Lucien Bianchi

Born in Italy, Lucien moved to Belgium as a child, when his father went to work as a racing mechanic for Johnny Claes. The young Bianchi nurtured hopes of a competition career, and in fact shared a Lancia with Claes in the 1955 Liège-Rome-Liège Rally, taking third place in what proved to be the terminally ill Claes’ last event. Gradually Bianchi began to build his career in both sports cars and rallying, taking a class win with a Ferrari at Le Mans in 1957, and the first of three Tour de France rally wins (1957, 1958 and 1964).

Joining Equipe Nationale Belge, Lucien scored a third place at Pau in 1959, and a fourth the following year in the non-title South African GP, but the Belgian team was hardly front rank, and most of his success during this period was in sports cars, Bianchi winning the 1960 Paris 1000 Km with Gendebien in ENB’s Ferrari, and the Sebring 12 Hours and the Angola GP in 1962.

Between 1963 and 1967, Formula 1 opportunities practically dried up, but Lucien busied himself in virtually every other form of competition – sports car and GT racing, Formula 2 (taking second on aggregate at Zolder in 1964) and Formula 3 as well as selected rallies. A reliable endurance racer, Bianchi became much in demand, driving works Porsches and Fords on occasion in addition to his regular seat in the Equipe Nationale Belge, while the 1967 season saw him try his hand at the Indianapolis 500. Having comfortably posted a good qualifying time, he flew back to race in the Nürburgring 1000 Km for Porsche, where an electrical failure on the last lap cost him the race win and dropped him to fourth place. Afterwards he was given the news that he had been ‘bumped’ from the grid at Indy.

Bianchi found a regular Grand Prix drive at last in 1968, albeit in the fading Cooper team, and scored points in his first two races. However, he enjoyed his best-ever sports car season, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours with Rodriguez and the Watkins Glen 6 Hours with Ickx for John Wyer, and taking the Circuit of Mugello in a works Alfa Romeo. At the end of the year Bianchi took part in the London-Sydney Marathon, and his Citroën was in a seemingly unassailable lead, less than 100 miles from the finish, when the car was involved in an accident with a non-competing vehicle while his co-driver Ogier was at the wheel, leaving Lucien with a broken ankle and shock.

Recovered from this crushing disappointment, Bianchi signed for Autodelta to race their Alfa T33s, but while practising at the Le Mans test weekend he lost control on the Mulsanne Straight. The car veered across the track into a telegraph pole, disintegrated and burst into flames, and the luckless Bianchi was killed instantly.