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This article first appeared in GP Racing magazine.
That impish smile, the twinkle in his eyes: little René Arnoux was always a character - and as French as the Eiffel Tower.
He fills his retro Renault overalls snugly these days, but hey, he's 69 and he's lived well since his days as the enfant terrible of la Régie during their first super-powered Formula 1 bloom. He looks great, and, as we discover over the course of a glorious hour, he's fantastic company, too.
For those who remember only the notorious tail-end blocker in the blue Ligier at the end of the 1980s, it's vital to wind back further to when turbos first ruled the earth. Over one lap, Arnoux was perhaps the fastest and most spectacular of a golden French generation that included Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Didier Pironi, Jacques Laffite, Patrick Depailler, Patrick Tambay and his arch-nemesis Alain Prost.
