It's February 22nd, which means this is, among other drivers according to the homepage of StatsF1, the birthday of Niki Lauda! Aka the most powerful and notable rat in history (very positive).
I scanned a batch of magazines today because I didn't have anything that seemed like it fit for the occasion, until I came across this in issue 295 of Auto-Hebdo, from November 1981, which featured not only the official announcement of Niki's comeback to F1 with McLaren for 1982, but also an interview of the man himself. It has highlights such as "death has never made me shiver even once" and "I'm ugly and I know it".
This article, named "Rising Stars", is from Sport-Auto issue 201, from October... 1978. I'm not kidding, I'm not mistaken about dates - fellow nerds will recognize the racing suits and cars featured on the photos in the article.
What more can I say? It's from October 1978. I can tell you about the contents - two interviews, same questions for both drivers, their hardships with debuting in F1, choice quotes on top of the pages. But all of this pales in comparison to this article's very existence.
It's February 24th, and you know what it means: it's time for me to post something about Alain Prost again, since it's his 71st birthday today!
I happened to stumble upon the perfect thing for the occasion by batch-scanning magazines again, and it's this article from Sport-Auto issue 239 (December 1981), named "Alain Prost: An Astonishing Prodigy", which was apparently written by Keith Botsford from the Sunday Times, but which was translated for a French audience. As you can tell by the length of the post, it's mucho texto, but I'm not posting here for that - well, it's interesting, I'm sure someone here will be glad to read it, but since an English version must exist out there already, it's less rare than what I usually post per say.
I'm of course posting it for the pictures, like have you seen these photos? Some of them are just for this community!
This is the amusingly entitled "Let's Talk About Everything, But Not the Race", from Auto-Hebdo issue 215 (May 15th, 1980). Little did I know, while in his first McLaren era (aka the ground effect flop era), Alain Prost had his own column in Auto-Hebdo - he wasn't the first, because you don't even know how many Patrick Tambay columns I have in my bedroom, but he was there before Didier or René, who'd get their own in 82 and 83 respectively.
As you can tell with this title, Alain isn't very happy about his recent race in Zolder. He talks about the then-new qualifying tyre reglementation changes, Ecclestone being Ecclestone, that fuckass McLaren... It's a really fun novelty.
It's linked to a slightly longer race report - for a reason beyond my understanding, they reported on the Belgian GP twice that year. I guess they really liked Didier that much. This ain't about him though. (It'll be posted just another day!)
I heard we were doing sad boi hours, so might as well use the opportunity since there was never a good time to post that one.
This is "The Sun Rises", from Auto-Hebdo issue 340, dated October 1982. I don't need to explain why this is sad, right? I'm letting the silence talk for me. You're welcome.
The main article of Auto-Hebdo issue 139, from November 16th, 1978, named "The Seven Mercenaries". You'll never guess who was really happy about how many French drivers there were in F1 back then.
I don't know where to begin for a summary of its contents. Every single interview has a lot to teach you about the driver it's about. It goes over their seasons, the cars, how they perceived it, etc. Patrick Depailler gets the most screentime because he had won the Monaco GP that year, the only win from a French driver that year... or maybe it's Didier Pironi, who gets a surprisingly long section compared to his fellow countrymen (and they didn't even mention him winning Le Mans earlier than year! It's all F1-related).
The one thing that surprised me the most in there was Patrick Depailler speaking about how heavy the bias in Tyrrell was in 1978 between the two drivers, because while we know it existed, even Patrick himself was surprised by it - and you can guess it, it's how the part on Didier starts.
The least surprising thing was Jacques Laffite outright saying he didn't want his future teammate Patrick Depailler to be treated on equal footing with him. Yeah Jacques I could've guessed from the absolute shitshow that was being Ligier's second driver lmao, but thanks for the transparency! (He says Guy Ligier and Gérard Ducarouge made a "small mistake" there, because Jacques has been here for longer and thinks he deserves the slight advantage).
To my greatest disappointement, I did not post scans specific to International Women's Day - but I do have something really cool for it, even if it's a day late.
This is a specific type of articles I've not seen many of from Auto-Hebdo, called "At Home" - as it sounds, they come to your house, take photos and ask questions. This one is from issue 251, from January 1981, and it all about one hell of a queen: Michèle Mouton.
I don't post rallye often because I... don't know shit about it, truth be told, but I did get to watch one documentary about her during one of my visits to the Bibliothèque Nationale, and it was cooler than the F1 thing I was watching that broadcast of Auto-Moto for (ya ever seen that interview of Gilles whining about the parking in Long Beach while Didier lovingly gazes upon him? That was the same broadcast), so I've been silently collecting Michèle scans all this time.
And I don't have a better occasion, except maybe her birthday, to post them, so! Here you go. Very interesting glimpse into both how it felt liken to be a renowned rallyewoman in the early 80s and also French interior design.
Okay, legit, I don't remember if I've posted this one before. The scans are fairly older as well - you can notice I didn't use the setting I currently use for them, but I've yet to rescan it, so old scans it is. They're not the worst for black-and-white newspaper stuff like this one is.
Back in the later 1970s, Auto-Hebdo would allow readers to send in questions to whatever guest they'd announce the previous week, and then they'd publish the answers. This one is from issue 161, April 26th, 1979, and it's - oh would you look at that. Very original choice for this blog.
Highlights include giving Ken Tyrrell bunny ears, a photo from the carcass of that Tyrrell from the South African GP earlier that year and the fact one of the people asking questions was from Boulogne-sur-Mer, where I lived when I received this magazine in the mail.
No I do not know why we're getting shirtless pictures either.
