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1979-82
Comes second in debut year of French F3; progresses to F2 |
Hailing from Lyon, Frenchman Pascal Fabre began his career as a 19-year-old in French Formula Renault in 1979. A part of the prestigious Volant Elf scholarship scheme, he showed a great deal of promise in coming 7th overall in his debut season. Jumping up immediately to French F3 in 1980, he put on a stunning display to come 2nd in his Martini Mk 31 Toyota with 72 points, although he was a full 50 behind champion Alain Ferte.
Although he competed in selected rounds of French F3 in 1981, coming equal 7th overall in his Martini Mk 34 Toyota, Fabre tried to make it in European F3 in the same car, but only managed a single point in finishing a lowly equal 22nd outright. However, this did not erode his confidence, for in 1982 he joined up with AGS to drive their JH19 chassis with a BMW engine in the European F2 championship. |
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1982-84
Tries out Le Mans, take maiden European F2 victory in Germany |
Despite the fact that it was a big jump, Fabre acquitted himself fairly well. With a fine podium 3rd place at Vallelunga and a 6th at Mantorp Park in Sweden, Pascal was 15th overall on 5 points. Even so, it was probably not the success he was craving, so it was back to European F3 in 1983 in an RMO Martini Mk 39 Alfa Romeo, and with 8 points he came 10th in the standings.
1983 also saw Fabre's first foray into sports cars, racing at Le Mans for the WM Secateva team in a WM P83 Peugeot with Roger Dorchy and Alain Couderc. 16th overall was a creditable result. For 1984, Fabre returned to European F2, and in a March 842 BMW found more success. 5ths at Silverstone and Vallelunga were followed by a win at Hockenheim, but suddenly he and his team parted company due to financial disagreements, and he ended up only 8th outright on 13 points. |
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1985-86
Takes F3000 hat-trick at season opener, but it was his only win |
In 1985 he wanted to race in the new F3000 championship, but his deal fell through at the last minute. With nothing else to do he had to be content with racing a BMW M5 production car, but at the end of the season he got a one-off ride with the ORECA team in a March 85B Cosworth at Donington, qualifying 15th and coming home 10th.
For 1986, though, he landed a plum drive in a works Lola T86/50 Cosworth, and started off in a blaze of glory, taking the hat-trick of pole, win and fastest lap at Silverstone (although the race was stopped early after 24 laps after a serious accident), before coming 2nd at Vallelunga. After that there was a drought of results until a 3rd at Enna and 5th at Birmingham, but with two races still to run, Fabre was out of the team. By the end, he had slipped to 7th overall with 15.5 points. |
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1987 AGS Hopes for Ligier ticket; ends up with non-turbo retro guys |
In 1987, AGS decided to tackle a full season of F1, having competed in two races in 1986. The fact that Fabre had driven for them in 1982 made him a logical driver choice, especially after he was granted a superlicence by the FIA despite his failure to accumulate sufficient points. However, it was not until February that Pascal was signed, as he had been hoping to snare a Ligier drive.
With turbo engines to be banned at the end of 1988, to encourage teams to go non-turbo a separate points system, and drivers and constructors titles, were set aside for non-turbo runners. AGS chose to go the non-turbo route with a Cosworth V8 for their JH22 car, although designers Henri Julien and Christian van der Pleyn unfathomably chose to incorporate an ugly 1970s-style airbox into the design. It didn't help. |
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1987
Ungainly start never got better, qualifying at the back of the pack |
The AGS was hopelessly uncompetitive right from the outset, especially after their engines were late in arriving. In pre-season testing at Paul Ricard, a track where a lap only takes 70-75 seconds, Fabre was a whole five seconds slower than Philippe Streiff, testing a non-turbo Tyrrell. It provoked journalists to describe the session as "ungainly".
However, AGS' aim for their first full season was simply to build a reliable car that would get to the finish. Being fast was never really on the agenda. This was shown by the fact that, after Fabre qualified 22nd out of 23 cars in the season opener at Rio, thereafter he never qualified higher than 25th out of the full complement of 26 cars. In fact, most of the time he was last, and a full second or more slower than the car in front. |
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1987
Spins out at Imola; meanwhile the non-turbo points rack up |
But in the reliability stakes, the AGS was almost unrivalled. Fabre came home 12th and 13th in Brazil and San Marino, despite being 6 laps down in each, and on both occasions he was 3rd of the non-turbo runners. However, his race at Imola was marred by a nasty spin right in front of a gaggle of runners, including both Tyrrells and the Larrousse of Philippe Alliot.
In Belgium the car didn't quite last until the end after electrical problems, but was still classified 5 laps down in 10th. Then he was 7 laps down in 13th in Monaco, 5 laps down in 12th at Detroit, and 6 laps down but a fine 9th in France, and on all four of these occasions he was again 3rd in the non-turbo ranks, building up a stack of points in the Jim Clark Cup. |
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1987
A second place in the Clark Cup; caught up in huge smash in Austria |
Fabre was again 9th in Britain but 6 laps down, but this time he was 2nd of the non-turbos. Germany then brought the first recorded retirement when he was forced to stop after 10 laps with engine problems, but Hungary saw a return to their finishing ways, Fabre coming home 13th and 5 laps down as the 4th non-turbo. However, by this stage the lack of speed from both driver and car was becoming more and more of an issue.
Nowhere was this more so than in Austria, where Fabre was last but 5 seconds slower than Streiff who was 25th. After Martin Brundle collided with both Tyrrells at the first start, at the second start a slow-starting Nigel Mansell caused even more mayhem and a massive pile-up which saw Fabre landing right on top of several other wrecks. Forced at the third start to begin from the pit lane, he was 7 laps down and not classified at the end. |
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1987
More cars enter the fray, as DNQs see Moreno take Pascal's spot |
By now, two things were certain. One was that runaway F3000 series leader Roberto Moreno was having talks with AGS, and would have started a second car for them at Monza had Fabre not written off a chassis in Austria. The other was that the new Coloni team was about to debut, while Osella and Lola were about to run a second car, and the Middlebridge team was planning to enter a third Benetton for Emanuele Pirro (although this never happened).
At this rate, Fabre was in danger of failing to qualify, and this is indeed what happened in both Italy and Portugal. He then hauled himself onto the grid in Spain in 25th spot, but retired from the race with oil on the clutch after only 10 laps. But after he once again failed to qualify in Mexico, the team had had enough, and for the last two races of the season Moreno came in to replace the Frenchman. |
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1987
Roberto scores a point; Fabre 5th spot overall in Clark Cup |
Although Moreno didn't cover himself in too much glory in his first race for AGS in Japan, he was one of the real stars in the season finale at Adelaide, battling with the Larrousses and making use of his car's reliability as the others around him faltered, coming home 6th to score AGS's first World Championship point (and one of only two that they would ever score).
Fabre meanwhile was never seen again in F1, although he did end up 5th in the Jim Clark Cup with 35 points, just behind Ivan Capelli on 38, Alliot on 43, Streiff on 74 and champion Dr Jonathan Palmer on 95. |
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1988-89
Takes the reigns of a Cougar Porsche in the WSC and Le Mans |
After taking 1988 off, and realising that his prospects of returning to top-flight open-wheeler racing were all but shot, in 1989 Fabre dived into sports cars and joined the Cougar Porsche project for the Courage Competition team, driving the Cougar C22S in the World Sportscar Championship with drivers such as Alessandro Santin, Jean-Louis Bousquet, Bernard de Dryver, Herve Regout and Oscar Manautou.
With results such as 6th at Dijon, 7th at Brands Hatch and 9th at Jarama, Nurburgring and Donington, Fabre was 28th overall on 16 points. However, his tilt at Le Mans (which was not a part of the WSC) was not as successful. Sharing his Cougar Porsche with Bousquet and Jiro Yoneyama, the car retired with engine problems. |
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1990-91
7th overall at Le Mans; joins ROC |
In 1990, the Cougar Porsche was updated to the C24S model, and Fabre drove it with drivers such as Lionel Robert, Beppe Gabbiani and Michel Trolle. Results included 10ths at Dijon and the Nurburgring, 11th in Mexico, 12th at Suzuka, 13th at Monza and 15th at Silverstone. Le Mans was a lot better, where with Robert and Trolle, Fabre finished an excellent 7th.
In 1991, Fabre left the Cougar Porsche project, but didn't appear until Le Mans, where he drove with Bernard Thuner in an ROC 002 Ford for the Louis Descartes team, but the car retired with driveshaft problems. The same combo retired at Magny-Cours before Fabre rejoined Courage to drive the Cougar C26S Porsche with Robert, scoring a 7th in Mexico. 4 points left him equal 42nd in the points standings. |
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1992-94
Becomes Le Mans stalwart, dabbles in French super touring |
1992 saw all but the demise of the WSC, and Courage had to look elsewhere. They entered their new C28S Porsche for the Daytona 24hrs (which was a round of IMSA), and Fabre, along with Robert and Bob Wollek, took the car to 26th place. However, at Le Mans, where Fabre drove with Robert and Marco Brand, the car crashed after 3 hours only. For the rest of the year, Fabre drove in French super touring in an Audi, scoring 7th places at Nogaro and Magny-Cours.
For the next two years, with sports cars hitting an all-time trough, Fabre only appeared at Le Mans. In 1993, in a new Courage C30 Porsche (the car now called a Courage instead of a Cougar) with Le Mans expert Derek Bell and that man Robert, Fabre came 10th overall and 5th in class 2. In 1994, Pierre-Henri Raphanel joined Robert and Fabre in a new Courage C32, but the car retired after 9 hours with engine problems. |
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1995-98
5th at Paul Ricard in BPR Endurance; appears in ISRS |
In 1995, Fabre joined the BBA Competition team to drive both a Venturi 600 LM and a McLaren F1 GTR in four races of the BPR Global GT Endurance Series, sharing the cars with Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiere and Laurent Lecuyer. They scored a 14th at Jarama, 8th places at Jerez and Monza, and a fine 5th at Paul Ricard, but thereafter Fabre left the team and did not compete at Le Mans.
1996 saw Pascal out of a drive, but at Le Mans he teamed up with old F3 rival Alain Ferte and also Mauro Martini to drive a Team Menicon SARD MC8-R Toyota, but they only managed 24th place, and 15th in the GT1 class. After that, it's not until 1998 that Fabre surfaces again, but very briefly, this time in the International Sports Racing Series, where he was entered by the Del Bello team for round 3 at Misano in a Ferrari 333SP, only for the Frenchman not even to practise. |
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1998-2000
More outings at Le Mans, Pascal finds himeslf at Daytona 24hrs |
However, Fabre did compete at Le Mans, where he drove a Pilot Racing Ferrari 333SP with Michel Ferte and François Migault, but after 203 laps the car's gearbox seized and that was the end of their race. In 1999, there is some indication that perhaps Fabre took part in the French GT Championship, but we can find no record of that.
2000 started with Fabre racing in the Daytona 24hrs race, part of the new Grand-Am championship, sharing a Haberthur Racing Porsche 996 GT3-R with Maury-Laribiere, Bernard Chauvin, Patrick Cruchet and a Canadian calling himself 'Rael'. Coming 34th overall, they were 18th in the GTU class. |
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2000-01
5th in class in a SRWC race, joins Deletraz for Le Mans |
However, Fabre then appeared in the Sports Racing World Cup, driving a Didier Bonnet Racing Debora BMW with Jean-François Yvon at the Nurburgring, where they came 16th but 5th in the SRL class, and retiring in the same car with Yann Goudy and Bonnet himself at Magny-Cours. Scoring 8 points in the SRL class, Fabre was equal 41st in that class championship.
In 2001, Fabre has only been seen once, driving the ROC Auto Reynard in the LMP675 class with Jean-Denis Deletraz and Jordi Gene, helping the combo to a superb class victory and an excellent 5th overall, even if they were a full 37 laps down on the victorious Audis. |
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