Louis Alexandre Chiron (3 August 1899 – 22 June 1979) was a Monégasque racing driver who competed in rallies,

sports car races Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

, and Grands Prix. Among the greatest drivers between the two World Wars, his career embraced over thirty years, starting in 1927, and ending at the end of the 1950s. He is still the oldest driver ever to have finished in Formula One, having taken 6th place in the

1955 Monaco Grand Prix The 1955 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 22 May 1955. It was race 2 of 7 in the 1955 World Championship of Drivers and was given an honorary name, ''Grand Prix d'Europe''. The 100-lap race was won by Ferrari driv ...

when he was 55. Three years later he became the oldest to start a Formula One race, at 58. The

Bugatti Chiron The Bugatti Chiron is a mid-engine two-seater sports car designed and developed in Germany by Bugatti Engineering GmbH and manufactured in Molsheim, France, by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. The successor to the B ...

takes its name from him.

Career

Louis Chiron gained interest in cars and racing when he was a teenager. He started driving in Grand Prix races after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in which he was seconded from an artillery regiment as a driver for

Maréchal Pétain Maréchal is the French equivalent of English Marshal. Maréchale is the feminine form mainly used to denote the wife of a marshal in France. It can also refer to: Military ranks * Maréchal général des camps et armées du roi, former French d ...

and Maréchal Foch. He won his first local race, the Grand Prix du Comminges of 1926, at Saint-Gaudens, near

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, and went on to drive a Bugatti and an

Alfa Romeo P3 The Alfa Romeo P3, P3 monoposto or Tipo B was a classic Grand Prix car designed by Vittorio Jano, one of the Alfa Romeo 8C models. The P3 was first genuine single-seat Grand Prix racing car and Alfa Romeo's second monoposto after Tipo A monoposto ...

to victories in the Marseille Grand Prix, the Circuit of Masaryk, and the Spanish Grand Prix. In the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

of 1929, he drove a Delage to 7th place. He won the

1931 Monaco Grand Prix The 1931 Monaco Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race held at the Circuit de Monaco on 19 April 1931. With 16 Bugattis in a field of 23 cars, the event was close to being a single-make race. Among the 16 were four factory-team Type 51s driven ...

—the only Monégasque driver to have won his home grand prix—and in 1933 he partnered with specialist endurance racer

Luigi Chinetti Luigi Chinetti (July 17, 1901 – August 17, 1994) was an Italian-born racecar driver, who emigrated to the United States during World War II. He drove in 12 consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans races, taking three outright wins there and taking two m ...

to win the

Spa 24 hours The 24 Hours of Spa is an endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies. History The Spa 24 Hours was conceived by Jules de Their ...

race. Chiron retired in 1938, and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

curtailed motor racing a year later. When racing resumed after the War, he came out of retirement and drove a

Talbot-Lago Talbot-Lago was a French automobile manufacturer based in Suresnes, Hauts de Seine, outside Paris. The company was owned and managed by Antonio Lago, an Italian engineer that acquired rights to the Talbot brand name after the demise of Darracq ...

to victory in two French Grands Prix. According to a ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' review of fellow driver

Hellé Nice Hellé Nice (born Mariette Hélène Delangle; 15 December 1900 – 1 October 1984) was a French model, dancer, and a motor racing driver who competed in numerous minor Grands Prix and other races between 1928 and 1939, whose racing career was imp ...

's biography, Chiron accused her, at a 1949 party in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

to celebrate the first postwar Monte Carlo Rally, of "collaborating with the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

". The review says biographer Miranda Seymour is "circumspect on Nice's guilt". A review of the same book in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' says Nice was accused of being a "

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

agent"; that Seymour "rebuts" the charge; and that it made Nice "unemployable". Seymour's book says that in a letter to Antony Noghes, the head of the Monte Carlo Rally committee, Hellé Nice "protested her innocence"; that she told him she would appeal to the Monaco court unless Chiron wrote an apology; that no letter from Chiron has been found; and that the court has no record of such a case between 1949 and 1955. Paired with the Swiss driver Ciro Basadonna, Chiron won the 1954 Monte Carlo Rally, and achieved podium finishes in the fifteen Formula One races he entered that year. His last race was in 1955, when he took a

Lancia D50 The Lancia D50 was a Formula One racing car designed by Vittorio Jano for Lancia in 1954. The car's design made use of many innovative features, such as the use of the engine as a stressed chassis member, the off-centre positioning of the engine ...

to sixth place in the Monaco Grand Prix a few weeks before his 56th birthday, becoming the oldest driver to compete in a Formula One race. He is also the oldest driver ever to have entered for a Formula One race, taking part in practice for the

1958 Monaco Grand Prix The 1958 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 18 May 1958 at Monaco. It was race 2 of 11 in the 1958 World Championship of Drivers and race 2 of 10 in the 1958 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The race was th ...

when he was 58.

Racing record

Major career victories

Louis Chiron after winning the 1934 French Grand Prix

Belgian Grand Prix The Belgian Grand Prix (French: ''Grand Prix de Belgique''; Dutch: ''Grote Prijs van België''; German: ''Großer Preis von Belgien'') is a motor racing event which forms part of the Formula One World Championship. The first national race of ...

–

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will b ...

Czechoslovakian Grand Prix The Czechoslovakian Grand Prix (Czech: ''Velká cena Československa''; Slovak: ''Československá Grand Prix'') was a Grand Prix motor racing event held in 1949 at the Masaryk Circuit now referred to as the Brno Circuit. It was held in the town ...

– 1931, 1932, 1933 *

French Grand Prix The French Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de France), formerly known as the Grand Prix de l'ACF (Automobile Club de France), is an auto race held as part of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's annual Formula One World Championsh ...

–

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

, 1937, 1947, 1949 (Reims) *

German Grand Prix The German Grand Prix (german: Großer Preis von Deutschland) was a motor race that took place most years since 1926, with 75 races having been held. The race has been held at only three venues throughout its history; the Nürburgring in Rh ...

–

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix ( it, Gran Premio d'Italia) is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been he ...

–

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

Spanish Grand Prix The Spanish Grand Prix ( es, Gran Premio de España, ca, Gran Premi d'Espanya) is a Formula One motor racing event currently held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The race is one of the oldest in the world still contested, celebrating it ...

–

, 1933 * Monaco Grand Prix –

Moroccan Grand Prix The Moroccan Grand Prix (Arabic: سباق الجائزة الكبرى المغربي) was a Grand Prix first organised in 1925 in Casablanca, Morocco with the official denomination of "Casablanca Grand Prix". History In 1930, the race was held ...

– 1934 *

Grand Prix du Comminges The Grand Prix du Comminges was an automobile race held in France. The race was named after the Comminges, one of the former Provinces of France in ancient Gascony in what is now the Haute-Garonne department of the Midi-Pyrénées region of France ...

– 1947 * Grand Prix de Marseilles – 1933 * Grand Prix de Nice – 1932 *

– 1933 *

Rome Grand Prix The Rome Grand Prix ( it, Gran Premio di Roma), also known as the ''Premio Reale di Roma'' (1925–1932) and ''Gran Premio di Roma'' (1947–1991), was an automobile race held in Rome, Italy from 1925 until 1991. Through the years a number of d ...

– 1928 * Marne Grand Prix – 1928 * Monte Carlo Rally – 1954

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete European Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap.)

Post-WWII Grandes Épreuves results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap.)

Complete Formula One World Championship results

( key)

Legacy

Chiron retired after 35 years in racing but maintained an executive role with the organizers of the Monaco Grand Prix, who honoured him with a statue on the Grand Prix course and renamed the Swimming Pool corner after him. As he had achieved the greatest number of podium finishes in Bugattis, the 1999 Bugatti 18/3 Chiron concept car and the 2016

are named in his honour. Louis Chiron was so popular in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, whose

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

he won three consecutive times, that even after 75 years his name still lives in a popular saying "He drives like Chiron", used mainly when referring to speeding motorists or generally to people who drive very quickly. Chiron was the only Monegasque driver to score points in a Formula One race until

Charles Leclerc Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc (; born 16 October 1997) is a Monégasque racing driver, currently racing in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari. He won the GP3 Series championship in 2016 and the FIA Formula 2 Championship in . Leclerc ...

in the

2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix The 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 29 April 2018 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan. The race was the 4th round of the 2018 Formula One World ...

and the only Monegasque to score a podium until Leclerc in the

2019 Bahrain Grand Prix The 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2019) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 31 March 2019 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. The race was the second roun ...

References

External links

Grand Prix History
Louis Chiron
Louis Chiron at The Crittenden Automotive Library
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chiron, Louis 1899 births 1979 deaths Bugatti people Indianapolis 500 drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Monegasque racing drivers Monegasque Formula One drivers French military personnel of World War I Maserati Formula One drivers Enrico Platé Formula One drivers Ecurie Rosier Formula One drivers Lancia Formula One drivers Scuderia Centro Sud Formula One drivers Monegasque rally drivers Grand Prix drivers World Sportscar Championship drivers European Championship drivers Carrera Panamericana drivers