Stumbled across this picture from the seventies





I started wondering what about now... (two drivers will obviously be missing)

thought it was a boy group at first

dont have a clue who they are but guy in middle left looks like massa who really needs a haircut

Great photo!

They are all top French F1 stars from the 70s-80s era. Even if you're too young to have been there at the time, their names will probably be familiar.

From the left front:

Jean-Pierre Jabouille, raced 74-81, Renault & Ligier.

(At the back) Jaques Lafitte, raced 74-86, Williams & Ligier. Career ended with smashed legs at the first-corner pile up in the 1986 British GP at Brands Hatch: Mansell's Williams suffered a broken drive shaft at the first start, but the crash resulted in a restart in which NM took his spare car and won the race.

(In front of JL) Patrick Tambay, raced 77-86, Ensign, McLaren, Theodore, Ligier, Ferrari, Renault, Lola.

(Middle front) Patrick Dépailler, raced 72-80, Tyrell, Ligier, Alfa Romeo. Killed in a testing crash at Hockenheim, 1/8/80.

(Hiding behind Dépailler) Jean-Pierre Jarier, raced 71-83, March, Shadow, Penske, ATS, Lotus, Tyrell, Ligier, Osella.

(Big grinner at the back) Réné Arnoux, raced 78-89, Martini, Surtees, Renault, Ferrari, Ligier.

(Little round-faced smiler) Didier Pironi, raced 78-82 Tyrell, Ligier, Ferrari. Famous for causing a rift twixt himself and teammate Gilles Villeneuve by not honouring agreed team orders. GV refused to speak to DP ever again, and the very next race, GV drove like a madman in qually, trying to beat Pironi's provisional pole time, and ended up losing his life in that massive shunt. Pironi's own F1 career ended the same year when he smashed his feet up in a Hockenheim crash. Moved to powerboat racing, where he was killed in a crash off the Isle of Wight, 23/8/87.

Notice that a common denominator, apart from being French, is that they all drove for Ligier at some stage of their careers.

ETA: FB, you beat me to it!

Jarier and Pironi are both wearing Tyrell gear, so this pins the photo down to 1979. Notice a lack of Alain Prost: his F1 career didn't start until the following year, 1980.

So what we've got here is the entire French contingent of the 1979 season - with the exception of one Patrick Gaillard, who replaced Derek Daly at Ensign for 5 mid-season races, only qualifying for 2 of them. Gaillard himself was then replaced by the Swiss driver Marc Surer.

So the photo was probably taken early in the 79 season - just before the start? - or very late in the season.

It's also just struck me that in that 79 season you had 3 French driver-pairings, of which 2 were French teams (Pironi/Jarier in Tyrell, Arnoux/Jabouille in Renault & Lafitte/Depailler in Ligier).

Gawd, I could be here all night doing this!

And Grouillard... ( I even saw two of his F1 races...)

Welcome to the 1970s, my boy.

Those were the days,I used to go to two GP`s a year in those days.Just look at this shot of the paddock at the Dutch GP Zandvoort.Cars being prepared outside under awnings!! A little bit different to today's clinical corporate multi millions.Compare this with some of my shots in the other thread about Yas
Marina.

The saddest part is that while I recognise the faces in the first picture, there is only Arnoux who I would recognise now, without a caption.

Frightening when you think about the man-in-the-mirror.