Prophet in his own country

Racing driver, journalist and excellent technician, Paul Frère raced regularly with success in the 50s, in sports car racing but also in Formula One.

The Scuderia Ferrari had entered a 555 Supersqualo for him at the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix where he finished eighth, but this was a ‘one shot’. This happened again the next year at Spa when he was proposed to drive Luigi Musso’s car, when the Italian was injured at the Nürburgring just one week earlier.

Paul was present at Francorchamps as a journalist and was not very keen to drive a Formula One car without any mileage in such a car for more than a year. He was finally convinced to drive a few laps during practice “to write an article”, but things went so well that he decided to participate at the Grand Prix and finished an excellent second behind the identical Ferrari D50 of his team mate Peter Collins!

From the press room to the podium, it was a small step…