Gérard Ducarouge

Who is Gérard Ducarouge?

Gérard Ducarouge is a French former Formula One car designer. Like many designers, his background was based in aeronautical engineering. He qualified at college with Bacalauréat Technique et Mathématique and won his Degre Superieur after studying at the École Nationale Technique d’Aéronautique.

After leaving college he joined Nord Aviation in 1964 where he worked on various missile projects. However, he became restless and applied for a job as a technician at Matra racing in December 1965. This was shortly after the creation of Matra-Sports and Gérard started work on their Formula 3 programme, and from 1966 he also began improving their Formula 2 cars. Ducarouge steadily rose within the organisation to Head of Operations where he designed the Cosworth-powered Matra MS10 and MS80, the latter winning the 1969 Formula One World Championship with Jackie Stewart; Ducarouge then masterminded Matra’s hat-trick of Le Mans wins from 1972-1974. At the end of 1974 Matra pulled out of racing.

Ducarouge resigned shortly after to begin work at the new Formula 1 team founded by Guy Ligier at Vichy, close to Gerard’s home town of Paray-le-Monial. He began work on Ligier’s entrant to the 1976 season, the JS5 which retained links with Matra including their 3-litre V12 engine and SEITA Gitanes brand sponsorship. By the Swedish Grand Prix of 1977 the team celebrated its maiden Grand Prix victory.