| Louis Chiron | |
|---|---|
 Chiron in 1931 | |
| Born |
Louis Alexandre Chiron 3 August 1899 Monte Carlo, Monaco |
| Died |
22 June 1979 (aged 79) Monte Carlo, Monaco |
| Nationality |
 Monégasque |
Louis Alexandre Chiron (3 August 1899 – 22 June 1979) was a Monégasque racing driver who competed in rallies, sports car races, and Grands Prix.
Among the greatest drivers between the two World Wars, his career embraced over thirty years, coming to light already in 1927, and ending at the end of the 1950s. This is also why he is still the oldest driver ever to have raced in Formula One, having taken 6th place in the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix when he was 55.[1] The Bugatti Chiron takes its name from him.
Career[]
Louis Chiron gained interest in 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.[1]
He won his first local race, the Grand Prix de Comminges of 1926, 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.[2] In the Indianapolis 500 of 1929, he drove a Delage to 7th place.[2] He won the 1931 Monaco Grand Prix—the only Monégasque driver to have won his home grand prix—and in 1933 he partnered with specialist endurance racer Luigi Chinetti to win the Spa 24 hours race.
Chiron 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.[3]
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".[4] 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".[5] 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.[6]
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,[7] when he took a Lancia D50 to sixth place in the Monaco Grand Prix a few weeks before his 56th birthday,[8] becoming the oldest driver to compete in a Formula One race.[7] 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
- Belgian Grand Prix – 1930
- Czechoslovakian Grand Prix – 1931, 1932, 1933
- French Grand Prix – 1931, 1934, 1937, 1947, 1949 (Reims)
- German Grand Prix – 1929
- Italian Grand Prix – 1928
- Spanish Grand Prix – 1928, 1929, 1933
- Monaco Grand Prix – 1931
- Moroccan Grand Prix– 1934
- Grand Prix du Comminges – 1947
- Grand Prix de Marseilles – 1933
- Grand Prix de Nice – 1932
- Spa 24 hours – 1933
- Rome Grand Prix – 1928
- Marne Grand Prix – 1928
- Monte Carlo Rally – 1954
24 Hours of Le Mans results[]
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1928 | No Team Name |  Cyril de Vere
|
Chrysler 72 | 5.0 | 6 | DNF | DNF |
| 1929 | C. T. Weymann
|
Édouard Brisson
|
Stutz DV32 | 8.0 | 65 | DNF | DNF |
| 1931 | Equipe Bugatti
|
 Achille Varzi
|
Bugatti Type 50S | 5.0 | 20 | DNF | DNF |
| 1932 | Guy Bouriat
|
Guy Bouriat
|
Bugatti Type 55 | 3.0 | 23 | DNF | DNF |
| 1933 |  Capt. G.E.T. Eyston
|
Franco Cortese
|
Alfa Romeo 8C 2300MM | 3.0 | 177 | DNF | DNF |
| 1937 | Luigi Chinetti
|
Luigi Chinetti
|
Talbot T150C | 5.0 | 7 | DNF | DNF |
| 1938 | Ecurie Bleue
|
René Dreyfus
|
Delahaye 145 | 5.0 | 7 | DNF | DNF |
| 1951 |  Luigi Chinetti
|
Pierre-Louis Dreyfus
|
Ferrari 340 America Barchetta | S 5.0 |
29 | DSQ | DSQ |
| 1953 |  Scuderia Lancia
|
Robert Manzon
|
Lancia D20 | S 8.0 |
174 | DNF | DNF |
Source:[9]
| |||||||
Complete European 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 | EDC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | Automobiles Ettore Bugatti | Bugatti T51 | Bugatti 2.3 L8 | ITA Ret |
FRA 1 |
BEL Ret |
6th | 13 | ||||
| 1932 | Automobiles Ettore Bugatti | Bugatti T54 | Bugatti 5.0 L8 | ITA Ret |
5th | 17 | ||||||
| Bugatti T51 | Bugatti 2.3 L8 | FRA 4 |
GER Ret |
|||||||||
| 1935 | Scuderia Ferrari | Alfa Romeo Tipo B/P3 | Alfa Romeo 2.9 L8 | MON 5 |
10th | 40 | ||||||
| Alfa Romeo 3.2 L8 | FRA Ret |
BEL 3 |
GER Ret |
SUI Ret |
ITA | ESP Ret | ||||||
| 1936 | Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes W25K | Mercedes ME25 4.7 L8 | MON Ret |
GER Ret |
SUI | ITA | 18th | 28 | |||
Source:[10]
| ||||||||||||
Post-WWII Grandes Épreuves results[]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | Scuderia Milano | Maserati 4CL | Maserati 4CL 1.5 L4s | SUI 13 |
||||
| Ecurie France | Talbot-Lago MC | Talbot 4.5 L6 | BEL Ret |
FRA 1 |
||||
| Enrico Platé | Maserati 4CL | Maserati 4CL 1.5 L4s | ITA Ret |
|||||
| 1948 | Ecurie France | Talbot-Lago T26C | Talbot 23CV 4.5 L6 | MON 2 |
SUI 6 |
FRA 9 |
ITA Ret |
|
| 1949 | Ecurie France | Talbot-Lago T26C | Talbot 23CV 4.5 L6 | GBR Ret |
BEL | SUI | FRA 1 |
ITA |
Source:[2]
| ||||||||
Complete Formula One World Championship results[]
(key)
| 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 4CLT 1.5 L4s | GBR Ret |
MON 3 |
500 | SUI 9 |
BEL | FRA Ret |
ITA Ret |
10th | 4 | ||||
| 1951 | Enrico Platé | Maserati 4CLT/48 | Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4s | SUI 7 |
500 | NC | 0 | |||||||||
| Ecurie Rosier | Talbot-Lago T26C | Talbot 23CV 4.5 L6 | BEL Ret |
FRA 6 |
GBR Ret |
GER Ret |
ITA Ret |
ESP Ret |
||||||||
| 1953 | Louis Chiron | OSCA 20 | OSCA 2000 2.0 L6 | ARG | 500 | NED | BEL | FRA 15 |
GBR DNS |
GER | SUI DNS |
ITA 10 |
NC | 0 | ||
| 1955 | Scuderia Lancia | Lancia D50 | Lancia DS50 2.5 V8 | ARG | MON 6 |
500 | BEL | NED | GBR | ITA | NC | 0 | ||||
| 1956 | Scuderia Centro Sud | Maserati 250F | Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 | ARG | MON DNS |
500 | BEL | FRA | GBR | GER | ITA | NC | 0 | |||
| 1958 | André Testut | Maserati 250F | Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 | ARG | MON DNQ |
NED | 500 | BEL | FRA | GBR | GER | POR | ITA | MOR | NC | 0 |
Source:[11]
| ||||||||||||||||
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.[12] 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.[13][14]
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.[12]
Chiron was the only Monegasque driver to score points in a Formula One race until Charles Leclerc in the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the only Monegasque to score a podium until Leclerc in the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Louis Chiron – Monaco". ESPN. http://en.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/driver/451.html. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Louis Chiron – Biography". Motor Sport Magazine. https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/drivers/louis-chiron. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ↑ "Drivers – Louis Chiron". grandprix.com. http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/drv-chilou.html. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ↑ Neil, Dan (8 December 2004). "In pursuit of the Queen of Speed". http://articles.latimes.com/2004/dec/08/entertainment/et-book8.
- ↑ Grimes, William (24 December 2004). "A Racing Life: Plenty of Men and Fast Cars". https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/24/books/a-racing-life-plenty-of-men-and-fast-cars.html.
- ↑ Seymour, Miranda (2004). "Bugatti Queen". Random House. pp. 258–259. ISBN 1-4000-6168-7. https://archive.org/details/bugattiqueeninse00seym/page/258.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Spurgeon, Brad (22 August 2009). "Measuring Experience in Youthful Formula One". The New York Times Company. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/sports/autoracing/23prix.html?_r=0.
- ↑ "1955 Monaco Grand Prix". http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/database/races/42-1955-monaco-grand-prix.
- ↑ "All Results of Louis Chiron". racingsportscars.com. http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/results/Louis-Chiron-F.html. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
- ↑ "THE GOLDEN ERA – OF GRAND PRIX RACING". kolumbus.fi. http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/main.htm. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
- ↑ "Louis Chiron – Involvement". StatsF1. http://www.statsf1.com/en/louis-chiron/engagement.aspx. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Louis Chiron – the Monegasque Gentleman Driver". montecarlodailyphoto.com. http://www.montecarlodailyphoto.com/2009/03/louis-chiron-monegasque-gentleman.html. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ↑ European Car, Volume 37, Issues 7–12. Argus Publishers. 2006. p. 106.
- ↑ Taylor, Michael. "Bugatti Chiron blasts into Geneva with nearly 1,500 hp". http://www.autoblog.com/2016/02/29/bugatti-chiron-genva-official/.
External links[]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:Louis Chiron. |
- Grand Prix History, Louis Chiron
- Louis Chiron at The Crittenden Automotive Library
- Louis Chiron at Le Mans
- Louis Chiron at Find a Grave
The original article can be found at Louis Chiron and the edit history here.