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François Guiter: Merci - et au revoir

Francois Guiter (left) and Ken Tyrrell won two world championships together © Sutton Images

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François Guiter passed away at the age of 86 on Saturday. The name may not be familiar to you but his influence on international motor sport was immense. In fact, you could say that Guiter was a big man in every sense yet, despite an impressive physical presence, the soft-spoken Frenchman shunned publicity and praise, preferring to melt into the background while young French drivers did his talking on the track.

In essence, Guiter was the man responsible for the rise of French motor sport from the late 60's into the early '80s. This went hand-in-hand with his role as head of promotions for Elf. The French national petro-chemical company had bought a ready-made network under the Caltex brand and it was Guiter who, in 1967, set about publicising the change of name. He saw motor racing as the perfect platform. Guiter organised a four-year contract with Matra, then racing in F3 and F2 but thinking about eventually stepping up to F1.

"We announced our contract with Matra at the Monte Carlo Rally," said Guiter. "We said we would win in F3, then win in F2, and in the third year win in F1. For the fourth year, we would win Le Mans. Everyone laughed."

The Le Mans win may have taken slightly longer than anticipated but it was Guiter who had the wry smile when Elf reached its single-seater targets. The F1 success came through Elf's association with Tyrrell, François Guiter and Ken Tyrrell being two of a kind in a highly productive partnership that, according to Guiter, only ever had one disagreement.

"It came right at the start," said Guiter. "My first contract with Ken was at the Nürburgring [Nordschleife] in 1968. Ken had not put the Elf stickers on the car [Matra-Ford] because our fuel was late arriving. That was true but we were upset by this and there was a big argument between us. A very big argument! But we reached agreement, the stickers went on the car and Jackie [Stewart] won the race. We became the best possible friends after that."

Alain Prost got his F1 opportunity thanks to Francois Guiter's Pilote Elf programme © Getty Images

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While Elf Team Tyrrell and Stewart went on to win two World Championships, Guiter was busy in France established a network for young drivers, largely through the Winfield School at Magny-Cours and Paul Ricard. The Pilote Elf award became coveted because it guaranteed a drive in Formula Renault for the following season. It was solely responsible for sending Patrick Tambay, Didier Pironi and Alain Prost (to name but a few) on their way to F1. Simon de Lautour was one of the driving forces behind the Winfield school.

"Winning the Pilote Elf final was an incredible step up for these young drivers," recalls Lautour. "In France, the standard procedure was you go to the Winfield school and go in for the Elf competition. François Guiter was a super bloke. He would go up to people in the F1 pits and say: 'I want you to try this driver' - and they'd jump to it. He had a lot of charisma and a lot of clout. We were all in awe of him at the start."

Speaking of clout, Elf's first race with Matra had been for a F2 and F3 meeting at Rheims. The road circuit in the Champagne region of France was the province of 'Toto' Roche, a rotund gentleman whose speciality was to stand in the middle of the track before the start of a race, drop the flag when he felt like it and then run (as best he could) for his life. Rheims was the territory of BP, the swathe of green and yellow paint along the concrete pits marking a long-standing association.

"We hired this pit and, of course, the first thing we did was paint it in the white, blue and red of Elf," recalled Guiter. "That seemed the normal thing to do. The next morning, we arrived to find it had been repainted in BP colours. So, we painted it Elf again. Then we waited that night and when they came with their BP paint - we box! Toto Roche came and shouted. We said we didn't care about BP and his deal. Our pit stayed in Elf colours after that!"

Whoever dared to fight Guiter could not have realised just who they were taking on. Elf built a strong rapport with the media thanks to an understated but highly respected approach driven by Guiter. The Elf parties at the French Grand Prix became legendary although, on one occasion at the Ille Rousse Hotel in Bandol, the Elf Team Tyrrell PR staff feared for their jobs.

Gathered round the pool on a balmy evening, the assembled company gasped when Ken Tyrrell, in playful mood, pushed Guiter, fully clothed in his usual suit and tie, into the pool. In the stunned silence came the realisation that the big man had barely caused a ripple when he went into the water. There was no sign of him until he gracefully rose like a porpoise at the other end of the pool. He was completely unperturbed and it was only then that it emerged Guiter had been a diver during World War II. He would never speak about the role he had played with limpet mines nor his subsequent work with France's secret service.

That was typical of a wonderful man who refused to blow his own trumpet and yet played a signature tune for the world of French motor sport.

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Maurice Hamilton writes for ESPN F1.

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