Elf Scan 14: Formule France

Close your eyes and try to list as many French F1 drivers as you can from the early 60s.  Pretty hard, huh?  After Jean Behra died in 1959, it was basically the aging Maurice Trintignant who represented France on the Grand Prix circuit until the mid 60s.  As a result of this dearth of young talent, the French motor racing industry created a driver development program, starting with the Renault Gordini cup.  As a next rung, they created Formule France in 1968, which was a single seater formula using the same engine and gearbox as the Renault 8 Gordini.  It was essentially the equivalent of the Skip Barber Formula series in today's terms. If you close your eyes again, and try to list French drivers from after 1968, and into the 70s, it becomes a heck of a lot easier!  Thanks to increased investment from Elf, Matra, Renault, and other motorsport players of the era, French driving talent finally began to blossom again in Grand Prix racing for the first time since before the Second World War when drivers like Dreyfus and Chiron were in their prime.

Elf Scan 5: Renault R8 Gordinis in Action!

Small and boxy, the Renault R8 Gordini made an unlikely-looking racecar, but this single-marque series was a very popular stepping-stone series for French drivers in the late 1960s. There were so many aspiring competitiors lining up to participate in the series that the organizers had to set up run-offs to limit the entry size down to 40 drivers, from 387 applicants in 1970, according the the back of this card.  The evenly-matched cars provided for splendid close-quarters racing, as shown in this action shot!