Didier Auriol

Didier Auriol (born 18 August 1958) is a French former rally driver. Born in Montpellier and initially an ambulance driver, he competed in the World Rally Championship throughout the 1990s. He became World Rally Champion in 1994, the first driver from his country to do so. He was a factory candidate for Lancia, Toyota and Peugeot among others, before losing his seat at Škoda at the end of 2003. His sister Nadine was also involved in rallying as a co-driver, while his brother Gerrard was also a former rally driver.

Career At the age of 21, Auriol started rallying in an old Simca 1000. He drove the Simca for two years before getting a Renault 5 Turbo to compete in the French Rally Championship. In 1986 he competed in a Metro 6R4. With this car, he won his first French Rallye Championship. He contested it again the following year, the first of the Group A years, in a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and with his car he was French Rally Champion 1987 and 1988.

Auriol won his first World Championship event, the 1988 Tour de Corse, whilst driving a works Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. It was the only time that season when Lancia were beaten in a straight fight, and the Lancia team signed him for the following year. He remained with the team for four seasons, driving three successive versions of the then-dominant Lancia Delta Integrale. In 1992, driving the final evolution of the car, he won six events in one season (a record until beaten by Sébastien Loeb in 2005), but poor results on other rounds and retirement on the last event of the season, the RAC Rally, handed the world championship to Carlos Sainz.

In 1993, Auriol switched to Toyota, and won his first event for the team, the Monte Carlo Rally. He did not win again that season, but the following year he won the Corsica, Argentina and San Remo rallies and went into the final round, in Great Britain, vying again with Sainz for the championship. Despite a poor showing on the rally, he emerged as World Champion after the Spanish driver went off the road on the final day. In 1995, he took the first win for the Celica GT-Four ST205 in Tour de Corse with Denis Giraudet, who replaced his regular co-driver Bernard Occelli who was experiencing a family problem at that time. However, later in the same season, on the Rally Catalunya, Toyota were found to have used an illegal device in the turbocharger to increase the power of the engine, and were excluded from the results of the 1995 championship and banned for next year.

In 1996, Auriol contested only two World Championship events. He drove for Subaru in Sweden and for Mitsubishi in San Remo. In 1997, he entered in Monte Carlo with a private Ford, and drove couple of rallies with Toyota's new Corolla WRC.

In 1998, Auriol became a Toyota full-time driver. he earned one win and four podiums, finishing fifth in the overall standings. In 1999 he scored one win and seven podiums, which placed him third in points.

As Toyota retired from World Rally Championship after 1999, Auriol moved to SEAT Sport, driving the SEAT Córdoba WRC E2. Using Auriol's experience, SEAT managed to grab the third podium place at the Safari Rally in Kenya, and later that season to launch their third evolution of the Córdoba WRC. However at the end of the season the Spanish manufacturer retired from WRC to focus on the development of a special series of high performance cars.

Auriol landed a drive with Peugeot Sport for the 2001 season, but he had a largely difficult season; only on asphalt-rallies was Auriol able to be quicker than his teammate, Marcus Grönholm. Auriol's only win that year came in Spain, whereas he scored three third places at Sanremo, Corse and Australia. 2002 was a kind of gap year for Auriol, and for 2003, Auriol signed with Škoda Motorsport, and played a notable part in the development work of the Škoda Fabia WRC.

Auriol is a six-time winner of the Tour de Corse, a record jointly held with Bernard Darniche.

WRC victories Auriol's Toyota Celica GT-Four 1995 Tour de Corse winning car.

Number Event Season Co-driver Car 1 32ème Tour de Corse – Rallye de France 1988 Bernard Occelli Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 2 33ème Tour de Corse – Rallye de France 1989 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta Integrale 3 58ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo 1990 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta Integrale 16V 4 34ème Tour de Corse – Rallye de France 1990 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta Integrale 16V 5 32º Rallye Sanremo – Rallye d'Italia 1990 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta Integrale 16V 6 33º Rallye Sanremo – Rallye d'Italia 1991 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta Integrale 16V 7 60ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo 1992 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta HF Integrale 8 36ème Tour de Corse – Rallye de France 1992 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta HF Integrale 9 39th Acropolis Rally 1992 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta HF Integrale 10 12º Rally Argentina 1992 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta HF Integrale 11 42nd 1000 Lakes Rally 1992 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta HF Integrale 12 5th Telecom Rally Australia 1992 Bernard Occelli Lancia Delta HF Integrale 13 61ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo 1993 Bernard Occelli Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD 14 38ème Tour de Corse – Rallye de France 1994 Bernard Occelli Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD 15 14º Rally Argentina 1994 Bernard Occelli Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD 16 36º Rallye Sanremo – Rallye d'Italia 1994 Bernard Occelli Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD 17 39ème Tour de Corse – Rallye de France 1995 Denis Giraudet Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 18 34º Rallye Catalunya-Costa Brava (Rallye de España) 1998 Denis Giraudet Toyota Corolla WRC 19 3rd China Rally 1999 Denis Giraudet Toyota Corolla WRC 20 37º Rallye Catalunya-Costa Brava (Rallye de España) 2001 Denis Giraudet Peugeot 206 WRC

WRC results