Flying the Flag: the history of French drivers in F1

When Caterham announced that Vitaly Petrov was to replace Jarno Trulli, it was suddenly apparent that Italy - a country that has played such a huge part in the sport's history - was without a Formula 1 driver for the first time in decades.

It's a scenario that has also recently played out in France. With no Gallic representation at the top level in 2010-11, the country's veteran radio journalists had to rely on multilingual drivers such as Trulli, Nico Rosberg, Sebastien Buemi and Jerome d'Ambrosio for their soundbites.

That's all changed for 2012 as rookies Jean-Eric Vergne and Charles Pic join the returning Romain Grosjean. Waiting on the sidelines is Jules Bianchi, who will be running some Fridays for Force India and remains a potential future Ferrari driver.

It might not quite be a return to the golden era of the late 1970s and early '80s, when its drivers seemed to pack the podium week after week, but France is unquestionably a major player once again.

In fact the country has gone through some other fallow periods in the past, and truly great drivers have been rare. Alain Prost remains the only Frenchman to have won the world championship, despite the country's strong presence that stretches back to the very start.

There was no shortage of numbers in 1950 when the presence of Talbot-Lago and Gordini helped to encourage great French interest, with the likes of Louis Rosier, Raymond Sommer, Robert Manzon and Philippe Etancelin scoring points in that first world championship season.

Maurice Trintignant was France's first GP winner, triumphing at Monaco in 1955 © LAT

It wasn't until 1955 that Maurice Trintignant became the first Frenchman to win a grand prix when he triumphed at Monaco - a feat he repeated in 1958. However the country's true great of that decade was of course Jean Behra, who earned a string of podiums but failed win a race before his untimely death at Avus in 1959.

After Trintignant faded away, France was without a frontline GP driver for most of the sixties. It wasn't until the arrival of Matra at the forefront of F1 in 1968 that the situation changed. Able to train and promote its drivers through its F3, F2 and sportscar activities, Matra gave chances to Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Johnny Servoz-Gavin and later Henri Pescarolo.

Matra's entry into F1 co-incided with an increasing involvement at all levels of the sport from Elf. In the early '70s the petroleum giant actively sought and promoted young talent, much of it emerging from the famous Winfield school, although Shell and BP also played a part in bringing through some of the new names .

When Servoz-Gavin retired in 1970, Francois Cevert was drafted into Tyrrell. He won the 1971 US GP, becoming only the second French winner after Trintignant. Sadly his death at Watkins Glen two years later robbed France of a potential world champion.

However, by then the floodgates had opened. Jean-Pierre Jarier, Patrick Depailler and Jacques Laffite were the first to become established at the top level, and many more soon followed. The arrival of the Ligier team in 1976, initially with a single car for Laffite, gave France a real foothold in the sport.

Renault also played a huge role, initially with its sportscar programme and later of course its F1 team. The company's F2 involvement in 1976-'77 provided a valuable springboard for veteran Jean-Pierre Jabouille and new talents Rene Arnoux, Patrick Tambay and Didier Pironi.

Patrick Tambay and Rene Arnoux were among several drivers who flew the flag for France in the 70s and 80s © LAT

Suddenly all of these guys were in grand prix racing, and Ligier and Renault were both competing at the sharp end and winning races. With Jean-Marie Balestre running the governing body, the sport was as French as it had ever been - or ever would be.

Ironically, the biggest name did not graduate to F1 with a French team or with Elf sponsorship, although he had followed a familiar path on the way up. Alain Prost made a relatively low-key start with an uncompetitive McLaren in 1980, but on switching to Renault for '81 he became a race winner. He came close to securing the world title in 1983, but it took a switch back to McLaren for him to finally secure his first title in 1985.

The Renault works team subsequently struggled without him, and at the end of that year, the company decided to focus on supplying engines - something it would do with considerable success.

Throughout the '80s the influence of the Elf-driven French invasion waned. Depailler was killed in 1980, and the careers of Jabouille, Pironi and Laffite were all cut short by injury. Meanwhile Jarier, Tambay and Arnoux faded away.

Prost thus waved the tricolour pretty much alone, winning further titles in 1986, 1989 and for the fourth and final time - with Elf backing and Renault power at Williams - in 1993.

After Prost retired French honour was upheld for many years by Jean Alesi and Olivier Panis, both whom enjoyed long careers, but who would ultimately score just a single victory apiece.

The strange thing is that for a long period, they were the only ones to really make a go of it. Others came and went - Philippe Alliot, Yannick Dalmas, Eric Bernard, Philippe Streiff and Erik Comas among them - but then the Elf system appeared to hit the rocks.

In fact, after Jean-Christophe Boullion's unsuccessful foray with Sauber in 1995 in the 11 seasons from 1996 to 2005 the only French driver to join Panis and Alesi on an F1 grid was Stephane Sarrazin, who started a single race for Minardi in 1999.

Of course there were some good guys were coming through the ranks, but they couldn't make that final step, and invariably found themselves diverted into other categories, notably the Le Mans 24 Hours.

It was the retirement of Panis at the end of 2005 that threw a spotlight on the lack of a French F1 presence. The following year Franck Montagny had a few outings for Super Aguri, but in 2007 no French driver participated in the world championship.

Sebastien Bourdais' arrival at Toro Rosso in 2008 followed a lean period for French drivers in F1 © LAT

That was remedied for 2008 with the arrival of Sebastien Bourdais, although it said much that despite his F3000 success it took a long and successful stint in ChampCar to earn Bourdais his F1 break. When he finally made it, things didn't work out for him at Toro Rosso.

Just as Bourdais departed in the middle of 2009, Grosjean arrived at Renault. And, while the part-time banker obviously had a Swiss background, France was happy to claim him. Alas, the timing was wrong, and he was dropped at the end of the season.

With Magny-Cours consigned to the history books the past two years have been frustrating indeed for French fans (not to the mention the media). However, Grosjean's rehabilitation in GP2 and the emergence of Bianchi, Vergne and Pic has changed all that. It hasn't happened by chance.

"The FFSA has a good programme that started five or six years ago," says Vergne. "They took me out of karting, where they have a French team, and it is the only federation to have this. Thanks to them I went from karting to single-seaters, and I got the Red Bull deal as well. And they followed me to F1, and they're doing this with a lot of drivers. They did with Pic, Grosjean and Bianchi."

It's a laudable scheme, and it certainly seems to work - but it's just part of the equation. As Vergne stresses, he was picked up by Red Bull, while Bianchi teamed up with manager Nicolas Todt and then landed support from Ferrari. Grosjean has long been a favourite of Total and his stalled career was saved by Gravity, part of the group that owns the Lotus team. And Pic, while talented enough to win GP2 races, has had his path to the top smoothed by extensive sponsorship.

Jules Bianchi's career has been aided by the FFSA and his manager Nicolas Todt © LAT

The FFSA support certainly serves as a useful catalyst, but the bottom line is it's about talent meeting opportunity.

"Firstly I think we've not had so many good French drivers for many years," says Todt. "I think it's more a matter of talent. And secondly many French drivers have support. Vergne comes from Red Bull, Grosjean is helped by Total, Jules is supported by Ferrari, Pic has some strong support family wise. That's the reason why they made it, but the main thing is they are very talented.

"The federation has done a great job to help drivers, and not only with budgets. They did a lot by opening opportunities. Vergne joined Red Bull because the FFSA pushed Red Bull a lot to give him a chance. It's the job of the federation to create opportunities, and they did it very well.

"They gave Jules financial support throughout the years, which was very important. For drivers who have no connections or no management, they have been very helpful. Also by doing that it gives motivation to younger drivers, so they have at least a direction to follow."

France hasn't had a grand prix for a few years, and without drivers, it's been hard to sustain interest in the country. So will that now change?

"It's too early to say, because it's just the beginning of the season," says Todt. "But obviously you need results. If the three drivers we have now in F1 are fighting for the last positions, people won't talk about it. It's better to have one top driver. Look at rallying: Loeb is a superstar in France. Why? Because he's leading. If we had three rally drivers of average level, no one would be talking.

"Now in F1 it's great for the media and it's great for the public, but they will need to deliver to be in a good team and get good results."

Grosjean appears to have upward momentum at Lotus, Vergne has a real chance of landing a Red Bull seat for 2013, and Bianchi - despite a disappointing GP2 stint - could yet end up at Ferrari. In other words all three could become genuine frontrunners in the coming years.

"I think it's completely possible," says Todt. "I think those three drivers are really talented and they deserve a chance to fight for the top positions. Let's not dream too much, because for some years we didn't have anyone. So to have three drivers fighting for first position, there is a long way to go! But we are in the right direction."