André Guelfi

André Guelfi

Nation:	Morocco
Automobile world championship
First start:	1958 Grand Prix of Morocco
Last start:	1958 Grand Prix of Morocco
Constructors
1958  André Guelfi
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 1 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

André Guelfi (born May 6, 1919 in Mazagan , Morocco , † June 28, 2016 in Paris , France ) was a Moroccan automobile racing driver .

Motorsport

André Guelfi, who came from a Corsican family, had a long career as a racing car driver, starting in 1950. His first racing car was a Delahaye , which he soon traded for a Jaguar . In 1953, he was known in his home to a wide audience as he on a Gordini , the sports car races won from Agadir. That brought him a works car for the Casablanca 12 hour race in 1953 . He shared the valance with Jean Behra , but the duo had to give up prematurely due to a technical defect.

In 1954, Guelfi became a permanent factory pilot with Gordini and had his first single- seater deployment at the Pescara Grand Prix . The race ended for him after just one lap when his car went up in flames after an engine failure. The tough sports car races of the 1950s were the right profession for the robust North African. In 1954 he finished sixth together with Jacques Pollet at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and won the class up to 3000 cm³.

Guelfi contested most of his races in Morocco and became national sports car champion in 1955. When Cooper's mid-engined racing cars showed the way forward , he bought one and drove it to Formula 1 races in France. In 1957 he finished seventh at the Pau Grand Prix and surprisingly second at the Paris Grand Prix in Montlhéry in 1958 , just three seconds behind the winner Henry Taylor .

In 1958 , Guelfi competed in the Morocco Grand Prix , making him the first African to compete in the top motorsport class. With the slow Formula 2 - Cooper T45 he was clearly inferior to the top drivers, but after a brave drive he was welcomed by thousands of cheering spectators - he was 15th and was four laps behind - when he crossed the finish line like the winner.

Guelfi drove car races until the late 1960s. His name can be found for the last time on a starting list in 1968 when he took part in a race in Rabat with a Porsche 911R .

Since the death of Robert La Caze , André Guelfi was the oldest Formula 1 racing driver still alive. He was followed by Kenneth McAlpine .

Entrepreneurial activity

Even during his time as a racing driver, Guelfi was very wealthy; he earned his living building ships for professional fishermen. After completing his motorsport career, he began building a real estate company in France in the 1970s. He bought over a hundred properties in Paris. He maintained relationships with influential circles and married a niece Georges Pompidous . From 1975 to 2000 he lived in Geneva , Switzerland .

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1958	André Guelfi	Cooper T45	Climax 1.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				1	-	-	-	-	-	-

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1958
											15th

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	Ecurie Lutetia	Delahaye 175S	Gaston Serraud	failure	battery
1951	Johnny Claes	Ferrari 212 Export C	Jean Larivière	failure	Fatal accident in Larivière
1953	Capt. Marceau Crespin	Gordini T15S	Roger Loyer	failure	Engine failure
1954	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T15S	Jacques Pollet	Rank 6 and class win
1956	Automobiles Gordini	Gordini T23S	Hernando da Silva Ramos	failure	Engine failure
1957	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T24S	Jean Guichet	failure	Engine failure
1958	Hervé Peignaux	Jaguar D-Type	Jean-Marie Brussin	failure	Fatal accident in Brussin

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Marceau Crespin	Gordini T15S	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					DNF
1954	Gordini	Gordini T15S	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
						6th
1957	Gordini	Gordini T24S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
							DNF
1958	Hervé Peignaux	Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
							DNF

literature

• Steve Small: Grand Prix Who's Who. 3rd edition. Travel Publishing, Reading 2000, ISBN 1-902007-46-8 .

Web links

• André Guelfi in the Driver Database

Individual evidence

1. ^ André Guelfi alias "Dédé la sardine" est mort
2. ↑ Ian McLeigh: Oldest living drivers of Formula One. snaplap.net, December 19, 2015, accessed November 14, 2016 .