French blue

Maurice Trintignant seems to struggle in his blue Gordini 16 (picture-above) at the 1953 French Grand Prix held on the fast Reims-Gueux circuit. Having not set a lap in practice, he started from the back, but was forced to retire on lap 14 with a broken transmission. The race was won by Mike Hawthorn (Ferrari), who narrowly beat, one second only, the Maseratis of Juan Manuel Fangio and José Froilán González.

Maurice Trintignant (1917-2005) was a French racing driver. He competed in Formula One for fourteen years, between 1950 and 1964, one of the longest careers in the early and so dangerous years of Formula One.

He won the Monaco Grand Prix twice, in 1955 (Ferrari) and 1958 (Cooper-Climax) and also competed in sports car racing, including winning the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans race with Argentinian José Froilán Gonzalez in a works Ferrari 375 Plus (picture below). He was the uncle of French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant who was a decent racing driver.