Max Jean (born 27 July 1943) is a French former racing driver who won the Formule France championship in 1968. In addition to numerous Formula Two and Formula Three entries, Jean participated in one Formula One Grand Prix, driving a March for Frank Williams Racing Cars in his home race on 4 July 1971. He scored no championship points.
Career summary
Jean was born in Marseille. Early in his career, his name was incorrectly listed as Jean Max on an entry form and he was often known by this name subsequently. He was Formule France champion in 1968 – driving for the works GRAC team, and taking 11 victories from the series' 17 events – in a field that included future two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans race winner Gérard Larrousse and future Formula One driver Jean-Pierre Jarier. His success encouraged Ecurie GRAC to construct a Formula Three car for him to run in 1969,
In 1970, Jean parted company from GRAC and secured funding from the lubricants manufacturer Motul to run a works-supported Tecno car. At the opening race of the season, in Nogaro, he finished in second position. He repeated this placing in the fourth and fifth rounds of the championship at Linas-Montlhéry and Magny-Cours. However, apart from a sixth placed finish in round eight at Dijon and ninth on aggregate at the second visit to Nogaro, he did not reach the finishing flag in any of his other appearances, having suffered from a variety of mechanical failures. Nevertheless, despite his disappointing performances in Formula Three, where he finished in seventh and 13th places, respectively.
In 1971 Jean took his Motul sponsorship to the independent Frank Williams Racing Cars team, and he drove their March 712M Formula Two car for them at Rouen and Pau.