Yannick Dalmas

4 times winner (1992, 1994, 1995, 1999)

Looking at his F1 record, some might wonder why Yannick Dalmas, from Le Beausset near Toulon in France, was called 'The New Alain Prost'. Yet from the very start of his career, Dalmas had 'champion' written all over him, and may well have got to the top in F1 were it not for a bout of illness at the end of 1988. His glory in the 1990s, especially at Le Mans, is but a sign of what might have been. Raised near the Paul Ricard circuit, he quickly had a dabble in motor racing for himself, and before he was a teenager he had won a race at the track and been presented with a trophy by Francois Cevert. Now he had well and truly caught the racing bug, but he took to two-wheeled racing of the motocross variety.

However, a leg injury forced him to switch to cars, and by winning the Marlboro Cherche un Pilote scheme in 1982, he won a ride in the French Formula Renault championship for 1983. There he came an excellent 3rd behind champion Jean-Pierre Hoursourigaray, before storming to 7 victories and the title in his Martini Mk41 in 1984. Immediately Oreca snapped him up for their French F3 team for 1985, alongside Pierre-Henri Raphanel. Not long after, Dalmas was the quicker driver, but Raphanel's early-season results saw Yannick relegated to 2nd in the title behind his teammate. But the year after, driving an Oreca Martini Mk49 with a VW engine, Dalmas creamed the opposition, taking 6 wins from 11 and beating Jean Alesi and Michel Trolle to the title. For good measure, Dalmas also won the Monaco F3 support race that year.

Before the year was out, he had made his first start in F3000, when Oreca entered a third March 86B/Cosworth for Dalmas alongside Raphanel and Michel Ferte at Le Mans Bugatti, but Yannick crashed. His inauspicious start in the series was continued into his first full season in 1987, when in his Oreca March 87B/Cosworth, as teammate to Olivier Grouillard, Dalmas crashed in the first two races at Silverstone and Vallelunga. His Vallelunga crash was so heavy he had to take a race off. But in his first race back, he won at Pau from 7th on the grid, before collecting the fastest lap at Donington despite only finishing 17th. He then spun out at Enna, took fastest lap and 5th at Brands Hatch, retired at Birmingham, Imola and Le Mans, but took both fastest lap and a sensational victory from 14th on the grid at Jarama. He came 5th overall behind Mauricio Gugelmin, Roberto Moreno, Luis Perez Sala and Stefano Modena, but this was no true reflection. From his Jarama performance, his future looked set.

Formula One, part I

Dalmas' rise through the ranks was complete before 1987 was even finished when Gerard Larrousse entered a second car for him towards the end of the F1 season. That year had been Larrousse's first in F1 as a team owner, and they had used a Lola LC87 chassis with a Ford DFZ engine to pretty good effect at the hands of Philippe Alliot. Dalmas was given his first opportunity at the third-last race in Mexico, although he wouldn't be allowed to score points (not even in the non-turbo Jim Clark Trophy which was held that year) because his car had not been entered the whole year. But in his first outing, Dalmas immediately qualified 23rd ahead of Alliot, and finished last and 9th; four laps down but nevertheless a very impressive debut performance.

Then in Japan he started 22nd and was classified 14th despite his engine blowing four laps from home. But in Adelaide, Dalmas was one of the true stars. Starting 21st, despite suffering the pain of a burnt foot throughout the race, he finished 6th out of 10 finishers, which became 5th when Ayrton Senna's Lotus was disqualified. Although he was 3 laps down on Gerhard Berger, it would have scored him 2 points had he been eligible. That ensured that when Larrousse expanded into a full two-car effort for 1988, Dalmas would partner Alliot in the Lola LC88s with the same Ford DFZ engines. And right from the start, Dalmas continued to impress, qualifying only half a second behind the experienced Alliot in Brazil before an engine failure in the race, and coming home 12th at Imola only 2 laps down on Senna.

But from here, his 1988 would be a story of missed opportunities. At Monaco he put in a stunning performance, taking the 4th fastest race lap. In the latter stages of the race, he even passed Riccardo Patrese's Williams for 6th when the Italian's visor fogged up, but after the veteran opened his visor he caught back up and passed the Larrousse with two laps left. Only a lap down, Dalmas had just missed out on a point he would have been eligible for. In Mexico he was 9th out of 16 finishers, but then in Canada he crashed in Friday morning practice when his rear wishbone failed. He had to use the spare in qualifying that day, but a parts shortage meant he had to use a damaged rear upright. On the Saturday morning, he had to share Alliot's car while an upright was being flown from Paris to New York on a Concorde, then from NY to Montreal by connecting flight, before being taken to the track via helicopter! But with minimal track time, Dalmas DNQ'd.

At Detroit he was 7th again, before finishing 13th at Paul Ricard after a pit stop to re-fasten his seat belts! He was then 13th again at Silverstone, having started 23rd, 0.012s slower than Alliot in 22nd. In Germany he was the last classified of the 19 finishers, after pit stops for a new nosecone and black box to fix a misfire. He also ran off the track at one stage and nearly collected Thierry Boutsen's Benetton when he rejoined. Subsequently Dalmas finished 9th again in Hungary, before retiring in Belgium, Italy and Portugal, although he did start a fabulous 15th at Estoril. He qualified 16th at Jerez, and finished 11th out of 14, only a lap down on Senna. But then he was struck down with what was believed to be an ear infection, and Aguri Suzuki took his place at Suzuka, before Raphanel filled in for him in Adelaide.

In fact, what Dalmas had was life-threatening Legionnaire's Disease. Laid low for most of the off-season, it was some surprise when Larrousse reconfirmed the Alliot-Dalmas partnership for 1989, when the team would use Lamborghini V12 engines. There were doubts as to Yannick's fitness, and although he failed to qualify in Brazil, using an interim Lola LC88B, people were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, seeing that Alliot had only qualified 26th. At Imola Larrousse introduced the new LC89, although Dalmas' was only readied on Friday morning. Eventually, he beat Michele Alboreto's Tyrrell to 26th spot by only 0.069s, but his electrics failed on the grid. To add to Larrousse's misery, Alliot also retired on the opening lap with a spark plug problem.

But from here it became clear that Dalmas had lost his edge. He missed out on the grid at Monaco by 0.160s, was only 29th quickest in Mexico after problems, was 2.282s off the grid in Phoenix, and had more problems in Canada before recording only the 28th fastest time. This was no good as far as Larrousse were concerned, and for France Dalmas was dumped in favour of Eric Bernard. But France happened to be the last outing for Joachim Winkelhock in the AGS team, the German suffering from sciatica and indifferent treatment from the French team. When he left, Dalmas took the spot alongside Gabriele Tarquini, and right from the outset received more attention than what Winkelhock ever did. But at Silverstone, in the vastly inferior AGS JH23B/Ford DFR V8, Dalmas could only manage the 9th fastest time in pre-qualifying.

Disappointment followed in Germany. By this stage, Alboreto had moved into Dalmas' old Larrousse seat, and immediately took his revenge on Yannick for Imola by beating the AGS to the 4th fastest time in pre-qualifying by 0.001s. From there, Dalmas could not pre-qualify in any of Hungary, Belgium or Italy, despite having a new AGS JH24 at his disposal from Spa onwards. Mind you, Tarquini was doing no better. There was more heartbreak at Estoril, though, when Dalmas actually pre-qualified before being excluded after he had done so on tyres that were not marked for the meeting. AGS were fined US$5,000, and from there Dalmas never recovered, only managed the 10th, 12th and 11th fastest times in pre-qualifying in Spain, Japan and Australia respectively.

For 1990, though, AGS retained both Dalmas and Tarquini and started the season in revised JH24Bs, but this was really the beginning of the end for AGS (although they wouldn't fold until late in 1991). Yannick failed to pre-qualify in America, then outdid Tarquini to qualify 26th in Brazil before a front suspension failure after 28 laps. The team then skipped Imola to prepare the new JH25. But the new machine was no better. He failed to get past Friday morning in Monaco, Canada, Mexico and Britain, but at least he pre-qualified in France and beat Paolo Barilla to 26th spot by 0.082s. He was even classified 17th, although his gear lever had broken 5 laps from the end. He then pre-qualified in Germany and Hungary but didn't make it onto the grid, missing out at the Hungaroring by only 0.136s.

With the Onyx team disappearing after Hungary, AGS were elevated automatically into qualifying, but in Belgium Dalmas was only 30th quickest. He then qualified for all of Italy, Portugal and Spain in either 24th or 25th. At Monza, a long pit stop saw him finish 8 laps down and not classified, before a halfshaft failure early at Estoril. At Jerez he was 9th, a lap down on Prost. However, failures to qualify in Japan and Australia meant Dalmas was heartily fed up with F1, or more to the point, F1 was done with him, his early impressive performances all but forgotten. By the end of 1990, Dalmas was on the lookout for new challenges.

Between Formula One

Fortunately for him, Peugeot threw out a lifeline. They were about to enter the World Sports car Championship with their gorgeously streamlined 905 machine, and they put Dalmas in one car alongside Keke Rosberg. Ultimately, it was a very trying year despite regular top 4 grid positions, with three engine failures in the first three races, followed by a gear linkage failure at Le Mans, where Raphanel had joined the pair. After that there was an accident at the Nurburgring, before their promise was fulfilled with a victory from pole at Magny Cours. Less than a month later, Dalmas and Rosberg backed it up with another win at Mexico City, before oil pressure problems at Autopolis. It left the pair only 13th overall in the points standings, though.

But by 1992, the Peugeot package was sorted, and Dalmas was now paired with Derek Warwick. That the pair was never off the front row of the grid shows their dominance of the season, although this was tarnished by the fact that the WSC was struggling and there was only Toyota to go up against. But in six races, they started with a 2nd at Monza, followed by two wins, first at Silverstone and then in the Le Mans 24hr classic, where they were joined by Mark Blundell - easily Yannick's greatest career achievement at that time. With another 2nd at Donington, followed by a win at Suzuka and a 5th at Magny Cours, Dalmas and Warwick clearly won the World Sportscar Championship at a canter.

However, hopes of a repeat in 1993 were dashed when the WSC finally collapsed, but Le Mans was still run and Peugeot entered Dalmas in a 905 alongside Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi. They finished 2nd behind the other works Peugeot of Geoff Brabham, Eric Helary and Christophe Bouchut. Peugeot still had Dalmas on their books for the rest of 1993, though, and planted him in a 405 for the French Supertourisme Championship. Frankly, after F1 and high-performance sports cars, 2-litre touring cars weren't really his thing, but Dalmas still managed to come a by-the-numbers 9th in the series.

He continued in a Peugeot 405 Mi16 in 1994, and scored two wins and two 2nds in the first four races to be a clear leader in the championship. But his results dropped off somewhat after that as team-mate Laurent Aiello took control of the championship, and a win for Dalmas in the last round at Ledenon did no more than salvage 4th overall. However, the obvious highlight for Dalmas in 1994 was his second victory at Le Mans, where he joined the Le Mans Porsche team to race a Dauer 962. New rules were meant to have outlawed legendary prototypes such as the Porsche 962, but producing the car in road-going form under the name of the Dauer 962 got around the rules, and along with Hurley Haywood and Mauro Baldi, Dalmas took an assertive victory.

Formula One, part II

This is the really strange bit, though. Having already been disenchanted by F1 once before, and having tasted the giddy heights of sports car success, in the latter stages of 1994 somehow Dalmas was back behind the wheel of an F1 car. What's more, he was back at Larrousse, and not only that, he was there as a pay driver! The team, which had given Yannick his first shot at F1 back in 1987, was now in its death-throes. Their LH94 chassis was decent, but the Ford HB V8 engine outdated and down on power. Stalwart Erik Comas had been doing a fine job in one car, but the other had initially been occupied by pay-driver Olivier Beretta. Philippe Alliot (Yannick's Larrousse teammate from seven years previously) transferred from McLaren test duties to Larrousse for one race in Belgium, before Dalmas rejoined the team for two races.

Not that he covered himself in much glory. At Monza, he qualified 23rd, but crashed after only 18 laps of the race. Then in Portugal, he was 23rd on the grid again, but whilst being lapped, he held up leader David Coulthard, allowing Damon Hill to go through and take the win. Eventually, Dalmas finished 14th out of 16 finishers, 2 laps down on Hill. Dalmas was then embarrassingly replaced by Hideki Noda, while eventually even Comas had to give way for Jean-Denis Deletraz. When put alongside the rest of his achievements throughout the 1990s, to say that Dalmas' brief return to F1 has been forgotten would be a classic piece of understatement.

After Formula One

1995 saw Dalmas break his ties with French teams, and join the Joest Opel team to race a Calibra V6 in the Class 1 DTM in Germany. These high-tech cars should have suited him more than the 2-litre Peugeots did, but sadly Dalmas never got to grips with this class of racing. His 1995 was bitterly disappointing, with finishes outside the top 10 and a string of accidents, notably at Avus and two at the Norisring. Only late in the season did he claw into the top ten in races, recording fastest lap at Hockenheim, but it was too late. The only consolation for Dalmas was that, in June, he had clocked up his third Le Mans victory, driving a McLaren F1 GTR to victory with JJ Lehto and Masanori Sekiya for Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing. A picture of that car can be found here. At the end of the year, he joined Lehto for another GT race at Zhuhai in a Tom's Toyota Supra, but they retired.

Strangely, for 1996 Dalmas stuck with the Joest Opel campaign, with the DTM having become the ill-fated ITC, with races the world over. Dalmas could place no higher than 6th at Helsinki, and other moderately notable results saw him finish between 7th and 12th, but often he was a lot lower than that. With 33 points, he was only 17th in the ITC. He still kept up his sports car outings though, starting what would be a fruitful relationship with Porsche. Driving a Porsche 911 GT1 with Karl Wendlinger and Scott Goodyear, he was 3rd at Le Mans, and with Bob Wollek was 5th at Zhuhai. He also drove a Lanzante Motorsport 911 GT2 at Suzuka with Paul Burdell and Soames Langton, but didn't finish.

1997 saw Dalmas start with races in America, with a drive in a Porsche 911 Turbo in the Daytona 24hr race with Wollek, Franz Konrad and Wido Rossler. Then there was victory in the Sebring 12hr with Andy Evans, Fermin Velez and Stefan Johansson in a Team Scandia Ferrari 333SP. But come the European season, the FIA GT championship gave Dalmas a return to sports cars full-time. He started off in a Roock Racing Porsche 911 GT1 with Ralf Kelleners. For Le Mans, Dalmas and Kelleners joined Emmanuel Collard in the works Porsche team, and despite a retirement, that's where Dalmas stayed for the rest of the season. With co-drivers such as Wollek, Boutsen, Allan McNish and Pedro Lamy, notable results included 3rds at Spa and Mugello, and 2nd at Laguna Seca. Dalmas was 13th overall in the standings with 19 points.

At the start of 1998, Dalmas rejoined Scandia for the Daytona 24hr, again in a Ferrari 333SP with Wollek, Evans, Ron Fellows and Max Papis, but retired with an engine failure. For the rest of the year he was with Porsche for the FIA GT championship and other special events. At Le Mans, where he drove with Johansson and Alboreto in the special Porsche LMP1, his car retired, while his assault on the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta with McNish and Uwe Alzen ended in a crash. In the FIA GT championship, Dalmas' Porsche 911 GT1-98 had to give best to the works Mercedes CLKs of Klaus Ludwig, Ricardo Zonta, Bernd Schneider and Mark Webber. His season was kick-started by a 2nd at Dijon, followed by five 3rds in a row, at the Hungaroring, Suzuka, Donington, the A1-Ring and Homestead. This left Dalmas in joint 5th with teammate McNish.

Unfortunately, 1999 saw Porsche pull the plug on their FIA GT involvement as that category started to struggle. But BMW were quick to pounce on Dalmas' experience, pairing him up in one of their V12 LMR racers with Pierluigi Martini and the man he replaced at AGS all those years ago, Joachim Winkelhock. Although they crashed out at Sebring, at Le Mans they took a memorable victory, Dalmas' fourth, putting him second only to Derek Bell in Le Mans wins. But now enjoying his Le Mans specialist status, and refraining from competing in too much, in 2000 Dalmas rejoined Oreca in their assault on the famous 24hr race with the new Reynard 2KQ-LM cars. But sadly, this wasn't a success, and teaming up with Nicholas Minassian and Jean-Philippe Belloc, Dalmas saw his hopes end with oil pressure problems.

 
 

 

 

 

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