Trintignant competed in Formula One for 11 teams, winning two Grands Prix across 15 seasons. He finished fourth in the 1954 and 1955 World Drivers' Championships with Ferrari. He entered 15 editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1950 to 1965, winning in 1954 alongside José Froilán González, driving the Ferrari 375 Plus, and finished runner-up in 1959.
He began racing in 1938, and won the 1939 Grand Prix des Frontières, but his career was interrupted by the Second World War, during which his own Bugatti was stored in a barn. When he rebuilt it for an event of 1945, the Coupé de la Liberation, he overlooked a clogged fuel filter, which caused him to drop out of the race. It transpired that the filter was plugged with rat droppings, earning him the unenviable nickname, from another celebrated racer, Jean-Pierre Wimille, of 'Le Petoulet, "the rat-droppings man".[4]
In 1948, Trintignant suffered a very serious accident during a support race for the Swiss Grand Prix. He was thrown in the air, and landed in the middle of the race track. His heart stopped beating for one minute and 15 seconds at the hospital, and he was pronounced dead. However, he survived, and woke up after a week-long coma. He kept a very peculiar looking abdomen scar, as the surgeon stitching a large wound did it at a very irregular pace while his heart had stopped beating. For six months, he suffered from amnesia and a loss of motor skills, but he eventually made a near complete recovery.[5] The corner at which he crashed was later named after him.[6] His wife offered him a stuffed teddy bear during his recovery, and as a superstition, Trintignant kept it in his pocket while he was racing for the rest of his career. He returned to racing in 1949 and won a Formula Two race at the Circuit des Remparts that year.[7]
By 1950 Le Petoulet was successful enough to be offered a works drive for the Gordini team, in the newly formed Formula One World Championship racing series. He competed in Formula One every year until his retirement after the 1964 season. During this long career Trintignant scored two victories, both at the Monaco Grand Prix, in 1955 and 1958.[8] Unusually for Monaco, both victories came from relatively far down the field, as Trintignant started those races from 9th and 5th respectively. 1954 and 1955 were his best Championship years and he finished fourth in the Drivers' Championship in both.
Known for his conservative and reliable driving style,[10][11] Trintignant drove a huge variety of cars, for many different teams: both works and privateer. Unusually, at the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix Trintignant shared both second and third places, a product of the Scuderia Ferrari policy of passing cars to their top drivers, should their original car break down. In 1956 he drove the Bugatti Type 251 in the French Grand Prix, becoming the last driver to represent the famed marque at a Grand Prix race.[12] Even in his final season, driving his own BRM P57, he scored points, taking fifth place at the 1964 German Grand Prix on the intimidating Nürburgring. Between 1959 and 1966, Trintignant held the record for most World Championship Grand Prix starts.[13] Following his retirement from racing, Maurice Trintignant returned to a quiet life as a wine-grower (naming his vintage Le Petoulet),[14] near the town of Vergèze, in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine growing region.
^Trintignant was initially credited with starting the 1951 Italian Grand Prix, as he was secretly replaced by Jean Behra. Gordini team principal Amédée Gordini did not inform the race organisers about the switch as it would have increased the team's starting fee. Some sources still credit Trintignant with the start.[1][2]
