Yannick
Dalmas

Yannick Dalmas was born on 28 July 1961 in Le Beausset. He started out in French Formula Renault, taking the 1984 title with six wins from twelve races. In French Formula 3 he was runner-up in 1985 and champion in 1986, ahead of Jean Alesi. In 1987 he raced for Oreca in International Formula 3000, winning at Pau and Jarama and finishing fifth in the standings.

Towards the end of the 1987 Formula One season he took the new second Larrousse car for the last three races. He finished ninth on his debut in Mexico. In Australia he came home fifth but was not awarded championship points, as Larrousse had entered only one car for the championship. He stayed with the team in 1988 and made 13 starts. Seventh places in Monaco, where Riccardo Patrese passed him on the final lap, and in Detroit left him just short of the points. In 1989 he started only one of 15 races he was entered for, then moved to AGS, where he failed to get through pre-qualifying in the final nine rounds. In 1990 he qualified for five races, with ninth in Spain his best result. He returned to Larrousse for two races in 1994: he spun out at Monza, and in Portugal he finished 14th, his final Formula One race. In total he made 24 starts from 50 entries, without scoring a championship point.

In endurance racing, Dalmas drove for the Peugeot works team from 1991, and with the 905 he won at Magny-Cours and Mexico City alongside Keke Rosberg. In 1992 he won the World Sportscar Championship with Derek Warwick and took victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Warwick and Mark Blundell. He won Le Mans again in 1994 in the Dauer-run Porsche 962 with Hurley Haywood and Mauro Baldi, in 1995 in a McLaren F1 GTR with JJ Lehto and Masanori Sekiya, and in 1999 in a BMW with Pierluigi Martini and Joachim Winkelhock. Each of the four wins came with a different manufacturer. He also won the 1997 12 Hours of Sebring in a Ferrari 333 SP. In touring cars he raced for Opel in the DTM and ITC, and in the FIA GT Championship he finished third in the 1998 standings with Allan McNish. His last professional race was the 2002 Le Mans 24 Hours, where he finished seventh in an Audi R8 for Team Goh.

From the inaugural season in 2012, Dalmas took on the roles of safety car driver and driving advisor in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He was Grand Marshal at Le Mans in 2025.

Source: Wikipedia, “Yannick Dalmas”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.