Eric van de Poele

Eric van de Poele

Nation:	Belgium
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1991 San Marino Grand Prix
Last start:	1992 Italian Grand Prix
Constructors
1991  Team Modena SpA  1992  Motor Racing Developments Ltd.  1992  Fondmetal
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 5 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Eric van de Poele (born September 30, 1961 in Verviers ) is a Belgian racing car driver and former Formula 1 driver. He was registered for 29 grands prix, but was only able to qualify for five in which he could not achieve championship points.

Career

After a difficult season in French Formula 3 in 1984 , van de Poele won the Belgian and Benelux Formula Ford and also drove in the Belgian Touring Car Championship. In the following three years he drove in the BTCC and DTM and together with his driver colleagues Didier Theys and Jean-Michel Martin won the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps . He also tried his hand at British Formula 3 . In 1987 he won the championship title in the DTM with a BMW M3 (E30) without winning a single race.

In 1989 he switched to Formula 3000 and finished fourth, the 1990 season he finished as runner-up behind Érik Comas .

He then signed a contract with the Modena team for the 1991 Formula 1 World Championship , where he drove a Lambo 291 with a Lamborghini engine. In the first two races he missed qualification, but was able to qualify for the San Marino Grand Prix . There he impressed in the rain and finished fifth when he dropped to ninth due to a lack of oil. The team, which was in financial difficulties, could not build on this success and van de Poele did not drive another race this year.

In 1992 he moved to the also financially weak Brabham team . The Belgian qualified for the opening race in South Africa and finished thirteenth, but was unable to qualify again in the defeated Brabham BT60B .

For the Hungarian Grand Prix he switched to the promising Fondmetal team. He qualified on the first try but was eliminated in the race. He then started from 15th place in the Belgian Grand Prix , which he finished tenth, and qualified again for the Italian Grand Prix , in which the clutch failed, however. Then Fondmetal ran into financial difficulties and withdrew. Van de Poele did not drive another race.

In addition to his work as a test driver for Tyrrell in 1993, van de Poele then had great successes with touring cars and sports cars and won the Sebring 12-hour races in 1995 and 1996 and the Petit Le Mans in 1998 . Up until 2010 he had competed ten times in the 24-hour race at Le Mans .

In 2006 van de Poele drove in the Grand Prix Masters series.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1992	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905 Evo 1B	Karl Wendlinger	Alain Ferté	failure	Engine failure
1994	Clayton Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	Paul Gentilozzi	Shunji Kasuya	failure	Ignition damage
1996	Racing for Belgium	Ferrari 333SP	Marc Goossens	Eric Bachelart	failure	accident
1997	Nissan Motorsport	Nissan R390 GT1	Riccardo Patrese	Aguri Suzuki	failure	Oil pump
1998	Doyle Risi Racing	Ferrari 333SP	Wayne Taylor	Fermín Velez	Rank 8 and class win
2000	Team Cadillac	Cadillac Northstar LMP	Wayne Taylor	Max Angelelli	Rank 22
2001	Team Bentley	Bentley EXP Speed ​​8	Andy Wallace	Butch Leitzinger	3rd place and class win
2002	Team Bentley	Bentley EXP Speed ​​8	Andy Wallace	Butch Leitzinger	4th place and class win
2008	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430GT2	Niclas Jönsson	Tracy Krohn	failure	accident
2009	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Niclas Jönsson	Tracy Krohn	Rank 22
2010	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GT2	Niclas Jönsson	Tracy Krohn	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1995	Scandia Motorsports	Ferrari 333SP	Andy Evans	Fermín Vélez	Overall victory
1996	Doyle Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	Wayne Taylor	Jim Pace	Overall victory
1997	Doyle Racing Riley & Scott	Riley & Scott Mk III	Wayne Taylor	Scott Sharp	failure	mechanics
1998	Doyle-Risi Racing	Ferrari 333SP	Wayne Taylor	Fermín Vélez	failure	Wagon fire
1999	Team Rafanelli SRL	Riley & Scott Mk III	David Saelens	Tomáš Enge	failure	Oil leak
2000	Team Cadillac	Cadillac Northstar LMP	Wayne Taylor	Max Angelelli	Rank 6
2002	Panoz Motor Sports	Panoz LMP01	David Brabham	Jan Magnussen	failure	Engine failure
2003	Doran Lista Racing	Dallara LMP	Didier Theys	Fredy Lienhard	Rank 7
2007	Horag Racing	Lola B05 / 40	Didier Theys	Fredy Lienhard	failure	Electrics
2008	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Tracy Krohn	Niclas Jönsson	Rank 14
2009	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Tracy Krohn	Niclas Jönsson	Rank 12
2010	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Tracy Krohn	Niclas Jönsson	Rank 14

Web links

Commons : Eric van de Poele  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Profile at Motorsport-Total.com