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

sports car races Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a par ...

, and Grands Prix. Among the greatest drivers between the two World Wars, his career embraced over thirty years, starting in 1923, and ending at the end of the 1950s. He is still the oldest driver ever to have started a race in the Formula One World Championship, 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 dri ...

when he was 55. Three years later he became the oldest driver to enter 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. It was manufactured in Molsheim, France, by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti Automobiles, Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. T ...

takes its name from him. Until

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, when

Charles Leclerc Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc (; born 16 October 1997) is a Monégasque racing driver who competes in Formula One for Ferrari. Leclerc was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Ferrari, and has won Grands ...

matched his achievement, he was the only Monegasque driver to have won the

Monaco Grand Prix The Monaco Grand Prix () is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigious automobile races in the wo ...

Early life and career

Coming from a family of wine-growers, Louis Chiron's father gained employment as a butler in the

Hôtel de Paris The Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo is a luxury hotel that is located at Place du Casino in Monte Carlo, Monaco. It was opened in 1864 as part of the development of Monaco by the Société des Bains de Mer de Monaco, Société des Bains de Mer. In M ...

at Monaco. As a teenager, Louis was employed as a bellboy at the hotel, and his interest in cars and racing started at that time. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he was seconded from an artillery regiment as a driver for Maréchal Pétain and Maréchal Foch, thanks to his persistence and a driving license financed by a Russian duchess he met at the hotel. Employed as a dancer after World War I, Chiron's racing career started in 1923, after a rich American woman he was friends with bought him a second hand Bugatti Brescia. He started in local hillclimbs, and moved to Grand Prix racing in 1926, after getting a Bugatti T35, and befriending rich industrialist Alfred Hoffman. He won the Grand Prix du Comminges that year, at Saint-Gaudens, near

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

Driving career

Starting in 1928, Chiron became a Bugatti factory driver in parallel to his role in Hoffman's private team. During that period, he became one of the dominant drivers in Grand Prix racing. He took major victories at the 1928 Italian Grand Prix, 1929 German Grand Prix, and 1930 Belgian Grand Prix. In the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

of 1929, he drove a Delage to 7th place. He won the 1931 Monaco Grand Prix and 1931 French Grand Prix in a

Bugatti Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French automotive industry, manufacturer of high performance vehicle, high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German Empire, German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the ...

T51. Chiron's partnership with Hoffman ended in the early 1930s after he was found having an affair with his wife Alice. He was also fired from Bugatti's factory team at the end of 1932. He then founded with his friend

Rudolf Caracciola Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola (30 January 1901 – 28 September 1959) was a German racing driver.Bolsinger and Becker (2002), p. 63 He won the European Championship (auto racing), European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the m ...

a new team, called Scuderia CC. At the team's first race, the

1933 Monaco Grand Prix The 1933 Monaco Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix motor race held at the Circuit de Monaco on 23 April 1933. This was the first Grand Prix where grid positions were decided by practice time rather than the established method o ...

, Caracciola had a season ending accident, and Chiron switched to

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian carmaker known for its sports-oriented vehicles, strong auto racing heritage, and iconic design. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, it is a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe and one of 14 brands of mu ...

cars run by

Scuderia Ferrari Scuderia Ferrari (; ), currently racing under Scuderia Ferrari HP, is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "the Pranc ...

mid-season. He won the 1933 Spa 24 hours race with specialist endurance racer Luigi Chinetti in an

Alfa Romeo 8C The Alfa Romeo 8C was a range of Alfa Romeo road, Auto racing, race and sports cars of the 1930s. The 8C designates 8 cylinders, and originally a straight-8, straight 8-cylinder engine. The Vittorio Jano designed 8C was Alfa Romeo's primary raci ...

2300 Monza. Chiron drove an Alfa Romeo P3 run by Ferrari for the 1934 Grand Prix season. He won the 1934 French Grand Prix at

Montlhéry Montlhéry () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located from Paris. History Montlhéry lay on the strategically important road from Paris to Orléans. U ...

, against several works Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union entries, a race that is often considered one of the greatest victories of his career. The Alfa Romeos struggled against the German cars in

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

, and Chiron only salvaged a podium at the 1935 Belgian Grand Prix and a minor victory at the Lorraine Grand Prix that year. Chiron moved to

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

's factory team for the

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

Grand Prix season. He started the European championship campaign with a pole at his home race of Monaco, but his race ended after an accident on lap one. A more serious accident at the second round, the 1936 German Grand Prix, left him with head and shoulders injuries. He decided to retire from Grand Prix racing after that. He won the 1937 French Grand Prix, a race that was run for sports cars only that year. Chiron retired from racing in 1938, and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' review of fellow driver Hellé Nice's biography, Chiron accused her, at a 1949 party in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

to celebrate the first postwar

Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo) is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. From its inception in 1911 by Albert I, Prince of Monaco, Prince Albert I, the rally ...

, of "collaborating with the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

". The review says biographer

Miranda Seymour Miranda Jane Seymour (born 8 August 1948) is an English literary critic, novelist and biographer of Robert Graves, Mary Shelley and Jean Rhys among others. Seymour is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She elected to resign from the Royal S ...

is "circumspect on Nice's guilt". A review of the same book in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' says Nice was accused of being a "

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

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. Chiron took part in the first ever Formula One World Championship season in

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

, as a factory Maserati driver. At his home Grand Prix of Monaco he finished in third, at age 50, the only points scoring finish of his career. Paired with the Swiss driver Ciro Basadonna, Chiron won the 1954

. His last race was in 1955, when he took a Lancia D50 to sixth place in the

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 Circuit de Monaco, 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 ...

when he was 58.

Later life and 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 Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, whose Grand Prix 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

did so at the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the only one to achieve a podium until Leclerc at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix, and the only Monegasque to win the

until Leclerc’s victory in 2024 Monaco Grand Prix.

Motorsports career results

Major career victories

Louis Chiron after winning the 1934 French Grand Prix

* Belgian Grand Prix –

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 be on J ...

* Czechoslovakian Grand Prix – 1931,

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

1933 Events January * January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...

* French Grand Prix –

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 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country i ...

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

German Grand Prix The German Grand Prix () 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 Rhineland-Palatinate, Hockenheimring in B ...

– 1929 *

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix () is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix motor racing, 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 held since 1921 ...

–

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

* Spanish Grand Prix –

, 1929,

–

* Moroccan Grand Prix– 1934 * Grand Prix du Comminges – 1947 * Grand Prix de Marseilles – 1933 *

Grand Prix de Nice Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), se ...

–

* Spa 24 hours –

* Rome Grand Prix – 1928 * Marne Grand Prix – 1928 *

– 1954

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)

Indianapolis 500 results

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

Grand Prix History
, Louis Chiron
Louis Chiron at The Crittenden Automotive Library
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chiron, Louis 1899 births 1979 deaths 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers AAA Championship Car drivers Bugatti people Indianapolis 500 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 People from Monte Carlo