Jean-Pierre Beltoise, ex-F1 driver and 1972 Monaco GP winner, dies
Jean-Pierre Beltoise, the French Formula 1 driver who took BRM's last grand prix win in Monaco in 1972, has died. He was 77
Having originally started as a successful motorcycle racer, capturing 11 French national titles, Beltoise would go on to prove he had just as much speed on four wheels.
However, his career was nearly ended after suffering serious injuries in a crash at the Reims 12 Hours sportscar race in 1964. He would never regain full movement in his badly broken left arm.
Beltoise did make it back to racing, though, and after claiming titles in Formula 3 and Formula 2 with Matra, he moved up to F1 with the French outfit.
His actual race debut came at the 1967 United States Grand Prix, as he had failed to qualify in Monaco, and his first podium finish came the following year in the Netherlands when he finished second.
He would stay racing Matras until the end of 1971, briefly working with Ken Tyrrell, before making a switch to BRM that would deliver his maiden F1 victory.
The start of that 1972 season was frustrating, but Beltoise was in a class of his own in a Monaco downpour and achieved his only - and BRM's final - triumph in F1.
He stayed with BRM for another two seasons before retiring from F1 at the end of 1974 and switching his focus to sportscars and then finally French touring cars.
He also regularly competed in ice racing and rallycross, and tested Ligier's F1 car.
Beltoise married Francois Cevert's sister Jacqueline, and their sons Anthony and Julien both followed him into motor racing.
He passed away after suffering two strokes at his holiday home near Dakar.
F1: Niki Lauda says Hamilton and Rosberg have more respect now
Daniil Kvyat will thrive at Red Bull F1 team says Toro Rosso chief
Aston Martin: CFD data shows rear wing doesn't hurt F1 rules intent
Aston Martin says simulation data it gave to the FIA proved that its radical rear wing idea did not scupper the intent of Formula 1's 2022 rules to improve racing.
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
US fan demand can support "many more" F1 races, says COTA chief
The boss of the Circuit of The Americas believes there is enough demand from North American Formula 1 fans to support “many more” races in the United States.
Zhou opens up on abuse ahead of F1 debut: "It hurt quite a bit"
Zhou Guanyu was "quite surprised" by the level of abuse he faced online prior to his Formula 1 debut with Alfa Romeo, saying it "hurt quite a bit."
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid
How studying Schumacher helped make Coulthard a McLaren F1 mainstay
Winner of 13 grands prix including Monaco and survivor of a life-changing plane crash, David Coulthard could be forgiven for having eased into a quiet retirement – but, as MARK GALLAGHER explains, in fact he’s busier than ever, running an award-winning media company and championing diversity in motor racing. Not bad for someone who, by his own admission, wasn’t quite the fastest driver of his generation…
Could F1 move to a future beyond carbonfibre?
Formula 1 has ambitious goals for improving its carbon footprint, but could this include banishing its favoured composite material? PAT SYMONDS considers the alternatives to carbonfibre and what use, if any, those materials have in a Formula 1 setting
How Russell has proven he deserves to be Hamilton's Mercedes heir
He’s fast, he’s smart, and he’s already shown he’s not going to let Max Verstappen intimidate him. George Russell won’t say it, but LUKE SMITH says he’s ready to take the lead at Mercedes when Lewis Hamilton moves on to a quieter life. And – whisper it – Mercedes and Lewis are starting to think so too