Éric Bernard

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

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 . He returned in with Ligier, achieving his only podium at the . He made his final appearance at the 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. 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 ninth in the championship with 13 points. For 1989, he drove for the DAMS team, scoring one win and placing third 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 fifth place, and was still in seventh when his Lamborghini V12 engine failed a few laps from the end (Alesi also debuted at the race for Tyrrell, running as high as second before finally finishing fourth). Bernard stood in again at the following British Grand Prix, before returning to his Formula 3000 commitments with DAMS.

Bernard was rewarded with a full-season drive for Larrousse in 1990. He took his first point for sixth place at the Monaco Grand Prix, and his best result came at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix, where he took fourth 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 sixth 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.

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

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

Complete Formula One results (key)

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

Complete FIA GT Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete American Le Mans Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)