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1971 Martini Racing Porsche 917LH

Photo: McDonough Collection
Photo: McDonough Collection

I have been asked, a number of times, which branch of motor sport I enjoyed the most: driving, management, or loosely speaking designing, as my career has encompassed most of those disciplines. Although cars have raced bearing my name, I cannot really take any responsibility for their design; it was purely a management role I played within the team. I had a full compliment of designers and engineers around me at my own Larrousse F1 Team. I always had a good relationship with my engineers whether they were part of my F1 team, or part of a team I was managing—Renault or Ligier—or part of a team I drove for.

My best memories in motor sport have to be when I was driving. I had the opportunity of having a varied career driving in the 1960s with the Alpine and Porsche rally teams before turning to circuit racing. I have good memories of my time in endurance racing, particularly with Porsche, a 2nd-place with Hans Herrmann at Le Mans in 1969, winning at Sebring, and the Nürburgring in 1971. Moving to Matra for the 1973 and 1974 seasons, with my teammate Henri Pescarolo, we won Le Mans both years and had several other victories at Watkins Glen, Imola, Kyalami, Österreichring, Dijon, and Valleunga.

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