Robert Manzon

Robert Manzon

Nation:	France
Automobile world championship
First start:	Monaco Grand Prix 1950
Last start:	1956 Italian Grand Prix
Constructors
1950–1953 Equipe Gordini  · 1954 Ecurie Rosier  · 1955–1956 Equipe Gordini
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-6. ( 1952 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 28 - - -
World Cup points :	16
Podiums :	2
Leadership laps :	-

Robert Manzon (born April 12, 1917 in Marseille ; † January 19, 2015 there ) was a French racing driver . He was active in Formula 1 from 1950 to 1956 and was the last living driver to take part in the first Formula 1 season in 1950 .

Career

Manzon was a little younger than many of his fellow countrymen who took an interest in racing after World War II , but did not drive his first race until he was 29.

In 1946 he took part in the Coupe des Alpes on a Simca 8 Cabriolet. In the following year he tried his hand at the wheel of a Cisitalia at the Grand Prix du Comminges in the class up to 1100 cm³ and finished second.

Since he also left drivers like Tazio Nuvolari , Luigi Villoresi and Achille Varzi behind at the circuit race in Angoulême , Amédée Gordini , the founder of the French sports car brand Gordini , noticed him and hired him as a works driver. The Gordini cars, with their many progressive detailed solutions, had been known for their susceptibility to defects since the late 1940s, which Manzon then got to know at the Italian Grand Prix in Turin .

Qualified with difficulty, his car went on strike on the first lap of the race. In hill climbs, however, Manzon held himself harmless in those years when he twice won the CC du Mont Ventoux on a Simca - Gordini 1500. Today the Mont Ventoux is almost only known from the stage arrival of the annual Tour de France . The course was to be Manzon's "home track", where he won every time until 1952.

In the 1950 Formula 1 season , Manzon achieved another success with fourth place at the French Grand Prix . At the race in Périgueux , which was not part of the world championship, he won ahead of his teammates André Simon and Stirling Moss .

Like all smaller teams, Gordini did not win a single point in the 1951 Formula 1 season during the titanic battle between Alfa Romeo and Ferrari .

To compensate for this competitive disadvantage, a new six-cylinder engine was designed. With this engine, Manzon was able to take third place at the Belgian Grand Prix behind Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina , fourth place in France and fifth place during the 1952 Formula 1 season , which was contested according to the Formula 2 regulations enter the Netherlands , so that he finished sixth in the world championship with nine points.

Since there was no regular world championship race in Monte Carlo this year either, Robert Manzon took part in the Monaco Grand Prix with the old Simca-Gordini 1500 . At the 24 Hours of Le Mans , it was almost enough for Jean Behra to take the overall victory, but braking problems forced the team to give up.

After promising beginnings, 1953 was again not a successful year for Gordini. At the Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires , Manzon was suddenly in the lead for a long time despite poor training performance and surprisingly set himself apart from the field. After a tire change, Alberto Ascari was back in the lead ten laps before the end of the race . Manzon caught up and was almost within striking distance when, a few kilometers from the finish, he lost a wheel of his car and had to give up.

In the face of this disappointment, Manzon signed for the 1954 Formula 1 season with the Rosier team , which used a Ferrari 625 . At the French Grand Prix , he took third place behind Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling , both in a Mercedes-Benz .

In the following two years Manzon competed again in all world championship races in a car of his old sponsor Gordini. Since bad luck or defects always prevented respectable results, Manzon declared his retirement from active racing in 1956, but still took part in a few selected sports car races and won the Mille Miglia in the small GT-1100 class on a DB Panhard .

Since the death of the Argentine José Froilán González in 2013, Manzon was the last living driver to take part in the inaugural Formula 1 season in 1950. He died in January 2015 at the age of 97.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1950	Equipe Simca Gordini	Simca-Gordini T15	Simca-Gordini 1.5 L4s	3	-	-	-	-	-	3	14th
1951	Equipe Simca Gordini	Simca-Gordini T15	Gordini 1.5 L4s	4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1952	Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 2.0 L6	7th	-	-	1	-	-	9	6th
1953	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 2.0 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1954	Rosier team	Ferrari 625F1	Ferrari 2.5 L4	5	-	-	1	-	-	4th	15th
1955	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 2.5 L6	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1956	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
		Gordini T32	Gordini 2.5 L8	4th	-	-	-	-	-
total				28	-	-	2	-	-	16

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1950
		DNF				4th	DNF
1951
				DNF		7th	DNF	9
1952
	DNF		3	4th	DNF	DNF	5	14th
1953
	DNF
1954
				3	DNF	9	DNS	DNF	DNF
1955
		DNF			DNF	DNF
1956
	DNA	DNF			9	9	DNF	DNF

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	Simca-Gordini T15S	Maurice Trintignant	failure	Water loss
1951	Equipe Gordini	Simca-Gordini T15S	André Simon	failure	Ignition distributor
1952	Automobiles Gordini	Gordini T15S	Jean Behra	failure	Brake defect
1953	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D.20 Compressor	Louis Chiron	failure	Engine failure
1954	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375 Plus	Louis Rosier	failure	Power transmission
1956	Automobiles Gordini	Gordini T15S	Jean Guichet	failure	no oil pressure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24	Piero Taruffi		Disqualified
1955	Directed by Renault Co.	Renault 1063	Louis Pons	Jean Hébert	failure	Engine failure

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Lancia	Lancia D20 Lancia D24	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					DNF		DNF
1954	Lancia Scuderia Ferrari	Lancia D24 Renault 4CV Ferrari 375 Plus	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
				DNF	DNF	DNF	3
1955	Renault Scuderia Ferrari	Renault 4CV Ferrari 860 Monza	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
				DNF				3
1956	Maserati Scuderia Ferrari	DB HBR Maserati 350S Ferrari 290MM	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
					55	DNF	DNF

Web links

Commons : Robert Manzon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• http://8w.forix.com/manzon.html