Jean-Denis
Délétraz

The Swiss racing driver Jean-Denis Délétraz was born in Geneva on 1 October 1963. Early in his career he won twice in Formula Ford. From 1985 to 1987 he raced in the French Formula 3 championship, finishing 14th in the standings in 1987. From 1988 to 1991 he contested Formula 3000, taking two third places in 1988. In 1992 and 1993 he competed in the French Touring Car Championship and the Porsche Supercup. In 1994 he drove for the SEAT works team in the French Touring Car Championship, finishing 13th overall, with fifth place at Nogaro his best race result.

Délétraz started three Formula One races. He made his debut in the 1994 season finale in Australia for Larrousse, taking over the second car from Érik Comas. He started 25th and retired on lap 57 with a gearbox failure. In 1995 he drove for Pacific. At the Portuguese Grand Prix he qualified last and retired after 14 laps. At the Nürburgring he finished 15th, the last car to finish, seven laps behind the winner. At the next race he was replaced by Bertrand Gachot.

After Formula One, Délétraz concentrated on endurance racing. In 1995 he took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the BPR Global GT Series. In 1996 he raced for FIRST Racing. He spent two years in the BPR Global GT Series driving a McLaren F1 GTR, and in 1997 he moved to the FIA GT Championship, where FIRST ran Lotus Elise GT1s. He won the LMP675 class at Le Mans in 2001 and 2002. In 2002 he took four wins with Andrea Piccini in a Ferrari 550 and finished fifth in the FIA GT Championship. In 2006 he and Piccini finished second in the championship in a Phoenix Racing Aston Martin DBR9. In 2007 he won the Spa 24 Hours outright in a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R with Marcel Fässler and Fabrizio Gollin, and finished fourth in the championship with Mike Hezemans. In 2008 he won both Bucharest street races with Fässler. In 2012 he entered the first season of the FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class with a Lola B12/80. His son Louis is also a racing driver.

Source: Wikipedia, “Jean-Denis Delétraz”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.