Jean Behra

Jean Behra

Nation:	France
Automobile world championship
First start:	1952 Swiss Grand Prix
Last start:	1959 French Grand Prix
Constructors
1951–1954  Gordini  · 1955–1957  Maserati  · 1958  BRM  · 1959  Ferrari
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup fourth ( 1956 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 52 - - 1
World Cup points :	51.143
Podiums :	9
Leadership laps :	101 over 400 km

Few drivers had their own helmet design in the 1950s

Jean Marie "Jeannot" Behra (born February 16, 1921 in Nice , † August 1, 1959 in Berlin ) was a French motorcycle and automobile racing driver .

Career

Between 1952 and 1959, Jean Behra competed in 52 races for the drivers' and Formula 1 world championships, he reached the podium nine times, but did not achieve first place. In races that were not part of the World Championship, however, he was several times winner.

Behra began his motorsport career in 1937 with motorcycle races . Between 1948 and 1951 he was French road champion four times in a 500 cc Moto Guzzi . In 1950 he made his debut on four wheels in the hill climb on Mont Ventoux . From June 1951 he started for Amédée Gordini's Gordini team . In 1952 he moved into the limelight for the first time when he won the 1952 Grand Prix de Reims, which was not part of the World Cup, in a defeated Simca-Gordini against the Ferrari of Farina and Ascari . At the Swiss Grand Prix in the same year , Behra came third behind the Ferrari of Piero Taruffi and Rudolf Fischer . Further victories in non-World Cup races followed, for example in Pau in 1954 .

From 1955 to the beginning of 1958, Jean Behra drove a Maserati with which he achieved several podium finishes, for example two second places at the 1956 and 1957 Grand Prix of Argentina and a few thirds. He was able to celebrate a number of victories at grands prix that were not part of the World Cup, for example in 1956 in Rome or 1957 in Pau, Modena or Morocco . Because almost all the stars were present in Morocco , this victory is considered his greatest.

In 1958 , Behra switched to BRM with high hopes , but they were bitterly disappointed. He often parked his car - not because it was broken, but simply not fast enough. Apart from a third place at the Dutch Grand Prix in 1958 , there were no good results. He was more successful in sports car races with Porsche , where, in addition to two victories in 1958, he also achieved third place in the Le Mans 24-hour race .

In 1959 Ferrari signed him in place of the resigned Mike Hawthorn . After a series of technical defects, most recently at the French Grand Prix , for which he had high hopes, he insulted and hit Ferrari racing director Romolo Tavoni in a fit of rage and was promptly dismissed.

Then Behra tried to continue as a private driver with his Behra-Porsche, which he had designed in Italy by Valerio Colotti using the Porsche RSK engine and Porsche chassis parts for Formula 2 and which had already been successfully driven by Hans Herrmann was. Behra wanted to start with the car at the German Grand Prix , which this time was held at the AVUS . Many drivers had safety concerns about this high-speed route, which only consisted of two 4 km long straights, a hairpin bend in the south and the steep, brick-walled curve in the north. Behra had a fatal accident in a sports car race on the Saturday before the Grand Prix: his car skidded on the wet north curve and collided with the concrete foundation of an anti-aircraft gun position from the war at the top of the curve. Behra was thrown his head against a flagpole and was dead on the spot.

In his honor, a race track near the French city of Nevers was named Circuit Jean Behra in 1961 . It was renamed Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in 1989.

His brother José was also a racing driver.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1952	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 2.0 L6	6th	-	-	1	-	-	6th	11.
1953	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 2.0 L6	6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1954	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 2.5 L6	8th	-	-	-	-	1	0.14	26th
1955	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	6th	-	-	1	-	-	6th	9.
1956	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	7th	-	1	4th	-	-	22nd	4th
1957	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	5	-	1	-	-	-	6th	11.
			Maserati 2.5 V12	1	-	-	-	-	-
1958	Ken Kavanagh	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	9	11.
	Owen Racing Organization	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	9	-	-	1	-	-
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 246F1	Ferrari 2.4 V6	3	-	-	-	-	-	2	17th
total				52	-	2	7th	-	1	51.14

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1952
	3		DNF	7th		5	DNF	DNF
1953
	6th			DNF	10	DNF	DNF	DNF
1954
	DSQ		DNF	6th	DNF	10	DNF	DNF	DNF
1955
	DNF / DNF / 6	DNF / DNF		DNF / 5	6th	DNF	4th
1956
	2	3		7th	3	3	3	DNF / DNF
1957
	2			5	DNF	6th	DNF	DNF
1958
	5	DNF	3		DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	4th	DNF	DNF
1959
	DNF		5	DNF		DNS

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1950	Automobiles Gordini	Gordini T15S	Roger Loyer	failure	ignition
1951	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T15S	Maurice Trintignant	failure	Engine failure
1952	Automobiles Gordini	Gordini T15S	Robert Manzon	failure	Brake defect
1953	Automobiles Gordini	Gordini T15S	Roberto Mieres	failure	Gearbox damage
1954	Automobiles Gordini	Gordini T24S	André Simon	failure	Ignition damage
1956	Automobiles Talbot	Talbot 2500 Sport	Louis Rosier	failure	accident
1957	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 450S	André Simon	failure	accident
1958	Porsche KG	Porsche 718 RSK Spyder	Hans Herrmann	3rd place and class win
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR 59	Dan Gurney	failure	Gearbox damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1956	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 300S	Piero Taruffi	Cesare Perdisa	Rank 5
1957	Maserati Factory	Maserati 300S	Juan Manuel Fangio		Overall victory
1958	Porsche KG	Porsche 718 RSK	Edgar Barth		failure	Power transmission
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR59	Cliff Allison		Rank 2

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Gordini Club Francia Amigos de la Panamericana	Gordini T15S Gordini T24S	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					DNF				DNF
1954	Gordini	Gordini T24S	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
			DNF			DNF
1955	Maserati	Maserati 300S	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
							DNF
1956	Maserati	Maserati 300S Maserati 150S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
			3	5	20th	1	DNF
1957	Maserati	Maserati 300S Maserati 450S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
			2	1			DNF	1	DNF
1958	Fritz Huschke from Hanstein Porsche	Porsche 550 Porsche 718 RSK	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
			3	DNF	2	DNF	3	4th
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
			2	DNF	3	DNF

Web links

Commons : Jean Behra  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lothar Boschen, Jürgen Barth: The big book of Porsche special types and constructions. Technology on land, on water and in the air. From 1931 until today. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-87943-805-6 , p. 19 u. 20th
2. ↑ Helmut Sohre: Autosport. Stories and fortunes of the greats in auto racing. Friedr. Bassermann'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1967, p. 35 u. 36.