François Guiter | |
|---|---|
 Guiter in 2009 | |
| Born | François Émile Jean Guiter (1928-05-07)7 May 1928 |
| Died | 9 November 2014(2014-11-09) (aged 86) Paris, France (XVe) |
| Occupation | Advertising executive |
| Years active | 1967–1989 |
| Employer | Elf Aquitaine |
| Spouse | Françoise (Grandidier) |
| Children | 3 |
François Émile Jean Guiter (7 May 1928 — 9 November 2014) was a French businessman who served asElf's head of marketing from 1967 to 1989. Through his control over theFrench state-owned oil company's marketing budget, he became one ofFormula One's most important power brokers.Joe Saward ofAutoweek described Guiter as one of "the primary forces in creating modern F1".
Guiter facilitated Formula One's path to broadcast television, winning a struggle with theBBC to permit large-scale advertising in the sport. He was the chief financial backer ofMatra,Tyrrell, andRenault, the first two of which won titles while being sponsored by Elf. He championed Renault's introduction ofturbocharged engines to Formula One in 1977, ushering in a new era of racing dominated by wealthy multinational automakers. Although Renault disbanded its Formula One works team in 1985, Elf helped persuade the company to resume building engines in 1989. Renault-poweredWilliams andBenetton won five Drivers' Championships and six Constructors' Championships in the 1990s.
Through Elf, Guiter pursuedCharles de Gaulle andGeorges Pompidou's goal to restore the reputation of French auto racing.Jackie Stewart won three Drivers' Championships in cars sponsored by Elf and painted inFrench racing blue. Led by Stewart, Équipe Matra won the Constructors' Championship in1969; as of the2024 season, it is the only constructor physically headquartered outside the United Kingdom or Italy to win the title. Through his involvement in the French junior racing pyramid, Guiter supported the junior careers of many future Formula One drivers, including four-time world championAlain Prost. He also backed theAlpine-Renault endurance racing team, which won the1978 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Guiter was born in the7th arrondissement of Paris, France, on 7 May 1928.[1] His parents wereJean Guiter [fr], a politician,[2] and Odette Formigé, the daughter of architectJules Formigé.[3]
DuringWorld War II, a young Guiter joined theFrench Resistance. He worked as afrogman.[4] He was missing several fingers, and the rumor in the racing press was that he lost the fingers while attaching alimpet mine to an enemy ship.[5] He later studied architecture, but found it boring and quit after two years.[6] He also spent time with theSDECE, France's secret service. Many years later, he would call on his secret service connections to haveFrançois Cevert's body promptly transported back to France after Cevert died in 1973.[7]
After leaving the secret service, Guiter joined the film industry, producing several underwater films withJacques Cousteau andHaroun Tazieff.[8][9] In the 1960s, he worked on several episodes of the French television showLes Coulisses de l'exploit [fr].[10][11] However, in 1955, his brother Jean-Claude was killed during a television shoot with Tazieff.[12] He got lost exploring a dangerous water-filled underground cavern atFont Estramar [fr].[13][14] Guiter dived to find him,[2] and Cousteau dispatched his own team to continue the search, but neither attempt succeeded.[13] After Jean-Claude's body was found in 1958,[12] the cavern was sealed at Guiter's request.[13]
To appease his parents, Guiter left underwater filmmaking for advertising, joining the French office of American oil companyCaltex. After his arrival, the French governmentnationalised Caltex's French operations.[6]
In 1965, the French government merged Guiter's Caltex and several other companies into one large state-owned oil company, ERAP, which rebranded toElf in April 1967.[15]: 90 Guiter was named Elf's head of marketing.[16] He searched for a way to promote his company's new name.[17] Although Guiter admitted that he "had never watched a race before and knew nothing about [the sport]", market research convinced him that Elf's relatively young and urbanized customer base wanted to buy cutting-edge products and were interested in auto racing.[6][18] In response, the company adopted the slogan "Elf looks at things from a different angle" (Elf voit les choses d'une autre façon).[15]: 92 Guiter went into auto racing,[18] emphasizing that technical innovation "must be at the heart of our image", and "we will prove it ... with our involvement in motorsport".[19]
Guiter and Elf enjoyed the support ofCharles de Gaulle, the president of France at the time.[15]: 87 TheGaullist philosophy of de Gaulle and his successor,Georges Pompidou, encouraged France to grow self-reliant. Elf was located in the strategically valuable oil sector, and thus became "an instrument of the national independence and the grandeur of France", in contrast to Renault, the state-owned auto manufacturer.[15]: 91 Elf used its political favor to influence Renault corporate policy.[15]: 92 Elf also intertwined its operations with those of Renault's, each using its position to promote the other's products.[15]: 93
De Gaulle also wanted to restore the reputation of French auto racing.[15]: 87 It was said that while "de Gaulle saw only a grand design for France" in auto racing, Pompidou actually liked cars.[19] Guiter agreed with the plan, explaining that "we looked at racing ... and we realised the French had been pretty good at it:Delahaye,Delage,Talbot,Gordini, drivers likeWimille andSommer. But there was nobody left. So, we rather pretentiously said, 'We're going to put France back on top of the racing world.'"[20]: 104
Elf directly advertised through title sponsorships, adding itself to the team names ofTyrrell andRenault.[16][21] At various points, Elf also supplied race fuel toMatra,Williams,Benetton,Brabham,Lotus,McLaren, andLigier.[22][23][16] Due to Elf's omnipresence in Formula One advertising,Motor Sport wrote that "no matter where you go for a [...] Grand Prix you will be conscious of the name ELF".[16] Recognising the increasing role of sponsors, theCommission Sportive Internationale (auto racing's top regulator) appointed Guiter andMarlboro'sJohn Hogan to the Formula One Commission, which governed the sport.[24][25]
At this moment, 53 networks televise Formula 1 regularly, and 650 million people watch each race. The BBC's position is just one out of 54.
To reach this point, however, Guiter had to overcome opposition from theBritish Broadcasting Corporation, which disfavoured obtrusive advertising. In March 1976, the BBC decided to black out the1976 Formula One season to protest theSurtees Racing Organisation's sponsorship with condom manufacturerDurex.[27] A month later, it also threatened to black out theFormula Two season, pointing to a 55-square-inch limit on the size of advertising decals on racing cars. In response, Guiter threatened to have Elf produce the race broadcast itself and sell it to the BBC's rival,ITV-LWT.[28] In the end, British audiences demanded to watch local starJames Hunt challengeNiki Lauda for the Drivers' Championship at the1976 Japanese Grand Prix. After ITV agreed to broadcast Formula One, the BBC caved in.[27]
Guiter's struggle with the BBC continued into the1977 season. The BBC accused Elf of "intransigence" and said that it would refuse to broadcast the season until Elf agreed to shrink its advertising decals from 15 inches to a maximum height of five inches. In response, Guiter filmed the entire Formula One and Formula Two seasons at Elf's expense and offered to give away the footage to the BBC's rivals for free. He also accused the BBC of hypocrisy for broadcasting Hunt's victory at the1977 British Grand Prix, as Hunt's McLaren car advertised sponsors Marlboro andTexaco.[29] In 1978, the BBC introducedMurray Walker's long-running TV programmeGrand Prix to provide consistent coverage of all races, all season long.[30]
Elf also tried to grow the sport. Upon arriving in Formula One, Guiter was unimpressed with the quality of the racing press.[31] He pushed to further professionalise media coverage. Outlets he backed includedTF1 television showAutomoto [fr] and the French edition ofAutosport magazine.[9][32] He paid photojournalistsJust Jaeckin andEmmanuel Zurini [fr] and film director Alain Boisnard to cover the sport.[33][34]: 336 Working withBernie Ecclestone, he also encouraged improvements to television coverage, including the introduction ofonboard cameras.[35] In addition, he was one of the first sponsors to provide centralized catering for racing journalists at Formula One races.[36]
In his later years, Guiter clashed with Ecclestone and his allyMax Mosley, who wanted to maximise television revenue. His Elf "ma[d]e no bones about the fact that if Mr. Ecclestone and Mr. Mosley want[ed] to turn Formula 1 into a public spectacle and an entertainment above all else, with no thought for the future other than money-making[,] then [it would] pull out".[16] Guiter felt that Formula One should not drive too hard a bargain for television rights, because it was in the sport's interest to keep the cost of broadcasting low and television networks happy. Mosley described Guiter's position as "an extraordinary mistake". He responded that television networks would not take Formula One seriously unless they were paying large amounts of money for it.[37]
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Even before launching the Elf brand, Guiter had already signed a four-year sponsorship agreement withEquipe Matra Sports.[15]: 90–91 In addition to Elf's support, the team received 6 million francs in direct funding from the French government.[40][41] Matra was described as "a means of restoring French pride within the highest echelons of the sport".[39] When the team was still new, Guiter promised that Matra would work its way up fromFormula Three to Formula One and thenLe Mans.[18] He recalled that when he said it, "everyone just fell about laughing".[20]: 104
At Matra, Guiter formed a triumvirate with team principalKen Tyrrell and company CEOJean-Luc Lagardère.[34]: 185 In a complicated arrangement, Tyrrell ran his own British team asMatra International, combining a French Matra chassis with Ford engines. The team was technically aprivateer and operated separately from the Matra works team, but it received factory support from Matra.[41] Tyrrell praised Matra's commitment, explaining that "the manufacturing methods they use are very expensive. I don't think any of the British Formula One manufacturers could afford to pay what it costs to produce a Matra Formula One".[41]
Matra's Formula One efforts peaked in1968 and1969, after the Tyrrell team recruitedJackie Stewart fromBRM. Elf paid his £80,000 salary.[20]: 108 Guiter praised his work ethic, later calling him "the first real professional driver".[20]: 147–148 In 1968, Stewart finished second in the Drivers' Championship,[42] and Matra-Ford finished third in the Constructors' Championship.[43] However, the Matra works team (which used in-house Matra engines) finished eighth.[43] In 1969, Matra paused its works team, making Tyrrell its sole focus.[44] The newMatra MS80 was the class of the field.[39] Stewart won the first of his three Drivers' Championships in dominant fashion, scoring 63 points toJacky Ickx's 37, and Matra-Ford won the Constructors' Championship.[34]: 205 Matra remains the only chassis constructor with its headquarters outside the United Kingdom or Italy to win the Formula One constructors' title.[45][a]
However, Matra's success was complicated by Elf's close relationship with Renault. Although Renault did not compete with Matra in Formula One, both automakers wanted to win the24 Hours of Le Mans.[22] According to reporterJabby Crombac, the Renault-Matra rivalry was so intense thatGeorges Pompidou personally ordered Elf to stop sponsoring Matra.[22] Guiter added that Renault was also jealous of Matra's success in Formula One.[15]: 93 Matra eventually won Le Mans three years in a row (1972,1973, and1974),[9] although by that point, Matra had a different fuel sponsor.[6][47]: 15–16
Matra split up after the 1969 double world championship. Matra asked Tyrrell to switch from Ford engines to Matra's own engines, which neither Stewart nor Tyrrell wanted to do.[48][34]: 205 As a result, Tyrrell left Matra and started a fully independent racing team, the BritishTyrrell Racing Organisation.[49] Guiter threw his support behind Tyrrell, as the Matra parent company had recently partnered with French automakerSimca, which was allied with Elf's rivalShell.[6][47]: 15–16 Guiter later revealed that Matra considered partnering with Renault instead of Simca, but negotiations with Renault fell through.[6] Matra shifted its focus to endurance racing and shut down its Formula One team after the1972 season.[39][50] In 1976,Guy Ligier acquired Matra's racing assets and startedhis own F1 team, which competed until 1996.[51]
Although Tyrrell Racing was a British team, it retained a certain French flavour. Tyrrell agreed to keep painting his carsFrench racing blue,[21] and Guiter frequently placed French drivers with the team.[6] Tyrrell initially replaced Matra with a privateer chassis fromMarch, but Elf andDunlop provided the financial support for Tyrrell to start building his own cars.[52] Guiter's spending on the team rivaled even that of tobacco companies; by the mid-1970s, Tyrrell was spending six times as much money asTeam Lotus in 1968, the year Lotus became the first major F1 team to sign a tobacco sponsorship deal.[53] Aided by French money, the Tyrrell team continued to succeed: Jackie Stewart won two more titles with Tyrrell in1971 and1973, and Tyrrell won the Constructors' Championship in 1971.[49] After Stewart retired in 1973, Guiter hired him as a company ambassador.[34]: 336–337
Elf remained with Tyrrell until 1978, but Guiter and Ken Tyrrell clashed over the fate ofRenault'sturbo engine project,[6] which Elf was subsidising.[54] Guiter admitted that Tyrrell had given him the idea to build a turbo engine in the first place, and that their initial plan was for Renault to build engines for Tyrrell.[6] Guiter said that the notorious 1976/1977 "six-wheeler"Tyrrell P34 was originally designed for a Renault turbo,[6] andAutosport reported on rumours that Tyrrell was planning to install a Renault turbo in 1978'sTyrrell 008,[55] but none of these plans ever came to fruition and Renault started its own works team.[6] Guiter claimed that Tyrrell was scared of "unnamed problems" with the turbo project and "gave up" on Renault.[6] One Tyrrell engineer said thatKeith Duckworth (whoseCosworth engine company would have lost Tyrrell as a customer if Guiter’s plan had succeeded) helped sway Tyrrell against turbos.[56] However, by 1984Motor Sport reported that Renault was affirmatively refusing to supply Tyrrell with turbo engines.[57] Regardless of the reason, Tyrrell eventually campaigned to ban turbos from Formula One, and Elf stopped financially supporting the team.[57]
Tyrrell Racing endured financial difficulties after Elf's departure and never contended for a title again.[52] The team essentially went sponsor-less in 1979; Maurice Hamilton wrote that "Tyrrell had come to rely completely on [sponsorship from Elf andCitibank] without thinking about nurturing sponsorship from anywhere else".[36] Tyrrell was one of the last major F1 teams to acquire turbo engines, when Renault agreed to supply it for 1985.[58] By this time, the Renault works team was already on its way out.[59] After several decades and multiple ownership changes, the Tyrrell outfit returned to title contention asBrawn GP andMercedes,[60] although neither team sourced its fuel from Elf.[61][62]
According toJoe Saward, Guiter,Formula One Group'sBernie Ecclestone, andMarlboro'sJohn Hogan were "the primary forces in creating modern F1, not only by providing money for the sport, but also by putting together great teams".[63] Guiter poured "vast sums of petro-francs" into building a French driver pipeline.[64] Due to his significant influence,Jean Alesi said that Guiter "was like a king in France".[65]Patrick Tambay said that Guiter andEnzo Ferrari were the only two people he met who demonstrated "absolute natural authority".[33]
Guiter significantly increased France's presence in Formula One. In the 1970s and 1980s, 29 French drivers raced in Formula One.[64] At the high-water-mark of the French phenomenon, the1980 South African Grand Prix, seven of the 26 drivers who qualified to start were French.[64]Autosport's French editor Pascal Dro—whose publication was supported by Elf—wrote that "all the French racing drivers who won in Formula 1 since the late 1960s owe their career to [Guiter]".[32] On the other hand,Matt Bishop called Guiter's efforts "nakedlyjingoistic".[66]
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Guiter championed various driver development initiatives, including:
Guiter did more than write checks. Winfield School's Simon de Lautour said that Guiter "would go up to people in the F1 pits and say: 'I want you to try this driver' - and they'd jump to it. He had a lot of charisma and a lot of clout."[4] Drivers aided by Guiter includedFrançois Cevert,Patrick Depailler, andDidier Pironi.[5] He had a particularly warm relationship with Depailler.[72] Guiter also stepped in to fundRene Arnoux's junior career when Arnoux's prior benefactor, Shell, cut its funding during the1973 oil crisis.[73]
The most famous beneficiary of Guiter's support wasAlain Prost, France's only Formula One World Champion, who credited Guiter with helping him "at a time when I was stuck".[74] Prost, whose family could not afford to pay for a year in Formula Renault, saved his junior career by winning the Volant Elf.[75] After Prost won theFrench Formula Three Championship in 1978, Guiter "took a personal interest" in the young man.[76] He took him to the1979 Monaco Grand Prix and introduced him to the racing press, tellingNigel Roebuck that "this one is special".[77] He encouraged John Hogan—the power broker atMcLaren—to give the young Prost a chance. Although McLaren team bossTeddy Mayer favored a different driver, Hogan helped persuade Mayer to let Prost spend his rookie year with McLaren.[76] Prost later said that Guiter "opened the doors of F1 to me".[74] Upon Guiter's death, he added that "French Formula 1 owes him a lot. I owe him everything."[78]
Despite his staunch support for Formula One, Guiter was ambivalent about the junior program, citing the sport's unimpressive safety record at the time he began sponsoring the sport. He said that "when Elf started competing ... many people died in accidents. I felt that I was sending all of these boys to disaster. It was not consistent with what I used to do."[69]
During Guiter's career,Renault—France's leading state-owned automaker—traditionally resisted the costs of auto racing.[15]: 88, 96, 99–100 Its CEO,Pierre Dreyfus, said that "Renault is not a manufacturer of race cars and it will not become one".[15]: 88 In the 1950s and 1960s, Dreyfus allowedAutomobiles Alpine to borrow the Renault name and to enterRenault Dauphines in motorsport competitions. However, Renault provided no financial support, and the joke was that the Alpine team was branded "Renault-Alpine" when it won and "Alpine-Renault" when it lost.[15]: 88–89 In addition, during the 1960s and 1970s, Renault grew suspicious of Alpine's financial management, as Alpine was deep in debt.[79] Renault ultimately purchased majority control of Alpine in 1973 and full control in 1977.[47]: 5–6
At the end of 1967, Guiter approached Renault's communication director Jean Terramorsi with a proposal to start auto racing.[15]: 92 In an arrangement that went beyond motorsports, Elf agreed to financially support the Renault-Alpine racing teams in exchange for various commercial concessions.[79][15]: 95 In auto racing, Alpine provided the chassis, Renault and its subsidiaryGordini generally provided the engine, and Elf provided the money.[80][15]: 99–100 Elf contributed 110 million francs (around £8.7m in 1972, or £101m in 2024) to the Alpine-Renault-Elf teams before the Renault takeover in 1973.[79]
Over the next decade, Guiter overcame Renault's resistance to auto racing by bankrolling Renault teams in less expensive competitions until Renault finally agreed to join Formula One during the1977 season.[54][15]: 96–100 Because of his key role in Renault's racing operation, it was said that when theRenault F1 team had a bad day, Guiter and not Renault would "receive [the] phone calls from very high up in the French Government asking what [was] going on".[81]Jean-Pierre Jabouille said that "if Guiter had never existed, Renault F1 would have never existed".[33]
At the start of the Alpine-Renault-Elf alliance, Elf encouraged Alpine to compete in multiple categories. The Alpine-Renault-Elf team, led byJean-Claude Andruet, won the 1968 Frenchrally championship.[15]: 98 The team also entered the1968 24 Hours of Le Mans, although it failed to win the general classification and only won a lesser category.[15]: 98 In addition, while Renault did not want to fund a Formula One team, Guiter helped Alpine build a prototype race car for the1968 Formula One season, theAlpine A350.[15]: 99
Renault soon reduced the alliance to rallying. Renault was relatively comfortable with rallying, which usedstock cars.[15]: 96 By contrast, Renault withdrew support for endurance racing after another disappointing Le Mans in1969.[15]: 98 In addition, Renault shut down the Formula One project before its first race, arguing that the project would not be competitive.[15]: 100 Alpine kept the prototype in storage, but Renault had it destroyed after taking over Alpine in 1973.[15]: 100 Guiter recalled that "at the time, it was almost forbidden to talk about [Formula One] with Renault".[6]
However, Guiter did not give up. In 1972, he commissioned Renault subsidiaryGordini to build anew engine for a revival of the Alpine endurance racing team.[82][83] Although Renault's leadership was not enthusiastic, Guiter "simply handed the budget to a new generation of engineers at Gordini'sViry-Châtillon factory and told them to get on with it".[82] The team won the 1974European Sportscar Championship, sweeping the top three places in the standings, andAlain Serpaggi [fr] won the Drivers' Championship in anAlpine A441.[83] For its next step, Renault built aturbocharged sportscar engine, which debuted atMugello in 1975.[83] TheAlpine A442 debuted at the1976 24 Hours of Le Mans, setting the fastest lap. In1978, Alpine won Le Mans for the first time. However, Renault left endurance racing after the 1978 victory to focus on Formula One.[84]
Guiter also pressed on in formula racing. After the Tyrrell-Matra split, Elf began sponsoring an AlpineFrench Formula Three team, which won the 1971 title.[47]: 17 Alpine progressed toFormula Two for the1972 season, but Renault declined to develop a new engine, so Alpine purchased customer Ford-Hart engines, which were less successful.[47]: 18
It has been a long project.
In mid-1975,Bernard Vernier-Palliez succeeded the traditionalist Pierre Dreyfus as Renault's CEO.[86] That same year, Renault centralised and formalised its racing operations (including Alpine and Gordini) under one banner,Renault Sport.[79] Two years after destroying the Alpine A350, Renault authorised Alpine to design a new car, theAlpine A500, which eventually developed into theRenault RS01, the team's first Formula One car.[15]: 100 Renault eventually agreed to join Formula One for the1977 season. Elf signed a ten-year contract with Renault to become the team's title sponsor.[16]
The most important decision facing the new team was whether to develop anaturally aspirated engine or aturbocharged engine. Formula One regulations permitted either option, but to that point, every team had picked the tried-and-true NA engines over the untested turbos.[87] Guiter strongly supported the turbo project, as Elf felt that "something so different would make great marketing sense".[87] In addition,Ken Tyrrell had advised him that it would be easier to invent something new than to out-develop the dominant, naturally aspiratedFord Cosworth engines.[6] To sway Renault leadership, Guiter promised that Elf would pay for two engines itself.[54]
When Renault joined the grid, it became the first Formula One team to use a turbocharged engine.[59] Guiter estimated that the Renault turbos generated 500 horsepower, 50 more than Cosworth.[88]
The engines' increased power was offset by decreased reliability, and Renault endured two difficult seasons in 1977 and 1978.[59] The jilted Ken Tyrrell cuttingly dubbed the Renault "the yellow teapot" because of how frequently it retired with smoke bursting from the engine.[89] Engine chiefBernard Dudot explained that Renault had not predicted how difficult it would be to perfect the new turbo technology, but pointed out that it was "because we didn't have a complete view of the problems ... [that] we were able to convince the president of the company that this was the way".[59] However, his team continued improving the engine, and two years after Renault entered Formula One, Renault'sJean-Pierre Jabouille won the1979 French Grand Prix. Guiter was finally able to celebrate whatAutosport called "victory in France for a French driver, with a French chassis, engine, tyres, fuel. French everything."[85]
The power of the Renault turbos eventually shifted the balance of power in Formula One from small, mostly British racing teams to large automakers who could afford to develop complex engines.[90] The British teams initially sought to ban or limit turbos.[6] By contrast,Ferrari adopted turbochargers in 1981. The more powerful British teams eventually relented and found their own large automakers to build turbo engines for them, withHonda joiningWilliams,Porsche joiningMcLaren, andBMW joiningBrabham. By 1983, every major team was using turbo engines.[90] The turbo dispute overlapped with theFISA-FOCA war, when the teams representing auto manufacturers split withFOCA (which represented most of the British teams) over various issues related to the governance of the sport. Elf followed Renault and sided withFISA.[91] Guiter warned FOCA to compromise before FISA cancelled the1980 season, which eventually went ahead.[92]
By 1980, Renault was competing at the top of Formula One. It finished 4th, 3rd, 3rd, and 2nd in the Constructors' Championship from 1980 to 1983.[93][94][95][96] In1983,Alain Prost narrowly lost the drivers' title to Brabham-BMW'sNelson Piquet. Post-race testing determined that Piquet's fuel (supplied by Elf's rivalWintershall) had anoctane rating of 102.9, slightly above the limit of 102.[97] Guiter wanted to challenge the result;[6][70]: 63 through unknown means, he had acquired one of the fuel samples that Brabham had submitted to the regulators, and Elf independently confirmed the findings.[98] However, FISA'sJean-Marie Balestre ruled in Piquet's favour, costing his countryman Prost the title. One writer characterised Balestre's decision as an attempt "to underline the newentente cordiale" between FISA and FOCA.[97]
Renault declined to appeal the ruling. Various reasons were provided. Prost opined that Renault did not care because it had already decided to fire him at the end of the season,[70]: 63 while Guiter felt that Renault's corporate leadership did not want to offend BMW.[6] Others said that Renault was uncomfortable with the idea of winning a title in the courtroom.[75] After Prost was fired and joined McLaren, the British team invited Elf to stay with Prost as a McLaren sponsor, but Guiter's superiors blocked the move in deference to Renault.[6]
The 1970s-1980s incarnation of Renault never competed for a title again. Its results slid after Prost was fired.[59] In addition, in early 1985, the French government replaced Renault CEOBernard Hanon [fr], a supporter of the team, withGeorges Besse, who was not as enthusiastic about the project.[87][99] Renault shut down its Formula One team after the 1985 season.[59] In addition, it stopped manufacturing engines for other teams after the 1986 season, Besse having given Renault Sport an ultimatum to sign a works engine deal with McLaren,Lotus, or Williams or quit.[100] Renault did not resume constructing cars until 2000, when it acquiredBenetton Formula (renamed Renault in 2001).[59]
Following Renault's exit, Guiter kept Elf in Formula One. He initially backedPeter Warr'sLotus-Honda team, which employed French engineerGérard Ducarouge and Brazilian driverAyrton Senna. He proposed following Senna and Honda toMcLaren in 1988, which would have also allowed him to reunite withAlain Prost. However, after some bureaucratic infighting within the Elf organisation, Elf renewed its contract with Lotus and McLaren remained withShell.[100]
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After losing Senna, Guiter pivoted back to Renault, which agreed toreturn to Formula One as an engine supplier in1989, the year turbochargers were banned. As before, Guiter took a close interest in the Renault engine project. To secure Renault power,Williams broke its contract withMobil to sign with Elf.[101] The Williams-Renault-Elf alliance won four Drivers' Championships and five Constructors' Championships in the 1990s.[59]
Guiter retired from Elf in 1989 after reaching the mandatory retirement age of sixty.[6] He returned to filmmaking,[8] and produced a 1992 documentary on Senna, which was directed by his son Jean-Claude.[102][103] However, he remained involved with Elf as an advisor for another seven years.[6] He pushedFrank Williams to sign Prost for1990, but Williams balked at Prost's high demands, and Prost went to Ferrari instead.[101] Prost did not join Williams-Renault until1993; the team's outgoing lead driver, 1992 championNigel Mansell, later claimed that Elf and Renault had tried to freeze him out to ensure Prost would be the primary focus of the team.[104]
After Williams dominated the 1992 season, the FIA'sMax Mosley attempted to "make racing more interesting for the public" by outlawing the special fuel that Elf had been supplying Williams, on the logic that Formula One should try to use the same petrol as ordinary consumers.[105] During the 1993 season, Mosley accused Elf of violating this directive and threatened to disqualify Prost from several races, although no penalty was given.[106] Guiter later complained that "the FIA was always trying to trap us";[6] Mosley had previously been accused of targeting Prost to "enliven" the competition, as Prost had by far the best car on the grid.[107] After Prost won the title, Guiter remarked that "coming back to a problem you failed and succeeding ten years later is very rare".[6]
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Elf supplied fuel to at least six other teams during the Williams-dominated 1990s, including Williams' strongest competitor,Benetton Formula.[23] Elf signed with Benetton-Ford in 1993.[109] The following year, Benetton'sMichael Schumacher won the1994 drivers' title.[108]
In1995, Benetton switched to Renault power and contended for titles again. At the season-openingBrazilian Grand Prix, Schumacher and Williams'David Coulthard were temporarily disqualified due to an issue with Elf's fuel, but the FIA concluded that Elf's violation was a technicality.[110] Even so, Max Mosley felt that some kind of penalty was necessary for the sake of "the whole system",[111] so the teams lost their championship points while the drivers' disqualifications were reversed.[23] Guiter commented that because Elf's fuel was not illegal, the FIA had to "reclassify Schumacher to avoid ridicule".[6] Despite the penalty, Schumacher and Benetton-Renault won a double world championship that year.[108]
Elf pulled out of Formula One after the 1996 season.[112] Although the move was principally attributed to cost cuts associated with Elf's 1994 privatisation,[48][113] Guiter's contemporaryMike Knight put some of the blame on Guiter, arguing that he could have done more to ensure that that his successor at Elf was also a supporter of auto racing.[114]
Elf returned to Formula One after Renault purchased Benetton in 2000.[115][59] However, by 2007, there were no French drivers on the grid.[34]: 186 Renault switched its fuel and lubricants supplier toBP/Castrol in 2017, closing the book on a partnership spanning half a century.[116]
Guiter and his wife Françoise (née Grandidier) had three children, named Jean-Claude, Sophie, and Florence.[117][118] Françoise was a Chevalier of theOrdre des Arts et Lettres[119] and the niece of sculptorGermaine Richier.[120]
Guiter died on 9 November 2014 in the15th arrondissement of Paris.[1] He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at the cave where his brother died.[118]
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