#topic: f2

[flymula1]

I keep posting stuff from this issue of Sport-Auto (178 from October 1976), which may make it one of the most featured magazines on this blog - but oh well, I find it cool.

This is "For a Handful of Seconds", and it'll about the last race of the 76 F2 season, which was in Hockenheim. There is no real point of intyerest to redirect you, it's a lot of French text about a race with no footage whatsoever, but it's got cool photos and info on old F2 is super hard to find as far as I know, so... Yeah, in case someone needed it? Here you go. 1976 F2 Hockenheim GP!

[flymula1]

Another episode of "nobody asked for it, but I shall nonetheless provide": Sport-Auto issue 191's annual reports on the 1977 seasons of Formula 2 and European Formula 3. Including, but limited to: old pictures of your pookie, some French guy(s) you've never heard of, one (1) elusive picture of the '77 F3 Monaco GP, a lot of numbers and race stuff and blabla and, finally, a big pic of Néné in his car on track.

I originally was going to just have the F2 section, but I like the Monaco GP pic too much not to share the F3 part as well lmao. Should have some familiar faces in there!

[flymula1]

You didn't know it existed, neither did I, and yet you'll have always needed it: a 1977 report from Sport-Auto issue 183 about two up-and-coming F2 drivers.

Entitled "Arnoux and Pironi, For the Best!", this one does as it seems: it's a report into one of the numerous races the F2 Martini-Renault-Elf team partook in in 1977. In it, we get to discover how the drivers and their team deal with their cars, how qualifying went for them, how René won and that was good for him, and how Didier suffered a mechanical issue that didn't really bother him in the long run. And funky pictures! I was mostly after the old pictures lost to time.

Honestly, classic F2 is so buried, I might need to scan more of what I've got in the future. For now, have a duo that I don't think we think about a lot, but who was somewhat known back then in the French motorsports scene! And fun photos.

[flymula1]

French magazine Sport-Auto almost had monthly driver profiles written down and illustrated with photos, back in the day. I don't often scan them, and most of those I've posted have been of a specific French blond guy with blue eyes, but he wasn't the most visible. No, a lot of the profiles I've seen are for this little guy: René Arnoux. Aka, the definition of your neighbour next door if he was a racing driver somehow.

This profile is from issue 174, from July 1976. It's not really an interview, it's more like a weekend in René's shoes, which introduces you to how he manages things, ft. quotes from people like Hugues de Chaunac. They kind of tell you he's got babyface syndrome going on here, but no he's 28 and still in F2, boo time is passing Néné pick your shit up.

I love the photo on the fourth page, it made me instantly start scanning this issue. It's so good.

[flymula1]

Hey, it's been a while since I last posted my signature "wow Fly can't you fucking do it straight for once" scans! (Ironically, I'm straight, so no joke is here to be made...).

One of these things they don't do anymore is a silly little list of the top of the French drivers of the year as part of a "yearly national list of winners" ("palmarès" is very hard to translate, as you can tell), and this one is from the January 1975 issue of Sport-Auto, and as such, lists off the top 1974 French drivers.

The first page is of course the crème de la crème: the F1 drivers, which crowns Patrick Depailler as the top French driver in there, before JP Beltoise and JP Jarier (we seriously had a "driver named Jean-Pierre" problem around this time). He's also the top F2 driver because 1974 was like that.

Because the majority of the chronicle are about smaller-scale, national categories, most of the people featured here have fallen into complete obscurity, I won't lie, I don't know who 90% of the people mentioned here are. You'll, however, note that at the time, Jacques Laffite went by "Jacques-Henri Laffite", his actual given name.

There are also a couple of antique, but still known names among them: Marie-Claude Beaumont, Claude-Ballot Léna, Alain Cudini (you've heard of him if you've read about the "French Connection"), Gérard Larrousse (Le Mans winner and also That Guy From Renault F1) or Jean Ragnotti, who'd go on to become a major figure in the French rally scene from what I've read.

Oh and also there's one guy who reminds me of something in there, I wonder if he went on to have a career in F1...