Paul Brother

Paul Brother

Nation:	Belgium
Automobile world championship
First start:	1952 Belgian Grand Prix
Last start:	1956 Belgian Grand Prix
Constructors
1952  HWM - Ecurie Nationale Belge 1953  HWM 1954  Gordini 1955–1956  Ferrari
statistics
World Cup balance:	Seventh World Cup ( 1956 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 11 - - -
World Cup points :	11
Podiums :	1
Leadership laps :	-

Paul Frère (born January 30, 1917 in Le Havre , France , † February 23, 2008 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence , France) was a Belgian racing driver , journalist and author.

Porsche 904 camera car from Frère / Günzler at the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring in 1966

Career

Paul Frère was both a racing driver and a world-renowned automotive journalist. As a child he read his father's motorsport magazines and knew every brand. His uncle often took him to Spa-Francorchamps as a spectator, and from then on, Frère wanted to focus exclusively on motorsport.

His first race was the Spa 24 Hours in 1948 ; In 1949 he was also registered, but did not get a chance because his partner Jock Horsfall competed alone in the 24 hours.

He later drove for the small British team HWM , for which he finished fifth in the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix . Defects prevented further points for him.

He decided to become a motorsport journalist because it gave him time to race, and in fact, teams kept inviting him to races. A Mercedes engagement narrowly failed, but he competed several times on Gordini . For 1955 he recommended Ferrari , which invited him to test drives. He declined a full-time job because of his job and family, but agreed to fill in whenever a driver was needed. He finished fourth at the 1955 Belgian Grand Prix and second at the 1956 Belgian Grand Prix .

Frère increasingly focused on endurance racing. At the 24-hour race of Le Mans in 1955 , in which 83 spectators were killed in the fatal accident of Pierre Levegh , he finished second, also in 1959. 1960 brought victory at Le Mans. Then he decided to retire from racing and devote himself entirely to writing.

In 1966, however, he got behind the wheel again and, together with Rainer Günzler, drove a Porsche 904 as a camera car for ZDF in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring . Despite the somewhat outdated car, which still carried an additional weight of 70 kg, they came in 26th place out of 77 participants.

In Germany, Paul Frère, who spoke fluent German, was best known for his car tests in the ZDF program " Telemotor ", which he carried out from 1977 to 1994.

Paul Frère was also a three-time Belgian rowing champion : in 1946 and 1947 in a four-man without a helmsman and also in 1946 in a four-man with a helmsman .

Frère worked as an automotive journalist until his death and occasionally took a place behind the wheel of a racing car on a trial basis. In September 2008, just before the Belgian Grand Prix , the previous Stavelot corner of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps was renamed Courbe Paul Frère .

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	HW Motors	HWM 52	Alta 2.0 L4	2	-	-	-	-	-	2	16.
	Ecurie Belge	Gordini type 15	Gordini 1.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
1953	HW Motors	HWM 53	Alta 2.0 L4	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1954	Equipe Gordini	Gordini Type 16	Gordini 2.0 L6	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1955	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 555 Super Qualo	Ferrari 2.5 L4	2	-	-	-	-	-	3	15th
1956	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari D50	Ferrari 2.5 V8	1	-	1	-	-	-	6th	7th
total				11	-	1	-	-	-	11

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1952
			5			DNF	DNF
1953
				10				DNF
1954
			DNF	DNF		DNF
1955
		8th		4th
1956
				2

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
1953	Porsche KG	Porsche 550 Coupe	Richard von Frankenberg	15th place and class win
1954	David Brown	Aston Martin DB3S	Carroll Shelby	failure	Suspension damage
1955	Aston Martin Ltd.	Aston Martin DB3S	Peter Collins	Rank 2 and class win
1956	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar D-Type	Desmond Titterington	failure	accident
1957	Equipe Nationale Belge	Jaguar D-Type	Freddy Rousselle	Rank 4
1958	Porsche KG	Porsche 718 RSK	Edgar Barth	4th place and class win
1959	David Brown Racing Dept.	Aston Martin DBR1 / 300	Maurice Trintignant	Rank 2
1960	Scuderia Ferrari SpA	Ferrari 250TR59 / 60	Olivier Gendebien	Overall victory

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1957	Renault Company	Renault Dauphine	Jean Lucas	Rank 37

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1953	Porsche	Chrysler Saratoga Porsche 550 Porsche 356	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
				58	15th	DNF
1954	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DB3S	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
						DNF
1955	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DB2 / 4 Aston Martin DB3S	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
					DNF	2
1956	Renault Jaguar	Renault Dauphine Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
					110	DNF
1957	Renault Ecurie Nationale Belge	Renault Dauphine Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
				37	83		4th
1958	Porsche	Porsche 718 RSK	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
						7th	4th
1959	Nadege Ferrier Aston Martin	Porsche 356 Aston Martin DBR1	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
					21st	2	4th
1960	Ian Fraser-Jones Scuderia Ferrari	Porsche 718 RSK Ferrari 250TR	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
						9	1
1963	Daniel Richmond	Austin Mini Cooper	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
						27
1966	ZDF	Porsche 904	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
								DNF

literature

• The Porsche 911 story. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-613-02225-7 (several editions).
• My Life Full of Cars. Behind the Wheel with the World's Top Motoring Journalist. Haynes Publishing, Sparkford 2000, ISBN 1-85960-670-9 .
• with Herbert Völker: quattro. Victory of an idea. Orac, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-7015-0035-5 (2nd edition, ibid. 1988).
• Mercedes-Benz C 111. A vehicle study. Edita Lausanne, Lausanne 1981, ISBN 2-88001-096-9 .
• with Karl Ludvigsen: Opel. Wheels for the world. Automobile Quarterly Publications u. et al., Princeton NJ et al. a. 1979, ISBN 0-915038-17-X .
• The race before the race. Porsche racing car between trial and use. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1971.
• Les 800 heures du Mans. Editions Gamma, Paris a. a. 1967 (In German: The 24 Hours of Le Mans. The history of the toughest endurance test for drivers and cars. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1968).
• Sports Car and Competition Driving. Robert Bentley Inc., Cambridge MA 1963.
• Starting grid to checkered flag. Batsford, London 1962.
• Je conduis mieux. Ma voiture et moi ne faisons qu'un! (= Marabout flash. Vol. 26). Gérard et Cie, Verviers 1959.
• Irrésistibles “Moteurs” “Un des vingt” au départ (= L'automobile. ). Éditions Techniques et Touristiques de France, Paris 1959.

Web links

Commons : Paul Frère  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Paul Frère obituary in "Mémoire des Stands" (French)