Max Jean “Jean Max”

Max Jean (27 July 1943, Marseille) is a French former racing driver who won the Formule France championship in 1968. In addition to numerous Formula Two and Formula Three entries, Jean participated in one Formula One Grand Prix, driving a March for Frank Williams Racing Cars in his home race on 4 July 1971. He scored no championship points. Info from Wiki

Bio by Stephen Latham
Early in his career, his name was wrongly listed on an entry form as Jean Max, and this was how he was known afterwards.
He began rallying at a local level in 1964 before switching to F3 the following season, plus also drove an Alpine. There was also a drive in a NART ASA RB613 at the Le Mans 24hr test weekend in 1966.

In 1968, driving for the GRAC team, he starred in the Critérium de Formule France, becoming champion with 11 victories from the series’ 17 races. He also raced at Le Mans, in an XS Simca (entered by Andre Moynet and driving with Rene Ligonnet) though they retired with oil pump failure.
For the following year, GRAC constructed an F3 car for him to run but it was a disappointing season, and results included a tenth place at Pau and seventh in Dijon.
In 1970 he left GRAC and, with sponsorship from Motul, ran a works-supported Tecno car. At the opening race in Nogaro, he finished second and repeated this at later races at Linas-Montlhéry and Magny-Cours.

There was also a sixth place finish at Dijon, and ninth on a second trip to Nogaro, but in his other races he suffered a number of mechanical failures.
Techno then placed him in their works F2 team for races at Paul Ricard and Tulln-Langenlebarn (in Austria) where he finished seventh and thirteenth.
For 1971 Jean moved to Frank Williams’ team and raced their March 712M F2 car at Rouen and Pau. During the year, he raced their March 701 at the French GP at Paul Ricard but his race was hampered due to a malfunctioning gearbox.

Following the 1971 season, Jean’s racing activities reduced though in 1972 he drove a Brabham BT38 for Rondel Racing in two F2 races. Unfortunately he didn’t qualify for Pau though finished thirteenth at Albi.

In 1973 he re-entered French F3 and drove the ORECA team’s Martini MK12, though it would be a frustrating season. Although he was again backed by the French oil company Motul, the sponsorship ended due to the global oil crisis and Jean retired at the end of the season.

After retiring Jean built a successful transport business.

Before Formula One

First things first, let’s get this guy’s name straight. You know you’re reject fodder when nobody can even get your name right, and poor ‘Jean Max’ from Marseille, France, has the distinction of having just about every history book record his name the wrong way around. To set the record straight, his name is, in fact, Max Jean. The story goes that someone once got it wrong on an entry list, and the mistake has been perpetuated ever since! Our thanks to Francois-Luc Beaudoin for his assistance in verifying this fact. Our thanks go to David Rainier, who supplied us with much of our info on Max’s career. Jean first appeared on the scene in around 1964, when he began racing in local rallies. From 1965 to 1967, he drove F3 cars in France, first in an Alpine, and then in a GRAC, a local car built by Serge Aziosmanoff. Max soon became the driver of choice for GRAC’s projects.

Max also tried his hand at sports cars. In 1966, he drove for the North American Racing Team in an ASA RB613 at the Le Mans 24hr test weekend, but in 1968, he took part in the enduro classic proper, driving an XS Simca entered by Andre Moynet in one of the small-car classes, partnering Rene Ligonnet. However, the car had an oil pump failure after only three hours, having started a lowly 47th on the grid. But the advent of French Formula Ford in 1968 saw Max and GRAC beat all comers to the title, overcoming the likes of Gerard Larrousse, Jean-Pierre Jarier and Jimmy Mieusset and taking an exceptional 11 wins from 17 rounds. Aziosmanoff then penned the GRAC MT8 for Max’s move up to the French F3 championship in 1969, based on the design of the Lotus 56.

In 1969, Jean came up against drivers such as Patrick Depailler, Jacques Laffite, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and eventual winner Francois Mazet. Max’s results weren’t flash, including retirements at La Chatre, Montlhery and Magny-Cours, a 7th at Dijon and a 5th in the first heat at Nogaro. At this point his relationship with Aziosmanoff ran out of steam, and at season’s end they went their separate ways. In 1970, Max remained in F3, but switched to the Tecno team. His results were much better, taking 2nd at Nogaro, Montlhery and Magny-Cours. At Nogaro and Magny-Cours he was beaten by eventual champion Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, while at Magny-Cours he came home ahead of James Hunt in 4th. However, there was also disappointment, including retirements at Pau, Monaco, Rouen, and another race at Magny-Cours.

That year he also took part in selected events for Tecno in European F2 races. At the actual championship round at Le Castellet (later Paul Ricard), Max finished an impressive 7th between Ronnie Peterson and Emerson Fittipaldi, and he also beat home Carlos Reutemann. At a non-championship race at Flugplatz Tulln-Langenlebarn in Vienna, he finished 12th in the first race, but suffered a puncture in the second. 1971 saw Max secure more sponsorship from French oil company Motul, but outings were few and far between. He was to have done a European Sportscar Championship round with Thierry Tillmant at Le Castellet in a Chevron B16 Ford, but having qualified 21st the car was withdrawn before the start. He also got himself a few F2 drives with Frank Williams’ team, driving a March 712, but he retired at Pau with an engine failure, and then at Rouen he crashed in the first race and could not start the final.

Formula One

Throughout 1971, Max also did some tyre-testing for the Matra F1 team in their MS120 chassis, but come the French GP at Paul Ricard, Frank Williams entered the local in a March 701B with a Cosworth V8 engine and Goodyear tyres. His former F3 protagonist Mazet was also entered by Jo Siffert’s team in the same car/engine combination, but on Firestone tyres. Max’s qualifying time of 1:59.79 was some 9.08 seconds slower than Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell on pole, and 2.72 seconds off Alex Soler-Roig’s March 711 just in front of him. However, he would have had the satisfaction of being faster than Mazet by 0.72 of a second. As it turned out, Max and Mazet had the two slowest times of the 24 entrants, but when Nanni Galli failed to start, Max was bumped up to 22nd on the grid.

In a race where the Ferraris were expected to dominate, not only did they fail to do so but Jacky Ickx retired early and Clay Regazzoni spun out at half-distance. That left Stewart to record an easy win, with team-mate Francois Cevert and reigning World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi roughly half a minute behind. That led to unproven accusations regarding the legality of Stewart’s fuel and engine capacity. Jean crossed the line 2.04 seconds behind the winning Tyrrell, but some 9 laps down after a lengthy pit stop with a gearbox problem. The last of the 14 cars left in the race, he was not classified. Mazet, meanwhile, was the last of the classified runners in 13th, 5 laps down.

After Formula One

Despite what early promise Max may have shown in the late 1960s, the fact was that now he was but a face in the crowd. After such a fruitless 1971, 1972 was little better, the Frenchman only managing to get a few F2 drives in Ron Dennis’ Rondel team in a Brabham BT38. It was all a bit displeasing, really, with the only notable result being an 8th place at Pau. 1973 was the last year of his Motul sponsorship due to the global oil crisis, and Max fell back to French F3 in an ORECA Martini MK12, in a series eventually won by Laffite in the same type of car. For a driver of his experience, Max would have been immensely disappointed to record only a 9th at the Nurburgring, and two 4th places at Magny-Cours and Pau. He was to have driven a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 for the Motul Defence Mondial team at Le Mans with Christian Ethuin, but the pair did not start the race.

Left without sponsorship, he left the racing scene, and established a transport company with his son. From what we can tell, Jean Max now lives in happy retirement in La Garde-Freinet.

CAREER SUMMARY

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