Bertrand Gachot

Former F1 driver
Name = Bertrand Gachot

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Caption = Gachot at the 1991 United States Grand Prix
Nationality = flagicon|Belgium Belgian
Years = F1|1989 - F1|1992, F1|1994 - F1|1995
Team(s) = Onyx, Rial, Coloni, Jordan, Larrousse, Pacific
Races = 84 (47 starts)
Championships = 0
Wins = 0
Podiums = 0
Points = 5
Poles = 0
Fastest laps = 1
First race = 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix
First win =
Last win =
Last race = 1995 Australian Grand Prix
Infobox racing driver
name = Bertrand Gachot


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date of death =
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first year = CART, 1992
current team =
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former teams = Simon Racing
starts = 1
wins = 0
poles = 0
fastest laps =
best finish = 12
year = 1992-93
prev series = Formula One
prev series years = 1989-1992; 1994-95
titles =
title years =
awards
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Bertrand Gachot (born December 23, 1962 in Luxembourg) is a Belgian former racing driver.

Gachot was the son of a French European Commission official. He began karting at the age of 15. In 1983 he attended Winfield School, a well-known racing-driving school in France. After this, he focussed on his racing career, competing first in the Formula Ford 1600 series. By 1986, he had won the British Formula Ford championship.

In 1987, Gachot joined the British Formula 3 series, finishing second in the championship for the West Surrey Racing team. In 1988, he switched to the Formula 3000 series, but met some success. In 1989, he entered the storied world of Formula One, driving for the newly-formed Onyx team. Although his performances were promising, after making statements in the press which caused the ire of his erratic team boss, Gachot lost his drive before the season's end. Instead, he switched in 1990 to the Subaru-powered Coloni team, with little success.

In 1991, he joined the Jordan Grand Prix racing team, helping them to fifth in the constructor championship. However, his season was cut short by a two-month prison stint, received for spraying CS gas on a London taxicab driver after a traffic altercation (his race seat was filled temporarily by then-unknown Michael Schumacher, making his Formula One debut). When he was finally released from prison after two months, he had missed four Grands Prix (including his home Grand Prix in Belgium). The Jordan Grand Prix racing team was not interested in returning his seat (which was given to Alessandro Zanardi) for the last two races of the season, in Japan and Australia. Finally, he was able to compete in the last Grand Prix of that season with Larrousse, replacing Eric Bernard, but he failed to qualify. Gachot then spent the complete 1992 season with the Larrousse team, scoring 1 point in the Monaco Grand Prix where he finished in 6th place.

Gachot spent the next several years racing in various formulae. He was involved in the Pacific Racing F1 team behind the scenes, as well as driving for them for most of their two-year existence. The high point of Gachot's career is winning the renowned 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race in 1991 in a Mazda (with co-drivers Johnny Herbert and Volker Weidler). In later years, Gachot has concentrated on his business interests which include marketing "Hype", a high-energy beverage; he still keeps his contacts with Formula One and owns an F1 website. He spends his time with his family in southern Spain.

Gachot competed in a total of 47 grands prix for eight different teams. He never won a race, but he did score five championship points during his F1 career, and recorded the fastest lap of the 1991 Hungarian Grand Prix for Jordan.

Complete Formula One results

() (Races in bold indicate pole position)