Guy Ligier

Nationality:	French	Races Entered:	13
Date of Birth:	12 July, 1930	DNQ/DNPQ:	-
Cars:	Cooper (1966-67) Brabham (1967)	Best Result:	6th, Germany, 1967

BIOGRAPHY

Before Formula One

Just as Formula One is cyclical when it comes to the success of individual teams, so it is cyclical in terms of the success of individual nations. During the time of writing, at the beginning of the 2005 season, many journalists were bemoaning the lack of a French driver on the grid for the 2005 season. Renault aside, it has been a slow decline for French participation in F1, although in hindsight many might pinpoint the death of the Prost team at the end of 2001 as the beginning of the blue rot. But of course Prost was only the latter-day name for the team more affectionately known as 'les bleus'. From 1976 to 1996 the team had proudly strode the circuits as Ligier, and it stood for all things French ? the French 'national' team with French drivers, French management, French (government) sponsors, French mechanics, French engines (sometimes), French unpredictability, and, on occasions, even French volatility. And the man at the centre of it all for most of that time? The fiercely patriotic Guy Ligier.

What's less well-known is that the man Ligier had been a Grand Prix driver in his own right, and before motorsport he had already achieved fame and fortune elsewhere. His father was a cattle farmer near Vichy who passed away when Guy was only 7, but that was only the start of a sequence of events that made him one of the toughest characters in all sports. An apprentice butcher by age 13, Ligier spent his teenage years with a group of mates indulging in vigorous sports as a tonic for the horrors of wartime. After all, as Guy said himself, "Taking part in competitive sports makes a man of you. You learn to be frank, sincere and honest." In summer, that meant rowing, and as early as 1947 he was a member of the French coxed pairs champions, sharing his boat with Planche and Chasselut. In the winter months it was rugby union, and not surprisingly for a man with the physique to become a rowing star, he played as a front row forward (mostly hooker) for both the Vichy club and for the military team.

He eventually reached B-international level by 1952, when he was selected to play for France B. In the years 1952 to 1954, France B played ten matches against France A, in periodic selection trials for the eventual French XV. But as fate would have it, Ligier often found himself man-marked by the aggressive Pierre Pascalin, whose rough-and-tumble play kept Guy out of the French international side, and eventually had him (Pascalin) banned from the sport altogether by the French rugby federation! In one of those seemingly unjust moments though, even when Pascallin had left the scene, Ligier was overlooked. It was enough to drive him out of rugby altogether, and into another pursuit - motorcycle racing. He got hold of a 500cc Norton, and raced it throughout the continent against the likes of John Surtees, proving to himself along the way that he had the innate speed and courage to be competitive in the world of motor sports. He even won the France International in 1959 and 1960.

But towards the late 1950s Guy was also starting to make a name for himself as a shrewd businessman. One of his mates during the war was a chap by the name of Pierre Coulon, who also rowed and played rugby. More importantly, he had fought for the Résistance in Vichy during the war, and in 1947 he had become mayor of Vichy as a Gaullist. His political career then took off, and he went on to become a député, or a member of the French parliament. Enter Ligier in 1957, trying to set up a construction business. With Coulon as his contact, he began getting jobs with a digger and a bulldozer, preparing trenches for subcontractors to lay pipes, and then filling them in again for others to lay roads on top! Thus began an indelible link between Guy and French politics. As highways sprang up throughout France, so Ligier's business grew into the second-largest motorway builder in the country, and Guy earned more than enough money to finance his racing hobby.

At the start of the 1960s though, Ligier turned his attention away from motorcycling and looked to compete on four wheels instead. He was encouraged by the legendary journalist Jabby Crombac to purchase a Formula Junior Elva DKW. "I think he must have been in cahoots with the bloody Englishman who stitched me up with the deal," Guy says. "I never managed to do more than three consecutive laps in that thing." Ligier was so disheartened by the experience, he retreated to hillclimbs for a while. But it was also in this period that he met one Jo Schlesser. They struck a chord with each other and fast became soul mates of sorts, moving into business partnership together. Along with José Behra, younger brother of ex-F1 star Jean Behra, they set up a Ford dealership close to the Eiffel Tower. Together with his booming construction business, Ligier easily had the money to take a second plunge into circuit road racing, although he was already approaching his mid-30s.

At that age, Guy could hope to become no more than a competitive amateur, and that he turned out to be. After racing a Porsche Carrera in 1963, he moved into sports car competition in 1964. He firstly raced in four world championship rounds in three different Porsche 904 chassis, including a GT2 class victory at the Le Mans 24hrs alongside Robert Buchet. He also drove an Ecurie Francorchamps Ferrari 250LM with Annie Soisbault at the Paris 1000km championship round at Montlhery. Still with a roof, he also won the Rallye de La Baule in a Porsche, but Ligier also returned to single-seaters, finishing 5th in a Brabham Cosworth in a Formula Junior event at Enna, in his first proper open-wheeler outing after the Elva debacle. He and Schlesser also entered several F2 events under the 'Ford France' banner, Jo driving a Brabham BT10, and Guy saddled with an older BT6. Highlights for Ligier included 4th in his heat at Enna and 5th in the final, and 6th at Montlhery in the Trophées de France series.

Ligier and Schlesser continued to race the two different Ford France Brabhams in 1965, but for Guy there was a distinct lack of success in the four Trophées de France events he entered, as well as in three non-championship races at Silverstone, Snetterton and Syracuse, mechanical retirements usually the order of the day. He had further rallying success though, claiming a class victory in the Rallye des Routes du Nord in a Shelby Mustang 350 GT which he shared with Delalande. But it was in sports car racing that Ligier really began to make a name for himself. In Ford GT40s he drove alongside the veteran Maurice Trintignant at Le Mans and the Nurburgring, before taking one of these classic machines to solo victories in minor races at Magny Cours, Mont-Dore, and Albi, and even using it in an Ollon-Villars hillclimb! Plus he also returned to the Ecurie Francorchamps fold in the Reims 12 hour race to drive a Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta with Jerry Grant, but the car retired with an engine failure.

By 1966 Ligier was in F1 (see below), which limited his F2 appearances to just a single outing in the Trophées round at Pau, where he came 8th in a Brabham BT10. But the less-demanding schedules back then meant that Guy could get his dose of sports cars, finishing 6th at Monza in a GT40 with Henri Greder, before a 12th in the Targa Florio and 5th at the Nurburgring with Schlesser. He also won a minor event at Mont Ventoux, but retired at Le Mans with Bob Grossman when the ignition failed 205 laps in. However, 1967 would prove to be Ligier's finest year in sports cars. Teaming up with Schlesser gave him confidence, and despite the odd mechanical failure and a few accidents, for example at Le Mans at the halfway stage, the pair claimed 6th at Monza, 4th at Mugello, 4th at Montlhery in a non-championship event, and a fine win in the Reims 12 hour race. As Guy himself later said: "We made a fantastic team together. Anyone who wanted to beat us would have had to work pretty hard."

Formula One

1966 was a year of change in Formula 1. New 3-litre engines were permitted, and would remain the norm in the sport until the early-to-mid 1980s when turbos came, saw and conquered. However, the transition to the more powerful motors caught most of the teams unprepared. BRM, for instance, were late in introducing their unsuccessful H16 engine and had to start the season in an uprated 1965 car. Lotus also started with the previous year's Climax engine, before an ill-conceived deal to use the BRM powerplant. Only three makes got their 3-litre act together in time: Ferrari, Brabham with their Aussie Repco engine, and Cooper. Now Cooper would have been in trouble had they stuck with their long-time engine supplier Climax, as the latter were not interested in creating a 3-litre engine. However, in 1965 Cooper had also been bought by the Chipstead Group, which also happened to import Maseratis into Britain. Put two and two together, and here was Cooper's potential way out.

Maserati's pedigree in Grand Prix racing was undoubted after all, but the Anglo-Italian marriage was not as easy as it seemed. Maserati was not going to create a brand new engine; instead, they would just dig out an old 2.5-litre V12 design, used only once for a front-engined car back in 1957 (some nine years previously!), upgrade it to 3-litre form, add fuel injection and transistor ignition, and put it in the back of the new Cooper T81, which was also the British company's first monocoque design. For all the question marks this arrangement raised, at least Cooper was set for the new 3-litre formula. Not only that, but aside from the two works cars for Jochen Rindt and Richie Ginther, Cooper would supply customer T81s to Rob Walker (who ran Jo Siffert in his car), Jo Bonnier, and Ligier. Guy was all set to make his Grand Prix debut in 1966, and, with one of the few new spec cars around, he was either going to be at an advantage, or suffer from the teething problems of the new package.

For example, at the non-championship Syracuse GP before the World Championship started, Ligier qualified an excellent 5th, but mechanical problems that left him 17 laps behind and not classified at the end were a sign of things to come. Ligier did not even start the International Trophy race at Silverstone after qualifying 12th. By the time the first championship round at Monaco took place, it was already clear that the T81 suffered not only reliability issues, but the chassis was twisting, and was also 100kg overweight! There was also nothing to be gained from a power advantage at Monaco, plus the sheer bulk of the car caused constant oversteer. Jim Clark in the old Lotus took pole, with Ligier some 5.3 seconds behind in 15th place. But despite a long pit stop during the race to change a driveshaft joint, Guy soldiered on as the field dropped out, completing 75 of the 100 laps to be 5th on the road. Except that he had not completed the 90% distance to be classified, and in fact had not even passed Ginther's retired works Cooper!

Thus Ligier and his T81, resplendent in French sky blue, missed out on points in their World Championship debut. Non-classifications were becoming something of a recurring theme, and the trend would continue at Spa for the Belgian GP. There Ligier qualified 12th, but come race day rain was falling heavily. On the first lap the field drove into a storm, and eight cars speared off, including Jackie Stewart, who suffered a broken shoulder, a cracked rib and internal bruising in the worst accident of his career. Ligier survived the carnage, and now was one of only seven cars left, and again points were in the offing. But once again this was not the time for a powerful, oversteering, overweight car; although there were no more retirements after that and Guy managed to finish 6th on the road, his 24 laps out of 28 were once again not sufficient for him to be classified. Thus in his first two championship races he could arguably have already scored enough points to keep him off this web-site!

The hex carried over to the French GP too, where Ligier started a career-best 11th, but yet again his 42 laps completed out of 48 was short of the 90% mark. So, counting the Syracuse race, Guy had greeted the chequered flag in each of his first four F1 races, but had not been classified as a finisher in any of them. Clearly, it was taking the French amateur time to find his feet in the top flight, and he was having to do so in the difficult Cooper Maserati, whatever power advantages it may or may not have had. The British GP at Brands Hatch saw Ligier record his worst F1 grid position to date - 17th - but conversely he also made it onto the finishers list for the first time in 10th. It was finally some reward for Guy and his single mechanic, Roger Dubout. Ligier maintained his consistency at Zandvoort, where he started 16th and finished 9th. But then came the daunting Nurburgring for the German GP, and on Friday practice he lost control at a fast right-hander, and his T81 became airborne.

It was a gruesome accident. The car hit pine trees some 20 feet in the air. Ligier suffered 47 fractures, breaking his leg and shattering his knee-cap in particular. At one stage doctors considered amputating for fear of a gangrene infection, but ever the fighter, ever the patriot, Ligier resolved that if he was to lose his leg, he would return first to France to have the operation. With some help from Jabby Crombac, making amends for the Elva Formula Junior debacle, Guy was transferred back across the border as he wished. Determined to get back behind the wheel, he was back just after the start of the 1967 season which was a remarkable effort, and as his sports car results showed, he has lost none of his racing skill. He had lost his car of course, his original Cooper being written off, but quickly he acquired another of the T81 Maseratis, this one having only been raced three times during 1966. He debuted his new steed at the Race of Champions, placing 17th in the first heat, retiring from the second, and not starting the final.

Things were little better at the International Trophy, where Ligier started 12th and last but retired in the race. His first championship outing of 1967 came at the Belgian GP, where he came home 10th, but after a debacle at the following French GP at the Le Mans Bugatti track, where Guy was once again not classified after a lengthy pit stop left him 12 laps adrift at the end, he decided to abandon the Cooper Maserati package and look for another customer car, money being no object given his thriving business interests. What he found for sale was none other than the car that had already won the Monaco GP that year and which had come 3rd in its last outing in Holland, a Brabham BT20 complete with Repco V8 engine which had been driven by Denny Hulme. Although there was some controversy over how Ligier was getting the gutsy Repco ahead of a more promising privateer in a Brabham, Bob Anderson, Guy wasted no time in getting his new car into the field for the next race, the British GP.

To show how quickly the deal had been done, Ligier raced the car at Silverstone still with its old Australian Brabham green and gold colours, the only time he competed in F1 without his national hues. As it turned out though, regardless of its credentials the car was only as good as the driver, and in all honesty Guy was finding it hard to get on the pace. He qualified last in 21st spot, and was also the last man left in the field at the end of the race, down in 10th. Then came the Nurburgring once again, and this time Ligier extracted sweet revenge on the Nordschleife by coming home 6th, and finally scoring a World Championship point. But in fairness Guy had been fortuitous. He had been over 70 seconds slower than Jim Clark in qualifying, and in a field that also included F2 cars that were obviously not eligible for points, Ligier had struggled and in fact had been beaten by two of the F2 cars; it was just that he was the sixth F1 car across the line.

After sitting out the Canadian GP, the remaining three races in the 1967 season, and in Ligier's F1 career, proved unremarkable. He was the slowest or second-slowest qualifier in all three of them, and he had suffered engine failures at both Monza and Watkins Glen, although in that USA GP he was actually up to 8th when the Repco expired and may have been in line to score more points. He then rounded off the year with an 11th place in Mexico City. His sole point in Germany left the former rugby player and successful businessman in equal 19th place in the 1967 World Championship, alongside both Ludovico Scarfiotti and Jacky Ickx. True, the Cooper Maserati had not been the easiest machine with which to become accustomed to 3-litre F1, but in the Brabham Repco that had proven podium quality, where Guy stood in the scheme of things had become clear. As excellent an amateur sports car driver as he may have been, F1 may just have been a bridge too far.

After Formula One

Perhaps Ligier himself realised that as well, for in 1968 he decided to step back into F2 in partnership with his good friend Schlesser. They named their team Ecurie Intersport, although by one account it was initially called Ecurie Inter Course until someone told them the unfortunate connotations of that name! Driving a pair of McLaren M4As with Cosworth engines, Guy strung together several top 10 finishes in both non-championship and points-scoring events, culminating in a fine 5th in the non-title race at Pau. However, things then took a turn for the worse, and tragically so. Guy himself crashed at Jarama, even copped a DNQ at the Monza Lotteria. But then Schlesser finally got his big break when he was invited to drive the air-cooled Honda at the French GP at Rouen. Ligier's experience would have been invaluable to calm his friend's nerves, but he was too tired to attend. As fate had it, in the early laps the Honda smashed into an earth bank and burst into flames. Schlesser was killed instantly.

This was a devastating blow for Ligier, only a year after his other great friend, Pierre Coulon, had also passed away. Himself approaching his 40s, Guy immediately walked away from motorsport, but it was only a brief hiatus. By the end of the year, and for some of 1969, he made a low-key return in a Ford Escort twin cam touring car. But in fact Ligier was gearing up for a new phase in his career, as a tribute to his late friend - to not only be a team owner, but a manufacturer in his own right. "We had so many plans," Ligier said of himself and Schlesser. "To carry on racing for as long as possible, of course, and then to start up a business. The idea of a Ligier team first came up in these discussions with Jo, when we were talking about the future." By the middle of 1969 Guy had hired a young Michel Tetu as a designer, and soon the Ferrari-esque JS1 sports car - the designation clearly in Schlesser's memory, had become a reality, powered by a Ford engine.

Although the JS1 was also for sale to the public, Ligier gave the car its competition debut at the Critérium des Cevennes rally. Guy and his co-driver Michele Dubosc retired from the event, but there was more to come in 1970. In local sports car races, amongst other results Ligier took the JS1 to victories at Albi and Montlhery as well as a 3rd at Magny Cours, although a hub-shaft failure put he and Jean-Claude Andruet out at the European Sports Car Championship round at Paul Ricard. There was more disappointment at Le Mans where Ligier and Andruet retired after only 65 laps with a distributor failure, but all in all there were promising signs for the Ligier make. For 1971 Tetu created the open-top, 2990cc JS3 sports car, which featured an aluminium honeycomb chassis that was ahead of its time. Ligier won a 3-hour event at Le Mans in the car, which got him into the 24-hour event, plus he also won another event at Montlhery.

Teamed with an inexperienced Patrick Depailler at Le Mans, the stylish but cumbersome JS3 suffered a transmission failure which necessitated a lengthy pit stop to change the entire gearbox. By the end of the race Guy and Patrick had only completed 270 laps to Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep's 397, and yet again Ligier was not classified as a finisher. But despite the impact which the JS3 had made, this detour into sports prototypes was short-lived. For 1972 Ligier commissioned from Tetu another road-going sports car, the JS2, which was not dissimilar to the JS1. However, he also linked up with Citroën, then the owner of Maserati, and replaced the Cosworth engines with the Italian V6s, ironic given that over half his F1 career as a driver was with Maserati motors. Guy also wound down his own driving career, competing only at Le Mans, but he and team-mate Jean-François Piot's race only lasted 7 laps before it ended with valve failure.

1973 would prove to be Guy's final year behind the wheel, and by this stage he was working with some of the most talented drivers France was producing. He teamed up initially with Jean-Pierre Jarier, but results were still proving elusive. The pair retired at Dijon and did not start at Monza, and then at Spa Ligier himself failed to qualify. He then co-drove with Jacques Laffite at Le Mans, but their car was disqualified after a mere 24 laps for an oil supply infringement. It would be Guy's last race as a driver. Perhaps it was a good thing that Ligier stopped driving when he did to concentrate on running his team, for 1974 would turn out to be very taxing indeed. Firstly, the French government decided to privatise highway construction in France, and Ligier's company of over 1,100 employees had lost its major client almost overnight. Within months the business was dead, and with it Guy's major source of funding for his racing activities. But another source of government backing was just around the corner.

In 1974 the Matra company had decided to pull out of racing, taking with them the sponsorship of SEITA, the French government cigarette company, headlined by the Gitanes brand. Matra sold their operations with Ligier, including top designer Gerard Ducarouge. But Ligier also convinced SEITA to transfer the Gitanes sponsorship to his team, and so the future of the outfit was assured. And just as well, for the JS2s were gradually becoming competitive, culminating in a 1-2 result at the Tour de France event. But it was that very result which indirectly pushed Ligier away from sports cars. Porsche and Lancia were so alarmed by the JS2's improvement, they lobbied for and got a 500 homologation rule for sports car racing, i.e. a car must sell 500 in road going form before it is allowed to race. Now, Ligier were never going to sell 500 JS2s. So 1975 proved to be Ligier's last year in sports cars, the JS2s powered once again by Cosworth engines, with one of the cars coming home 2nd at the Le Mans 24hrs.

By this stage though, Guy had Ducarouge working on an F1 design incorporating Matra's V12 sportscar engine, and for the 1976 season the Ligier team was making the switch. Guy was making his return to F1, this time as a team boss. But clearly Ligier was no ordinary team. With a French engine, and the French government tobacco sponsorship, this was like a French national team assault on Grand Prix racing. All it needed was a French driver, and there was no end of controversy over Ligier's final choice. It was understood that Jean-Pierre Beltoise was a shoe-in for the seat, but Ligier was concerned that the veteran had spent a year away from F1. Meanwhile, Guy was keen on Laffite, who had just won the European F2 championship and had already impressed in his first few F1 outings. Ligier set up some (rigged?) head-to-head tests at Paul Ricard, but really his mind had already been made up; he was going to go with Laffite. In the long run, it was the right decision, but at the time it seemed rather unfair on Beltoise.

Ligier's first F1 car was the stunning JS5, dubbed the 'teapot' for its gigantic airbox. Its performance matched its looks too, Laffite claiming the team's first F1 pole in Italy. Race success came shortly after, when in 1977 Laffite won the Swedish GP in the JS7, the first time a French driver in a French car with a French engine had won a Grand Prix, no doubt to Guy's delight. However, 1978 proved quite a lot tougher as the Matra V12 engine in the JS9 became outdated, and for 1979 the team switched to Cosworths. For a while at the start of 1979 it worked a treat, as Ligier simultaneously expanded to a two-car team. For a while the JS11 set the standard as far as ground effects were concerned, and Laffite won the first two races of the year, with team-mate Depailler making it a 1-2 in Brazil. Depailler also won in Spain, but then got injured in a hang-gliding accident, whilst Ferrari and Williams also caught up and surpassed the French machines. Nevertheless, it had been the year that established the team as front-runners.

As an F1 team boss Guy was going places he never knew as a driver. 1980 proved a near copy of 1979, with Laffite and new stablemate Didier Pironi taking a win each in the JS11/15, and Ligier went one better than it had the previous year by coming 2nd in the constructors' championship. But just when the team looked to be going from strength to strength, Ligier's patriotism and character got the better of him, and from then on his team hardly scaled such heights again. For a start, Ligier entered into a partnership with the famous Talbot company, now owned by Peugeot, hoping to use that connection to revive the Talbot name. However, part of the deal meant reverting to the geriatric Matra V12 engines. Laffite still won twice in 1981 in the JS17 and was a championship outsider, but trouble was brewing elsewhere. As determined as Guy was, he could also be a volatile personality, and after a dispute in July Ducarouge resigned from his post.

The other designer in the team, Michel Beaujon, was now left to his own devices, and he departed from Ducarouge's philosophy behind the JS11, JS11/15 and JS17, in order to create the radical JS19 for Laffite and Eddie Cheever, only Ligier's second non-French driver. The JS19 featured a short nosecone and very forward cockpit, with a never-ending engine bay and side pods that extended beyond the rear wheels to maximise the ground effect. Unfortunately, this design was deemed illegal by officialdom. A revised, legal version proved much less effective, and Matra's promised V6 turbo never materialised. Instead, on the one afternoon at Monza, Guy was given the double-blow that not only was Peugeot-Talbot pulling out at the end of 1982, but Laffite was also on his way to Williams. As a result, 1983 was one of the lowest points in the history of Ligier's team, with the near side pod-less JS21 going pointless in the hands of Jean-Pierre Jarier and Raul Boesel, and with Gitanes decreasing their sponsorship.

But it was at this point that Ligier pulled some more political strings to get his team back off the ropes. Guy had been friends with the then-President of France, François Mitterrand, for over 20 years. With the outfit struggling for funds, political pressure saw Elf and Loto, the French national lottery, come on board as sponsors and Renault ink a deal to supply their turbo engines. However, new drivers Andrea de Cesaris and François Hesnault were not finding their on-track fortunes improving in the JS23. An interesting aside in 1984 was that Ligier had also tried to create an Indycar in a deal with former MGM music executive and promoter Mike Curb, for Kevin Cogan to drive what was effectively a re-worked F1 car. But after Cogan had already flunked at Long Beach and Mike Chandler had DNQed the car at Phoenix, just what a total flop the car was became obvious at Indianapolis, where it could not break the 184mph mark whereas the fastest runners were already circulating at well over 200mph!

Laffite and Tetu returned to the team in 1985, and the JS25 proved rather more competitive, Guy's men scoring a 2-3 in Australia with Laffite and Philippe Streiff, brought in late in the season to replace de Cesaris who was proving too expensive with his litany of accidents, including his famous multiple-roll in Austria. Tetu's low-line JS27 was even better in the hands of Laffite and Arnoux, nibbling at the front-runners until Jacques' leg-breaking accident at Brands Hatch destroyed the team's momentum. Still, Ligier finished 5th in the constructors' title in 1986, but it was a false dawn. Renault withdrew as an engine supplier, and Guy did a deal to run the unimpressive Alfa Romeo turbo. But after scathing public attacks about the engine by Arnoux - who like Guy had a propensity to speak his mind, Alfa pulled out, leaving René and his new team-mate Piercarlo Ghinzani to drive unhappy JS29s modified in a hurry by Tetu to accommodate the Megatron turbo instead.

With the 3.5-litre non-turbo era to arrive in 1989, Ligier turned early to Judd engines for 1988, but the JS31 was a disaster, arguably the worst car the team ever produced. Designed by Tetu to be compact, the unusual component layout to maximise weight distribution actually caused the car to be overweight! Arnoux and Stefan Johansson failed to score a point. With that, Tetu was shown the door, and Richard Divila brought in as chief designer for 1989. The resultant JS33, and the JS33B used in 1990, both of which were coupled to customer Cosworths, were simple but slow. Though Arnoux and Olivier Grouillard scored a few points in 1989, by the end of 1990 Nicola Larini and Philippe Alliot were almost condemned to pre-qualifying. Guy's glory days a team boss were a decade ago, and he was getting frustrated, lurching from throwing one of his famous volatile wobblies to withdrawing for hours in silence to his team's motorhome.

But the political ties came to Ligier's aid again, and once again it brought the soon-to-be-dominant Renault V10 to the team. Except that was not going to be until 1992, and in the meantime Thierry Boutsen and Erik Comas had to endure a horrible 1991 in the Lamborghini-powered JS35. The Renaults came with the JS37, and to top off the Frenchness Ligier tried to entice Alain Prost to drive. The Professor tested the car at Paul Ricard, but would not join unless he Guy sold him a share of the team. Ligier refused, Prost walked away, and Prost's was probably the wiser decision, after the JS37 failed to fulfil the Renault engine's promise. Guy's management style, with an emphasis on middle-management and bureaucracy, was possibly hindering the team's progress, and as it turned out his stubborn hold over his team was not to last much longer. After being booed at Monaco, he finally did decide to sell 21% of the team to Cyril de Rouvre. By the end of 1992, another 69% (i.e. 90% total) was in de Rouvre's hands.

Guy was now off to pursue other business interests, for example in the natural fertiliser industry. Meanwhile, he watched the team bearing his name return to 5th in the constructors' championship in 1993 with several podium placings, before de Rouvre was arrested and Flavio Briatore bought the majority shareholding for 1994. Briatore put Tom Walkinshaw in charge of the team in 1995, before Ligier himself, with his 10% shareholding, blocked the Scot from purchasing the team proper in 1996. As it turned out, Walkinshaw turned around and bought Arrows instead, whilst Olivier Panis heroically recorded Ligier's last win at Monaco in damp conditions. Guy finally relinquished his small share to Briatore, at a bargain basement price, only for wily Flav to almost immediately make a handsome profit by selling the lot to Prost himself. Alain renamed the team for 1997, and the Ligier name was no more in F1, after a continuous presence from 1976 to 1996, even if Guy had not been directly involved since 1993.

Justifiably feeling duped by Briatore, Guy contemplated taking the Italian to court, but by now his attention was elsewhere. One niche he had carved was in the field of producing micro-cars with moped engines for the elderly and disabled. Starting with the JS4, which could be driven safely even if one of its wheels fell off, such was its balanced design, Guy's company has since produced a whole range of mini-cars with such names as the X-Pro and the Be-up. You can check them out at www.ligier-automobiles.com. It was impossible to take the competition out of Guy's blood though, and the big news in 2004 was that he had bought a large share in Automobiles Martini, that other French race-car maker. With his son Philippe as Managing Director, the new structure produced its first F3 car, the MK84, with the next to be called the Ligier JS47, thereby continuing the line that ended with the 1997 Prost JS45. It was great to see that Guy Ligier was still going strong, still as passionate, still as patriotic, and still as French as ever before.

CAREER SUMMARY

Before Formula One
1947	• A member of the French champion coxed pair rowing crew.
1952-54	• Played in ten matches for the France B Rugby Union team.
1950s	• Competed in motorcycle racing on a Norton 500cc.
1959	• France International, 1st place on a Norton 500cc.
1960	• France International, 1st place on a Norton 500cc.
1960s	• Competed in Formula Junior in an Elva DKW. • Competed in hillclimbing.
1963	• Competed in a Porsche Carrera.
1964	• International Championship for GT Manufacturers, 5 starts, 1 class win in Porsche 904s and an Ecurie Francorchamps Ferrari 250LM Berlinetta with various drivers. • Rally de La Baule, 1st overall in a Porsche with Lucas. • Competed in Formula Junior in a Brabham Cosworth. • Trophées de France, 2 entries in a Ford France Brabham BT6 Cosworth. • Competed in other Formula 2 events in a Ford France Brabham BT6 Cosworth.
1965	• International Championship for GT Manufacturers, 3 starts in a Team France Ford GT40 and an Ecurie Francorchamps Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta with various drivers. • Competed in other sports car events in a Team France Ford GT40. • Rallye de Routes du Nord, 1st in class in a Shelby Mustang 350 GT with Delalande. • Trophées de France, 4 starts in a Ford France Brabham BT6 Cosworth. • Competed in other Formula 2 events in a Ford France Brabham BT6 Cosworth.
1966	• International Manufacturers Championship, 4 starts in a Team France Ford GT40 with various drivers. • Competed in other sports car events in a Team France Ford GT40. • Trophées de France, 1 start in a Ford France Brabham BT10 Cosworth.
1967	• International Manufacturers Championship, 7 starts, 1 win in a Team France Ford GT40 with Schlesser. • Competed in other sports car events in a Team France Ford GT40 with Schlesser.
Formula One
1966	• World Championship, 6 entries in a private Cooper T81 Maserati V12. • Competed in the Grand Prix of Syracuse in a private Cooper T81 Maserati V12. • Competed in the International Trophy in a private Cooper T81 Maserati V12.
1967	• World Championship, =19th overall, 1 point in a private Cooper T81 Maserati V12 and Brabham Repco V8. • Competed in the Race of Champions in a private Cooper T81 Maserati V12. • Competed in the International Trophy in a private Cooper T81 Maserati V12.
After Formula One
1968	• Formula 2, 3 starts in an Ecurie Intersport McLaren M4A Cosworth. • Competed in other Formula 2 events in an Ecurie Intersport McLaren M4A Cosworth. • Competed in touring cars in a Ford Escort.
1969	• Competed in touring cars in a Ford Escort. • Created the Ligier car manufacturing company. • Competed in the Critérium des Cevennes in a Ligier JS1 Cosworth with Dubosc.
1970	• European Sports Car Championship, 1 start in a Ligier JS1 Cosworth with Andruet. • International Championship for Makes, 1 start at Le Mans in a Ligier JS1 Cosworth with Andruet. • Competed in other sports car events, 2 wins in a Ligier JS1 Cosworth.
1971	• International Championship for Makes, 1 start at Le Mans in a Ligier JS3 Cosworth with Depailler. • Competed in other sports car events, 2 wins in a Ligier JS3 Cosworth.
1972	• World Championship of Makes, 1 start at Le Mans in a Ligier JS2 Maserati with Piot.
1973	• World Championship of Makes, 4 entries in a Ligier JS2 Maserati with various drivers.
1974-75	• Team boss of the Ligier sports car team.
1976-92	• Team boss of the Ligier Formula 1 team.
1980-2005	• Manufactures in the micro-car market.
1992-96	• Minority shareholder in the Ligier Formula 1 team.
2004	• Takes shareholding in Automobiles Martini.

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