Bertrand Gachot
Nation: |
Belgium (1989–1991) France (1992, 1994–1995)
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Formula 1 world championship | |||||||||
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First start: | 1989 French Grand Prix | ||||||||
Last start: | 1995 Australian Grand Prix | ||||||||
Constructors | |||||||||
1989 Onyx , Rial • 1990 Coloni • 1991 Lola , Jordan • 1992 Larrousse • 1994–1995 Pacific | |||||||||
statistics | |||||||||
World Cup balance: | WM-13. ( 1991 ) | ||||||||
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World Cup points : | 5 | ||||||||
Podiums : | - | ||||||||
Leadership laps : | - |
Bertrand Gachot (born December 23, 1962 in Luxembourg ) is a former Belgian - French racing driver . He started u. a. between 1989 and 1995 in Formula 1 , in which he mostly competed for small, partly newly founded teams; in sports cars he won in 1991 at Mazda , the 24-hour race at Le Mans .
nationality
Gachot is often only referred to as Belgian in the specialist literature. This is because he grew up in Belgium and always competed with a Belgian racing license. He sees himself as French, not least because of his French parents, but admits that it is difficult to assign to a single nation. He therefore often chose the flag of the European Union , for example on his helmet. As far as is known, Gachot has both Belgian and French citizenship.
Career
Beginnings
Gachot started his career as a kart driver. He found his way to Formula 1 through British Formula 3 and Formula 3000 .
formula 1
In 1989 , Gachot made his Formula 1 debut with the newly founded Onyx team . After he and his teammate Stefan Johansson failed in the pre-qualification at the first World Championship races, he took part in a total of five Formula 1 races for Onyx in the summer of 1989 . He crossed the finish line in two races: he was 13th in France and 12th in Great Britain . Before the Portuguese Grand Prix , Gachot was replaced by JJ Lehto . Gachot then moved to the Mannheim- based racing team Rial for the last two races of the season , which was in considerable economic and technical difficulties. He did not qualify for any of the races in the Rial.
In 1990 Gachot switched to the Umbrian Formula 1 team Coloni , which in that year used a twelve-cylinder boxer engine financed by Subaru and designed by Motori Moderni . The engine was inefficient and unreliable; But Gachot thought the chassis - the Coloni C3B - was "even worse". In the Coloni-Subaru, he failed eight times in a row in the pre-qualification. When Coloni switched to conventional Cosworth engines in the summer , Gachot regularly passed the pre-qualification in the revised Coloni C3C , but then failed in the actual qualification. As a result, Gachot did not contest a single Formula 1 race in 1990.
In 1991 the newly formed team signed Jordan Gachot. Gachot achieved good results with the Jordan 191 , which was competitive from the start . In total, he scored four world championship points this year. However, he ended the 1991 season prematurely. After an alleged attack with irritant gas on a taxi driver in London , Gachot was arrested and could not start the Formula 1 race in Spa-Francorchamps on August 25, 1991. The substitute driver was Michael Schumacher , who was able to contest his first race with it.
In 1992 Gachot started in Formula 1 for the French team Larrousse , which at times operated as Venturi. Here Gachot scored a world championship point. For 1993 he was not given a cockpit in Formula 1. In 1994 , Gachot returned to Grand Prix racing with the British racing team Pacific, which was newly established in Formula 1 . He drove next to Paul Belmondo . Gachot did not finish in any of the 16 races of the season. From the Canadian Grand Prix he failed ten times in a row at the qualifying hurdle. Before the 1995 Formula 1 season , he took over shares in the racing team and became its co-owner. Gachot also started for Pacific in 1995, but had to hand over his cockpit to Giovanni Lavaggi in the summer , who provided the financially troubled team with new funds. In November 1995 Gachot ended his racing career and sold his shares to Pacific.
Sports car racing
Parallel to his Formula 1 involvement, Gachot contested the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1991 with Johnny Herbert and Volker Weidler in a wobble-driven Mazda 787B . Gachot, Herbert and Weidler crossed the finish line as winners. This was the first victory of a Japanese engine manufacturer in this traditional race (Toyota did not win again until 2018) and at the same time Gachot's greatest success. Gachot then drove for a short time in changing racing series. A place in the top group was fourth place overall in the 1992 24-hour race in a team with Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler and the Brazilian Maurizio Sandro Sala in a Mazda MXR-01 .
After a year off, but he worked in 1997 again in motorsports and drove in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the team of Erwin Kremer a Porsche the GT1 class .
statistics
Le Mans results
year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
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1990 | Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. | Mazda 787 | Johnny Herbert | Volker Weidler | failure | Electrics | |
1991 | Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. | Mazda 787B | Johnny Herbert | Volker Weidler | Overall victory | ||
1992 | Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. | Mazda MXR-01 | Johnny Herbert | Volker Weidler | Maurizio Sandro Sala | Rank 4 | |
1994 | Kremer Honda Racing | Honda NSX | Armin Hahne | Christophe Bouchut | Rank 14 | ||
1995 | Honda Motor Co. Ltd. | Honda NSX GTI | Armin Hahne | Ivan Capelli | failure | Clutch damage | |
1997 | Kremer Racing | Porsche 911 GT1 | Andy Evans | Christophe Bouchut | failure | Engine failure |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Grand Prix Drivers: Bertrand Gachot. grandprix.com, archived from the original on November 16, 2001 ; accessed on August 26, 2016 .
- ↑ Joe Saward: Interview: Bertrand Gachot . ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Grandprix.com, October 1, 1991, accessed August 26, 2016.
- ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 14/1990, p. 13.
- ↑ Michael Schumacher: Formula 1 debut: cockpit only because of a bold lie . Focus Online , August 25, 2016.
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Gachot, Bertrand |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian-French Formula 1 racing driver |
DATE OF BIRTH | December 23, 1962 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Luxembourg , Luxembourg |