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| BRAZILIAN MUSIC |
PESCAROLO, HENRI
9/25/1942, Paris, France
Starts:57
Points: 12
Wins:0
Poles:0
Fastest Laps:1
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Like many other major sports cars drivers, Pescarolo first attempted success in Formula 1, at a time when Frenchmen were few in the sport. Like Jean Pierre Beltoise, Pescarolo was associated with Matra in the beginning of his career, becoming one of the marque’s main Formula 3 and 2 drivers in the mid 60’s. He was given his first opportunities in Formula 1 in 1968, driving the three North American races aboard a V12 engined Matra. He qualified among the last and finished 9th in Mexico. His only 1969 start was in the Formula 2 section of the German Grand Prix. He finished 5th overall and first among the Formula 2 cars, in the last race that included such a class. For 1970 Pesca was promoted to the Matra works team, and had his best Formula 1 result in the 3rd start of the year: he started 7th in Monaco, and finished in third place. He would score points three other times during the year, qualifying in the top ten an additional four times, including 5th place in Germany. This same year, Pescarolo began to enter World Championship of Makes races with more frequency, driving for Alfa Romeo. For 1971, Henri was hired by Frank Williams, who fielded March cars, but the mount was a midfield runner at best, even though the works car was a front runner with Ronnie Peterson. Pescarolo finished 4th in Britain and 6th in Austria, managing to score the fastest lap in the last Monza slipstreamer ever, which was the fastest Formula race lap for many years. Pescarolo continued driving for Williams in 1972, but although he started two races in the top ten Monaco (9th) and Germany (8th) he had a large number of crashes, no doubt somewhat intimidated by teammate Pace’s alarming speed. Although Pescarolo continued to drive in Formula 2 as well, I reckon this was the year in which he realized his future laid in Sports Car racing, having won the Le Mans 24 Hour race for the first time. In fact, Pescarolo was not amongst the regularly entered drivers in the beginning of 1973, but had a wonderful run of successes in the Matra sports car team, including another Le Mans victory. He raced in Formula 1 three times, racing for March in Spain (8th) and another two starts for Williams (France and Germany). In 1974 Pescarolo was back as a fulltime Formula 1 driver, as part of the Motul sponsored BRM team. Although he finished the first four races, driving the old P160 model, the British team was showing signs of weakness toward midseason. The early year reliability was gone, and Pescarolo was not competitive even in the brand new P201. He raced until Italy only, without scoring any points. Meanwhile, he continued his run of success in sports cars, with a third straight Le Mans victory and many other wins. Pesca did not race in the category in 1975, but was back with a privateer effort in 1976. The BS Fabrications team fielded a Surtees TS19 for Pescarolo, but the entry was not successful. Pescarolo’s best placing was 9th in Austria, thus bringing to a close his Formula 1 career. Henri continued to be a top sports car driver for many years, including a further Le Mans win in 1984, participating in the famous race over 30 times. He is now a successful sports car constructor and team owner.
OUT OF FORMULA 1
Pescarolo won Le Mans four times, including 3 wins in a row (72/73/74).
OTHER CARS DRIVEN
Formula 2: Matra, Brabham, Motul, March
Formula 3: Matra, GRAC
Sports cars/GT: Matra, Alfa-Romeo, Porsche (935, 936, 962), Inaltera, Rondeau, Ferrari, Ligier, Alpine-Renault, Lancia, Cougar, Sauber, Jaguar, Spice, Venturi
Touring cars: BMW