, which had no top drivers for 1972, as both Rodriguez and Siffert had been killed during the 1971 season. On paper, the BRM deal looked great: the team had been runner up among manufacturers the year before, and new sponsor Marlboro was willing to spend large sums to make the thing work. It was not to be. The team was a shambles from the start, fielding as many as five cars, but Beltoise did have his day. He qualified 4th for Monaco, but had a blindingly fast start in the downpour, managing to lead right from the beginning. And won he did, a race that lasted above two hours, posting fastest lap and spite of spinning once. Although these were the only points scored by Beltoise that year he finished the season winning another F-1 race, the Victory race in Brands Hatch, which did not count towards the championship. Beltoise was back at BRM in a more sensible set up for 1973, with new team mates Lauda and Reggazoni. Things looked perky when Clay posted pole in the first race of the year, but BRM was beginning to show terminal signs of weakness by mid season. Even so, Beltoise managed to score 9 points during the year and came very close to winning the confusing Canadian GP. Beltoise was back for another, final season with BRM in 1974. The team began the year with the old P160, which Beltoise took to 5th place in Argentina. He then managed to score a stupendous second place in the P201 model’s debut in South Africa (some publications had him posting fastest lap as well). This was followed with another fine 5th place in Belgium, but as the season progressed the Bourne car’s performance dropped immensely, and by the end of the year it was an also ran. This marked the end of Beltoise’s F1 career, although he expected to be the driver of the new Ligier-Matra that was to debut in 1976. Unfortunately, Laffite was given the ride, so Beltoise entered the not so fancy world of French touring car racing, where he won many races and championships.     

OUTSIDE FORMULA 1

Beltoise was European Formula 2 Champion for Matra in 1968. He also raced for Matra in Sports Cars, earning five victories for the make in 1974. Beltoise also won the 1966 Formula 3 Temporada in Argentina. 

Other cars raced: 

Formula 2: Matra, Pygmee, March, Lotus, Brabham, Alpine BMW

Formula 3: Matra

Sports cars: Matra (Simca, BRM)Rene Bonnet, Porsche (906), Lola T280, Ligier (Ford, Maserati), Chevron-ROC, Inaltera, Rondeau, BMW M1

Send mail to carlosdepaula@mindspring.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: March 28, 2007