Jean Behra

Name: Jean Behra

Nationality: France

Date of birth: February 16, 1921 - Nice

Date of death: August 1, 1959 - Berlin, Germany

Behra rose to prominence with some giant-killing performances at the wheel of an underpowered four-cylinder Gordini in the early 1950s. He was a man who nursed a genuine and unquenchable passion for his chosen sport and, although he never managed to score a Grand Prix victory, was rightly regarded as a formidable competitor to the day he died. Behra initially hit the headlines when he won the non-title 1952 Reims Grand Prix but it was his exploits in a works Maserati between 1956 and 58. It was at the wheel of one of the elegant Maserati 250Fs that he scored his most impressive victory in the non-title '57 Moroccan Grand Prix which, although not a championship race, attracted a top class field. In 1959 Behra moved to Ferrari where he partnered the quiet and taciturn British driver Tony Brooks. Unfortunately after retiring from the French Grand Prix at Reims with a piston failure, Behra allowed his highly-charged emotions to spill over. In an angry debate, he punched team manager Romolo Tavoni and was instantly dismissed. Less than a month later he crashed his Porsche RSK in the sports car race which preceded the German Grand Prix at Avus, being flung out and fatally injured against a flagpole on the steep banking.

BACKhome <---------------------------------