Yannick Dalmas
Yannick Dalmas ( born July 28, 1961 in Le Beausset ) is a French former racing driver.
Career
The French Formula 3 Championship brought the mid-1980s produced a host of top drivers, some of which found their way into the international motorsport. The fighting in this single-seater formula parted early wheat from the chaff. The brothers Alain and Michel Ferté, Michel Trollé, Pierre- Henri Raphanel, Olivier Grouillard, Éric Bernard, Jean Alesi, Érik Comas and Yannick Dalmas were members of this elite, which some of them led to Formula 1.
The young drivers
Yannick Dalmas came in 1985 as a French Formula Renault champion in the national Formula 3 Championship. As the winner of junior formula he could almost pick the cockpit. Dalmas opted for the former top team, the ORECA F3 team, whose second cockpit, he took over. Top drivers at ORECA was Pierre Henri Raphanel, the third championship the previous year. The battle for the championship in 1985 kindled fully between the two drivers after the first race. Finally Raphanel new champion, Dalmas had to be content with second place in the championship. The season 1986 - Raphanel was changed to Formula 3000, where he also drove for ORECA - was dominated by the South of France. Dalmas won six out of eleven races and thus its second national championship. The following example Raphanels, he moved in 1987 into the formula 3000th Here ORECA was not as competitive as in Formula 3 on wins and good placings followed repeatedly failures due to technical problems. Nevertheless, there was Dalmas after wins in Pau and Jarama fifth overall in the Formula 3000 championship in 1987 and by this success, the entry into Formula 1
In Formula 1
Still in the 1987 season Dalmas made his debut in Formula 1 to the Grand Prix of Mexico he drove the Lola -Cosworth LC 87 of Larrousse team. By now the third race, the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, he scored the first points with Rank 5 Rank, which were not counted because Larrousse had reported this season to only one vehicle.
This was followed by a year as a regular driver at Larrousse. This year was marked by sporting failures. First, the career has been hampered by two accidents in pre-season tests start. An initially diagnosed as ear inflammatory disease grew until the end of the life-threatening Legionnaires' disease. Best Placements were two seventh places, the one at the Grand Prix of Monaco, the other at the U.S. Grand Prix in Detroit, achieved every time with the new Lola LC 88 Lamborghini Larrousse.
1989 remained Dalmas in the team of Larrousse, but failed almost always in qualifying. Only the Grand Prix of San Marino, there were rank 26 the last place - but the engine went on strike during the prestart, so Dalmas could not even drive the formation lap. Dalmas was then replaced by Michele Alboreto and changed in the middle of the season to AGS. The AGS JH23B with Cosworth engine was no more competitive as the successor JH24, and Dalmas abolished in 1989, no further qualification for a round of the Formula 1 For lack of alternatives, he remained in 1990 at AGS, with similarly poor yield as the year before. The season consisted of 15 races, only five times he was able to qualify. His best result was the ninth place finish at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. After the end of the 1990 season Dalmas not extended his contract with AGS and switched to Peugeot and therefore to the sports car. Late in his career, he came unexpectedly still two races in Formula 1 when he rose at the Grand Prix of Italy and Portugal, in 1994, in the cockpit of the Larrousse ( Larrousse LH 94 Ford Cosworth ).
In sports car
Unlike in the Formula 1 career of Yannick Dalmas in the sports car was a success. Today, he is the most successful French racing driver in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an endurance classic, which is operated since 1923 and participated in all the great pilots from France to which up to Alain Prost. For the first time came Dalmas 1991 as factory driver for Peugeot at the Sarthe, who had first prepared vehicles for the 24- hour race after the Second World War. Under team boss Jean Todt was Keke Rosberg and Pierre -Henri Raphanel his teammates. The Peugeot 905 was fast, but it was not clear. The trio fell after 68 laps with gearbox failure, but won the scoring for the World Cup Group C race at Magny Cours and Mexico City.
In the following year, the first victory came at Le Mans. Peugeot had improved the car significantly, the problems with the transmission were solved, and Dalmas drove a highly acclaimed victory for the Grande Nation with Mark Blundell and Derek Warwick one. With victories at Silverstone and Fuji and second places at Monza and Donington he shared at the end of the title of World Sportscar Champion with Derek Warwick
1993, there was a triple victory for the factory team, this time with the Evo stage of the 905 as the Peugeot 905 Evo 1 C. For Dalmas there was a team with Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi Rank 2 After meeting the targeted goals with the victories at Le Mans Peugeot withdrew the end of the 1993 season back from racing back. Dalmas had made himself as the fastest of all the factory drivers such a good name as a long-haul pilot, he had to worry about a cockpit at Le Mans in the following years. In 1994 came the second victory, this time at the wheel of the Duration 962 GT LM Porsche (actually a Porsche 962, which was adapted to the new regulations from the German Le Mans Porsche team as a "permanent " is used ) divided by Hurley Haywood, and Mauro Baldi.
1995, a historic triumph. Together with Masanori Sekiya and JJ Lehto, he won the McLaren F1 GTR BMW after a distance of 4055.800 km. McLaren is so far the only manufacturer of racing cars, who won with his car in both Le Mans and the Grand Prix of Monaco and the 500 miles of Indianapolis. In 1996, Yannick Dalmas to Porsche and drove the new Porsche 911 GT1 not only at Le Mans, but also in the FIA GT World Championship. In 1996 he reached at the Sarthe Rank 3 teammates were the Austrian Karl Wendlinger and Canadian Scott Goodyear. In 1997 he sat in the car ( back in the Porsche 911 GT 1) with Ralf Kelleners and Emmanuel Collard. The factory Porsche was superior to that Sunday morning in, as Ralf Kelleners had to park the car in front of Indianapolis after a fire in the cockpit. The marshals were able to quickly delete the fire though, the chance to fourth victory, however, was then. In the same year, but the second place in the overall standings of the GT World Championship. Dalmas won at the beginning of the year, the first time the 12 Hours of Sebring, where on a Ferrari 333 SP.
1998 Porsche moved with four cars at Le Mans. Dalmas drove the Spyder, the Porsche LM 1 98, which was used by Joest Racing as a semi-works cars. Both Spyder did not make the 24 - hour distance. The car Dalmas ( with Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson ) retired on lap 107 with a damage to the electrical system. The victory still went to Porsche ( Stéphane Ortelli, Laurent Aiello and Allan McNish in the GT 1), because of lying in the lead Toyota GT -One, again lie with Ralf Kelleners at the wheel, one hour before the end of the race with a gearbox problem remained.
The fourth victory at Le Mans there was Dalmas 1999. During so far only total victory of BMW he drove with Pierluigi Martini and Joachim Winkelhock the BMW V12 LMR. It was followed by 2000, a loss in the first round with the new Reynard Spyder ORECA, 2001, another failure on a Chrysler Viper GTS -R and 2002, with his most recent deployment, a seventh rank for Audi.
Dalmas went in 1995 and 1996 in the DTM and ITC an Opel Calibra for the Joest Racing team. Despite great efforts there remained from the successes.
Le Mans results
Literature and sources
- Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 88 Solo for two. Orac, Vienna, 1988, ISBN 3-7015-0153- X.
- Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 89, The great crash. Orac, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-7015-0186-6
- Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 90 The Swoop. Orac, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7015-0157-2.
- R. M. Clarke: Le Mans - The Porsche and Peugeot Years. Brookland Books, Cobham 1999, ISBN 1-85520-501-7.