Louis Chiron

Louis Chiron

Chiron in Montlhéry in 1927
Born Louis Alexandre Chiron
(1899-08-03)3 August 1899
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Died 22 June 1979(1979-06-22) (aged 79)
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality Monaco Monégasque
Active years 1950–1951, 1953, 1955–1956, 1958
Teams Maserati
Ecurie Rosier
Private
Lancia
Scuderia Centro Sud
Entries 19 (15 starts)
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 1
Career points 4
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First entry 1950 British Grand Prix
Last entry 1958 Monaco Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years 1928–1929, 1931–1933, 1937–1938, 1951, 1953
Teams Private
C.T. Weymann
Equipe Bugatti
Guy Bouriat
Capt. G.E.T. Eyston
Luigi Chinetti
Ecurie Bleue
Scuderia Lancia
Best finish dnf (1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1937, 1938, 1951, 1953)
Class wins 0

Louis Alexandre Chiron (3 August 1899 – 22 June 1979) was a Monégasque racing driver who competed in rallies, sports car races, and Grands Prix. He is the oldest driver ever to have raced in Formula One, having taken 6th place in the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix when he was 55.

Career

Louis Chiron fell in love with cars and racing when he was a teenager. He started driving in Grand Prix races after World War I, in which he was seconded from an artillery regiment as a driver for Maréchal Pétain and Maréchal Foch.

In 1926 he won his first local race, the Grand Prix de Comminges, at Saint-Gaudens, near Toulouse, and went on to drive a Bugatti and an Alfa Romeo P3 to victories in the Marseille Grand Prix, the Circuit of Masaryk, and the Spanish Grand Prix. In 1929 he drove a Delage to 7th place in the Indianapolis 500. He won the 1931 Monaco Grand Prix—the only Monaco-born driver to have done so—and in 1933 he partnered with specialist endurance racer Luigi Chinetti to win the Spa 24 hours race.

He retired in 1938, and World War II curtailed motor racing a year later. When racing resumed after the War, he came out of retirement and drove a Talbot-Lago to victory in two French Grands Prix.

According to a Los Angeles Times review of fellow driver Hellé Nice's biography, Chiron accused her, at a 1949 party in Monaco to celebrate the first postwar Monte Carlo Rally, of “collaborating with the Nazis”. The review says biographer Miranda Seymour is “circumspect on Nice’s guilt”.[1] A review of the same book in The New York Times says Nice was accused of being a “Gestapo agent”; that Seymour “rebuts” the charge; and that it made Nice "unemployable".[2] Seymour's book says that In a letter to Antony Noghes, the head of the Monte Carlo Rally committee, Hellé Nice “protested her innocence”; that she told him she would appeal to the Monaco court unless Chiron wrote an apology; that no letter from Chiron has been found; and that the court has no record of such a case between 1949 and 1955. [3]

Paired with the Swiss driver Ciro Basadonna, Chiron won the 1954 Monte Carlo Rally, and achieved podium finishes in the fifteen Formula One races he entered that year. His last race was In 1955,[4] when he took a Lancia D50 to sixth place in the Monaco Grand Prix a few weeks before his 56th birthday, [5] becoming the oldest driver to compete in a Formula One race.[4] He is also the oldest driver ever to have entered for a Formula One race, taking part in practice for the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix when he was 58.


Racing record

Major career victories

Chiron after winning the 1934 French Grand Prix

Complete European Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year Entrant Make 1 2 3 4 5 EDC Points
1931 Usines Bugatti Bugatti ITA
Ret		 FRA
1		 BEL
Ret		 4= 12
1932 Ettore Bugatti Bugatti ITA
Ret		 FRA
4		 GER
Ret		 5= 17
1935 Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo BEL
3		 GER
Ret		 SUI
Ret		 ITA ESP
Ret		 9= 29
1936 Daimler-Benz AG Mercedes-Benz MON
Ret		 GER
Ret		 SUI ITA 18= 28

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 WDC Pts.
1950 Officine Alfieri Maserati Maserati 4CLT/48 Maserati L4C GBR
Ret		 MON
3		 500 SUI
9		 BEL FRA
Ret		 ITA
Ret		 10th 4
1951 Enrico Platé Maserati 4CLT/48 Maserati L4C SUI
7		 500 NC 0
Ecurie Rosier Talbot-Lago T26C Talbot L6 BEL
Ret		 FRA
6		 GBR
Ret		 GER
Ret		 ITA
Ret		 ESP
Ret
1953 Louis Chiron OSCA 20 OSCA L6 ARG 500 NED BEL FRA
15		 GBR
DNS		 GER SUI
DNS		 ITA
10		 NC 0
1955 Scuderia Lancia Lancia D50 Lancia V8 ARG MON
6		 500 BEL NED GBR ITA NC 0
1956 Scuderia Centro Sud Maserati 250F Maserati L6 ARG MON
DNS		 500 BEL FRA GBR GER ITA NC 0
1958 André Testut Maserati 250F Maserati L6 ARG MON
DNQ		 NED 500 BEL FRA GBR GER POR ITA MOR NC 0

Rally wins

Legacy

Chiron retired after 35 years in racing but maintained an executive role with the organizers of the Monaco Grand Prix, who honored him with a statue on the Grand Prix course and renamed the Swimming Pool corner after him. As he had achieved the greatest number of podium finishes in Bugattis, the 1999 Bugatti 18/3 Chiron concept car and the 2016 Bugatti Chiron are named in his honor.

Louis Chiron was so popular in Czechoslovakia, whose Grand Prix he won three consecutive times, that even after 75 years his name still lives in a popular saying "He drives likes Chiron", used mainly when referring to speeding motorists or generally to people who drive very quickly.

References

  1. ↑ Neil, Dan (December 8, 2004). "In pursuit of the Queen of Speed". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
  2. ↑ Grimes, William (December 24, 2004). "A Racing Life: Plenty of Men and Fast Cars". The New York Times. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
  3. ↑ Seymour, Miranda (2004), Bugatti Queen, Random House, pp. 258—259, ISBN 1-4000-6168-7
  4. 1 2 Spurgeon, Brad (August 22, 2009). "Measuring Experience in Youthful Formula One". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
  5. ↑ "1955 Monaco Grand Prix". Motor Sport Magazine. Retrieved February 4, 2016.

External links

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