Bertrand
Gachot

Bertrand Gachot was born in Luxembourg on 23 December 1962 and later raced with a French licence. He took up karting at 15 and in 1983 attended the Winfield racing school at the Paul Ricard circuit. He then moved into Formula Ford, winning the European championship for Pacific Racing in 1985 and the British Formula Ford 2000 title in 1986. In 1987 he finished runner-up to Johnny Herbert in British Formula 3 with West Surrey Racing, and in 1988 he was fifth in the Formula 3000 standings, including a pole position at Silverstone.

He reached Formula One in 1989 with the newly formed Onyx team. He first made the grid at the French Grand Prix, where he started 11th and finished 13th. Late in the year he switched to Rial but failed to qualify in either of his two races for the team. In 1990 he drove for Coloni and never made the grid.

In 1991 he drove for Jordan, finishing fifth in Canada and setting the fastest lap in Hungary. He also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Mazda, sharing the car with Johnny Herbert and Volker Weidler. After a conviction in Britain he missed several races, and Michael Schumacher made his debut in the Jordan in his place. Gachot returned for Larrousse at the season finale in Australia but did not qualify. He ended the championship 13th, his best final position.

In 1992 he raced for Venturi and took sixth place at Monaco, the team's only point that year. He was absent from Formula One in 1993, though he made one CART start at Toronto, finishing 12th, and raced in Japanese touring cars. In 1994 and 1995 he drove for the new Pacific team. At the 1994 season opener he qualified ahead of Roland Ratzenberger. His final Grand Prix was the 1995 finale in Australia, where he came eighth. Pacific closed down afterwards.

He made 47 Grand Prix starts in all, without a podium finish. In 1996 he entered his own sports car team at Le Mans, which failed to qualify. He later took part in occasional sports car and GT races.

Source: Wikipedia, “Bertrand Gachot”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.