Quick Facts
Biography
Maurice Bienvenu Jean Paul Trintignant (30 October 1917, in Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes, Vaucluse – 13 February 2005, in Nîmes) was a motor racing driver and vintner from France. He competed in the Formula One World Championship for fourteen years, between 1950 and 1964, one of the longest careers in the early years of Formula One. During this time he also competed in sports car racing, including winning the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Following his retirement from the track Trintignant concentrated on the wine trade.
Maurice Trintignant was the brother of Bugatti race car driver Louis Trintignant — who was killed in 1933, in practice, at Péronne, Picardy — and the uncle of renowned French film actor Jean-Louis Trintignant.
Racing career
He began racing in 1938, and won the 1939 Grand Prix des Frontières, but his career was interrupted by the Second World War, during which his own Bugatti was stored in a barn. When he rebuilt it for an event of 1945, the Coupé de la Liberation, he overlooked a clogged fuel filter, which caused him to drop out of the race. It transpired that the filter was plugged with rat droppings, earning him the unenviable nickname Le Petoulet, "the rat-droppings man".
By 1950 Le Petoulet was successful enough to be offered a works drive for the Gordini team, in the newly formed Formula One World Championship racing series. He competed in Formula One every year until his retirement after the 1964 season. During this long career Trintignant scored two victories, both at the Monaco Grand Prix, in 1955 and 1958. 1954 and 1955 were his best Championship years and he finished fourth in the drivers championship in both.
During the course of his career, Trintignant drove a huge variety of cars, for many different teams: both works and privateer. Unusually, at the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix Trintignant shared both second and third places, a product of the Scuderia Ferrari policy of passing cars to their top drivers, should their original car break down. In 1956 he drove the Bugatti Type 251 in the French Grand Prix, becoming the last driver to represent the famed marque at a Grand Prix race. Even in his final season, driving his own BRM P57, he scored points, taking fifth place at the 1964 German Grand Prix on the intimidating Nürburgring.
Following his retirement from racing, Maurice Trintignant returned to a quiet life as a wine-grower (naming his vintage Le Petoulet), near the town of Vergèze, in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine growing region, where he would eventually be elected mayor. Trintignant died, aged 87, in 2005.
Major career wins
- Grand Prix d’Albigeois – 1951
- Grand Prix de Caen – 1952, 1954
- Pau Grand Prix – 1958, 1959 (F2), 1962 (F1)
- Grand Prix de Rouen – 1954
- Grand Prix des Frontières – 1938, 1939, 1953
- Monaco Grand Prix – 1955, 1958
- 24 Hours of Le Mans – 1954
- Michael Kettlewell, World of Automobiles (Orbis, 1974), Volume 20, p.2368
- Mattijs Diepraam , Colombo's flawed brilliance, 8W, October 1998.
- ibid.
Racing record
Complete Formula One World Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | WDC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Equipe Gordini | Simca-Gordini T15 | Gordini 15C 1.5 L4s | GBR | MON Ret | 500 | SUI | BEL | FRA | ITA Ret | NC | 0 | ||||
| 1951 | Equipe Gordini | Simca-Gordini T15 | Gordini 15C 1.5 L4s | SUI DNA | 500 | BEL | FRA Ret | GBR | GER Ret | ITA Ret | ESP Ret | NC | 0 | |||
| 1952 | Ecurie Rosier | Ferrari 166 F2 | Ferrari 125 1.5 V12 | SUI DNS | 500 | BEL | 16th | 2 | ||||||||
| Equipe Gordini | Simca-Gordini T15 | Gordini 1500 1.5 L4 | FRA 5 | |||||||||||||
| Gordini T16 | Gordini 20 2.0 L6 | GBR Ret | GER Ret | NED 6 | ITA Ret | |||||||||||
| 1953 | Equipe Gordini | Gordini T16 | Gordini 20 2.0 L6 | ARG 7* | 500 | NED 6 | BEL 5 | FRA Ret | GBR Ret | GER Ret | SUI Ret | ITA 5 | 12th | 4 | ||
| 1954 | Ecurie Rosier | Ferrari 625 | Ferrari 625 2.5 L4 | ARG 4 | 500 | 4th | 17 | |||||||||
| Scuderia Ferrari | BEL 2 | FRA Ret | GBR 5 | GER 3 | SUI Ret | ITA 5 | ESP Ret | |||||||||
| 1955 | Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari 625 | Ferrari 555 2.5 L4 | ARG 2+3† | MON 1 | 500 | GBR Ret | 4th | 11 1⁄3 | |||||||
| Ferrari 555 | BEL 6 | NED Ret | ITA 8 | |||||||||||||
| 1956 | Vandervell Products Ltd | Vanwall VW 2 | Vanwall 254 2.5 L4 | ARG | MON Ret | 500 | BEL Ret | GBR Ret | GER | ITA Ret | NC | 0 | ||||
| Automobiles Bugatti | Bugatti T251 | Bugatti 2.5 L8 | FRA Ret | |||||||||||||
| 1957 | Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari 801 | Ferrari DS50 2.5 V8 | ARG | MON 5 | 500 | FRA Ret | GBR 4‡ | GER | PES | ITA | 13th | 5 | |||
| 1958 | R.R.C. Walker Racing Team | Cooper T45 | Climax FPF 2.0 L4 | ARG | MON 1 | NED 9 | 500 | GER 3 | ITA Ret | MOR Ret | 7th | 12 | ||||
| Scuderia Centro Sud | Maserati 250F | Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 | BEL 7 | |||||||||||||
| Owen Racing Organisation | BRM P25 | BRM P25 2.5 L4 | FRA Ret | |||||||||||||
| R.R.C. Walker Racing Team | Cooper T43 | Climax FPF 2.0 L4 | GBR 8 | POR 8 | ||||||||||||
| 1959 | R.R.C. Walker Racing Team | Cooper T51 | Climax FPF 2.5 L4 | MON 3 | 500 | NED 8 | FRA 11 | GBR 5 | GER 4 | POR 4 | ITA 9 | USA 2 | 5th | 19 | ||
| 1960 | R.R.C. Walker Racing Team | Cooper T51 | Climax FPF 2.5 L4 | ARG 3 | NC | 0 | ||||||||||
| Scuderia Centro Sud | Maserati 250S 2.5 L4 | MON Ret | 500 | NED Ret | BEL | FRA Ret | USA 15 | |||||||||
| David Brown Corporation | Aston Martin DBR5 | Aston Martin RB6 2.5 L6 | GBR 11 | POR | ITA | |||||||||||
| 1961 | Scuderia Serenissima | Cooper T51 | Maserati Tipo 6 1.5 L4 | MON 7 | NED | BEL Ret | FRA 13 | GBR | GER Ret | ITA 9 | USA | NC | 0 | |||
| 1962 | R.R.C. Walker Racing Team | Lotus 24 | Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 | NED WD | MON Ret | BEL 8 | FRA 7 | GBR | GER Ret | ITA Ret | USA Ret | RSA | NC | 0 | ||
| 1963 | Reg Parnell Racing | Lola Mk4A | Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 | MON Ret | BEL | NED | NC | 0 | ||||||||
| Lotus 24 | FRA 8 | GBR | GER | |||||||||||||
| Scuderia Centro Sud | BRM P57 | BRM P56 1.5 V8 | ITA 9 | USA | MEX | RSA | ||||||||||
| 1964 | Maurice Trintignant | BRM P57 | BRM P56 1.5 V8 | MON Ret | NED | BEL | FRA 11 | GBR DNQ | GER 5 | AUT DNA | ITA Ret | USA | MEX | 16th | 2 |
- * Indicates shared drive with Harry Schell
- † Indicates shared drives with José Froilán González and Giuseppe Farina (2nd place) & Giuseppe Farina and Umberto Maglioli (3rd place)
- ‡ Indicates shared drive with Peter Collins
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 |  Automobiles Gordini | Robert Manzon | Gordini T15S Coupé | S 3.0 | 34 | DNF | DNF |
| 1951 | Equipe Gordini | Jean Behra | Gordini T15S | S 1.5 | 49 | DNF | DNF |
| 1952 | Ecurie Rosier | Louis Rosier | Ferrari 340 America Spyder | S 5.0 | DNF | DNF | |
| 1953 | Automobiles Gordini |  Harry Schell | Gordini T26S | S 3.0 | 293 | 6th | 1st |
| 1954 |  Scuderia Ferrari |  José Froilán González | Ferrari 375 Plus | S 5.0 | 302 | 1st | 1st |
| 1955 | Scuderia Ferrari | Harry Schell | Ferrari 121LM | S 5.0 | 107 | DNF | DNF |
| 1956 | Scuderia Ferrari |  Olivier Gendebien | Ferrari 625LM Touring | S 3.0 | 293 | 3rd | 2nd |
| 1957 | Scuderia Ferrari | Olivier Gendebien | Ferrari 250 TR | S 5.0 | 109 | DNF | DNF |
| 1958 |  David Brown Racing Dept. | Tony Brooks | Aston Martin DBR1/300 | S 3.0 | 173 | DNF | DNF |
| 1959 | David Brown Racing Dept. | Paul Frère | Aston Martin DBR1/300 | S 3.0 | 322 | 2nd | 2nd |
| 1960 |  Porsche KG | Hans Herrmann | Porsche 718 RS 60 | S 2.0 | 57 | DNF | DNF |
| 1961 | Scuderia Serenissima | Carlo Maria Abate | Ferrari 250 GT SWB | GT 3.0 | 162 | DNF | DNF |
| 1962 | Maserati France | Lucien Bianchi | Maserati Tipo 151/1 | E +3.0 | 152 | DNF | DNF |
| 1964 | Maserati France | André Simon | Maserati Tipo 151/3 | P 5.0 | 99 | DNF | DNF |
| 1965 | Ford France S.A. | Guy Ligier | Ford GT40 Roadster | P 5.0 | 11 | DNF | DNF |