Motorsport Memorial -

Fernand Gabriel

Complete name: Fernand Joseph Gabriel

Birth date: 30.Apr.1878

Birth Place: Paris, 17e arrondissement, France

Death date: 09.Sep.1943

Death Place: La Garenne-Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine (92), France

Nationality: France

Gender: male

Notes:

Fernand Gabriel
1878 - 1943

Author: Agence Rol. Agence Photographique (France). Bibliothèque Nationale de France collection, public domain.

Fernand Gabriel was born in Paris in 1878. Little is known about his youth and how he came to racing. He commenced his motor-sporting activities as early as 24 May 1899, when he drove a Decauville - a little and lightweight car, also called a voiturette or cyclecar — in the 565-kilometer (351-mile) Paris-Bordeaux Trail. A few months later, he competed in the first "Tour de France Automobile" event, which ran seven stages in nine days, driving the same Decauville voiturette — but in both events he would retire early on.

In 1901 he moved to Darracq, driving in the gruelling Paris-Berlin Trail, and during early 1902 he won the voiturettes class in the Course d'Ostende-Voitures Legeres in Belgium and in the first edition of La Turbie hillclimb, near Nice in southern France. Later that year he switched to Automobiles Mors, founded in 1895 in Paris by the brothers Louis ed Émile Mors. Racing for them, he won races at Deauville and Château-Thierry and finished second in the Circuit des Ardennes, behind Charles Jarrott's Panhard et Levassor. In 1903, still driving for Mors, he won the infamous Paris-Madrid road race, that passed to history as “The race to death”, in which were killed Marcel Renault and seven other persons. The event was stopped at Bordeaux by the authorities in consequence of the number of fatal accidents which happened on the first 552-kilometer (343-mile) stage from Versailles to Bordeaux. Over this distance, Fernand Gabriel in the 70HP Mors #168, set a time of 5h14min31sec at a speed of about 105 km/h (65.30 mi/h).

One of Europe's finest drivers in the pioneering era, in 1903 Fernand Gabriel also won the second Course de Côte à Château-Thierry, near Reims, and was selected to represent France in the fourth edition of the Gordon Bennett Cup, the annual race held from 1900 until 1906, in which various Automobile Clubs enlisted three drivers each and the winning country would host the next year’s cup race. The 1903 event was held on 02 July 1903 in Athy, County Kildare, Ireland, because Selwyn F. Edge had won the 1902 race. Gabriel finished in a remarkable fourth place driving his "Dauphine" 70HP Mors that was vastly less powerful than the Mercedes of the winner Camille Jenatzy. Two days later still in Ireland, Fernand Gabriel finished second in the L class during the Phoenix Park sprint race, north-west of Dublin, driving the Mors.

Fernand Gabriel at the wheel of his Mors, with his unnamed mechanician, before the start of the fourth Gordon Bennett Cup race, Athy, Ireland, 02 July 1903.
Author unknown; picture published by magazine La Vie au Grand Air (Paris, France), issue of 03 July 1903; public domain.

In the following years, Fernand Gabriel continued his racing activity with a measure of success. In 1904 he crossed the Atlantic ocean to take part in the first edition of the William K. Vanderbilt Cup at Long Island, New York. Driving a de Dietrich, he did not finish the race due to tyre problem on sixth lap. He contested many events, including the first ever Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France, held in 1906 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans. Driving a Lorraine-Dietrich bearing the race number #1A, Gabriel was scheduled to start first but his engine stalled. He later finished fifth in the Circuit des Ardennes and in 1907 he took two respectable fourth places, in the French Grand Prix at Dieppe and in the Coppa Velocità at Brescia, Italy. He left Lorraine-Dietrich for Clément-Bayard in 1908, finishing a distant 12th in the French Grand Prix, once again at Dieppe.

Several years of economic depression followed and automobile racing and its development were halted, until the outbreak of World War I. Fernand Gabriel drove a Rolland-Pilain in the 1911 Grand Prix de France at Le Mans, officially named Grand Prix des Vieux Tacots, finishing a fine third. He made his seventh start in his home Grand Prix, in 1914, driving a Théodore Schneider - retired.

During the war, Gabriel joined the Renault plant in Paris, working for them also into the mid-1920s when he moved to the Societe des Automobiles Ariés. At the age of 46, he decided to participate once again in a race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924. Paired with Henri Lapierre, he finished first in class, eleventh place overall, in a 1.1-litre Ariés 8-10 CV. The pair returned the next year, in the same car which unfortunately lasted only 11 laps before being forced into a withdraw. Driving once again for Ariés, partnered with Louis Paris, who raced under nom de course of "Michel Paris", Fernand Gabriel took a 13th place in 1926 and failed to finish in 1927 and in 1928, in his fifth consecutive appearance au Mans, when he was 50 years old.

Although he had survived the World War I, Fernand Gabriel was tragically killed in a bombing raid on the outskirts of Paris, on Thursday, 09 September 1943, during the World War II. He left behind his second wife, Huguette née Detrez, whom he married in Colombes in 1938. He married for the first time in 1901, with Berthe Cerisay.

Career Summary:

Sources:

Magazine La Vie au Grand Air, issue of Friday, 03 July 1903, page 20, article "Les Équipes de la Coupe Gordon Bennett", retrieved by website https://www.retronews.fr/journal/la-vie-au-grand-air/3-juillet-1903/239/2765179/20 .
Newspaper L’Aurore (Paris, France), issue of Wednesday, 17 June 1903, page 4, article "Automobilisme", retrieved by website https://www.retronews.fr/journal/l-aurore-1897-1914/17-juin-1903/1/867629/4 .
Website Driver Database, page https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/fernand-gabriel/ .
Website DRIVER SPOTLIGHT: FERNAND GABRIEL by Jaap Grolleman, page https://jaapgrolleman.com/driver-spotlight-fernand-gabriel/ .
Website The GEL Motorsport Information Page by Darren Galpin, page http://www.dlg.speedfreaks.org/archive/gen/upto1903/1899.html .
Website The GEL Motorsport Information Page by Darren Galpin, page http://www.dlg.speedfreaks.org/archive/gen/upto1903/1903.html .
Website Le Mans & Formula 2 Register by Stefan Örnerdal, page http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/formula2/1924.htm .
Website Les 24 Heures, page http://www.les24heures.fr/database-24h/FR/PAGE_24h_mans_pilote_lm.php?P1=69 .