The Grand Prix Saboteurs

Joe Saward talks about the book

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The Grand Prix Saboteurs is the remarkable true story of how three motor racing stars of the 1920s and 1930s worked together as British secret agents during World War II in Occupied France.

It is a story that has never been told before. Based on 18 years of research by Formula 1 reporter Joe Saward, the story dazzles with swashbuckling – yet true – escapes, shocking betrayals and a story that you will never forget.

The story begins with “W Williams”, a mysterious figure – even when he was one of the top Grand Prix drivers of the day, driving for the Bugatti factory team.

“Some said he was a wealthy sportsman because he drove a magnificent town car – an Hispano Suiza,” remembered Rene Dreyfus, one of his celebrated rivals. “Others thought that he was one of the livery men who operated from the Place de l’Opera in Paris and hired out his car and his services as a chauffeur to wealthy clients. No-one knew for sure.”

What they did know was that he was an Englishman, who spoke perfect French, and that he was the most successful British racing driver of the 1920s – more successful in Grand Prix racing than even the celebrated Henry Segrave. He was the winner of the first Monaco Grand Prix in 1929 and two French GP victories and a win in Belgium.

“W Williams” was really Willy Grover, the son an Englishman who moved to Paris in the 1890s, to help a Russian prince fulfill his dream of breeding the perfect horse. Willy’s mother was a Frenchwoman and he grew up in France and Monaco. After World War I Willy acquired an old US Army motorcycle and began racing, adopting his pseudonym because he did not want his mother to know about the risks he was taking. Bikes led to cars – but the pseudonym remained.

At the start of his career Willy worked as a chauffeur in Paris, starting out as the driver of a celebrated artist. Later he saved enough money to buy himself a magnificent Hispano-Suiza and with this he began to compete. It was total unsuited to the task but by wheeling and dealing, Willy managed to acquire a racing Bugatti and immediately made a big impression. In the years that followed he reached the very top of Grand Prix racing – as a factory Bugatti driver. Success brought fame and fortune he married a beautiful Frenchwoman and retired to live the life of a country gentleman, splitting his time between a house in Paris and a villa on the French Riviera.

When World War II broke out in 1939 Willy enlisted in the British Army as a humble private soldier, with the Royal Army Service Corps. His job was to drive Generals from meeting to meeting. When the Germans invaded France, Willy had to go with the remnants of the British Army to England. He was separated from his beloved wife and keen to return home. It was then that the War Office spotted his unusual talents and steely nerves and he was recruited into the top secret Special Operations Executive (SOE) and trained to be a secret agent.

Willy parachuted to France in the summer of 1942, at a time all the other British networks had been infiltrated and detroyed by German intelligence. His mission was to create sabotage teams to prepare for the D-Day landings – whenever they might come.

Looking for brave and resourceful Frenchmen, willing to stand up and fight, he enlisted the help of an old racing rival Robert Benoist, France’s top racing star in the 1920s, winner of a string of Grands Prix and of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Together they formed the most extraordinary resistance network of the war.