Death of Henri Julien, founder of the AGS team

Henri Julien took his first steps in motorsport by starting a career as a driver in car. But the Varois quickly turned to technology, founding Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives in 1969 with the JH1 for Formula France. The structure based in its Gonfaron garage also produces chassis for Formula Renault before turning in 1978 to F2 where the team achieved numerous successes after a difficult start. The change of F2 evolving with the transition to F3000 in 1984, Henri Julien made the decision to climb the last step by hiring AGS in F1. Two years later, the dream came true with the JH21C designed by Christian Vanderpleyn and Michel Costa. Ivan Capelli is at the wheel of the car at the Italian and Portuguese Grands Prix. For the 1987 season, AGS entered all events with the JH22 powered by the Ford V8. Roberto Moreno, who replaced Pascal Fabre for the last two races, won the first point for the Var team by placing sixth in Adelaide. In 1988, Henri Julien hired Philippe Streiff for the entire season at the wheel of the JH23 which saw the finish six times. Facing financial difficulties, AGS was forced to sell a large part of its capital to Cyril de Rouvre who hired Joachim Winkelhock and Gabriele Tarquini who replaced Philippe Streiff following his terrible accident during testing for the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Italian will take the second point for the team at the Mexican GP. Despite the association with Hugues de Chaunac in 1990, AGS stopped its activities at the end of 1991 before converting to a piloting training structure. The founder of Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives died on July 13 at Hyères hospital at the age of 85.