Born : October 30 1917
Deceased : February 13 2005
Biography Maurice Trintignant
Maurice Trintignant was born October 30 1917, in a wealthy family of vintners. He was the youngest of five brothers of which three went racing as well. One of his brothers, Louis Trintignant, was a racer for the Bugatti racing team. From his early childhood, Trintignan had a strong passion for cars and motorsport. At the age of 9, he learned to drive a car in a Peugeot. Passionate as he was about motorsport, Trintignan tried to be present at his brothers races as much as possible. Louis Trintignant was killed in a crash during practice in 1933 in Picardy. However, that was no reason for the younger Maurice to stop his passion. In the thirties, Maurice Trintignant became a rather succesful racing driver. The victory in the 1939 Grand Prix des Frontières at Chimay was one of the cherries on the pie. Trintignant’s career however was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II
After the war, Maurice took up his race career. From 1950 to 1964, Trintignant raced F1 without any interruption, competing in 82 GP races. During his F1 career, Maurice Trintignant crossed the finish line twice as the winner. Both victories were at the GP de Monaco, in 1955 and 1958. Furthermore he managed to climb the podium 10 times in his F1 career, and he finished 2 times in the 4th position in the World Championship.
Next to his F1 career, Maurice Trintignant was active in endurance racing too. No surprise the Le Mans 24H was a race on his list too. Trintignant took part no less than 15 times in the Le Mans 24H, approximately in the same period as his F1 career. From 1950 to 1965, you can find Trintignant on the entrylists. His most succesful participation is 1955. He teamed up with Jose Frolian Gonzalez in a Ferrari 375 Plus and won the race . One year earlier, Trintignan finished 1st in class in a Gordini, teaming up with Harry Schell.
In 1960 Maurice Trintignant joined Hans Herrmann in a modified Porsche 718 RS60 to compete in the Le Mans 24H. However, they had no luck and had to abandon the rac with a broken piston.
After he retired from racing, Trintignant ran the Châteauneuf du Pape vineyard made successful by his father. As Trintignan was nickmaned “Le Petoulet”, he named one of his ones after his nickmane. In 1960 he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1960 and he served as Mayor of Vergèze. Maurice Trintignant died in 2005 in Nîmes at the age of 87.
