Esteban Ocon recently became the 14th French driver to win a Formula 1 World Championship-era grand prix. The first was Maurice Trintignant. This son of a Provençal vineyard owner narrowly escaped death at the tragic 1948 Swiss GP at Bremgarten that claimed three other drivers. He recovered from serious injury to return with Gordini, then joined Ferrari in 1954, for which he won the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Monaco GP in 1955. He added a second Monaco win in 1958, driving a Rob Walkerrun Cooper. Popular Trintignant made 80 grand prix starts between 1950 and 1964 and carried with good humour the soubriquet Le Petoulet – meaning ‘rat droppings’, which were deposited in his Bugatti during its wartime lay-up and caused his retirement from the first post-World War Two motor race!