Similar to the career path of John Surtees, Jean-Pierre Beltoise, who died on January 5th aged 77, was a successful motorcyclist as well as notable figure on four wheels, however Parisian Beltoise combined the two.
A winner of eleven national championships in three years, Beltoise found less prosperity in World Championship level motorcycling. His career was temporarily halted by an accident in a 12-hour endurance car race at Reims, suffering a broken arm that left him with limited mobility in it. In 1966, Beltoise, after winning a Formula 3 race at the same circuit of his accident, moved up to Formula 2. That same year, driving a Formula 2 Matra, Beltoise competed in the German Grand Prix at the infamous and intimidating old Nurburgring circuit, finishing a lap down but winning the F2 class.
He quickly adapted to Formula 1, winning a non-championship race in Argentina in 1967, and from the second race in 1968 onwards, he competed with Formula 1 machinery, earning a creditable second place in the Dutch Grand Prix, finishing ninth in the championship standings. For 1969, Beltoise left the works Matra team to join the Matra outfit led by Ken Tyrrell, alongside Jackie Stewart. Competing in 11 out of the 15 races that season, Beltoise earned three podium finishes and finished fifth in the championship, with team-mate Stewart winning the first of his three World Championships.
The next two seasons proved tougher for Beltoise, scoring four points fewer than in his 1969 campaign over both of them, along with Matra signing Chris Amon as the team-leader for 1971, restricting his ambitions. ’71 also saw the suspension of his international racing license after being involved in an accident which claimed the life of young Italian driver Ignazio Guinti whilst driving in a sports car race for Matra in the 1000 km Buenos Aries race. 1972 proved to be the year in which Beltoise made his name.
Signing for BRM, he was in a class of his own in the pouring rain in the Monaco Grand Prix, winning his only career race by almost 40 seconds from Jacky Ickx’s Ferrari, and it proved to be the final race in the illustrious history of the BRM team. The good results didn’t last, as Beltoise only featured on the rostrum one more time, in South Africa in 1974, his final season.
Though not in a racing capacity, Beltoise was signed by the Ligier team, spending a lot of his time in testing. In 1976, a proposed return to racing with Ligier fell through and the drive went to Jacques Laffite. He made successful transitions in other forms of motorsport, twice winning the French touring car championship for the BMW team, and the French rallycross title whilst driving a Renault Alpine.
Jean Pierre Beltoise passed away at his holiday home in Dakar, after two strokes. He leaves behind a wife, Jacqueline (the sister of the late Tyrrell driver Francois Cevert) and two sons who also followed him into motorsport, Anthony and Julien.
Jean-Pierre Beltoise
April 26 1937 – January 5 2015
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