Jean-Louis
Schlesser

Jean-Louis Schlesser was born in Nancy on 12 September 1948 and grew up in Morocco. He returned to France for his studies and military service. In the early 1970s he enrolled at the racing school in Le Mans and began with a long run of rally events. In 1976 he moved into Formula Three, switching between the French and European series for six years, and in 1978 he shared the French championship with Alain Prost. He took up sports car racing in 1977 and, on his first attempt at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1981, finished second with Philippe Streiff and Jacky Haran. A move to Formula Two in 1982 brought him no success.

A nephew of Formula One driver Jo Schlesser, he worked as a test driver for Williams. In 1983 he drove for RAM. His first Formula One race was the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, a non-championship event, where he started last of 13 cars and finished sixth. A week later, at the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, he was the slowest of the 29 cars in qualifying and failed to make the grid. He then went five years without a Formula One race, though he kept testing for Williams.

In 1988 he stood in for Nigel Mansell at Williams for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. He qualified 22nd and made his Grand Prix debut the day before his 40th birthday. It was his only World Championship start. During the race he worked his way up to 11th while Ayrton Senna led in his McLaren. With three laps to go, Senna came to lap him. The two cars touched in the Rettifilo chicane. The McLaren spun and ended up stuck on a kerb. The Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto took a one-two finish in front of their home crowd, less than a month after the death of Enzo Ferrari. The collision also stopped McLaren from winning all 16 races of the 1988 season.

Away from Formula One, Schlesser won the French Touring Car Championship in 1985 in a TWR Rover Vitesse and also drove works TWR Jaguars in the World Sportscar Championship. From 1988 he raced for Sauber-Mercedes, finishing second in the championship that year and winning the title in 1989 and 1990, sharing the latter with Mauro Baldi. In 1991 he raced alongside Michael Schumacher. From 1989 he took part regularly in the Dakar Rally and from 1992 he built his own buggies. He won the Dakar in 1999 and 2000, and the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup from 1998 to 2002. He also won every edition of the Africa Eco Race from 2009 to 2014.

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