Jean-Pierre Beltoise

Jean-Pierre Maurice Georges Beltoise (26 April 1937 - 5 January 2015): French racing driver and motorcycle road racer who competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1962 to 1964 and Formula One from 1966 to 1974. The son of a Paris butcher, Beltoise began his career on two wheels, winning an amazing 11 French national motorcycle road racing championships in just three years from 1962 to 1964. His best race finish was third in the 1964 French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand riding a Kreidler, finishing sixth in the 50cc class championship. In 1963 Beltoise switched to four-wheeled racing but his career almost finished prematurely with a huge crash in the Reims 12-hour sports car race which left him with a badly broken left arm and restricted movement in that damaged limb thereafter.

Despite his injury he won the 1965 French Formula 3 Championship over Jean-Pierre Jaussaud driving a Matra MS1, taking victories at Reims (scene of his accident the previous year) and Cognac. He was European Formula 2 Champion in 1968. In 1968 he began the season with an F2 car but from the second race onward had Formula One machinery, finishing second in the Dutch Grand Prix. In 1969 he drove for Ken Tyrrell's Matra team alongside Jackie Stewart while the works V12 engine was developed, finishing second in the French Grand Prix.

His greatest triumph came in 1972 when he joined the Marlboro BRM team and won what turned out to be the British marque's final Grand Prix win at Monaco in torrential rain—he grabbed the lead on the opening lap of the 80-lap race and never looked back. He raced with BRM through the end of the 1974 season before retiring from Formula 1, having started 85 Grands Prix with 1 win, 4 fastest laps, 8 podiums, and 77 points. He did most of the testing for the Ligier F1 team but when Jacques Laffite got the drive, Beltoise turned to touring cars, winning the French title twice for BMW before trying rallycross in an Alpine-Renault and winning the French title. In 1981 he returned to touring cars and raced for Peugeot throughout the 1980s.

Beltoise died at his holiday home in Dakar, Senegal on 5 January 2015 aged 77 following two strokes.