Olivier Grouillard

Olivier Grouillard

Born	2 September 1958 (1958-09-02) (age 53)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	French
Active years	1989 - 1992
Teams	Ligier, Osella, Fondmetal, AGS, Tyrrell
Races	62 (41 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	1
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1989 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last race	1992 Australian Grand Prix

Olivier Grouillard (born 2 September 1958 in Fenouillet) is a racing driver from France. He raced in Formula One from 1989 to 1992, participating in 62 Grands Prix, scoring 1 championship point.

Grouillard won the French Formula 3 championship in 1984, from which he progressed to Formula 3000 where he competed from 1985 to 1988. He was not competitive for the first few seasons, but improved in the 1988 championship.

The following year Grouillard made his debut in Formula One for Ligier in the 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix. The high point in his Grand Prix career was soon after with a sixth place in the 1989 French Grand Prix. He subsequently drove for Osella and its successor Fondmetal as well as AGS and Tyrrell in Formula One before attempting to establish himself in IndyCar in the U.S., but with little success.

Grouillard was often criticised by other drivers for blocking tactics when he was being approached by faster cars in qualifying and races.

Some of these incidents were at the 1989 Belgian Grand Prix when he stayed on the racing line whilst he was approached by the Lotus of Nelson Piquet in qualifying, Piquet spun off trying to overtake the Frenchman meaning Piquet did not qualify. Piquet furiously shook his fist at Groulliard when the Ligier passed.

In qualifying for the 1990 San Marino Grand Prix, Groulliard now driving for Osella blocked and ruined a quick lap for Nigel Mansell. Mansell pulled up alongside Groulliard and remonstrated furiously with him. This was apparently repeated in the Australian Grand Prix. Grouillard was 5 laps behind Mansell (who was one of the race leaders) and Grouillard blocked him for a quarter of the lap for no apparent reason. Mansell was furious and waved his fist at Grouillard at 180 mph (290 km/h) down the long Brabham straight on the Adelaide circuit, where the Australian GP was being held that year. While still being a back marker, he blocked many other drivers, including Gabriele Tarquini and race leader Ayrton Senna. During the race, BBC race commentator James Hunt referred to Grouillard as "a problem".

Although not a block as such in the 1991 French Grand Prix Groulliard made a last gasp effort to qualify his Fondmetal (aka Osella) but his engine blew, and rather than pull off Groulliard continued to the pits with oil spluttering everywhere. Ayrton Senna trying for pole position lost control of his McLaren as he crossed the line and missed a chance to qualify on pole. Senna referred to this as one reason why he did not qualify 1st.

At the same track one year on Groulliard (now driving for Tyrrell) blatantly jumped the second start and later on in the race blocked Johnny Herbert's Lotus much to the anger of Herbert and Lotus boss Peter Collins.

Groulliard's reputuation apparently saw him sacked by Fondmetal at the end of 1991 when he decided to use his race car in pre qualifying at the Portuguese Grand Prix despite a damaged gearbox. Groulliard decided not to use the spare car and when this did not pay off he was apparently sacked the following Monday by fax.

In 1993 Grouillard went to the US-based CART series with the Indy Regency Racing. His first race was to be the Indianapolis 500 but he failed to qualify. He made 11 starts scoring 4 points (good enough for 28th in the championship) with a best finish of 11th at the Cleveland Grand Prix.

He later raced sports cars somewhat successfully in the BPR Global GT Series, FIA GT, and the American Le Mans Series.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1985	Oreca Motorsport	SIL	THR 8	EST 6	VAL 4	PAU 4	SPA Ret	DIJ 7	PER 8	ZEL 8	ZAN	DON	12th	7
1986	Hotz-Formula Team Ltd.	SIL	VAL	PAU	SPA	IMO	MUG 4	PER	ZEL 6	BIR Ret	BUG	JAR 8	16th	4
1987	Oreca Motorsport	SIL 7	VAL Ret	SPA DNQ	PAU 4	DON 12	PER Ret	BRH 15	BIR 6	IMO Ret	BUG Ret	JAR Ret	17th	4
1988	GBDA Motorsport	JER 5	VAL 3	PAU Ret	SIL Ret	MNZ Ret	PER 2	BRH Ret	BIR DNS	BUG 1	ZOL 1	DIJ 3	2nd	34

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1989	Ligier Loto	Ligier JS33	Cosworth V8	BRA 9	SMR DSQ	MON Ret	MEX 8	USA DNQ	CAN DNQ	FRA 6	GBR 7	GER Ret	HUN DNQ	BEL 13	ITA Ret	POR DNQ	ESP Ret	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	26th	1
1990	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA1M	Cosworth V8	USA Ret	BRA Ret															NC	0
		Osella FA1ME				SMR Ret	MON DNQ	CAN 13	MEX 19	FRA DNPQ	GBR DNQ	GER DNQ	HUN DNPQ	BEL 16	ITA Ret	POR DNQ	ESP Ret	JPN DNQ	AUS 13
1991	Fondmetal F1 SpA	Fomet FA1M-E90	Cosworth V8	USA DNPQ	BRA DNPQ															NC	0
		Fomet F1				SMR DNPQ	MON DNPQ	CAN DNPQ	MEX Ret	FRA Ret	GBR DNPQ	GER DNPQ	HUN DNQ	BEL 10	ITA Ret	POR DNPQ
	Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives	AGS JH27															ESP DNPQ	JPN	AUS
1992	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 020B	Ilmor V10	RSA Ret	MEX Ret	BRA Ret	ESP Ret	SMR 8	MON Ret	CAN 12	FRA 11	GBR 11	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	NC	0

American Open Wheel

(key)

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
1993	Indy Regency	SRF	PHX	LBH	IND DNQ	MIL 12	DET Ret	POR 13	CLE 11	TOR DNS	MIC Ret	NHA 12	ROA 16	VAN Ret	MDO 16	NAZ 18	LS 20	28th	4

Sources

• Profile at www.grandprix.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Michel Ferté	French Formula Three Champion 1984	Succeeded by Pierre-Henri Raphanel

Persondata
Name	Grouillard, Olivier
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 September 1958
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death