Élie Marcel Bayol (28 February 1914 in Marseille – 25 May 1995 in La Ciotat) was a French racing driver who raced in Formula One for the O.S.C.A. and Gordini teams. Bayol also raced sports cars, mostly driving DB-Panhards for the Deutsch Bonnet works team including winning the 750cc class and Index of Performance at the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans. Career 1950 Bayol started his career in 1950 racing 500cc DB-Panhards in races and hillclimbs around France. Having previously used Citroën engines, DB found that Panhard were more supportive of their racing endeavours. Panhard decided to take their new 611cc two-cylinder model to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bayol shared his car with DB co-founder René Bonnet. On Sunday morning, well in the lead in the Index of Performance category, Bayol's engine broke a conrod. With Bonnet there to instruct him, Bayol was able to repair the engine using tools carried in the car to the extent that he was able to start it and drive with one cylinder to the pits for a full repair. While a great deal of time was lost, they were able to resume and were classified as finishers. 1951 For 1951 Bayol raced DB's Formula 2 car, both he and the car making their debut at the Marseille Grand Prix finishing seventh. He drove the car throughout the year, but as it was based on DB's 500cc car, with an engine of just 750cc, it was greatly underpowered compared with their two-litre Formula 2 opponents, but was fast on very tight and twisty circuits. He also returned to Le Mans with Bonnet, driving the new 850cc car but were outclassed by Porsche in the up to 1100cc class. 1952 For 1952, Bayol ran a modified OSCA MT4 in the Grands Prix de France races with little success, again due to a relatively underpowered 1.3L engine, but performing better at tighter circuits such as at Pau. He returned again to Le Mans in a DB but retired early in the race. Bayol debuted the new OSCA 20 Formula 2 car (featuring a full-sized two-litre engine) at the Grand Prix du Comminges where he was running third or fourth when his race was ended by issues in the pits. He then went on to make his World Championship debut at the 1952 Italian Grand Prix at Monza where he qualified tenth but retired