Yannick Dalmas
Nation: | France | ||||||||
Formula 1 world championship | |||||||||
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First start: | 1987 Mexican Grand Prix | ||||||||
Last start: | 1994 Portuguese Grand Prix | ||||||||
Constructors | |||||||||
1987–1989 Larrousse • 1989–1990 AGS • 1994 Larrousse | |||||||||
statistics | |||||||||
World Cup balance: | no World Cup placement | ||||||||
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World Cup points : | - | ||||||||
Podiums : | - | ||||||||
Leadership laps : | - |
Yannick Dalmas (born July 28, 1961 in Le Beausset ) is a former French racing driver .
Career
The French Formula 3 championship produced an abundance of top drivers in the mid-1980s, some of whom found their way into international motorsport. The fights in this single- seat post-office formula separated the wheat from the chaff early on. The brothers Alain and Michel Ferté , Michel Trollé , Pierre-Henri Raphanel , Olivier Grouillard , Éric Bernard , Jean Alesi , Érik Comas and Yannick Dalmas were representatives of this selection, which led some of them to Formula 1 .
The young driver
Yannick Dalmas entered the national Formula 3 championship in 1985 as the French Formula Renault champion. As the winner of this junior formula, he could almost choose the cockpits. Dalmas decided on what was then the top team, the ORECA F3 team, whose second cockpit he took over. The top driver at ORECA was Pierre Henri Raphanel, who was third in the championship last year. The battle for the 1985 championship flared up between the two drivers after the first race. Finally Raphanel became the new champion, Dalmas had to be content with second place in the championship. The 1986 season - Raphanel had switched to Formula 3000 , where he also drove for ORECA - was all about the southern French. Dalmas won six of eleven races, his second national championship. Following the example of Raphanel, he switched to Formula 3000 in 1987. ORECA was not as competitive here as in Formula 3. Wins and good placings were repeatedly followed by failures due to technical problems. Nevertheless, after victories in Pau and Jarama, Dalmas finished fifth overall in the Formula 3000 championship in 1987 and, thanks to this success, entered Formula 1.
formula 1
Still in the 1987 season Dalmas made his debut in Formula 1. At the Grand Prix of Mexico he drove the Lola LC87 of Larrousse teams. Already in the third race, the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide , he achieved the first point placement with fifth place, which however did not result in any points, as Larrousse had only registered one vehicle for the world championship this season.
This was followed by a year as a regular driver at Larrousse. This year was marked by sporting failures. First the career was hampered by two accidents during test drives before the start of the season. A disease that was initially diagnosed as an ear infection grew into a life-threatening Legionnaires' disease by the end of the year . His best placings with the Lola LC88 with Lamborghini -Motor stayed two seventh places at the Monaco Grand Prix and the Grand Prix of the USA in Detroit.
In 1989 Dalmas stayed in Larrousse's team, but almost always failed in qualifying. Only at the Grand Prix of San Marino was the last place on the grid in 26th place - however, the engine went on strike at the pre-start, so that Dalmas couldn't even drive the introductory lap. Dalmas was then replaced by Michele Alboreto and moved to AGS in the middle of the season . The AGS JH23B with a Cosworth engine was just as uncompetitive as the successor model JH24 , and Dalmas did not qualify for a Formula 1 race in 1989. For lack of alternatives, he stayed with AGS in 1990 , with a similarly poor yield as the year before. The season consisted of 15 races, he was only able to qualify five times. His best result was ninth at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez. After the end of the 1990 season, Dalmas did not extend his contract with AGS and switched to sports cars as a works driver for Peugeot . Late in his career he unexpectedly made two races in Formula 1 when he climbed into the cockpit of the Larrousse LH94 again for Larousse in the 1994 season at the Italian and Portuguese Grand Prix .
Sports car
Unlike in Formula 1, Yannick Dalmas' career in sports cars was successful. Today he is the most successful French racing driver in the 24 Hours of Le Mans , a long-distance race that has been driven since 1923 and in which all the great drivers from France took part except for Alain Prost . Dalmas started for the first time in 1991 as a works driver for Peugeot , which had prepared vehicles for the 24-hour race for the first time after the Second World War. Under team boss Jean Todt was Keke Rosberg and Pierre-Henri Raphanel his teammates. The Peugeot 905 was fast, but not yet stable. The trio dropped out after 68 laps with a gearbox failure, but won the Group C races in Magny-Cours and Mexico City .
In the following year the first victory came at Le Mans. Peugeot had improved the car noticeably, the transmission problems were resolved, and Dalmas, with Mark Blundell and Derek Warwick, took a much-acclaimed victory for the Grande Nation. With victories at Silverstone and Fuji and second places in Monza and Donington , he shared the title of sports car world champion with Derek Warwick at the end of the year .
In 1993 there was a triple victory for the works team, this time with the Evo level of the 905 as the Peugeot 905 Evo 1 C. For Dalmas there was 2nd place in the team with Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi . After fulfilling the set goals with the victories in Le Mans Peugeot retired from racing at the end of the 1993 season. As the fastest of all works drivers, Dalmas had made such a good name for himself as a long-distance driver that he did not have to worry about a cockpit at Le Mans in the years that followed. In 1994 the second victory followed, this time at the wheel of the Dauer 962 GT LM Porsche (actually a Porsche 962 , which was used as "Duration" by the German Le Mans Porsche team according to the new regulations), shared with Hurley Haywood and Mauro Baldi .
In 1995 he won together with Masanori Sekiya and JJ Lehto in the McLaren F1 GTR BMW after a distance of 4055.800 km. To this day, McLaren is the only manufacturer of racing vehicles that has won both Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 . In 1996 Yannick Dalmas switched to Porsche and drove the new Porsche 911 GT1 not only in Le Mans, but also in the FIA GT World Championship . In 1996 he finished third at Le Mans with his teammates Karl Wendlinger and Scott Goodyear . In 1997 he was in the car (again in the Porsche 911 GT 1) with Ralf Kelleners and Emmanuel Collard . The factory Porsche was clearly in the lead that Sunday morning when Kelleners had to park the car in front of the Indianapolis after a fire in the cockpit. The marshals were able to put out the fire quickly, but the chance of a fourth victory was gone. In the same year, however, there was second place in the overall standings of the GT World Championship. At the beginning of the year, Dalmas also won the Sebring 12 Hours for the first time , there in a Ferrari 333 SP.
In 1998 Porsche drove four vehicles at Le Mans. Dalmas drove the Spyder, the Porsche LM 1 98, which was used by Joest Racing as a semi-works car. Neither Spyder made the 24-hour distance. Dalmas' car (with Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson) retired on lap 107 due to electrical damage. Victory nevertheless went to Porsche ( Stéphane Ortelli , Laurent Aïello and Allan McNish in GT 1) because the leading Toyota GT-One , again with Ralf Kelleners at the wheel, broke down with a gearbox one hour before the end of the race.
Dalmas won his fourth Le Mans victory in 1999. In BMW's first overall victory, he drove the BMW V12 LMR with Pierluigi Martini and Joachim Winkelhock . This was followed in 2000 by a retirement in the first lap with the new Reynard Spyder from ORECA, in 2001 another retirement on a Chrysler Viper GTS-R and in 2002, on his last outing so far, a seventh place for Audi .
In 1995 and 1996 Dalmas also drove an Opel Calibra for the Joest Racing team in the DTM and ITC . Despite great commitment, there were no successes there.
statistics
Le Mans results
Sebring results
year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
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1997 | Team Scandia | Ferrari 333SP | Stefan Johansson | Andy Evans | Fermín Vélez | Overall victory | |
1999 | BMW Motorsport | BMW V12 LMR | Pierluigi Martini | Joachim Winkelhock | failure | accident |
literature
- Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 88, solo for two . Orac, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7015-0153-X .
- Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 89, The Big Crash . Orac, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-7015-0186-6
- Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 90, The Swoopers . Orac, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7015-0157-2 .
- RM Clarke: Le Mans - The Porsche and Peugeot Years . Brookland Books, Cobham 1999, ISBN 1-85520-501-7 .
Web links
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Dalmas, Yannick |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French racing car driver |
DATE OF BIRTH | July 28, 1961 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | La Beausset , France |