Éric Bernard

Éric Bernard (born 24 August 1964) is a French former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between Template:F1 and Template:F1.Template:Efn

Born in Martigues, Bernard began competitive kart racing aged 13, winning several national titles. He graduated to Formula Renault after attending the Winfield Racing School at Paul Ricard. Bernard debuted in Formula One at the 1989 French Grand Prix for Larrousse, where he remained until Template:F1. He returned in Template:F1 with Ligier, achieving his only podium at the Template:F1GP. He made his final appearance at the Template:F1GP with Lotus. After his departure, he competed in sportscar racing, finishing runner-up in the 1999 American Le Mans Series with Panoz.

Early career

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.<ref name="GPCOMProfile">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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

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

Racing record

Career summary

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
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Complete International Formula 3000 results

(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 Template:Small	VAL Template:Small	PAU Template:Small	SIL Template:Small	MNZ Template:Small	PER						9th	13
	Bromley Motorsport	Reynard 88D	Cosworth							BRH Template:Small	BIR Template:Small	BUG Template:Small	ZOL Template:Small	DIJ Template:Small
1989	DAMS	Lola T89/50	Mugen Honda	SIL Template:Small	VAL Template:Small	PAU Template:Small	JER Template:Small	PER Template:Small	BRH Template:Small	BIR Template:Small	SPA Template:Small	BUG Template:Small	DIJ Template:Small		3rd	25
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Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
Template:F1	Equipe Larrousse	Lola LC89	Lamborghini V12	BRA	SMR	MON	MEX	USA	CAN	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS	NC	0
Template:F1	Espo Larrousse F1	Lola LC89B	Lamborghini V12	USA Template:Small	BRA Template:Small															13th	5
		Lola LC90				SMR Template:Small	MON Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	MEX Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	HUN Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	POR Template:Small	ESP Template:Small	JPN Template:Small	AUS Template:Small
Template:F1	Larrousse F1	Larrousse Lola LC91	Cosworth V8	USA Template:Small	BRA Template:Small	SMR Template:Small	MON Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	MEX Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	HUN Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	POR Template:Small	ESP Template:Small	JPN Template:Small	AUS	18th	1
Template:F1	Ligier Gitanes Blondes	Ligier JS39B	Renault V10	BRA Template:Small	PAC Template:Small	SMR Template:Small	MON Template:Small	ESP Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	HUN Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	POR Template:Small				18th	4
	Team Lotus	Lotus 109	Mugen Honda V10														EUR Template:Small	JPN	AUS
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Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Courage Compétition	Template:Flagicon Henri Pescarolo Template:Flagicon Franck Lagorce	Courage C41	WSC	26	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Ennea SRL Igol	Template:Flagicon Jean-Marc Gounon Template:Flagicon Paul Belmondo	Ferrari F40 GTE	LMGT1	40	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Société DAMS	Template:Flagicon Franck Lagorce Template:Flagicon Jean-Christophe Boullion	Panoz GTR-1	LMGT1	149	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Panoz Motor Sports	Template:Flagicon Christophe Tinseau Template:Flagicon Johnny O'Connell	Panoz GTR-1	LMGT1	236	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Panoz Motor Sports	Template:Flagicon David Brabham Template:Flagicon Butch Leitzinger	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	LMP	336	7th	6th
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon DAMS	Template:Flagicon Emmanuel Collard Template:Flagicon Franck Montagny	Cadillac Northstar LMP	LMP900	300	19th	9th
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon DAMS	Template:Flagicon Emmanuel Collard Template:Flagicon Marc Goossens	Cadillac Northstar LMP01	LMP900	56	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Team Cadillac	Template:Flagicon Emmanuel Collard Template:Flagicon JJ Lehto	Cadillac Northstar LMP02	LMP900	334	12th	10th
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