Olivier Grouillard

Olivier Grouillard

Nation:	France
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1989 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last start:	1992 Australian Grand Prix
Constructors
1989  Ligier  1990  Osella  1991  Fondmetal  1991  AGS  1992  Tyrrell
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-26. ( 1989 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 41 - - -
World Cup points :	1
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Olivier Grouillard (born September 2, 1958 in Fenouillet ) is a former French racing driver . From 1989 to 1992 he was a Formula 1 driver, taking part in 62 Grands Prix, but qualified for only 41 races and achieved a World Championship point.

Racing beginnings

In 1984 Grouillard won the French Formula 3 championship , after which he was able to gain a cockpit in the international Formula 3000 . From 1985 to 1987 he drove there in non-competitive vehicles until he won a few races in a Lola racing car in the 1988 season and was runner-up.

formula 1

1989: Ligier

In 1989 , at the age of 30, he made his Formula 1 debut in Ligier and achieved sixth place at the French Grand Prix and thus a World Cup point. His first Formula 1 season was also his most successful, because in the following years he no longer managed to get into the points.

1990/1991: Osella and Fondmetal

The 1990 season denied Grouillard for the team Osella . His car, the Osella FA1M-E , was fast but not reliable, so that Grouillard only saw the checkered flag four times in the entire season. He did not achieve championship points.

In 1991 he was hired for the Fondmetal team , the successor to the Osella Squadra Corse. Here, too, the cars were not competitive; Grouillard only qualified for four races. The best result was tenth place on the grid at the Mexican Grand Prix , in which Grouillard achieved a qualifying time that was just 1.8 seconds longer than Riccardo Patrese's pole time . This positioning was the best qualifying result in the history of the Italian team. However, Fondmetal was unable to utilize the good result in the race: Due to a mechanical defect in his car, Grouillard had to start out of the pit lane and followed the field. After 14 laps, another technical defect stopped the journey.

Grouillard's last stint for Fondmetal was the 1991 Portuguese Grand Prix . Because of a gearbox defect in the car, Grouillard was instructed to do the pre-qualification with the replacement car. Grouillard refused and instead drove the regular car. After he missed the pre-qualification due to the defect, he was dismissed by Fondmetals team boss Gabriele Rumi.

1991: AGS

At the Spanish Grand Prix , the last race of the European season, Grouillard switched to the French team Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS). Here he replaced Gabriele Tarquini , who took Grouillard's place at Fondmetal. At that time, AGS was already on the verge of insolvency. Grouillard took part in the pre-qualification, but drove the slowest time by far in the new AGS JH27. After this world championship run, AGS stopped racing. Grouillard did not find a new cockpit for the rest of the season.

1992: Tyrrell

For his final season in 1992 , Tyrrell signed him thanks to his sponsor Elf Aquitaine . Here he drove next to Andrea de Cesaris , who, like Grouillard, had the reputation of a ruthless driver. Grouillard was the weaker of the two Tyrrell drivers. He qualified for every race, but had a high failure rate. In 16 world championship races he finished only four times. His best placement was eighth in San Marino .

After his time as a Formula 1 driver, Grouillard tried his hand at the American Champ Car series without any notable success .

Incidents

Grouillard was often criticized for his unfair driving behavior, as he often blocked the passage of faster vehicles in qualifying and in the race.

This behavior went so far that he stopped at the finish line during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix in 1989 and forced the approaching Nelson Piquet to brake, which prevented him from qualifying for the race.

Another example was qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix, where Grouillard ruined a fast lap by Nigel Mansell in the Osella , who then drove alongside him and protested angrily. Such a process was repeated at the Australian Grand Prix that same year.

During qualifying for the 1991 French Grand Prix, the engine in Grouillard's car burst. However, he was on a fast lap that he wanted to finish and was spilling oil all the way around. Ayrton Senna , who was also on a fast lap, started to slide and, according to his own statements, missed pole position .

statistics

Results table in Formula 1

year	team	dare	engine	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	WM	Points
1989	Ligier Loto	Ligier JS33	Cosworth V8	BRA 9	SMR DSQ	MON DNF	MEX 8	USA DNQ	CAN DNQ	FRA 6	GBR 7	GER DNF	HUN DNQ	BEL 13	ITA DNF	PRT DNQ	ESP DNF	JPN DNF	FROM DNF	26th	1
1990	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA1M	Cosworth V8	USA DNF	BRA DNF															31.	0
		Osella FA1ME				SMR DNF	MON DNPQ	CAN 13	MEX 19	FRA DNPQ	GBR DNPQ	GER DNPQ	HUN DNPQ	BEL 16	ITA DNF	PRT DNPQ	ESP DNF	JPN DNPQ	OFF 13
1991	Fondmetal F1 SpA	Fund metal FA1ME	Cosworth V8	USA DNPQ	BRA DNPQ															34.	0
		Fondmetal Fomet 1				SMR DNPQ	MON DNPQ	CAN DNPQ	MEX DNF	FRA DNF	GBR DNPQ	GER DNPQ	HUN DNQ	BEL 10	ITA DNF	PRT DNPQ
	Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives	AGS JH27															ESP DNPQ	JPN	OUT
1992	Tyrrell Racing Organization	Tyrrell 020B	Ilmor V10	RSA DNF	MEX DNF	BRA DNF	ESP DNF	SMR 8	MON DNF	CAN 12	FRA 11	GBR 11	GER DNF	HUN DNF	BEL DNF	ITA DNF	PRT DNF	JPN DNF	FROM DNF	24.	0

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1990	Nissan Motorsports International	Nissan R90CK	Kenny Acheson	Martin Donnelly	failure	Gearbox damage
1994	Société Jacadi Racing	Venturi 600LM	Michel Ferté	Michel Neugarten	failure	Engine failure
1995	Giroix Racing Team	McLaren F1 GTR	Fabien Giroix	Jean-Denis Delétraz	Rank 5
1996	Harrod's March Racing	McLaren F1 GTR	Derek Bell	Andy Wallace	Rank 6
1997	Société Courage Compétition	Courage C36	Mario Andretti	Michael Andretti	failure	accident
1998	Société Courage Compétition	Courage C36	Henri Pescarolo	Franck Montagny	Rank 16
2000	Pescarolo sport	Courage C52	Sebastién Bourdais	Emmanuel Clérico	Rank 4

Web links

Commons : Olivier Grouillard  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography of Olivier Grouillard on the website www.f1rejects.com