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1982
Onboard camera developer; came through French F3 |
Frenchman François Hesnault, from Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, came out of obscurity into F1, was pretty much a nonentity while he was in the top flight, and ended up in complete anonymity after it. To that end, his contribution to F1 was very limited, so it seems. But in fact, we can thank François for his help in one particular area; the development of the on-board camera.
What do we know about his pre-F1 career? Well, not much. We know that in 1982 he drove a Joest Racing Porsche 935 turbo at Le Mans, sharing it with Claude Haldi and Riccardo Teran until its differential broke after 141 laps. That year he was also racing in French F3 in a Martini MK 37 Alfa Romeo, and with 112 points he came 3rd, behind Michel Ferte and Pierre Petit. |
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1983
Second in French F3; a 2nd in European F3 |
In 1983, Hesnault continued in French F3 and found success, coming 2nd overall in his Dave Price Racing Ralt RT3 Volkswagen, scoring 121 points to Ferte's 123. Olivier Grouillard came 4th. Hesnault's efforts in European F3 that same year, though, for the same team in the same car, only produced a 2nd place at Magny Cours. At the prestigious Monaco F3 race, he finished 7th, ahead of Pascal Fabre and Claudio Langes.
That left him equal 12th in the standings with 6 points, although Ferte only managed to score the same amount. Also on 6 was Enzo Coloni, who would later run his own F1 team. In 1983 Hesnault also had another tilt at Le Mans, this time sharing a Lancia LC1 with fellow Frenchmen Thierry Perrier and Bernard Salam for the Ecole Superieure de Tourism team, but they were forced to retire after 232 laps. |
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1984 Ligier Poor couple of years of reliability; best result at Dutch GP |
It was of some surprise, then, that Hesnault was chosen to drive for Ligier in 1984 in F1 alongside Andrea de Cesaris in the Renault turbo-powered cars. Having bypassed F2, it was always going to be a difficult year for the Frenchman, made worse by the fact that Ligier were still recovering from a disastrous and pointless 1983. In fact, 1984 would be little better for the virtual French national team. De Cesaris provided some consolation by scoring 3 points, but, typically, he also gave the panel-beaters a lot of work. A whole string of various reliability problems, afflicting the electrical and cooling systems in particular, added to their problems.
Hesnault found himself doing an adequate job, starting in 15 out of 16 races, usually qualifying in the 17th-19th range, a few places behind De Cesaris. He was affected as much as his team-mate by mechanical problems, while as a rookie it was perhaps inevitable that he would have a few off-road excursions, noticeably at both American races in Detroit and Dallas where he crashed. He finished on five occasions, coming 10th in South Africa and at the European GP, 8th in Germany and Austria, and 7th in Holland, his best ever result. |
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1984
Sacrificial lamb for de Cesaris; goes Down Under for AGP |
The one race Hesnault didn't start in 1984 was due to bizarre circumstances at the worst possible place for Ligier - the French GP at Dijon, where one entry would not qualify. There Hesnault set a time good enough for 14th on the grid in the first qualifying session, whereas De Cesaris failed to record a time. But the second session was wet, and De Cesaris recorded the 4th fastest time in that session, albeit 20 seconds slower than Patrick Tambay's pole-winning time the previous day. The Italian being the team lead driver, Hesnault was forced not to start to allow De Cesaris to race.
At the end of the year, he joined several drivers in participating in the final non-championship Australian Grand Prix. Roberto Moreno won the race (for the third time) from Keke Rosberg and Andrea de Cesaris, but Hesnault would join Niki Lauda in retirement. Overall, it was a creditable season for Hesnault, but, one would have thought, not good enough to get anywhere in F1 quickly. |
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1985 Brabham Outpaced by teammate Piquet, grid times slide |
Yet strangely, for 1985 he landed a drive with the team which had come 4th in the 1984 constructors' title, Brabham, alongside then double World Champion Nelson Piquet. Using the sophisticated BMW turbo engine, Hesnault had every reason to go into the season with high hopes of points. But it would turn out to be a struggle at Brabham also. Using problematic and perhaps unsuitable Pirelli tyres, even Piquet was only qualifying on the edge of the top ten in the first few races.
However, things were even worse for Hesnault; qualifying 17th in Brazil, he would crash there, before sliding further down the grid in Portugal and at Imola. At Estoril electrical problems would strike before a BMW engine failure at Imola, where Hesnault also happened to be carrying an on-board camera, an initiative designed to boost viewer interest. |
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1985
DNQs at Monaco; suffers terrifying testing smash at Paul Ricard |
At Monaco, though, Hesnault failed to qualify altogether. He was 25th out of 26 in practice, but in reality his was the slowest 'real' time, since Pierluigi Martini did not do a flying lap in his Minardi. Hesnault was 4.618 seconds off Ayrton Senna's pole time, and 1.103 seconds behind Teo Fabi, the last man to qualify. Hesnault was joined in non-qualification by Piercarlo Ghinzani's Osella, Stefan Bellof's Tyrrell, and the RAMs of Philippe Alliot and Manfred Winkelhock.
At a test session at Paul Ricard following this disappointing DNQ, François suffered a massive accident, and seriously damaged what little confidence he had left. The horrifying incident, witnessed by very few people at the track, left Hesnault encased in his Brabham, trapped by the protective fencing. After this unnerving experience, Hesnault withdrew from the team and was replaced by Marc Surer. The Swiss driver would fare much better as the car and tyres started to improve, scoring 5 points to Piquet's eventual 21. |
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1985 Renault Picked up for camera development at German GP; ineliginle for points |
Now, this would have been the end of Hesnault's F1 career, had it not been for the works Renault team then entering him in a one-off move at the 1985 German GP, purely for the sake of more on-board camera testing. So at the Nurburgring Hesnault joined Tambay and Derek Warwick in the team.
His car, car 14, was ineligible for points, and until 2002, was the only Renault ever not to carry either number 15 or 16. This would also be the last time a three-car entry has been seen in F1. Trivial details aside, Hesnault qualified 23rd out of 27 (all of whom started), but his on-board camera experiment ended after only 8 laps with a clutch failure. The footage he collected can be seen in a tape of the race that can be bought at Duke Video. |
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1985
Crash experience leads to retirement |
Following his one-off with Renault, Hesnault made the decision to retire completely from motor racing. There is no doubt this was a decision heavily influenced by his Paul Ricard experience. As such, he completely disappeared from the international motor racing scene.
We have no subsequent record of him in any form of racing competition, and we would love to know exactly what he got up to thereafter! |
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