Éric Bernard (born 24 August 1964) is a retired French Formula One racing driver, who drove in Formula One from 1989 to 1994 for the Ligier, Larrousse and Lotus teams. His best finish in Formula One was third place at the German Grand Prix in 1994. After his Formula One career ended, he raced sportscars.

Éric Bernard
Born (1964-08-24) 24 August 1964 (age 59)
Martigues, France
Formula One World Championship career
NationalityFrance French
Active years19891991, 1994
TeamsLarrousse, Ligier, Lotus
Entries47 (45 starts)
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums1
Career points10
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1989 French Grand Prix
Last entry1994 European Grand Prix

Early career edit

Bernard was born in Martigues, near Marseille. He started karting in 1976 and in the seven years that followed, won four French titles. In 1983 he attended racing school at Paul Ricard and was one of the finalists at the Volant Elf competition. He beat Jean Alesi and Bertrand Gachot to the prize, earning himself a fully sponsored drive in Formula Renault for 1984. He finished sixth in the series, but won the following year, and entering French Formula Three in 1986. He won the series the following year, finishing in second place for the championship, behind his old rival, Alesi. In 1988 he entered Formula 3000. He drove the initial part of the season for the Ralt Team before switching to Bromley Motorsport which ran a Reynard chassis. His best finish that year was second at the Dijon-Prenois and placed 9th in the championship with 13 points. For 1989, he drove for the DAMS team, scoring one win and placing 3rd in the championship with 25 points.

Formula One edit

In mid-1989, Bernard was called up to the French Larrousse Formula One team for the French Grand Prix, replacing Yannick Dalmas. On his debut, he ran as high as 5th place, and was still in 7th when his Lamborghini V12 engine failed a few laps from the end (Alesi also debuted at the race for Tyrrell, running as high as 2nd before finally finishing 4th). Bernard stood in again at the following British Grand Prix, before returning to his Formula 3000 commitments with DAMS.

 
Bernard driving for Ligier at the 1994 British Grand Prix.

Bernard was rewarded with a full-season drive for Larrousse in 1990. He took his first point for 6th place at the Monaco Grand Prix, and his best result came at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix, where he took 4th place. He elected to stay on at Larrousse for the 1991 season, but the team were in trouble, losing their Lamborghini engines to the quasi-works Modena team, having their 1990 points stripped by the FIA, and also losing sponsors. Bernard took 6th place in the Mexican Grand Prix, which was the last points finish for Larrousse with Lola Cars, but slipped back down the field, failing to qualify for the first time in his career at the Portuguese Grand Prix - partially due to a bereavement. Worse was to come, however, when Bernard broke his leg in the first practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix.[1]

Bernard fought back to fitness, and for the 1993 season his old sponsors Elf managed to get him into a test driver seat for the Ligier team. The two-year testing contract paid off, as a team backer was jailed for fraud before the 1994 season, and the reduced budget saw Bernard promoted to a race seat, alongside rookie Olivier Panis. Sadly for Bernard, Panis largely outpaced him, and the team's Renault V10 engine was counterweighted by the team using a "B"-spec version of the 1993 JS39 chassis - by this time a very unusual practice in Formula One which greatly harmed competitiveness. Bernard took third place in the high-attrition German Grand Prix, but by the European Grand Prix he was dropped in order to accommodate Johnny Herbert. He was engaged by Herbert's previous team, Team Lotus, to fill the seat at the European GP, but it was to be his last F1 drive, with Mika Salo taking over later in the season. For 1995, he was linked to a return to Larrousse, but the team folded before the season began.

Sportscars edit

Bernard moved to sportscars, enjoying considerable success in GT and ALMS series.

Racing record edit

Career summary edit

Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position
1984 Championnat de France Formule Renault Turbo ? 11 0 0 0 1 55 7th
1985 Championnat de France Formule Renault Turbo Ecurie Elf 12 6 4 8 9 140 1st
1986 French Formula Three Ecurie Elf 10 0 0 0 2 48 5th
Italian Formula Three 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC
1987 French Formula Three Ecurie Elf 13 2 3 7 9 129 2nd
Macau Grand Prix 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 8th
1988 International Formula 3000 Bromley Motorsport 5 0 0 0 1 13 9th
Ralt Racing 4 0 0 0 0
1989 International Formula 3000 DAMS 10 1 2 3 3 25 3rd
Formula One Equipe Larrousse 2 0 0 0 0 0 NC
1990 Formula One Espo Larrousse F1 16 0 0 0 0 5 13th
1991 Formula One Larrousse F1 13 0 0 0 0 1 18th
1994 Formula One Ligier Gitanes Blondes 13 0 0 0 1 4 18th
Team Lotus 1 0 0 0 0
1995 24 Hours of Le Mans Courage Compétition 10 0 0 0 0 N/A DNF
1996 BPR Global GT Series Ennea/Igol 10 0 0 0 3 155 8th
24 Hours of Le Mans Ennea SRL Igol 1 0 0 0 0 N/A DNF
1997 FIA GT Championship DAMS Panoz 8 0 0 0 0 0 NC
24 Hours of Le Mans Société DAMS 1 0 0 0 0 N/A DNF
1998 FIA GT Championship DAMS 8 0 0 0 2 15 11th
United States Road Racing Championship Panoz-Visteon Racing 5 0 1 0 2 8 4th
24 Hours of Le Mans Panoz Motor Sports 1 0 0 0 0 N/A DNF
1999 American Le Mans Series Panoz Motor Sports 8 2 1 2 4 135 2nd
Sports Racing World Cup DAMS 5 3 1 2 3 60 9th
24 Hours of Le Mans Panoz Motor Sports 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 7th
2000 American Le Mans Series Motorola-DAMS 5 0 0 0 0 66 20th
Sports Racing World Cup 3 0 0 0 0 3 37th
24 Hours of Le Mans DAMS 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 19th
2001 24 Hours of Le Mans DAMS 1 0 0 0 0 N/A DNF
2002 American Le Mans Series Team Cadillac 6 0 0 0 0 78 18th
24 Hours of Le Mans 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 12th
Source:[2]

Complete International Formula 3000 results edit

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pos Points
1988 Team Ralt Ralt RT22 Judd JER
6
VAL
10
PAU
4
SIL
11
MNZ
DNQ
PER 9th 13
Bromley Motorsport Reynard 88D Cosworth BRH
DSQ
BIR
DSQ
BUG
Ret
ZOL
4
DIJ
2
1989 DAMS Lola T89/50 Mugen Honda SIL
Ret
VAL
Ret
PAU
Ret
JER
1
PER
Ret
BRH
4
BIR
4
SPA
Ret
BUG
3
DIJ
2
3rd 25
Sources:[3][4]

Complete Formula One results edit

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Points
1989 Equipe Larrousse Lola LC89 Lamborghini V12 BRA SMR MON MEX USA CAN FRA
11
GBR
Ret
GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS NC 0
1990 Espo Larrousse F1 Lola LC89B Lamborghini V12 USA
8
BRA
Ret
13th 5
Lola LC90 SMR
13
MON
6
CAN
9
MEX
Ret
FRA
8
GBR
4
GER
Ret
HUN
6
BEL
9
ITA
Ret
POR
Ret
ESP
Ret
JPN
Ret
AUS
Ret
1991 Larrousse F1 Larrousse Lola LC91 Cosworth V8 USA
Ret
BRA
Ret
SMR
Ret
MON
9
CAN
Ret
MEX
6
FRA
Ret
GBR
Ret
GER
Ret
HUN
Ret
BEL
Ret
ITA
Ret
POR
DNQ
ESP
Ret
JPN
DNQ
AUS 18th 1
1994 Ligier Gitanes Blondes Ligier JS39B Renault V10 BRA
Ret
PAC
10
SMR
12
MON
Ret
ESP
8
CAN
13
FRA
Ret
GBR
13
GER
3
HUN
10
BEL
10
ITA
7
POR
10
18th 4
Team Lotus Lotus 109 Mugen Honda V10 EUR
18
JPN AUS
Sources:[4][5]

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results edit

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1995   Courage Compétition   Henri Pescarolo
  Franck Lagorce
Courage C41 WSC 26 DNF DNF
1996   Ennea SRL Igol   Jean-Marc Gounon
  Paul Belmondo
Ferrari F40 GTE LMGT1 40 DNF DNF
1997   Société DAMS   Franck Lagorce
  Jean-Christophe Boullion
Panoz GTR-1 LMGT1 149 DNF DNF
1998   Panoz Motor Sports   Christophe Tinseau
  Johnny O'Connell
Panoz GTR-1 LMGT1 236 DNF DNF
1999   Panoz Motor Sports   David Brabham
  Butch Leitzinger
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S LMP 336 7th 6th
2000   DAMS   Emmanuel Collard
  Franck Montagny
Cadillac Northstar LMP LMP900 300 19th 9th
2001   DAMS   Emmanuel Collard
  Marc Goossens
Cadillac Northstar LMP01 LMP900 56 DNF DNF
2002   Team Cadillac   Emmanuel Collard
  JJ Lehto
Cadillac Northstar LMP02 LMP900 334 12th 10th
Sources:[3][6]

References edit

  1. ^ "October 1991 Information". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2007.
  2. ^ "Éric Bernard". Driver Database. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Éric Bernard Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Eric Bernard". Motor Sport. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  5. ^ Small, Steve (2000). "Éric Bernard". Grand Prix Who's Who (Third ed.). Reading, Berkshire: Travel Publishing. pp. 76–77. ISBN 978-1-902007-46-5. Retrieved 8 August 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ "Eric Bernard". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
Sporting positions
Preceded by Championnat de France Formule Renault Turbo
Champion

1985
Succeeded by