Henri Julien
Henri Julien (born September 18, 1927 in Gonfaron , France , † July 13, 2013 in Hyères ) was a French racing driver and team manager. He founded and managed the Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS) racing team , which was involved in the Formula 2 European Championship and Formula 1 in the 1970s and 1980s . AGS was the smallest Formula 1 team in the 1980s.
biography
Henri Julien's father ran a petrol station with an attached car workshop in the Provençal village of Gonfaron, which was called Garage de l'Avenir ("Workshop of the Future"). After an apprenticeship, which he completed in Toulon , among others , Julien took over the company in 1947.
In 1946 Julien attended the Nice Grand Prix , one of the first grand prizes held after the end of World War II . The event sparked his interest in motorsport. In the following years, Julien designed racing cars that were given the designation JH (for Julien Henri) and were numbered consecutively. Initially, each chassis was given its own JH number, but since the 1970s, several identical copies have been grouped together under one number. With some of these cars Julien took part in automobile races as a driver.
Racing driver
In 1950 Julien designed his first racing car, a Simca -components-based monoposto , which was intended for junior classes with a displacement of 500 cm³. With this vehicle, which has undergone various modifications, Julien was active as a racing driver for several years. Another vehicle was built in 1952, this time with a BMW engine. In 1957, he manufactured a new car that became known as the Julien-Panhard and is retrospectively referred to as the JH3. The car was front-wheel drive and used various components from Panhard's contemporary models . An 850 cm³ two-cylinder engine from Panhard, which was located above the front axle, served as the drive. The front overhang was considerable; A massive cooling opening stretched across the entire width of the car, initially only roughly barred.
At the end of the 1950s, Julien concentrated his commitment on the newly established Formula Junior . He adapted his cars to the regulations of this class, but only took part in a few races himself. They were all events that took place in the south of France.
1959 Julien took part with Julien-Panhard at the Monaco Grand Prix for Formula Junior (Grand Prix de Monaco Junior). He qualified and finished 19th, four laps behind the winner Michael May , who drove a Stanguellini . In the following year, Julien registered the car in a modified version as JH4 with a slightly smaller cooling opening for the event in Monte Carlo, but did not take part in the race. The reasons for this are not clear. Some sources say he didn't qualify, others say he didn't run in the first place.
In 1959 Julien's attempts to design his own racing cars ended. In the 1960s, Julien occasionally drove racing cars from other manufacturers in smaller classes. In the early 1960s, he competed in individual Formula 3 races, among other things.
In 1964 Julien registered a Lotus 22 with a Ford engine for two Formula 3 races in the south of France . At the Coupe de Vitesse in Pau he retired after 13 laps with a brake defect. He could not qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix advertised for Formula 3, in which he wanted to start for the Écurie Méditerranée team.
In 1965, Julien only started once more in Formula 3. For the Coupe de Vitesse in Pau, he reported an Alpine 270 with a Renault engine. Here Julien failed in the qualification. Then Julien, now 38 years old, ended his active racing career.
Some documentaries report that Julien trained the French racing drivers of the French Formula 3 Championship in the period afterwards .
Team boss
At the end of 1969, Julien founded Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives, which was housed in his Garage de l'Avenir. Together with the mechanic Christian Vanderpleyn , who had completed an apprenticeship with Julien in 1959 and 1960, he resumed production of his own racing cars. AGS initially served smaller classes such as Formule France , Formula Renault and Formula 3, from 1978 it was then involved in Formula 2 and from 1986 to 1991 in Formula 1.
During this time, AGS regularly maintained a factory team, so it started all series at the factory. Henri Julien was team boss and sporting director of the racing team until 1989.
In Formula 2, the AGS team, headed by Julien, achieved three victories in seven years: Richard Dallest achieved two in the 1980 season and one Philippe Streiff in the 1984 season. Streiff wrote something like motorsport history here, as he won the very last race of formula 2.
In 1986 there was the possibility of promotion to Formula 1. The French Formula 1 team Renault F1 had withdrawn from Formula 1 at the end of the 1985 season and sold essential parts of the equipment to Julien. They formed the basis of AGS 'Formula 1 commitment, which began at the 1986 Italian Grand Prix . AGS was the smallest Formula 1 team at the time: Julien only had six employees, including the pilot. The established teams had more than 100 employees at the same time. In the six-year Formula 1 commitment, AGS scored two world championship points, one from Roberto Moreno at the 1987 Australian Grand Prix and another from Gabriele Tarquini two years later at the Mexican Grand Prix .
Julien's way of leading a team is described in the literature as good-natured:
"Se battre oui, mais ne pas oublier après de bien manger et bien boire"
“Measure yourself against others: Yes. But don't forget to eat well and drink well afterwards. "
Retirement
AGS was restructured into a leisure company after another sale and the closure of the racing team in 1991 . It offers private individuals the opportunity to drive Formula 1 cars on the company's own racing track in Le Luc. Henri Julien was honorary president of this company.
In the 1990s, Julien and Bernard Boyer developed a 500 cc racing car that achieved an average speed of 222.557 km / h on the Circuit Automobile Mortefontaine in 1997 , breaking a 44-year record for vehicles in this class.
Julien lived in Gonfaron in an apartment above Garage de l'Avenir until shortly before his death . He died in a hospital in Hyères after a long illness.
literature
- David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
- Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing . Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9
- Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 . 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Henri Julien's biography on the website www.500race.org ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Timo Pape: AGS founder Henri Julien has died . News from July 15, 2013 on the website www.motorsport-total.com .
- ^ Joe Saward: Henri Julien 1927-2013 ; Short biography on the website joesaward.wordpress.com; Retrieved July 17, 2013.
- ↑ a b c Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 ; P. 102.
- ↑ Statistics of the Monaco Grand Prix (Formula Junior) on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 17, 2013).
- ↑ For this and in general about the early constructions of Julien on the website http://panhard.racing.free.fr ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ^ Statistics of the Monaco Grand Prix (Formula Junior) 1960 on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 17, 2013).
- ↑ Statistics of the Coupe de Vitesse 1964 on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 17, 2013).
- ↑ Statistics of the Monaco Grand Prix (Formula 3) 1964 on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 17, 2013).
- ↑ Statistics of the Coupe de Vitesse 1965 on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 17, 2013).
- ^ David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945 ; Motorbuch Verlag, June 1998, ISBN 3613014777 , page 8.
- ↑ www.500race.org ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Message from July 14, 2013 at www.varmatin.com ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed July 17, 2013).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Julien, Henri |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French motor sportsman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 18, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gonfaron |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 13, 2013 |
| Place of death | Hyeres |