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Early life and career

Philippe René Gabriel Alliot was born on 27 July 1954 in Voves, Eure-et-Loir, France.¹ Alliot initially enrolled as a political science student, before dropping out to pursue a racing career at the Motul Racing School at the Circuit de Nogaro.²

Prior to his career in Formula One he competed during 1976 and 1977 in Formule Renault, and won the championship in 1978, in the BP Racing team. With said team he also won the French Formula Renault championship and went on to French Formula Three. He finished third in his first race and moved to the European Formula 3 Championship in 1980. By 1983 he moved to Formula Two but hit the headlines that year when he finished third in the Le Mans 24 Hours with Michael and Mario Andretti in a Kremer Porsche.

Formula One

In 1984 Alliot joined the Skoal Bandit RAM F1 team, but did not enjoy much in the way of success. After Jacques Laffite was injured at the 1986 British Grand Prix, Alliot took his place at Ligier, where he showed an improvement. He moved to Larrousse for 1987, but returned to Ligier in 1990, gaining a reputation for accidents. He has the record of most race starts without any lead lap finish.³

Sportscars

Alliot left F1 for sports car racing in the early 1990s and enjoyed considerable success with the Peugeot team, run by Jean Todt. This included third-place finishes at the 1992 and 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Return to Formula One

Alliot made another attempt at F1 with Larrousse in 1993, achieving the best finish of his F1 career, fifth, at the San Marino Grand Prix. For 1994, Alliot was actually out of a drive in Formula One until Peugeot insisted that McLaren, who they were supplying V10 engines for, take him on as a test/reserve driver (largely against the wishes of team boss Ron Dennis who only relented because of Peugeot's insistence). This role led to a race at the 1994 Hungarian Grand Prix for the team as a replacement for Mika Häkkinen, while he was suspended. Qualifying 14th, he retired from the race itself. Alliot then replaced Olivier Beretta at Larrousse for the following race, the Belgian Grand Prix. Starting from 19th on the grid, he retired with engine failure and this proved to be his last race in F1. Alliot left Formula One as the driver with the most race starts who had never achieved at least one of a podium finish, a pole position, or a fastest lap.

Later life

After announcing his retirement from Formula One in 1995, he decided to try a career in politics, also did some TV commentary and competed in ice racing and the Paris–Dakar Rally, but ended running his own GT racing team.

Racing record

Career summary

† As Alliot was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.

Complete European Formula Three results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Complete French Supertouring Championship results

(key)

External links

• Philippe Alliot career summary at DriverDB.com

References

1. "ORDRE NATIONAL DU MERITE" (in French). Retrieved 15 June 2023. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000000568610 ↩

2. Saward, Joe (1 March 1993). "Philippe Alliot". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 10 November 2024. https://www.grandprix.com/features/joe-saward/interview-philippe-alliot.html ↩

3. Celebrating Winless Wonders: 20 F1 Drivers with the Most Starts without a Win - Mike Pryson, Autoweek, 9 June 2020 https://www.autoweek.com/racing/formula-1/g32792184/most-career-f1-starts-without-win/ ↩