Didier Artzet

Didier Artzet (born 10 February 1963 in Nice) is a French former racing driver. He currently lives in Noumea, New Caledonia after his retirement from motorsport.

Career

Formula 3000: 1989-1992

A promising driver who had his potential unfulfilled due to a lack of budget, Artzet was best known particularly on street circuits - most notably winning the 1987 Monaco F3 support race beating the likes of Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert, Nicola Larini or Bernd Schneider. Eventually he moved to Formula 3000 and scored a podium in his first ever race at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit in 1989 while driving for Madgwick International.

He was signed to the street events of the 1990 for Paul Stewart Racing in a year-old Reynard with his best finish being a tenth place at Enna Pergusa. However, Madgwick took notice and signed the Frenchman for the season finale at Dijon - Artzet shocked everyone by taking a convincing pole position and eventually took the fastest lap before he retired from the race lead. Alongside his Formula 3000 duties, Artzet also took part in two WTCM events in 1990 and 1991.

Paul Stewart then signed him full-time for the 1991 season. As the team's leading driver, he got to drive in a Reynard 91D powered by the all-new Ford Cosworth DFY-II engine, which promised good results and indeed Artzet took the team's first ever F3000 points and podium at Silverstone. Another significant result was to be followed at his home race in Pau, however an unfortunate collision between himself and his teammate Paul Warwick during a blue flag event ended his race from third position. The Frenchman rebounded though as he brought home consecutive podiums at Jerez and Mugello, with consistent finishes securing a top-five championship position halfway through the season. Artzet would then score two more 2nd places at Spa-Francorchamps and at Le Mans, the latter of which was shortened due to an accident involving Ukyo Katayama. With five podiums in the season, he finished third in the championship behind Johnny Herbert and Christian Fittipaldi. However, after the season concluded, Herbert was disqualified along with Spirit-TOM'S Motorsport on the bases of the team fielding an illegal car for Herbert. Therefore, Fittipaldi became the champion and Artzet was promoted to second place; moreover, two of his second place finishes - at Mugello and Le Mans - were upgraded to race wins.

After a solid 1992 season that cemented Artzet's position as one of the top French talents, Gérard Larrousse of his eponymous team signed him to a one-year deal for the 1993 Formula One season, thus marking his Formula One debut.

Racing Results

Complete International Formula 3000 results

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	DC	Pts
1989	Madgwick International	Lola T89/50	Ford Cosworth DFY	SIL	IMO	PAU	JER	ASS	PER	BHA	BIR	SPA	LEM 3	DIJ 11			19th	4
1990	Paul Stewart Racing	Reynard 89D	Ford Cosworth DFY	DON	SIL	PAU 14†	MON	JER	IMO	PER 10	HOC	BHA	BIR Ret	LEM	MAG		NC	0
	Madgwick International	Lola T90/50	Mugen-Honda MF308													DIJ Ret
1991	Paul Stewart Racing	Reynard 91D	Ford Cosworth DFY-II	IMO Ret	SIL 2	PAU Ret	JER 3	MUG 1	PER 7	HOC 4	BHA 4	SPA 2	LEM‡ 1	MAG Ret			2nd	35.5

Complete WTCM Results

Year	Team	Car	Class																								WDC	Pts	Class	Pts
1990	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz 190E	C			Template:USA				Template:GBR		Template:FRA						Template:FRA		Template:GBR		Template:BEL				Template:AUS	N/A	0	27th	24
				E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E
																										BAT 19
1991	Graff Racing	Peugeot 405	I	Template:AUS				Template:USA				Template:GBR	Template:FRA					Template:GBR				Template:BEL					N/A	0	59th	0
				F	S	F	S	F	S	F	S	E	F	F	S	F	S	F	S	F	S	E	F	S	F
																									MAC DNQ

Complete Formula One results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1993	Larrousse Gitanes Blondes	Larrousse LC93	Renault RS5 3.5 V10	RSA 9	BRA 10	PAC Ret	SMR 4	ESP 8	MON 7	CAN WD	FRA 5	GBR 3	GER Ret	HUN 10	BEL Ret	ITA 4	POR Ret	JPN Ret	AUS 7	8th	12
1994	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 022	Peugeot A6 3.5 V10	BRA Ret	PAC Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP 16†	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 11	HUN 12	BEL 6	ITA 9	POR 12	EUR 8	JPN Ret	AUS 8	19th	1