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Michel Beaujon

When Matra closed down its competition department in 1974, Michel Beaujon was one of the designer engineers who went with Gerard Ducarouge to Ligier. Beaujon had had lengthy experience as a chassis designer with Matra in the late 1960s. While Ducarouge was the team's motivating force, Beaujon translated Ducarouge's ideas into cars and played an important role in all the early Ligier F1 cars, including the very successful JS11 and JS11/15 models. After Ducarouge was fired in 1981 Beaujon found himself in the limelight. He reworked the JS17 in 1982 with Herve Guilpin and then in 1983 designed the Cosworth-engined JS21, the team's first composite chassis.

When the team hired Michel Tetu in 1985 Beaujon stayed on as head of the Ligier drawing office. He remained with the team after Tetu was fired and helped Richard Divila and Claude Galopin design the JS33B for the 1990 season. He was also important in the design of the Lamborghini-engined JS35 but in April 1991 Guy Ligier decided to hire Frank Dernie. Beaujon moved from the drawing office to become head of research and development and race engineer for Erik Comas. At the end of the 1992 season Beaujon finally left the team he had been with for 18 years.