Paul Frère (30 January 1917 – 23 February 2008) was a racing driver and journalist from Belgium.
He participated in eleven World Championship Formula One Grands Prix debuting on 22 June 1952 and achieving one podium finish with a total of eleven championship points. He drove in several non-Championship Formula One races.
He also won the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving for Ferrari with fellow Belgian teammate Olivier Gendebien. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Although born in Le Havre, France, Paul Frere’s father’s postings as a Belgian government official saw the family live in Paris, Brussels, Berlin and Vienna.
His racing career started on motorbikes after World War II and he won his class with a pre-war 500cc Triumph Speed Twin on his debut in 1947. Before this though, he was also a successful rower, winning three Belgian championships, taking the national title in a coxless four in 1946 and 1947 plus the coxed four in 1946. He rode for the Belgian Puch distributor in several races and hill-climbs, including the GP de Bruxelles on a road circuit at Heysel and subsequently attempted record breaking runs on the main highway and set a 125cc World Record for the mile, running his Puch on alcohol.
In the following year he began racing cars, competing in the Spa 24 Hour race with a friend’s 1938 ex-Le Mans MG PB Special. Co-driving with Jacques Swaters, to their amazement the 12-year-old MG survived for the duration of the event and they finished fifteenth, and fourth in class. In 1949’s race he and Jock Horsfall raced an Aston Martin Speed Model to fourth place.
In 1950, using his influence as a journalist he arranged a drive in a ‘Production Car Grand Prix’ at Spa in 1950. Borrowing a Dyna Panhard from the Brussels agent, his knowledge of the circuit helped him win the hour-long race and he repeated the victory in a similar car in 1951. During this time he was working as a service manager for the Brussels Jaguar agent and was responsible for watching over two private XK120s which had been entered for a race at Spa. One of the drivers asked if he would try his XK120, just to check that everything was working properly so Paul took the car out for 3 laps and put in the fastest lap of the day; he himself stated “It was my first time in a fast car and I only had three laps. I would have been on pole!” After being recommended by Jacques Ickx (father of Jacky) he became part of an Oldsmobile team with Belgian drivers, Jaques Swaters, Johnny Claes and Andre Pilette and after winning a race declared it was “Oh, very much by luck. The wheels collapsed on all the American cars but mine, just because mine had new wheels.”
John Heath asked him to race for his HWM team at the Grand Prix des Frontières, at Chimay in Belgium; the team had received a telegram from Peter Collins apologising for his absence, but explaining that he was committed to drive for Aston Martin in a Monaco sports-car race. Paul told how they contacted him “the evening before the only practice session at Chimay, asking me if I could be at the circuit by seven o’clock the next morning. But after only two laps of practice in the pouring rain I feel Heath might have doubted the wisdom of his choice for I spun into a ditch.” Fortunately the car was undamaged and he went on to set fastest practice time ahead of the team’s other two cars. In the race Ken Downing’s Connaught amassed a considerable lead, but he caught Ken in the closing stages, “On the last lap I could see the Connaught, but Downing wasn’t aware that I was catching him. I slipped past just after the last corner and beat him to the line by a matter of inches!” He raced for them at the Belgian Grand Prix and finished fifth, in a very wet race but retired from the German and Dutch Grands Prix with mechanical failure.
He drove for HWM again in 1953, finishing tenth in the Belgium GP, though retired from the Swiss race at Berne, telling how “I’m afraid I made a mistake in close traffic on the opening lap and that resulted in my knocking Louis Rosier’s Ferrari right off the road. He was furious at the time, but he soon calmed down and didn’t hold the accident against me.” However, at the Eifelrennen at a wet Nürburgring, there was “a tremendous battle with Collins’ HWM in the torrential rain, a battle that ended when Peter’s fire extinguisher came loose and got stuck under his brake pedal as he was coming up to the Karussell. He spun violently, letting me get away and close to within two seconds of de Graffenried’s winning Maserati at the finish.” The only other race in 1953 that Frere drove for HWM (apart from an unmemorable Belgian Grand Prix where he finished 10th) was the Swiss Grand Prix
The year also saw his debut at Le Mans, racing a 1500cc Porsche Spyder to fifteenth place. He also drove a Chrysler in the Mille Miglia and despite losing his brakes by half distance, he still managed to win his class by more than 2 and a half hours. He had first watched the race in 1935 and in 1953 driver Johnny Lurani suggested he race a Jaguar Mk 7 and contest the big-car class. However, after putting this proposition to Lofty England he was politely declined so he obtained a big Chrysler saloon and had the satisfaction of beating Jaguar by winning his class and beating two Jaguar Mk7s! He recalled ”We did a complete reconnaissance lap in preparation for the race but we forgot to modify the brake linings for the event. As a result we wore them right down to the metal by the finish but we still won the class by two-and-a-quarter hours. I felt that I’d got my own back on Lofty!” He returned in 1955, co-driving an Aston Martin DB2/4 coupe with photographer Louis Klemantaski, though retired with clutch failure.
He was invited to test for Mercedes-Benz the following year, with a view to driving for them at Le Mans, but unfortunately the cars were not ready and he raced an Aston Martin with Carroll Shelby. He contested several Grands Prix for Gordini though retired at Belgium with engine failure and his race ended in Spain due to a broken rear axle, after running in fifth place. At the Nurburgring he qualified quicker than Behra but his front wheel flew off during the race (fortunately without serious consequences) and he “vowed that I’d never again touch a Gordini.”
Aston Martin invited him back in 1955, but then Mercedes offered him a drive of the 300SLR, though he was committed to drive for Aston at Le Mans. He and Peter Collins went on to finish second though any result was meaningless in view of the tragic accident during the race. At the Belgian GP, he raced a Ferrari to fourth place but during the Swedish Grand Prix sports car race, racing for Equipe Nationale Belge he sustained a broken leg after crashing a Ferrari Monza. Describing the event, he stated ”Here I was, hoping to win the race in this lovely Ferrari and I spun and crashed it in practice. The car spun slowly, rolling over and tipping me out. I can recall the accident most graphically, it happened so slowly. When it was all over I was sitting on the grass by the upturned car, extremely happy that I’d escaped the accident so lightly.”
Following this, Lofty England invited him to Silverstone to test the Jaguar D-type and a contract was offered. However, he admitted he signed it with some nervousness as the crash in Sweden had convinced him to consider retiring from racing. He was offered a Mercedes 300SL drive in the Mille Miglia but instead chose to drive a small Renault Dauphine with the Renault team; ”I really was nervous after the Swedish accident and I ended up overturning the Dauphine on the Radicofani. I’d been leading my class from Robert Manson’s DB Panhard at Pescara and I’d hoped to keep ahead of it all the way.” Spectators helped recover the Dauphine but he was only able to continue at a much reduced speed to the finish. He drove a factory D-Type Jaguar at Le Mans although crashed on the second lap. Looking down the track he saw team-mate Jack Fairman had spun to a halt alongside him without any harm but “just as I started my engine, I saw Portago’s Ferrari, spinning like a top, coming down the hill and crashing into Fairman’s car.” He tried to drive away, but the car’s rear was so crumpled that the distorted bodywork was rubbing on the wheels. “I abandoned the car and walked back to the pits through the rain, not looking forward to my meeting with Lofty.” However, when he saw it he simply said “that’s a nice little short chassis job”, for which Paul admitted to being forever grateful. Working as a member of the press, he travelled to the Belgian GP but the day before the race he was offered a drive by Ferrari and went on to finish second behind team mate, Peter Collins. Ferrari invited him to move to Maranello to be their test driver and to take charge of race car preparation but he declined.
Back at Le Mans the following year, he finished fourth in a privately entered D-Type and also took part in the last Mille Miglia with a Dauphine Gordini and won his class. He co-drove a works Ferrari 250 GTO with Olivier Gendebien in the Reims 12-hours, going on to win the race and repeated the victory in 1958.
In 1958 he was back with Aston Martin, driving a DBR2 in the Spa sportscar Grand Prix but tragically it was in this race that Archie Scott-Brown crashed and suffered fatal burns. He recalled how the Lister Jaguar slid wide “and I think he’d have been able to get the car back under control again if it hadn’t been for a road sign which his car hit. I’d previously mentioned the unecessary danger of this road sign to Leon Sven, the organiser, but, although I was assured that it would be removed for race day, nothing was done about it.” Despite finishing second there was no pleasure in it as he had to pass the burning Lister every lap as he came up to La Source. At Le Mans he finished fourth again, this time with a 1.5-litre Porsche (with Edgar Barth) and improved on this the following year when he and Maurice Trintignant finished second with an Aston Martin.
1960 would see him finally take victory at Le Mans when he and Olivier Gendebien drove a Ferrari 250TR, leading for more than 22 hours on their way to the chequered flag.
He said that “Olivier kindly allowed me to drive the last stint and take the chequered flag, although he really deserved to do it bearing in mind the effort he’d put in during the race’s early stages. The whole achievement was capped by a telegram from King Baudoin.”
He retired from active racing in 1960 but not before he season presented him with two further triumphs, winning the Formula Libre South African GP with a Cooper and a sportscar GP of Spa in a Porsche. Despite his victory at Le Mans, he later declared he was most proud of his race in the HWM in the rain at Nurburgring in 1953 and his second place in the Belgian GP.
Following this he devoted himself to writing full-time, becoming a leading motoring journalist; he was the European Editor for Road & Track magazine. He was also a consultant to automobile manufacturers, testing numerous road and racing cars as a journalist, including an Audi R8 during a break on the Test Day of the 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans. At the time he was 86 years old, making him the oldest racing driver to drive a then-current sportscar. He treated motor racing as a skill that could be analyzed and taught and published a book, ‘Sports Car and Competition Driving.’ He became an expert on Porsches, especially the 911 (wrote about in his book ’The Porsche 911 Story’) plus maintained a close relationship with Porsche over the years and has driven every racing Porsche from 1970 on, including the 917.
Unfortunately shortly before his 90th birthday in 2007 he was badly injured in an accident while testing a Honda Civic Type-R for Road and Track magazine near the Nürburgring, and spent 14 days in intensive care.
Paul passed away in 2008 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (France) and later, Turn 15 at Spa-Francorchamps, formerly the first part of the Stavelot corner, was renamed in his honour.
Paul Frère – A stylist on tarmac and paper – from 
Gallery F1
