Lucien Bianchi | The “forgotten” drivers of F1

Lucien Bianchi (10 November 1934 – 30 March 1969), born Luciano Bianchi, was an Italian-Belgian racing driver who raced for the Cooper, ENB, UDT Laystall and Scuderia Centro Sud teams in Formula One. He entered a total of 19 Formula One World Championship races, scoring six points and had a best finish of third at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix.

He died in a testing crash in preparation for the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans. Info from Wiki

Bio by Stephen Latham

Lucien Bianchi entered nineteen (starting seventeen) World Championship races between 1960 and 1968, with a best finish of third at Monaco in 1968 while highlights in sportscar racing included victory in 1962’s 12 Hours of Sebring (with Jo Bonnier) plus Le Mans with Pedro Rodríguez in 1968. He took three consecutive Tour de France wins from 1957-1959 with a Ferrari 250 GT alongside Olivier Gendebien and had a fourth with Georges Berger in a GTO in 1964. A versatile and varied racer, he called his driving style ‘adaptive’ and stated in his book ‘Mes Rallyes, that he had no preference for sportscar, single-seaters or rally cars.

Born Luciano ‘Lucien’ Bianchi in Milan, Italy, on the 10th November 1934, his father Roberto was a mechanic with Alfa Romeo though moved the family to Belgium in order to work for racer/jazz musician Johnny Claes. Lucien and his brother Mauro became involved in the family garage and both eventually became race drivers, making their debut together in the Alpine Rally in 1951. Lucien contested the following three years’ Tour de France races, retiring alongside Jacques Herzet in a Jaguar XK120 in 1952 while racing a Ferrari 166 MM/53 he and Mauro finished seventh in 1953 though he and Herzet retired in 1954’s event.

Co-driving a Lancia with Johnny Claes, they finished third in 1955’s Liège-Rome-Liège Rally while Ecurie Francorchamps Ferrari 500TR outings in 1956 saw retirement in the Grand Prix de L´Ile-de-France at Montlhéry plus the 1000km Paris alongside Freddy Rouselle and Claude Dubois. He made his Le Mans debut that year, sharing Écurie Nationale Belge’s Ferrari 500TR with Alain de Changy, though they retired after seventy six laps due to steering issues.

He would go to compete thirteen times at Le Mans and in 1957 he and George Harris were seventh and class winners with Ecurie Nationale Belge’s Ferrari 500TRC. Lucien was fifth with the team’s Jaguar D-Type in the 2 Hr Forez at St.Etienne though did not finish in a private D-Type drive in the Grand Prix des Ancetres at Spa. During the year he teamed with Olivier Gendebien and they won the Tour de France, plus took the fastest lap, with Ecurie Francorchamp’s Ferrari 250 GT.

There were two fifth place results in 1958 with Ecurie Francorchamp’s Ferrari 250 TR in the Sussex Trophy at Goodwood plus the GP Spa but he and Willy Mairesse retired at Le Mans due to an accident after thirty three laps. In September he and Gendebien repeated their Tour de France victory with the 250 GT (plus took the fastest lap) and in a solo drive the following month Lucien won the Coupes du Salon Sports at Monthlery.

In outings the following year he failed to qualify for the Monaco GP with a Cooper T51 though was third the next week in a non championship Pau GP (behind Trintignant and McLaren). In three consecutive non championship races with the T51 he was eighth in the Coupe Internationale de Vitesse at Reims, retired at Rouen and was fourth at Zeltweg, plus took the fastest lap and retired a T45 from the Coupe de Salon at Monthlery. Ecurie Francorchamps 250 GT drives saw eleventh in the Gran Premio della Lotteria at Monza, fourteenth alongside Léon Dernier at the Nurburgring 1000 kms and, in a repeat of the previous year, he and Gendebien took their third consecutive Tour de France victory.

At the beginning of January, 1960, he finished fourth in the non-championship South African GP at East London in Equipe Nationale Belge’s Cooper T45–Climax and drives in April with the team’s T51 saw retirement from the Brussels GP at Heysel Park plus eleventh and thirteenth in the Pau GP and the B.A.R.C. 200 at Aintree. He was third with the T51 in June’s Grand Prix des Frontières at Chimay (plus fastest lap) then later in the month took his first World Championship point with a sixth place result at Spa in a T45. However, the weekend was a tragic one, with two drivers suffering serious injuries in practice and a further two losing their lives during the race. During practice Michael Taylor crashed when the steering column broke at about 150 mph. He was thrown out of the car and into a tree, breaking his back, neck, both legs and arms and punctured a lung. He survived and later sued Lotus but never raced again. Stirling Moss, also in a Lotus 18, had a failure on his car and ended up in the bank, breaking both of his legs and his nose. In the race, Chris Bristow crashed his Cooper and perished in a gruesome accident. Several laps later, Alan Stacey lost control of his Lotus, the car climbed an embankment and went through ten feet of thick hedge before landing in a field. He was thrown out of the vehicle and died from his injuries. There were two more Grands Prix in July with Fred Tuck Car’s Cooper T51 though he retired at Reims (eighteenth laps, transmission) and Silverstone (sixty laps, magneto) then did not finish in August’s Silver City Trophy at Brands Hatch due to a con rod problem after two laps. In further Equipe Nationale Belge runs in July he retired the T51 in the non championship Solitude GP and from the German GP at Nurburgring (nineteen laps, bearings)) at the end of that month. The race was supposed to be held at AVUS but was instead run as a Formula 2 race at the Nurburgring due to safety concerns at AVUS following the previous year’s German GP. His final drive with the car came in October where he was second to Jack Lewis in the Coupe du Salon at Monthlery. Racing a private 250 GT he was third in the Trophée de Auvergne at Charade and eleventh in the Nurburgring 1000kms with Jo Schlesser. In September he and Gendebien were fourteenth with Ecurie Francorchamp’s 250 GT in the Tour de France and they won the following month’s Paris 1000km at Monthlery.

There were three non championship races in April, 1961, with Equipe Nationale Belge’s Emeryson-Maserati but he retired at Pau and the BARC 200 at Aintree and was fourth in the Brussels GP at Heysel Park. He failed to qualify for the Monaco GP and an oil line problem after nine laps ended his race at Spa. His last two GP drives that year came with a UDT-Laystall Racing Team Lotus 18/21 but he retired at Reims (clutch, twenty one laps) and Aintree (gearbox, forty five laps). A Ferrari 250 GT drive produced fourth in the GP Brussels plus he and Georges Harris took their Citroen DS19 to victory in the Liege-Sofia Rally. Racing with Ecurie Francorchamps, he was thirteenth in the Nürburgring 1000 Kms in a Porsche 356B Carrera Abarth alongside Emile-Claude Clemens while there were second place finishes with a 250 GT in the Tour de France (teamed with Gendebien) and the 1000km Paris at Monthlery (with Willy Mairesse).

The following year started with victory in March at the Sebring 12 Hours, in a Scuderia Serenissima Ferrari 250TR alongside Jo Bonnier, beating Olivier Gendebien/Phil Hill’s NART Ferrari 250 GTO. In the two Grands Prix contested with Equipe Nationale Belge he was ninth at Spa F1 with a Lotus 18/21 and sixteenth in an ENB-Maserati at Nurburgring though retired the ENB-Maserati in the Brussels and Pau non championship races. Racing an Abarth-Simca 1300 he was tenth in the Trophée de Auvergne at Charade and seventh in the Preis von Tirol Sports at Innsbruck. Ecurie Francorchamps 250 GTO outings saw seventh in the Tour de France with Claude Dubois and victory (from pole plus fastest lap) at the Angola GP plus fifth in the Paris 1000 kms at Monthlery alongside Mairesse in an Equipe Nationale Belge car.

Abarth 1000 outings in 1963 brought a tenth place finish in the Sussex Trophy at Goodwood, second (to Teddy Pilette) in a sports car race at Solitude and sixth in the Nürburgring 500 kms (with Giampiero Biscaldi) plus thirteenth in a Mount Ventoux Hill Climb with a Fiat Abarth 850 TC. His only GP that year was in Belgium with Reg Parnell Racing Team’s Lola T4 but his race ended due to an accident. Lucien was third in a Coppa GT Inter-Europa race at Monza with David Brown Racing’s Aston Martin DP214 and he drove a works Aston Martin DP215 at Le Mans with Phil Hill but the pair retired due to a gearbox failure after four hours. In drives with a Maserati Tipo 151/1 he was eighth in the Trophée de Auvergne at Charade and thirteenth in the Guards Trophy at Brands Hatch plus second at the Nürburgring when sharing a Fiat 2300S with Paul Frère. Racing Écurie Francorchamp’s 250 GTO he was second in the Tour de France alongside Carlo Maria Abate, in a Scuderia SSS R. di Venezia car plus third in the GP de France at Reims. He came home fourth in the Rallye de Monte-Carlo with a Citroën DS19 alongside Jean-Claude Ogier and was the Belgian Rally Champion.

He was second in 1964’s Daytona 2000 kms sharing a 250 GTO with David Piper and in Écurie Francorchamps and Equipe Nationale Belge Ferrari 250 GTO and 250 LM outings he was fifth at Le Mans with Jean Blaton, fourth and fifth with Gerard Langlois von Ophem in the Nürburgring 1000 kms and the 1000km Paris plus ninth in the 12 Heures de Reims alongside Pierre Dumay. He was second in the Angola GP behind team mate Mairesse plus took victory at the Grand Prix de Limbourg at Zolder (from pole) and won his fourth Tour de France, with Georges Berger. In two European Touring Car drives at Zolder with privately entered cars he was eighth in the Coupes de Terlaemen with a Giulia TI Super plus fifth in a 2600 Sprint. He was second in the Coupe International de Vitesse at Reims with an Alpine A310 and he and brother Mauro shared a works Alpine Renault M63B in the Targa Florio, finishing fifteenth. Lucien also won his second Belgian Rally Championship, winning the Lyon Charbonnières Rally outright. In an F2 drive with Ron Harris Team’s Lotus 32 he was second at Zolder (behind Denny Hulme’s works Brabham BT10) while in the F3 GP de Reims he took second with an Alpine Renault A270 to Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell Racing Organisation Cooper T72.

He and Jean Rolland were seventh (and class winners) in 1965’s Targa Florio in an Autodelta Alfa Romeo TZ1. He was sixth in a Coupe Internationale de Vitesse de F3 race at Reims with an Alpine A310 and racing an Alpine M65 he finished seventh with Henri Grandsire in the Reims 12 Hours plus he and brother Mauro won the Nürburgring 500 km (and took fastest lap). In a round of the ETCC at Zolder, he was third with a Fiat-Abarth 1000TC then at the same meeting was sixth in an Autodelta SpA Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super and second in the Division 3 race in an Alan Mann Ford Mustang. Lucien drove his Citroen DS19 to fifth place in the East African Safari plus also rallied an Alfa Romeo GTA, and, despite it not being considered a prominent rally car, he took class wins in the Lyon Charbonnières, Tour de Corse, Criterium des Cévennes and Rally de Catalunya. There was only one Grand Prix entered that year and he finished twelfth at Belgium in June with Scuderia Centro Sud’s BRM P57.

There were retirements in 1966 at Daytona, the Spa 500 kms plus Monza 1000 km and 1000 km de Paris and his only finishes with Écurie Francorchamps were second in the Coupe du Salon at Monthlery and twenty first in the 1000 km Paris (with Mauro Bianchi) in a Ferrari 365 P2. At Le Mans, Lucien was teamed with Mario Andretti (on his first participation in the event) in a Holman & Moody GT40 MKII but unfortunately, a head gasket failure after 8 hours and 97 laps forced their withdrawal. Andretti recalled the plan “was to rely on an extremely strong team, with experienced drivers, but Ford established an additional strategy. Some cars would be about the speed, others would be treated more carefully since the race was so long. I teamed up with Lucien Bianchi who had experience in long races whereas I was more familiar with sprints. He taught me a tremendous amount.” In Alfa Romeo drives he was tenth, with Roberto Bussinello, in the Targa Florio in a Giulia TZ2, thirteenth in the Nürburgring 1000km with Herbert Schultze in an TZ2 though retired from the Spa 24 Hours and Sebring. He finished fourth with an Alan Mann Lotus Cortina in the Mont Ventoux hillclimb while in rallying was a class winner in the Critérium Neige et Glace, the Coupe des Alpes and the Tour de Corse events.

In February 1967 Lucien and Bruce McLaren were seventh in the 24 Hours of Daytona with a Shelby American Ford MkII and in two Ferrari 412 P drives he was third with Richard Attwood in May’s Spa 1000 km in a Maranello Concessionaires car and in his last race that season was second in October in the 1000 km de Paris at Montlhéry alongside ‘Beurlys’ (Jean Blaton) with Equipe Nationale Belge’s car. He was hired by Porsche System Engineering to drive one of the works 910s and he and Gerhard Mitter looked set to win the Nürburgring 1000 km but the electrics failed on the last lap and they finished fourth (first in class) but he retired from the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch with Vic Elford. He and Jean Rolland took victory in the Nürburgring 6 Hours in an Alfa Romeo GTA and in the East African Safari he finished seventh with Henri Greder in a Ford Cortina GT. There was a USAC debut in April when he raced at Trenton with a Jim Robbins Vollstedt-Ford though after qualifying ninth he retired due to an oil leak after 57 laps but did not qualify the car in the following month’s Indy 500. He and Andretti were reunited at Le Mans, sharing a Holman & Moody MkIV, and during the race a stone broke their windscreen and they also had gearbox trouble. In the early hours of the morning Andretti was chasing the leading Gurney/Foyt car and had made up a lap on it before he handed over the car. He recalled “Lucien was, you know, a great guy, but so conservative. By now Gurney was in for Foyt again, and obviously quicker than Bianchi, but I figured, well, at least he’s got a cushion. Then he comes in, and he starts talking to the mechanics like it’s a lunch break! It was true we had a lot of vibration, because we had these beryllium discs that would crack, but not come apart. We’d tested them, and I said, ‘It’s OK, it’s normal.’ So he goes out again, does two and then he’s back in, wanting them to change the pads. Well..while they’re doing that, I drag him out of the car, and get back in myself. We’re losing time, and now I’m pissed off.” Unfortunately, he crashed approaching the Esses, bouncing between the barriers. Roger McCluskey (in a MkIIB shared with Frank Gardner) crashed when he arrived on the scene and Jo Schlesser (sixth in a Ford France entered MkIIB, with Guy Ligier) came over the hill and had nowhere to go but within a few seconds there were three Fords out of the race. The team later disagreed on the cause of the crash-pads fitted improperly or a driver pushing too hard on new pads. Andretti himself stated “this mechanic changes the front pads and puts them in backwards. And the discs arc cracked. I come out of the pits, go over the rise, start my braking for the Esses-and it takes the wheel right out of my hands! The car had been refuelled-80 gallons-and it was so heavy you couldn’t even lock the wheels. We just turned sharp right, straight into the bank. Big accident.” The car was destroyed though he somehow got out but after climbing the barrier he then collapsed. On a footnote, Lucien’s brother Mauro won the P1.6 class.

In February 1968 he was back at Daytona where he and Mario Andretti finished sixth with an Autodelta Alfa Romeo T33/2 and in further outings he was third in the Targa Florio with Mario Casoni and seventh in the Nurburgring 1000kms alongside Udo Schutz then in July took victory with Nino Vaccarella at the GP Mugello. In ETCC Alfa Romeo drives, after starting from pole, he and Shutz retired a 1600 GTA from the 4 hour Monza and he was seventeenth in a 1750 Berlina with Jean-Marie Lagae in the Spa 24 Hours. Contesting the World Championship with Cooper he achieved his best result in F1 when he was third in Monaco plus he finished sixth in Belgium. Unfortunately, after the strong start, in the following races he retired at Zandvoort (accident, nine laps) and Nurburgring (fuel leak, six laps), was not classified at Mont Tremblant and Watkins Glen then retired in Mexico (engine, twenty one laps). After Brian Redman had been badly injured in an F1 accident at Spa, Lucien replaced him at John Wyer Automotive Engineering and went on to win the Watkins Glen 6 Hours in July with Jacky Ickx in the GT40. Then in September he and Pedro Rodríguez won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which had been postponed from the usual June to September due to protests, strikes, and civil unrest in France. On the first lap of the race, Willy Mairesse was running at speed when his door flew open, causing him to lose control and he hit the barrier hard. The car was totally destroyed and he spent the next two weeks in a coma but never recovered from his head injuries. At the end of the first lap, Porsches were in the top four places and Porsche led the first six hours of the race, before several of them encountered a number of technical issues and Lucien took the lead at 22:00. Henri Pescarolo was chasing close behind and, despite having no windscreen wipers on the Matra, put in a brave performance in the driving rain. Early on Sunday afternoon, a puncture caused a fire to break out and Lucien and Rodriguez cruised to a comfortable a comfortable 5 lap victory, ahead of the Spoerry and Steinemann Porsche 907 and Stommelen and Neerpasch’s Porsche 908. This was Lucien’s thirteenth Le Mans event while it was only Pedro’s second finish after eleven attempts. Sadly, despite the result, Lucien could not enjoy the victory as his brother Mauro had been involved in a serious accident during the race. Soon after 11am, Mauro was running in sixth place when he crashed heavily approaching the Esses. The full fuel tank exploded in a fireball, setting alight the car and the bordering straw bales, and he suffered severe burns to his face and arms. Lucien scored class wins in the Rallye de Genève and the Coupe des Alpes plus third place in the Tour de Corse then, near the end of the year, he was a works entry for Citroën in the London-Sydney Marathon, with Jean-Claude Ogier as co-driver in a DS21. After more than 10,000 miles across Europe, Asia and Australia, they were leading but when only 100 miles to the finish in Sydney, they were involved in a head-on collision with a non-competing car that entered a closed course. Ogier was at the wheel with Lucien dozing in the front seat but the car was completely destroyed and both drivers were hospitalised.

After a painful convalescence, Lucien’s first outing in 1969 with Autodelta came in March at the Sebring 12 Hours though he and Vaccarella retired the T33/3 after seventeen laps due to overheating.

Sadly, while setting up the T33 during a Le Mans Test Day, he suffered a mechanical failure during the second session, lost control of the car and crashed at full speed. He had had problems with the rear bodywork during the first testing session, when the bonnet did not close well. According to eyewitnesses, while passing on the Hunaudières straight shortly before his accident, he signalled with the right indicator his intention to stop the car on the roadside but he did not reduce his speed and suddenly went off the road. The car apparently wandered onto the right side verge, then it spun back across the left and Lucien was killed instantly in the crash.

Soon after Lucien’s accident, Mauro retired from motorsport. Mauro’s son Philippe never raced but, managing the Brignoles karting centre, helped to develop the sport in the south-east of France. His son Jules (Mauro’s grandson) showed talent behind the wheel and he progressed to F1 but in a further tragedy for the family, he suffered a head injury when he collided with a recovery vehicle during the 2014 Japanese GP. He underwent surgery and was placed into an induced coma though never recovered and sadly passed away nine months later.

(credit for race results info must go to ‘Racing Years’ and ‘Racing Sports Cars’ websites)

Lucien Bianchi and the ENB-née-Emeryson from

Gallery F1 Other

Name:	Lucien	Surname:	Bianchi
Country:	Belgium	Entries:	19
Starts:	17	Podiums:	1
Fastest laps:	0	Points:	6
Start year:	1959	End year:	1968
Active years:	7

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