Jean Behra

Did You Know?

• Behra weighed 178 pounds and was scarred from 12 crashes; in 1955 he had an ear torn off in a collision.
• He drove a Gordini in the 1952 Panamericana road race, winning the first stage before crashing on the second day.
• Behra was known for being hard-charging and temperamental, leading to his dismissal from Ferrari after assaulting a team manager.

Career synopsis

Behra began racing motorcycles for Moto Guzzi before switching to sports cars and Grand Prix racing. In January 1950, he placed third in the Monte Carlo Rally driving a Simca 8 coupé with Julio Quinlin. He started car racing competitively in 1952 and won the non-title 1952 Reims Grand Prix. Joakim Bonnier later said he learned most of his racing skill from Behra. Behra never won a Formula One World Championship race but scored many other victories.

Maserati

Leg surgery in June 1956 forced him to miss the 1,000 km Monza Grand Prix. He took pole for the Rouen GP in July 1956, averaging nearly 155.46 km/h. In October 1956 he won the Grand Prix of Rome, a 2000cc sports car event, covering 166.030 km and setting a lap record of 174.003 km/h at Castelfusano. His best Formula One season came in 1956, finishing fourth overall with five podiums in seven starts. In April 1957 he set the quickest time for the Pau Grand Prix, lapping the 2.77 km course in 1 minute 35.7 seconds, and won the race at an average 62.7 mi/h. Injured testing a car for the Mille Miglia in May 1957, he recovered and entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 22 June. He won at Kristianstad, Sweden in August 1957 in a 6-hour Grand Prix on the 6,537 m Rabelov asphalt track, then won the Grand Prix of Modena in September.

Final season and death

In 1959 Behra joined Ferrari alongside Tony Brooks. He won a 200 mi international Formula One race at Aintree in April 1959, averaging 88.7 mph, with Brooks second 10 seconds behind. While still contracted to Ferrari, Behra developed a Formula Two car based on a Porsche 718 RSK, forming Behra-Porsche. The team entered the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix with Maria Teresa de Filippis but did not qualify.

Hans Herrmann drove the car to second in the Reims F2 race supporting the French Grand Prix, beating Ferrari's F2 entries and angering Enzo Ferrari. Less than a month later, at AVUS in Berlin, Behra crashed his Porsche RSK in rainy weather during the sports car race preceding the German Grand Prix. After three laps he was third behind Wolfgang von Trips and Joakim Bonnier. The AVUS track used a 2.5 mi Autobahn strip with a hairpin at one end and a 30 ft high steeply banked loop at the other.

Behra lost control at 110 mph in pouring rain; the Porsche fishtailed, went over the top of the banking, and landed on its side. Behra was thrown out and struck one of eight flagpoles at the summit, suffering a fatal skull fracture.

Mourning

Jean Behra was laid to rest in Nice on August 7, six days after his fatal accident. Three separate funeral masses were held for him: one in Berlin, another in Paris, and a final service in Nice, where three thousand mourners packed the streets. He was survived by his nineteen-year-old son, Jean Paul. With Behra gone, Maurice Trintignant stood as the only living French driver of renown. Trintignant comforted Behra’s family and urged young Frenchmen to uphold the nation’s honor in racing. Enzo Ferrari, who had dismissed Behra as a factory driver ten days before his death for planning to race a Porsche at Avus against their agreement, sent no tribute to any of the services.