Jean-Maxime Bachot

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Jean-Maxime Bachot (born September 19th, 1977, in Strasbourg, France) is a French former racing driver, best known for his appearances in Formula One and F3000. He is loosely related to ex-Formula One and touring car driver Silvio Bachot.

Early Career

1998-2000: French Formula Renault Campus

Bachot started his open-wheel career like many French Formula One hopefuls in Formula Campus, having previously competed in regional karting championships since he was 13. Bachot would compete around the midfield for his first couple of seasons, before mounting a title challenge in 2000, losing by just 1 point, ensuring his promotion to Formula 3.

2001-2002: French Formula 3

Bachot moved to the more competitive French F3 series in 2001, and would initially struggle with the more powerful cars, scoring few points in his debut season, and generally competing amongst the backmarkers of the field. However, he achieved a shock pole position at Magny-Cours, and impressed some with ever-growing pace in qualifying. The young Frenchman improved in 2002, and took 9 pole positions and 2 race wins on his way to an impressive fourth in the championship. However, due to erroneous driving and several accidents that took him out of 4 races from strong positions, Bachot would fail to materialise a true championship challenge.

2003-2004: International F3000

2003 would see Bachot move to International F3000, although unlike in previous years, he would compete with an uncompetitive outfit, the inexperienced Brand Motorsport. Despite this, Bachot performed relatively well, and ended the year with 7 points.

Bachot would continue in F3000 in 2004, moving to the more competitive Super Nova team, and would finish a respectable ninth place in the series' final year, his season's highlight being 2 pole positions and 2nd place at the Hockenheimring, and being appraised by many as 'the best qualifier since Ayrton Senna', something Bachot himself would deny, before choosing to focus on his F1 commitments.

Formula One

2004-2005: BAR

Bachot's F3000 exploits in 2003 (and his not-unsubstantial financial backing) caught the eye of BAR team principal David Richards, resulting in the then-27 year old Frenchman being employed as one of the team's test drivers for 2004, alongside young British stars James Rositter and Adam Carroll. At the 2005 Malaysian Grand Prix, Takuma Sato fell ill, and Bachot was appointed as his replacement for the race. He would qualify in an impressive 6th place, although a substandard strategy saw him finish the race in 12th place.

2006: Honda test driver and Super Aguri

In the 2005-06 off season, BAR was bought out completely by Honda and made their works team, although Bachot would remain in this test driver position. He would, however be called up to the Honda-backed Super Aguri team for the Brazilian and Uruguayan Grands Prix. He would perform terribly, finishing last and 7 laps down on the winner on both occasions, although he gained some notoriety when he crashed into the works Honda team driver and reigning world champion Fernando Alonso on the way to the grid at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and due to teammate Takuma Sato already using the spare car after a practice crash, the Spaniard failed to make the start of the grand prix. At Uruguay, he also caused teammate Frank Zimmer's race-ending puncture. After this, he would be dropped from Honda's Formula One program before the beginning of the 2007 season, and would be sent to Japan to participate in Formula Nippon and Super GT.

2007: Williams

However, all was not lost as Bachot was called up by Frank Williams to act as the test driver for his eponymous team - helped, no doubt, by the team running Honda engines and his backing from the Japanese manufacturer. He would be called up to race at the Brazilian Grand Prix after the team's regular driver Rubens Barrichello left the team preceding the event. He would put in a phenomenal qualifying lap to start 5th, the team's best starting position all season and ahead of his world champion teammate Rhys Davies. Come race day, he would get a good start and would run in 3rd position. However, when he came in to do his pit stop, he would enter the pit box too quickly and hit 2 pit crew members. The subsequent delay would thus put him down into 12th place, which his where he finished. However, the damage was done, and he was released from the team after the race.

2009: Brawn GP tester

Bachot would reappear in the F1 circle in 2009 as a tester for the Brawn GP team, although his involvement in the team was very limited.

FIA Prototype Challenge

2019: BORC

Bachot would return to international competition in 2019 driving for BORC in the FIA Prototype Challenge, having driven in Formula Nippon and Japanese Super GT for a number of years previously. He would be chosen due to his former affiliation with Honda, as well as the team's customer Honda status.

GT Super Series

2019: GB Racing

Bachot also drive in the GT Super Series for Silvio Bachot's team GB Racing part-time alongside young German Michael Rohnstock. The team would be horrendously off the pace, with the 575 GTC used being overweight and having the handling of a boat. The team would not pre-qualify for any races that year.

Motorsports Results

Complete French Formula Three results

(Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 DC Points
2001 Epsilon by Graff Dallara F399 Opel NOG
Ret
NOG
11
LÉD
8
MAG
4
VDV
Ret
SPA
6
SPA
7
CRO
6
ALB
9
LMS
Ret
MAG
Ret
11th 51
2002 Saulnier Racing Dallara F302 Renault NOG
Ret
NOG
2
LÉD
1
LÉD
4
DIJ
5
DIJ
2
CRO
4
CRO
5
ALB
7
ALB
Ret
LMS
2
LMS
1
MAG
Ret
MAG
11†
4th 139

Complete International Formula 3000 results

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DC Pts
2003 Brand Motorsport IMO
Ret
CAT
11
A1R
14
MON
7
NÜR
Ret
MAG
5
SIL
11
HOC
13
HUN
12
MNZ
Ret
14th 7
2004 Super Nova Racing IMO
Ret
CAT
7
MON
6
NÜR
8
MAG
Ret
SIL
5
HOC
2
HUN
7
SPA
5
MNZ
Ret
9th 24

Complete Formula 1 Results

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

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Points WDC
2004 Lucky Strike BAR Honda BAR 006 Honda RA004E 3.0 V10 AUS MAL
TD
BHR MON
TD
CAN USA
TD
CHN BRA
TD
ARG KOR
C
JPN
TD
N/A N/A
2005 Lucky Strike BAR Honda BAR 007 Honda RA005E 3.0 V10 AUS
TD
MAL
12
BHR
TD
SMR
TD
ESP
TD
MON
TD
EUR
TD
CAN
TD
USA
TD
FRA
TD
GBR
TD
GER
TD
HUN
TD
TUR
TD
ITA
TD
BEL
TD
BRA
TD
URU
TD
JPN
TD
CHN
TD
0 21st
2006 Super Aguri F1 Team Super Aguri SA05 Honda RA806E 2.4 V8 BHR MAL AUS BEL EUR SMR ESP MON GBR CAN USA FRA GER HUN TUR ITA BRA
18
URU
17
JPN CHN 0 27th
2007 AT&T Williams Williams FW29 Honda RA807E 2.4 V8 BHR
TD
MAL
TD
AUS
TD
JPN
TD
SMR
TD
GER
TD
ESP
TD
MON
TD
CAN
TD
USA
TD
GBR
TD
EUR
TD
FRA
TD
HUN
TD
TUR
TD
ITA
TD
BEL
TD
CHN
TD
URU
TD
BRA
12
0 23rd