Bertrand Gachot

Career

Gachot began karting at age 15. In 1983 he attended the Winfield School at Paul Ricard, competing for the Volant Elf prize against Damon Hill, Jean Alesi, and Eric Bernard; Bernard won. Gachot then left university to pursue racing. Moving to Formula Ford 2000 in 1986, he won the British series while Mark Blundell took the European title. In 1987 he placed second in British Formula Three for West Surrey Racing behind Johnny Herbert. Gachot and Herbert guested together in the 1987 ESSO MG Metro Turbo Challenge at Silverstone and later won Le Mans together in 1991 with Volker Weidler. He switched to Formula 3000 in 1988, taking pole at Silverstone and finishing fifth in the championship, second to champion Roberto Moreno.

Formula One

Gachot was signed by the new Onyx team for 1989, helped by his role in attracting Moneytron sponsorship from Jean-Pierre Van Rossem. He partnered Stefan Johansson. The car was late to prepare, and Gachot first qualified at the French Grand Prix, starting 11th and running in the points before a battery problem dropped him to 13th. After qualifying for four of the next five races, he was fired by van Rossem following a public complaint about lack of testing time; JJ Lehto replaced him.

He tested for Arrows in October but did not get a 1990 drive. He joined Rial for the final two races of 1989 but failed to qualify its ageing chassis; the team folded. In 1990 he moved to Coloni, which had an exclusive Subaru flat-12 engine. The engine was overweight and underpowered; at Phoenix a gear selector rod broke on his first flying lap.

Subaru withdrew after the British Grand Prix, and the car switched to a Cosworth DFR engine. Despite improved performance, Gachot failed to qualify for any race that season.

Business interests

After his F1 career, Gachot signed a distribution agreement with Hype Energy Drinks in 1997. The company had been founded in 1994 by Hard Rock Cafe founder Brian Cox and had sponsored motorsports including F1. Gachot aimed to introduce the brand to France but by 2000 had taken a leadership role, restructuring the company and reducing the product line to four flavours. Growth followed, and by 2014 Hype Energy sponsored André Lotterer in F1. In 2015 Hype Energy sponsored Force India, the team formerly known as Jordan for whom Gachot had raced. He pushed the brand into new markets, including the USA, and by 2017 into the music industry, working with Migos, Mike WiLL Made It, and Prince Royce. Gachot continues as CEO of Hype Energy and also owns F1i.com, a Formula 1 news site.

Nationality

Gachot initially raced with a Belgian FIA Super Licence despite holding a French passport; from 1992 he used a French licence. He has expressed support for European unification, stating in a 1991 interview that he feels very much a European. His helmet design incorporates the circle of yellow stars on a blue background from the flag of Europe.