Georges-Francis “Johnny” Servoz-Gavin (18 January 1942 – 29 May 2006) was a motor racing driver in both sportscars and single seaters.
He participated in 13 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix between 1967 and 1970, failing to qualify in one. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of nine championship points. He drove for the Tyrrell Formula One team, mainly as Jackie Stewart’s teammate. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in January 1942 in Grenoble in the Rhone-Alpes region, Georges-Francis Servoz-Gavin worked as a ski instructor during his teenage years, where he became known as Johnny.
He took up rallying after emulating his heroes, driving his Simca Oceane and Dauphine Gordini at high speed on local roads. In 1964 he competed in a number of rallies with a Volvo and during one event in Bordeaux came to the attention of former F1 driver André Simon. Following this he was hired by the Citroen rally team as co-driver to Jean-François Piot for the Coupe des Alpes and the following year contested the Monte Carlo Rally with co-driver Jean-Claude Ogier in a Citroen DS21, finishing twelfth.
During this period he had spent time at the Jim Russell school at Magny Cours and at Montlhéry in the Lotus Seven of the Automobile Club Dauphiné-Savoie within the Ford-operation youth in 1964, which gave him a taste for circuit racing. He enrolled in the Volant Shell, organised by the Winfield School at Zolder, and finished second, despite his engine misfiring in the final. He then bought a Brabham BT15 Ford, maintaining it himself with the help of Tico Martini and during this time lived in a caravan at the Magny-Cours circuit. His first race with the Brabham came at Rouen, where he finished eighth while other races saw him finish fifth at Montlhery, third at Albi and second at Montlhery.
Johnny secured a drive in F3 for 1966, arranged by Jean-Luc Lagardère and there was strong competition that year, with drivers such as Peter Revson, Henri Pescarolo, JP Jaussaud, Piers Courage, Chris Irwin, Jonathon Williams, Wilson Fittipaldi, Allan Rollinson and JP Beltoise. However, he went on to repay the faith by taking three wins (two at Montlhery and one at the Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans) with the MS5 on his way to becoming Champion. He became a Matra factory driver in sports car racing and drove an MS620 at the 1000Km races at Monza, Spa and Paris (with Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Alan Rees and JP Beltoise). There was also a debut at Le Mans, with Jean-Pierre Beltoise (retiring after 112 laps) though he took a second place podium at the Coupe de Paris.
In 1967, after two previous entries as a navigator, he made his debut as a driver in the Monte-Carlo Rally, with Francois Janin as navigator though they didn’t finish. There was a return to Le Mans, co-driving a Matra MS630 with Jean-Pierre Beltoise, but they retired after 155 laps while May saw his Formula 1 debut at Monaco, driving an F2 Matra MS7 but he retired after four laps with injection problems. Now promoted to Matra’s F2 team (alongside JP Beltoise) he had a strong first year in the MS5, with his best results being third and fourth at Vallelunga and Madrid.
The following year saw him make a big impression when he started the Monaco Grand Prix from the front row, standing in for Jackie Stewart (who had injured his wrist in an accident at Jarama). It was a remarkable effort considering this was his first race in an F1 car; 1967’s Monaco race had been in an F2 car. In qualifying he was seen power-sliding through Casino Square and in a wet session was two seconds faster than anyone else and beaten only by Graham Hill in the dry afternoon. In the race he was first away and led for three laps but on the fourth he slowed with his rear suspension broken. Writer/journalist Denis Jenkinson’s report of the race stated “Servoz-Gavin and Beltoise were a joy to watch, their uninhibited handling of new cars with lots of horsepower being refreshing. Servoz-Gavin was obviously happy to have such a responsive and powerful car as the Matra-Cosworth V8 and was really using its potential, not being afraid to give it
full-throttle out of corners and travel a long way in an ‘opposite-lock’ power slide”. In the race he described how, when the flag dropped, he “roared away in a perfect start to lead the pack up the hill from Saint Devote. This was the big moment for the young French driver and he made the most of it, leading the opening lap in a cloud of dust and using all the road and a lot of the edges.” Fellow journalist Nigel Roebuck wrote that “Servoz was one, it seemed to me then absolutely right for his time. If the name looked great on the side of the cockpit, so also the man looked the part. After an era in which too many grand prix drivers..were to be seen pushing prams around the paddock, Johnny had the free-wheeling ways of my childhood heroes. He was a throwback to Alfonso de Portago, a reminder that not all racing drivers lived like monks. Servoz emphatically did not live like a monk..a playboy then and something of a hippy too. Very louche in a James Dean kind of way but not contrived. Simply he seemed like a free spirit who had found the perfect job.”
Jackie Stewart returned from injury so Johnny’s next race came at the French GP at Rouen, though in a Cooper-BRM. He retired on lap 15 but sadly during the race Jo Schlesser died in an horrific accident in a Honda. His best result came at Monza, where, after qualifying thirteenth he went on to finish second and take six points with the Matra; the race saw a strong battle to take this second place at the chequered flag from Jackie Ickx’s Ferrari 312. At Mont Tremblant for the Canadian GP in the September, he was running as high as fifth before spinning and retiring on lap 71. He didn’t race at Watkins Glen but drove in the Mexican GP, although his entry was only allowed by the organisers 2 hours before the race start. He practiced in Vic Elford’s Cooper, plus did some laps in the spare Matra and in the race was running as high as fourth before retiring with ignition trouble on lap 57.
He was again part of Matra’s sportscar squad that year and contested Le Mans with Henri Pescarolo, qualifying fifth, but in the race a tyre burst and the car caught fire and although it was extinguished the car’s rear end was destroyed.
1969 saw him race with Jean Guichet in the Monza 1000km, plus he was teamed with Pedro Rodriguez at the Watkins Glen 6 Hour (finishing fourth) and Zeltweg 1000Km races. The year saw victories with the M630 at Monthlery, Dijon, Magny Cours (twice) and the GP Paris while in F2 he took the championship, winning in the Madrid, Mediterranean and Rome GPs at Jarama, Enna and Vallelunga. In Grands Prix, although he contested the German race with his F2 Matra MS7, he had also tested their MS84 4 wheel drive car and raced it in Canada, USA and Mexico. In Canada he qualified on the sixth row but in a steady, careful drive finished sixth, achieving the first ever championship point for a 4WD car. He qualified on the second to last row at Watkins Glen but brought it to the chequered flag in seventh place while in Mexico he finished eighth.
Unfortunately, during the winter off season, while contesting a rally event a small branch caught him in the right eye. Worried for his career, he said nothing and after undergoing treatment in hospital, stayed in a darkened room for five weeks, and hoped for the outcome. But his peripheral vision was affected and Nigel Roebuck wrote “he knew his peripheral vision was fundamentally and permanently impaired. Placing the car accurately for right handers was now impossible, for he had the impression he was putting a wheel off the road, when in
fact he was still a few inches from the apex.”
In sports cars that year, he raced with Henri Pescarolo in the MS650 in the 12 Hours of Sebring, Brands Hatch 1000Km and the 1000 km of Monza,with their best result a fifth at Sebring. However, the Matra GP seats had been taken by J Beltoise and H.Pescarolo but Ken Tyrrell signed him to contest the season as team mate to Jackie Stewart. Having had a lack of pre-season seat time, and with the eye injury, in the early races his pace and motivation seemed to have gone. He retired from the season opening race in South Africa and in the following race Jackie Stewart won at Jarama and Johnny was fifth but two races later Francois Cevert appeared in the second Tyrrell at Zandvoort. At the Monaco GP following the Spanish race, he had failed to qualify and by the end of that weekend he had made up his mind to quit. “I just wanted to break free, get away” and while on a yacht in the harbour he was holding a party and told friends “You have seen me in a racing car for the last time.” The following week he told Ken Tyrrell of his decision.
By now though he had found a passion for sailing and after buying a 37-metre yacht took it across the Atlantic, declaring it was the best way to learn how to sail properly! “That was when I realised there was something else harder than F1-the sea! When things go wrong, you can’t pull off by the trackside, or come into the pits. You’re alone with your boat and the elements it made me feel very humble, but I loved it.”
After his sudden retirement in 1970, he stated this would allow him more time for his women and would later say “I was never a true professional. I was only a professional because I didn’t have the means to be an amateur.” He lived on a houseboat but in 1982 he was badly burned on his boat after a gas canister exploded. His life hung in the balance for a while but he recovered, and continued to enjoy his sailing long afterwards.
Johnny passed away at the age of 64 in 2006, as the result of a pulmonary embolism following a period of ill health.
