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JEAN BEHRA - frustrated ambition.
By Roger Harrison |
It is a warm sunny day at the Hockenheim circuit just outside Heidelberg and the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team are testing their new car; the young French driver, full of his customary joie de vivre and fired with his unstoppable determination to go faster and better, climbs aboard. Only minutes later the car inexplicably leaves the track at the fast Ostkurve bend, hits the barrier and is thrown violently into the air; the driver suffers serious injuries from which he dies shortly afterwards. The date: 1st August 1980; a fateful day for the driver, Patrick Depailler who always treated 1st August as a black tie day in memory of his boyhood hero Jean Behra who had been tragically killed at the Avus circuit in Berlin exactly 21 years previously.
The two Frenchman had much in common: they were both physically short, but tough with it; racing was their raison d'être and they embraced it, and life in general, with a joy and passion that sometimes bordered on the insane according to some of their contemporaries.
Jean Marie Behra was born in Nice on 16th February 1921 to the family of a radio engineer. Even as a boy his competitive nature demonstrated itself as he threw himself into schoolboy sports with great energy and determination. Jean then took a job at a bicycle shop, which gave him a helping hand to achieve success with cycle racing. |
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Success with Moto Guzzi.
At the age of 17 Jean made the natural progression to motorcycle racing but the war put a stop to that and he had to wait until the Coupe de la Liberation in 1945 to gain his first victory on a motorcycle. Between 1948 and 1951 Jean Behra captured no less than four French national motorcycle racing titles whilst riding for Moto Guzzi. However in parallel to this successful early career he tried his luck with four wheels. At a `bike event at Mont Ventoux in 1950 he borrowed a Maserati 4CLT, entered a hillclimb, and won!
In the same, year Behra had taken part in the Monte Carlo Rally in a Simca and at Le Mans he shared a drive in a Simca Gordini with Loyer but the car failed to impress. However, Behra's success in the hillclimb and a good drive in the Bol d'Or at St Germain, together with some good press notices, attracted the attention of Amedee Gordini, who had a sharp eye for talent. The young Behra was signed up for the 1951 Gordini works team alongside Trintignant, Simon and Manzon.
The '51 season brought some rewards for Behra and the Gordini team; he gained a third place in his first outing at Les Sables d'Olonne, and then repeated this at Cadours.
In 1952 Behra made his name and won a place in the hearts of French fans with a giant-killing performance at the Reims Grand Prix; the Ferrari T500s of Ascari and Farina were the surefire favourites to win this race; the underpowered and unreliable Gordini T16s were considered to be a sideshow but Behra went into an early lead ahead of Ascari and to
everyone's amazement, held the lead. Towards the end of the race the Ferrari suffered engine trouble and Jean was able to sail on to a resounding victory, the home crowd frantic with delight. Although this was a non-championship Formula 2 race it mattered not to the French public - Jeannot' was, and would remain, their hero.
Elsewhere in the same year Behra had some other successes. In the Formula 1 Championship a third at Bremgarten in the
Swiss GP, a second placing in a BRDC heat at Silverstone, two wins at the Circuit du Lac, second at the Caen GP, plus an overall fourth in the Formula 2 championship.
Disaster on the `Carrera'.
Away from the race circuits Behra tried his hand at the gruelling Carrera Panamericana - still in a Gordini he won the first stage of 330 miles at an average 88 mph. Unfortunately he lost control of the car in the second stage and plunged into a ravine, from where he was lucky to escape with his life. The wisdom of entering the frail Gordini in a race such as this over such poor surfaces must be questioned but it was no doubt the boundless enthusiasm and ambition of the driver that was the decider.
Whilst Behra stayed with the Gordini team throughout the 1953 and 1954 seasons, it was not a fruitful time for Behra or for the team as a whole. The Gordim T16 was simply outdated by now by the more powerful Ferraris, Maseratis and, in '54 the Mercedes-Benz's, added to which the car's unreliability - the rear axle being its Achilles heel - and increasing financial woes within the team meant that any success for Gordini was a rare achievement. In spite of this, Behra made the best of the situation. His win at the Pau GP against Trintignant's Ferrari 625 and a superb display against the mighty Mercedes-Benz W196s at the Berlin GP at Avus just had to be noticed by the great and the good. The more astute amongst them would have also noticed that Behra's lap times and qualifying times were often better than those of
the drivers from the successful teams with the better cars; it was simply the Gordini's inadequate power and unreliability over several hours of racing that was keeping Behra out of the points. So it was then that towards the end
of the '54 season Neubauer considered an approach to Behra, thinking to lure him into the Mercedes-Benz team. However by this time Behra had his eye upon Maserati and when he signed with them for the '55 season, his fortunes were about to turn for the better.
Jean Behra had three wonderful years with Maserati between 1955 and 1957 although for Jean these times were not without their disappointments and frustrations. In the '55 season Maserati had to play second fiddle to the all-conquering Mercedes-Benz team and the talents of Moss and Fangio; most of Maserati'sr success came in non-championship races. In
1956 Mercedes-Benz withdrew from the racing scene and when Moss came to Maserati, Jean had to concede the position of number one driver to Stirling. Then in 1957 although Moss disappeared to the Vanwall camp, Maserati brought in Fangio and once again Jean had to play number two to the undoubted talent of Juan Manuel. Despite all this, Behra accepted the number two position with grace and then threw himself with great energy and determination into the task of bringing victory whenever hecould in either the 250F in Formula 1 and non-championship racing, or in 150S, 200S, 300S and 450S in the sports car racing arena. His natural skill and consistently quick times were reinforced by his resolute will to win and his relentless enjoyment of driving these great cars. |
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Photo courtesy of F1 Box
Jean Behra in a 250F at the 1956 Monaco Grand Prix |
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Photo courtesy of Wolf Zweifler
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The Argentinean Summer.
In Formula 1 between 1953 and 1960, the season always started early in the year when most teams decamped to the Argentinean summer. This meant that Behra's first race for the Maserati works team was in the Argentine GP at Buenos Aires on 16th January 1955. The weather was unbearably hot and most drivers failed to complete the race under these conditions but Behra picked up a sixth place in a 250F shared with Schell. Two weeks later Behra gained a creditable fifth position in the Buenos Aires City GP against the alcohol-fuelled Mercedes 300SLRs in this Formula Libre race.
Jean's first outing in a 300S at the Dakar GP in March was brought to a halt with transmission problems. Back in Europe, success escaped Behra once again when he was forced to retire from the non-championship Valentino GP at Turin when his 250F's De Dion tube failed. However he had only to wait until April for his first taste of victory in a 250F when he won the Pau GP comfortably alongside team mates Musso and Mieres, and he followed up with another easy win at the Bordeaux GP, this time in an uprated 250F with a bigger head and carburettors. At the Naples GP in May, Behra managed only a fourth place having lost five laps whilst being pitted for repairs following a collision. Back in the seat of a 3005 Jean won the Bari GP at Lungomare from teammate Luigi Musso in another 300S.
On 22nd May Maserati entered Behra, Musso, Mieres and Perdisa in the Formula 1 Monaco GP; competition was strong from the Mercedes W 196s, the Ferraris and the Lancia D50s. Behra was running well but had to swap cars with the more junior Perdisa mid-race after Behra's 250F gave problems. In the end, ironically, Behra had to retire Perdisa's car with clutch problems, while Perdisa went on to third place in Behra's car! Later in May Behra partnered Musso in a 300S to win the Supercortemaggiore GP at Monza.
In June the Formula 1 Championship moved to Spa for the Belgian GP; Behra spun off the circuit on an early lap and ran back to the pits to take over Mieres' car but only managed a fifth place in the torrential rain. At Le Mans a few days later, Behra partnered Musso in a 300S but had to retire owing to transmission failure; this was the same disastrous race in which 81 people were killed when Levegh's 300SLR catapulted into the crowd; one result was that the Formula 1 programme was significantly reduced for the remainder of the season. Racing continued however and at the Dutch GP at
Zandvoort, Behra took a sixth place having been delayed in the pits. A week later Jean had better luck at the Portuguese GP where he drove his 300S to a commanding win after superb driving around the difficult street circuit at Porto.
250F `Streamliner'.
In July the Maserati team came to Aintree for the Formula 1 British GP; they expected great things from the 250Fs driven by Behra, Musso and Mieres, but the Mercedes of Moss and Fangio were to dominate this race; Behra held on in third for a while until his engine lost its oil after ten laps. At the Swedish GP at Kristianstad in August Behra did well to hold on to a fourth place against stiff Ferrari competition. Later in the month in a little 150S Behra won convincingly at the Nurburgring 500 kilometre raceagainst strong opposition and he gained a class lap record. Back to the Formula 1
Championship on 11th September at Monza for the Italian GP and Behra was perhaps lucky to gain fourth place in the 250F Streamliner which had been developed in a hurry for the new steeply banked Monza track; the car did not perform as expected and he crossed the line as his engine blew! In his final outing of the year at Dundrod in the TT, Behra suffered serious injuries with broken arms and ribs, burns and the loss of his ear when he crashed badly in his 300S shared with Musso and Bordoni.
Overall, while 1955 had been a good season for Behra, it had not been so good for the Maserati team, which had been overshadowed in the Formula 1 Championship by Mercedes. By contrast, whilst Maserati were to have one of their best ever years in 1956, Behra's successes were to be a little fewer.
In January 1956 the European teams headed once again for the South American sun. In the Formula 1 Championship Argentine GP in Buenos Aires, Behra came in second, close behind Fangio in his Ferrari version of the Lancia D50, a good result considering that the improvements to the 250Fs for the '56 season had not yet been implemented. In the Buenos Aires 1000 Kilometre Race, Moss and Mendetiguy won in a 300S and Behra and Gonzalez brought home another 300S in third place. In early February in the Buenos Aires City GP at the high altitude Mendoza circuit, Jean's 250F struggled with carburation
problems at altitude but he gained a third place.
Late February saw Behra in North Africa, firstly competing in the Agadir GP where he had to retire his 300S after steering problems developed and forced him off the track, and secondly in the Dakar GP where he took a third place, again in a 300S. Crossing the Atlantic again Behra had a disappointing race at the Sebring 12 Hours in March where he partnered Taruffi in a 300S butcame in only fifth. Back in Europe the Maserati factory decided against entering for the Syracuse GP in Sicily, as they wanted to concentrate on getting the new 250F ready for the European season. Behra however, was, as always, keen to race and at the time was living nearby, so he entered privately in a 250F borrowed from the factory. Unfortunately he had to retire with a broken oil feed pipe.
150S on the Mille Miglia
In April Behra made his debut in the Mille Miglia at the wheel of a 150S and came in at 20th position overall but a creditable second in the 1500cc class - a good enough result in itself. In order to reach it however, Behra had to contend with firstly driving for some distance having lost his brakes, and then secondly with stopping to make up a brake pipe and fit it, by himself!
In spite of delays and problems at the factory, Maserati had their modified 250Fs ready for the '56 Formula 1 season opener, the Monaco GP, in May. Behra had an uneventful race here and brought his car home in third place behind teammate Moss in first place with Fangio, in a Lancia-Ferrari, second. Two weeks later he shared the winning drive with Moss at the Nurburgring in the 1000 Kilometre race in a 300S.
In June at the Belgian GP at a typically wet Spa, Behra had some engine problems with his 250F but kept it going to reach seventh place. He had better luck a week later at Montlhery in the Paris 1000 Kilometre race where he and Louis Rosier swept the competition aside in a fine win in Rosier's privately entered 300S.
July was a busy month for Jean. An uneventful race at the Formula 1 Championship French GP in Reims brought him a third place. Another third was notched up in the Rouen GP in a 300S suffering with damaged suspension. Yet another third place was gained in the Formula 1 Championship British GP at Silverstone, despite engine problems with the 250E Then in the
Bari GP run over a twisting street circuit, the Maserati team and Jean in particular had great success with the 200SI. The first part of the race was restricted to cars up to 2000cc and Jean had a comfortable victory here with teammate
Cesare Perdisa in second. The placed cars from this race then went into the main, unrestricted event where it was 1-2-3 for Maserati when Moss won in a 300S closely followed by Behra and Perdisa in the smaller cars.
Fire in the Pits.
On 5th August at the Nurburgring there was a short race for sports cars, the Rhineland Cup. Moss and Behra each drove a 150S but the cars were poorly set-up and Moss managed second while Behra trailed in at sixth. In the Formula 1
Championship German GP that followed, Behra fared better in third position behind Moss. Two more sportscar outings in August brought little luck for Jean. In the Swedish GP at Kristianstad Maserati had a terrible time with the new 450S
only running in practice. Moss' 300S was handed over to Behra but some spilt fuel in the pits started a fire, which resulted in the fuel tank being ruptured and the car was retired. In the Pescara GP he scraped a 14th place in his 200SI
but with the consolation that he had recorded the fastest lap time.
For the Formula 1 Championship Italian GP in September on the fast, banked Monza circuit, the factory had prepared two special 250Fs with the transmission offset to the left and the driver's seat offset to the right. This afforded a lower
driving position, a lower centre of gravity and a reduced frontal area and they hoped this would give some advantage against the all-conquering Lancia-Ferraris being driven by Fangio and Collins. Moss and Behra were to drive the modified 250Fs and whilst Moss eventually won the race, Behra retired with magneto trouble, then took over Maglioli's standard 250F but had to retire again with steering problems.
Jean was definitely having more success in sportscar racing in '56 and he continued this theme with a towering performance in the Rome GP at Castelfusano in October, winning both the 2000cc race in a 200SI, and the main
competition in a 300S.
In November, the factory sent the team out to Australia. In the Australian TT at Albert Park, Moss and Behra scored an easy 1-2 in their 300S' then repeated this result in the Australian GP in 250Fs at the same venue in December.
Jean Behra had spent a very busy year in 1956, racing at venues all over the world from January to December, and at the same time achieving fine results in spite of having to be number two to Moss. Behra had come fourth in the 1956 Formula 1 World Championship with 22 points to Collins' 25, Moss's 27, and the maestro Fangio's 30 points. 1957 promised a lot for Jean as Maserati's V12 version of the 250F was in preparation and the 450S was waiting in the wings. Although Moss left Maserati after the early season races in South America to go to Vanwall, Maserati snapped up the services of Fangio when he offered to return from a season with Ferrari. So once again Behra played number two. Probably disappointed, he
nevertheless accepted the situation with understanding yet not holding back his aggressively competitive spirit once he got behind the wheel!
The '57 season opened in January with the Formula 1 Championship Argentine GP at which Maserati trounced the Lancia-Ferrari opposition with a 1-2-3-4 for Fangio, Behra, Menditeguy and Schell. A week later in the Buenos Aires 1000 Kilometre Race the 300S being driven well by Behra and Menditeguy had to be handed over to Moss who had retired the 450S which he had been sharing with Fangio; Moss took the 300S on to second place. In the Buenos Aires City GP, Behra's 250F took second place in the first heat and third in the second heat, finishing second on aggregate.
In March in the Florida sunshine, Behra and Fangio drove a 450S to one of the ill fated tipo's few successes when they had a convincing win in the Sebring 12 Hours race.
Racing with the Master.
Returning to Europe, Jean Behra had a rather lacklustre summer despite a promising start when he won the Pau GP in April in the sole works car amongst a huge field of privately entered 250Fs. Shortly before the Pau race, Behra had been forced to retire in the Syracuse GP In May at Le Mans, a 450S driven by Behra and Simon was retired after a universal joint collapsed. Behra had to give the Monaco GP a miss as he had been injured in a road accident. At the Formula 1 Championship French GP held at Rouen, Behra was let down by his lightweight 250F which had to be pushed across the finish line to record a sixth place after the engine blew up. Better fortune prevailed in the Reims GP where Behra brought home his 250F in second place after a tremendous tussle with the team's number one, Fangio. In the Formula 1 Championship, retirements were all too many for Behra. In the British, Pescara and Italian GPs he was forced out with mechanical problems. Sadly in the British GP at Aintree, Behra was having one of his greatest races, setting a commanding lead at the quarter-stage, when the car's clutch disintegrated. Interestingly in the Italian GP at Monza, Behra had driven the V12 engined 250F to its death. The engine was perhaps just too powerful for the car with wheelspin being evident much of the time that Behra was achieving very fast lap times. Sadly, the free-revving engine overheated and suffered terminal failure. In the Formula 1 Championship German GP Behra managed only a sixth place - this of course was Fangio's finest race where he famously fought back from a hopeless position to win. In the 1957 Formula 1 World Championship, Behra shared eighth place with teammate Schell.
In the non-championship Caen GP in late July, Behra and Schell tried out the unloved BRM P25. Behra won convincingly which must have stood him in good stead for the move to BRM that would come in 1958. Behra and Schell again took to BRM P25s in the International Trophy race at Silverstone in September, which Maserati had declined to enter, and again Jean and Harry bagged the first two places. Undoubtedly this cemented the deal between Behra and the BRM team, which was in place by the end of the year.
Taming the beast.
In the Swedish GP in August Jean returned to his Maserati form with another resounding win in "Il Monstro" - the 450S. Two 450S's had been entered and Jean had perhaps the better car, fitted as it was with the supplementary two speed gearbox giving it an extra turn of speed. Meanwhile, Moss drove the other and the lead was exchanged many times between the two drivers in a very close race until Moss's car expired and Behra took the flag.
In the autumn, Behra's success continued with wins in a 250F at two non-championship races. At the Modena GP, he was first in each heat and the aggregate race, then at the Moroccan GP at Casablanca he took an early lead and held this for most of the race and came through to win convincingly.
The season ended with a disastrous race for Maserati at the Venezuelan GP: Moss's 450S was involved in a collision, meanwhile Behra's 450S caught fire while being refuelled and Behra was sent off to hospital. Moss jumped into Behra's car, which had not suffered too badly from the fire and set off but soon returned as he realised the fire was still burning under him on the seat! With the fire fully extinguished Schell took over, only to collide with Bonnier's 300S, which resulted in both cars being written off. This was an unhappy prelude to the factory's decision to close their racing department at the end of the '57 season.
Last Maserati drive.
There was to be one more 250F drive for Behra. In early 1958 he, along with Fangio and other teammates, entered the Argentine GP in a semi-private capacity. He had to settle for fifth. In the following Buenos Aires City GP Behra and Menditeguy turned up late and were refused entry. Behra's last drive for Maserati came in July '58 in the Villa Real GP in Portugal where he took a 300S to second place behind Moss in another 300S. Coincidentally this was also the last official Maserati works race for the 300S.
Behra's '58 season with BRM was certainly not his best, partly because of the poorly performing and unreliable P25, and arguably because Jean lost some of his mettle after a bad crash at the Easter Monday meeting at Goodwood when his car hit a wall at 70mph after the brakes had failed. Despite this he stuck with the team throughout the season and scored a third place in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort and a fourth in the Portuguese GP at Oporto. In the seven other championship Formula 1 races, Behra had to retire his BRM. This must have aggravated him, as must the sight of Harry Schell his old Maserati team mate regularly recording better times - at Maserati, Behra had always been faster! Some say that at times Behra could be seen to give up in a race.
Away from BRM and Formula 1, Behra had a better relationship with Porsche. Driving their cars he had notable success, winning both German and French sportscar championships in 1958 in a Formula 2 Spyder 1500, and sharing third at Le Mans with Hans Herrmann in an RSK.
The Ferrari team had lost Musso and Collins, both killed tragically whilst racing in 1958 and Hawthorn had retired, and so Behra was taken on, along with Tony Brooks, to form the core of the 1959 team with Phil Hill who had joined midway through 1958. The move to Ferrari should have been the opportunity for Jean's skills to shine through in the Dino 246, but somehow the team failed to come together and Enzo Ferrari only made things worse by his customary refusal to name a number one driver. Behra and Brooks both believed, quite rightly, that they should be number one. Behra managed a fifth place in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort but little else in the championship, although he had notable success elsewhere for Ferrari, winning the Aintree 200 and scooping second places in the Syracuse GP and the Sebring 12 hours.
A moment of glory.
The Formula 1 Championship French GP at Reims on 5th July should have been Jean Behra's moment of glory; he was the favourite to win on this fast circuit to which the Dino 246 was ideally suited; and the French fans were desperate to see their beloved Jeannot repeat his 1952 victory when he had won hands down in the giant-killing Gordini. Whether it was due to the driver or to the car, the fact was that Brooks was driving faster and Behra in his frustration blamed the management for favouring Brooks and Hill - who went on to first and second. And when he brought his car into the pits with a broken piston a furious row developed with Romolo Tavoni, the Ferrari team manager. Unfortunately Jean's temper got the better of him, his fists found Tavoni, and that was it, instant dismissal from Ferrari.
Behra then turned his talents, which included a considerable mechanical expertise, to developing the Behra-Porsche Formula 1 car in conjunction with designer Valerio Colotti. The first car soon rolled out of his Modena works and was due to be driven by Jean in the Formula 1 Championship German GP on the Avus track in Berlin on 2nd August.
One day earlier however, on 1st August 1959, Behra had entered the support race for sportscars with a Porsche RSK Spyder. The track was wet and the 45-degree banking was unforgiving. As Behra came onto the Nordkurve too fast, his car span out of control, then struck a concrete bunker at the top of the banking before Behra was hurled out against a flagpole. Jean Behra died instantly, 21 years to the day before his young admirer Patrick Depailler was to meet a similar fate.
Jean Behra had such a strong will to win that perhaps at times this did not allow his undeniable driving skill to shine through. Certainly his ambition was frustrated on many occasions where circumstances contrived against him - an under-performing car, or having to play number two in the team. Despite this, he enjoyed his motorsport tremendously and passed on that enjoyment to his many fans. Along the way he achieved fifteen wins, nine second places and eleven third places in championship and major competitions. He played a large and significant role in Maserati's three great years in Formula 1 with the 250F between 1955 and 1957. These words from fellow Frenchman and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery serve well to sum up Jean Behra's life: "Make your dream devour your life, so that life does not devour your dream."
Postscript.
A week before he was killed, Jean Behra had discussed with his friend Don Sergio Mantovani, the Modenese priest who had administered to the Maserati team, the possibility of a nursery school in Modena named to commemorate all those drivers who had been killed. Jean Behra left some funds towards the nursery school which was built with its first classroom named after him. Readers can find the full "Racing Drivers' Memorial" story on Henry Peder's website, Enrico's Maserati Pages, under the "Racing" section: www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/alfieri00a.htm. |
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