Maurice Trintignant

Name: Maurice Trintignant

Nationality: France

Date of birth: October 30, 1917 - Ste-Cecile-les-Vignes

This dapper little Frenchman was 47-years old when a sixth place int he 1964 German Grand Prix earned him the final Championship point of a distinguished racing career. It had started in 1938 at the wheel of a 2.3-liter supercharged Bugatti in which his brother Louis had been killed five years earlier while practicing on the Peronne circuit in Picardy. Trintignant used this rugged machine to compete in the first postwar European race, the Coupe de la Liberation, which was held in the Bois de Boulogne in September 1945. Unfortunately the car's preparation had been cursory, to say the least. Whilst stored in a barn during the war, a family of rats had made their home in its fuel tank - hence Trintignant's nicknamed 'Le Petoulet' - which literally means Rat Droppings. He suffered severe injuries in the voiturette race prior to the 1948 Swiss Grand Prix at Berne, but recovered to forge a reputation as a steady, versatile and unspectacular driver over the next decade. Thanks to his consistency, and the misfortune of others, he won the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix for Ferrari and the same race in 1958 with a Rob Walker Cooper-Climax. After Stirling Moss's accident in 1962, he briefly raced again for Rob Walker before concentrating on racing his own private BRM V8 through to the sunset of his active career.

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