Anthony Beltoise
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Anthony Beltoise

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Anthony Jean-Pierre Beltoise (born 21 July 1971 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French racing driver whose career has spanned single-seaters, sports cars, GT competition, and touring cars. He is the son of former Grand Prix motorcycle champion and Formula One driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise, and nephew of Formula One driver François Cevert, whose sister is his mother — placing him at the intersection of two of France's most celebrated motorsport families.

The Beltoise and Cevert names carry considerable weight in French racing history. Jean-Pierre Beltoise was a leading French driver of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and François Cevert was one of the most talented drivers of his era before his fatal accident at Watkins Glen in 1973. Anthony Beltoise thus grew up embedded in motorsport culture and pursued a professional career across multiple disciplines, though he ultimately found his greatest success in GT and national cup competition rather than the top tier of single-seaters.

Beltoise began his racing career in the Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0 in 1993, finishing tenth in his debut season before improving to seventh in 1994. He progressed to the French Formula Three Championship, competing in 1995 and 1996 — finishing eleventh in the first year and runner-up to Soheil Ayari in the second. His 1996 Formula Three result represented a strong performance at a competitive level of European junior motorsport.

In 1997 Beltoise stepped up to the International Formula 3000 season, the primary feeder series to Formula One at the time. However, he was unable to score points across seven race entries, and the campaign marked the end of his single-seater ambitions.

After stepping away from formula cars, Beltoise found a more durable competitive career in sports car and GT racing. He contested the 1998 International Sports Racing Series season, finishing tenth in the standings. From 1999 to 2002 he competed in the Renault Sport Clio Trophy, a highly competitive monomake French series, posting finishes of fourth, eleventh, third, and sixth across those four seasons.

His most prominent international sportscar appearance came at the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he finished second in the GTS class driving an Oreca Chrysler Viper. He returned to Le Mans in 2001, driving for SMG in the LMP900 category. From 2007 onward he became a regular competitor in the Le Mans Series, the premier European endurance championship at the time.

In 2008 he was appointed test and reserve driver for the Team Peugeot Total LMP1 programme, reflecting the level of trust the manufacturer placed in his technical capabilities. Peugeot's LMP1 effort was one of the most serious factory sportscar programs of that era, and reserve driver roles carried genuine responsibility for development work and race-day contingency cover.

Beltoise found his most consistent domestic success in the Porsche Carrera Cup France, a prestigious national series in which factory and gentleman drivers compete in identical 911 machinery. He won the French Carrera Cup title in 2005, 2006, and 2008 — three championships that established him as one of the dominant forces in French Porsche competition during that period. The series is considered one of the strongest national Carrera Cup rounds in Europe, and multiple titles within it represent a genuinely high level of achievement.

In 2007, Beltoise made a one-off appearance in the World Touring Car Championship at Pau, driving for Exagon Engineering. The WTCC at that time was a globally contested series attracting works support from SEAT, Chevrolet, and BMW, making guest appearances in the series competitive and technically demanding.

Alongside his racing activities, Beltoise has become a familiar face on French television through his regular appearances on AutoMoto, broadcast on TF1. On the show he serves as the in-house racing driver, conducting high-speed comparative tests of cars on a fixed circuit segment and evaluating race machinery. The role has given him a public profile beyond motorsport enthusiast circles and reinforced the Beltoise name as a fixture in French car culture.

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