Peter Revson once described the intensity of Mairesse before a race at Spa: looking into his car, Revson saw Mairesse's furrowed face, beetled brows, and eyes that had almost changed colour. "It was almost like looking at the devil."
Mairesse won the Liège-Rome-Liège marathon rally in 1956. Driving a Ferrari, he finished third in the Grand Prix of Monza in June 1959, behind Alfonso Thiele and Carlo Mario Abate, both also in Ferraris.
Mairesse's sole World Championship podium came with third place in the 1960 Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo Nazionale Monza — the penultimate round of the 1960 championship. Phil Hill won; Richie Ginther was second; Mairesse finished third, a lap down.
At the 1962 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, Mairesse qualified fifth, with Graham Hill on pole in a BRM. During the race, Mairesse and Trevor Taylor's Lotus duelled for over an hour, passing and repassing each lap to the enthusiasm of the partisan crowd. The two cars came together at more than 100 mph in the long sweeping Blanchimont turn; Mairesse's car went left, careered into a hillside behind a ditch, caught fire, and flipped. He was thrown from his Ferrari; his shoes and the legs of his trousers were torn off. He was conscious despite numerous scrapes, cuts, and burns. Mairesse and Taylor had previously made contact at the Grand Prix of Brussels earlier that season. Mairesse came in fourth in the 1962 Italian Grand Prix, only a car length ahead of Giancarlo Baghetti.
Mairesse was absent from Formula One in 1963. Phil Hill predicted trouble for the Ferrari team that year, saying Mairesse and John Surtees "will harry each other so much that they will force each other to make mistakes." At the 1963 German Grand Prix, Mairesse's Ferrari turned over multiple times after swerving off the track; he was rushed to hospital with a broken arm. Surtees won the race, with Jim Clark second in a Lotus.
Mairesse and Mike Parkes finished second at the 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Ferrari 250 TR/61, behind Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien. In doing so, Mairesse and Parkes set a new race distance record of 2,758.66 miles.
At the 1963 12 Hours of Sebring, Mairesse and Nino Vacarella placed second behind Ludovico Scarfiotti and John Surtees; all drove Ferraris. Surtees and Mairesse also won the 1000 km of the Nürburgring that year driving a Ferrari 250P, then led for 15 of the first 18 hours of the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans before the car caught fire while Mairesse was at the wheel. Mairesse escaped injury. Separately at the 1963 German Grand Prix, a wheel came off Mairesse's Ferrari and struck 19-year-old German Red Cross worker Guenther Schneider, who died from the impact.
Mairesse was victorious at the 1964 Grand Prix of Angola, run at Luanda, averaging 80.78 mph. In May 1965 he piloted a Ferrari 250 LM to victory in the 500 km sportscar race at Spa in 2 hours 29 minutes 45.7 seconds at an average of 126.29 mph. Mairesse and Jean Beurlys finished third at the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Ferrari 275 GTB, winning the GT category in the class's Le Mans debut, while Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt won overall.
In April 1966, Mairesse and Herbert Mueller came third in the 1,000 km Monza race in a Ford sports car, two laps behind winners Surtees and Parkes. In May 1966, Mairesse and Mueller won the Targa Florio driving a Porsche Carrera 6; only thirteen of seventy starters finished owing to heavy rain. Mairesse and Beurlys again drove a Ferrari to third place at the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans, won by Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt.
Mairesse entered the 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Ford GT40 with co-driver Jean Blaton (racing under the pseudonym "Beurlys"). During the chaotic standing start, it is believed he failed to close the driver's door properly. As he reached the end of the Mulsanne Straight on the first lap, the door flew open; Mairesse lost control and crashed violently into roadside trees. He suffered head injuries, several broken bones, and severe burns, and was left in a coma for over two weeks.
He survived the crash but was left with physical and mental impairments that prevented him from returning to racing. He fell into depression. On 2 September 1969, Mairesse committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills in a hotel room in Ostend; he was 40 years old.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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