years championships birth_place races nationality points birth_date wins poles article_title name podiums
1989 -- 1991 , 1994 0 martigues , france 47 -lrb- 45 starts -rrb- fra french 10 24 august 1964 0 0 Éric bernard
 Éric bernard 1
Éric bernard

Éric bernard -lrb- born 24 august 1964 -rrb- is a retired french formula one racing driver , who drove for the ligier , larrousse and lotus teams .
bernard was born in martigues , near marseille .
he started karting in 1976 and in the seven years that followed , won four french titles .
in 1983 he attended racing school at paul ricard and was one of the finalists at the volant elf competition .
he beat jean alesi and bertrand gachot to the prize , earning himself a fully sponsored drive in formula renault for 1984 .
he finished sixth in the series , but won the following year , and entering french formula three in 1986 .
he won the series the following year , finishing in second place for the championship , behind his old rival , alesi .
in 1988 he entered formula 3000 .
in 1989 , he was called up to the french larrousse team for the french grand prix , replacing yannick dalmas .
on his debut , he ran as high as 5th place , and was still in 7th when his lamborghini v12 engine failed a few laps from the end -lrb- alesi also debuted at the race for tyrrell , running as high as 2nd before finally finishing 4th -rrb- .
bernard stood in again at the following british grand prix , before returning to his formula 3000 commitments with dams .
he was rewarded with a full-season drive for larrousse in 1990 .
he took his first point for 6th place at the monaco grand prix , and his best result came at silverstone in the british grand prix , where he took 4th place .
bernard elected to stay on at larrousse for the 1991 season , but the team were in trouble , losing their lamborghini engines to the quasi-works modena team , having their 1990 points stripped by the fia and also losing sponsors .
bernard took 6th place in the mexican grand prix , which was the last points finish for larrousse with lola cars , but slipped back down the field , failing to qualify for the first time in his career at the portuguese grand prix - partially due to a bereavement .
worse was to come , however , when bernard broke his leg in the first practice session for the japanese grand prix .
bernard fought back to fitness , and for the 1993 season his old sponsors elf managed to get him into a test driver seat for the ligier team .
the two-year testing contract paid off , as a team backer was jailed for fraud before the 1994 season , and the reduced budget saw bernard promoted to a race seat , alongside rookie olivier panis .
sadly for bernard , panis largely outpaced him , and the team 's renault v10 engine was counterweighted by the team using a `` b '' - spec version of the 1993 js39 chassis - by this time a very unusual practice in formula one which greatly harmed competitiveness .
bernard took third place in the high-attrition german grand prix , but by the european grand prix he was dropped in order to accommodate johnny herbert .
he was engaged by herbert 's previous team , team lotus , to fill the seat at the european gp , but it was to be his last f1 drive , with mika salo taking over later in the season .
for 1995 , he was linked to a return to larrousse , but the team folded before the season began .
bernard moved to sportscars , enjoying considerable success in gt and alms series .
