Grand Prix de Paris

Montlhéry, 24 Apr 1949

All cars are 1.5-litre s/c F1 or 4.5-litre F1^† unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Talbot T26C [110 008] (Philippe Étancelin): Talbot-Lago T26C chassis '110 008' was Philippe Etancelin's car in 1948 and then passed to Jean Achard November 1950. Achard moved to Brazil, taking the car, and sold it there to Pinheiro Pires who raced it in Brazil from 1951 to 1954. Remains to UK via Colin Crabbe in the 1980s and then via other UK owners to Tony Bianchi c1999. Has been raced in historics up to 2005.
2. Talbot T26C [110 006] (Georges Grignard, Yves Giraud-Cabantous): Talbot-Lago T26C chassis '110 006' was raced by Georges Grignard in 1948, by Giraud-Cabantous in 1949, Pozzi and Levegh in 1950 and by Jean Blanc in one 1951 hillclimb. Then to Ecurie Belgique in 1951 and retained to 1952. Reappeared in US ownership in 1964 and then via two further US owners to Dean Butler in 1998. Retained 2003. This car was on display at the 2006 Brussels Retro Festival honouring Ecurie Francorchamps.
3. Talbot T26C [110 011] (Johnny Claes): Talbot-Lago T26C chassis '110 011' was Johnny Claes car in 1948-50 and then sold to Duncan Hamilton (and Fotheringham-Parker) and raced 1951-53. Stored in France until 1955 when Hamilton sold it to Allan Freeman in New Zealand who raced it through to 1961. It was bought by Joe Hepworth in 1963 and returned to England; then via other UK and French owners until sold to Bernie Ecclestone 1996. Retained 2002.
4. Delage D6-3LS [880005] (Marc Versini): Appeared as an Ecurie Gersac entry for Varet at Montlhéry June 1947. Then to Marc Versini, mainly for sportscar races, 1948-51, but also in GP du Salon 1948 and 1949, GP de Paris 1949 and 1950. This car, which wore registration 9779-RP2, was later dismantled after Versini had legal problems.
5. Talbot T26C [110 005] (Pierre Bouillin ("Levegh")): Talbot-Lago T26C chassis '110 005' was raced by 'Levegh' from 1948 to 1951 and by Grignard once in 1951. Retained by the works until it was sold to Otto Zipper in the US in 1957. Then to the Briggs Cunningham museum via two other US owners to Tony Wang 1988.
6. Talbot T26C [110 002] (Guy Mairesse): Talbot-Lago T26C chassis '110 002' was raced by 'Raph' and Eugene Chaboud in 1948 and Paul Vallee and Guy Mairesse in 1950. Owned by Mairesse 1950-51; also raced by Giraud-Cabantous 1950; by Jean Blanc and Levegh 1952; and by Etancelin in 1953. In late 1953, Vallee sold the car to Doug Whiteford in Australia to replace his existing chassis '110 007'. Whiteford was surprised to discover that he'd bought an earlier model and it was 1955 before the car raced in Australia. It was sold to Ralph Snodgrass in 1956 but crashed badly at Mt Druitt in 1957. Snodgrass retained the car until 1980 when it was sold to Reg Hunt who restored it for historic events. Retained by Hunt until sold to Ron Towney in 2006.
7. Talbot T26C [110 001] (Louis Rosier): Talbot-Lago T26C chassis '110 001' was raced by Louis Rosier from 1948 to 1950 and then under the Ecurie Rosier banner by Pozzi in 1950; by Henri Louveau and Louis Chiron in 1951; and by Giraud-Cabantous, Chaboud and Mairesse in 1952. It was acquired by the Musée Henri Malatre at Rochetaillé, France, in 1956 and was still on display in 1990.
8. Maserati 4CL [1566] (Jean Judet): Delivered 18 Apr 1939 for Giovanni Rocco. Passed during the war via Testi to Robert Mazaud, who raced it during 1946 before being killed in it at Nantes. Then via Marcel Balsa (who did not race it) to Jean Judet who appeared in French races between 1946 and 1950. Via Italian and German owners to the late Rodney Smith 2004. Retained by Smith's heirs 2007.
9. Delage D6-3LS [880004] (Henri Louveau): Raced by Louveau for Ecurie Gersac at Perpignan, Jersey, Marseilles and Nimes in 1947, and then on his own account in the same year's Belgian, Swiss, Comminges (with Maurice Varet) and Italian GPs. Also driven for Louveau that year by Trintignant in the Marne GP, Varet at Strasbourg and Alexandre Constantin in the Coupe du Salon. Then for Louveau in 1948 Pau, Nations and Chimay GPs, and sportscar races 1948-50. Car was with Jacques Nollé 1953, rebodied as coupé 1955, various other owners UK and France, and with Peter Mullin (USA) this century. Raced at 2007 Monterey by Matt Cobb.
10. Talbot T26C [110 007] (Louis Chiron): Talbot-Lago T26C chassis '110 007' was Paul Vallee's Ecurie France car driven by Chiron 1948-49 and Apezteguia in 1950. To Tom Hawkes in Australia in 1951. From him it passed to Doug Whiteford, Rex Taylor and then a string of Australian, UK (including a loan period in the Donington Collection), Swiss, US and French owners to Bernie Ecclestone's collection in 1997. Retained 2002.

Formula 1 events 1948-1953

The results published here were compiled by David McKinney and Adam Ferrington from a range of sources including Autocourse, Motor Sport and Autosport, as well as the F1 Register's A Record of Grand Prix and Voiturette Racing Volume 5 covering 1950 and 1951. Individual car identities were then meticulously checked against their enormous libraries of books and photographs, notably Talbot-Lago de Course by Pierre Abeillon, Les Gordini by Robert Jarraud, Gordini – Un Sorcier, Une Equipe by Christian Huet and The History of English Racing Automobiles by David Weguelin.

David has also contributed extensively from his notes on car identities compiled over 40 years of research, Michael Müller has contributed immaculately researched histories of all the 1948-1950 Ferrari 125s, and Doug Nye, both through his books and his personal assistance on HWM, has also been of great help.

Please note that since David's sad death in 2014, Adam and Allen have agreed that these pages will remain unaltered from now on, as a lasting testimony to David's expertise.