- Philippe Étancelin
Former F1 driver
Name = Philippe Étancelin
Nationality = flagicon|France French
Years = F1|1950 - F1|1952
Team(s) = works and privateTalbot-Lago , non-worksMaserati
Races = 12
Championships = 0
Wins = 0
Podiums = 0
Points = 3
Poles = 0
Fastest laps = 0
First race =1950 British Grand Prix
First win =
Last win =
Last race =1952 French Grand Prix Philippe Étancelin (
December 29 ,1896 -October 13 ,1981 ) was a French Grand Prix motor racing driver who joined the newFormula One circuit at its inception.Biography
Born in
Rouen ,Seine-Maritime , inNormandy , he began racing with aBugatti in 1926, making an immediate impact by winning the Grand Prix de Reims.He worked as a merchant in the winterand raced cars during the summer."World's Best Drivers Vie For $60,000 In Cup Race",
Washington Post , October 12, 1936, Page X15.]His wife, Suzanne, served as his pit manager. Their three children were placed in a school in Rouen while she traveled with her husband to races around the world. She communicated with Etancelin through French sign language as he raced around the speedway. Suzanne told a reporter that Etancelin bought aracing car to celebrate the birth of their second child, Jeanne Alice. He did not intend to race the car but merely use it for pleasure driving around the countryside. The couple once drove it up to a speed of 125 miles per hour. After two years of recreational motoringEtancelin decided to enter a race.
Etancelin lost the lead to
Giuseppe Campari on the final lap of the 1933 French Automobile Club race inParis, France . The 19th annual event was 500 kilometers. ["Campari Wins Paris Auto Race",New York Times , June 12, 1933, Page 22.] Nicknamed "Phi-Phi," he teamed up withLuigi Chinetti to win the24 hours of Le Mans in 1934.Etancelin was victorious in the 1936
Pau, France Grand Prix, driving anAlfa Romeo . He negotiated the 100laps of the Grand Prix De Pau in 3 hours, twenty-two minutes, and 22seconds. ["Wins Grand Prix",Olean, New York Times Herald, March 2, 1936, Page 13.] Etancelin qualified 6th for theGeorge Vanderbilt Cup, which wasraced over 300 miles nearWestbury, New York , in October 1936.Drivers qualified over a 20 mile distance of hairpin turns and a main straightaway at 150 miles per hour on a new 4 mile circuit. ["Nuvolari Tops Qualifiers for Auto Race", Washington Post, October 8, 1936, Page X19.] This was the million dollarRoosevelt Raceway ."Vite! Vite! To Victory, Or-",Edwardsville, Illinois Intelligencer, March 13, 1939, Page 5.] By this time he had won theMarne Grand Prix three times.Étancelin participated in twelve World Championship F1 Grands Prix, debuting on May 13, 1950. He scored a total of 3 championship points.
His fifth place in the
1950 Italian Grand Prix made him the oldest driver to score championship points.In 1953 the government of France awarded him the
Legion of Honor in recognition of his contribution to the sport of automobile racing that spanned four decades.He died at
Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1981.Major career wins:
*Algerian Grand Prix 1930
*Grand Prix de la Baule 1929
*Grand Prix du Comminges 1929, 1931
*Dauphiné Circuit 1930, 1931
*French Grand Prix 1930
*Grand Prix de Dieppe 1931
*Grand Prix de la Marne 1929, 1933
*Grand Prix de Pau 1930, 1936
*Grand Prix de Picardie 1932, 1933
*Grand Prix de Reims 1927, 1929
*St. Raphael 1931
*24 hours of Le Mans 1934Complete World Championship Formula One results
(Note: grands prix in bold denote points scoring races.)
Complete European Championship results
() (Races in bold indicate pole position)
References
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