People

Jean-Francois Robin

Robin began working with the Zenith carburetor company in 1956 and remained with the firm until he joined Matra Sports in 1967 to work on as engine manager for the ambitious young company. At the time the firm was building a 3-liter V12 engine for Formula 1 racing with former Simca racing engine designer Georges Martin heading the design team. Robin also looked after the Matra F3 and F2 engine supplies and later became the manager of Matra's highly-successful sportscar program. This resulted in Le Mans victories in 1972, 1973 and 1974 and two constructors' titles. Matra then began supplying engines to the Ligier F1 team. The program continued until the end of the 1982. When it became clear that Matra was not going to continue in F1 Robin took up the offer of a job with Renault Sport in May 1984 and worked as workshop and fabrication manager and chief buyer. He remained with the firm throughout the 1980s and 1990s, working as Bernard Dudot's head of production.