                     |
  Jean-Pierre Wimille was born in Paris, in 1908. His father was motoring
correspondent for the Petit Parisien newspaper. He made his Grand Prix debut in
1930, at the French Grand Prix in Pau but mechanical trouble forced him to retire.  His appetite now wetted he resolved to
continue racing. Except for 2 victories in 1932, Oran and Lorraine, and the GP of
Algeria in 1934 he was handicapped by the growing lack of a competitive Bugatti Grand Prix
car. With the domination of the German teams in the latter half of the pre-war decade he
concentrated on sports cars where he had more success. Winning the French Grand Prix of
1936 which was limited to sports cars and then the 24 Hours of LeMans twice in 1937 and
39. Wimille still longed to race a competitive car in a real Grand Prix. That opportunity
almost came when he was reputedly offered a drive for Mercedes but decided to turn it down
for political reasons. During this time Wimille's driving was marked with definite
wildness quite different from his post-war smoothness.
Desperate to make up for the lost years he entered every event possible. Practicing for a minor event in South America he was either blinded by the sun or swerved to avoid spectators which in either case caused him to crash fatally, depriving the world of its first true World Champion when the title was instituted in 1950. |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
When
war came he joined the French Resistance, at one point just escaping capture by the
Gestapo by jumping from a window and hiding in a nearby stream. After the war a more
mature Wimille re-started his career as soon as possible. That opportunity came at a
series of races held at the Bois de Boulogne, Paris on 9 September 1945. One of the races,
the Coupe des Prisonniers saw a late entrant in the form of Jean-Pierre Wimille and a
unique 4.7-litre Bugatti sprint car. Arriving too late for practice he was forced to start
from the rear of the grid. 
Unfortunately for the others it wasn't
far enough back as he soon charged through the field to take the victory, racing had
returned to Europe. His driving, once hot headed and prone to accident was now recognized
as second to none. He became a hero to countless up and coming drivers including no less
than Fangio himself. 
