Érik Comas
Érik Comas is a French former Formula One driver. He was French Formula 3 champion in 1988, and then Formula 3000 champion in 1990, after scoring the same number of points as Jean Alesi in 1989, but losing on a count-back of positions. He participated in 63 Grands Prix, debuting on 10 March 1991. He scored a total of 7 championship points. His last point, in the 1994 German Grand Prix, was also the last one for the Larrousse team.
Career
Formula One
At the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix Comas was mistakenly waved out of the pits and drove onto the circuit during the red flag which followed the fatal crash of Ayrton Senna. Marshals frantically tried to flag Comas down through the Tamburello corner and he narrowly avoided rescue workers and vehicles, including an aid helicopter which had landed at the scene, before bringing his Larrousse to a stop. He retired from the race following the incident, due to the distressing scenes he witnessed as medical staff tried to revive Senna. It had been Senna who saved Comas' life at Spa in 1992 after Comas had a terrible crash at the Blanchimont corner during Friday qualifying. Senna jumped from his own car, ran over to Comas, shut down his engine and held Comas' head in a stable position until the doctors could arrive. When Senna died at Imola in 1994, Comas was so shocked he decided to not participate in the restart of the race, mainly because of what happened at Spa two years earlier.After Formula One
After ending his Formula One career at the end of the 1994 season, he went to Japan to continue his racing career in the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, Japan's premiere racing series. He was successful quickly and he won the GT500 title in 1998 and 1999, as well as runner-up in the standings in 2000, all three years driving for Nissan in a factory Nismo-prepared Skyline GT-R. He left the Nismo team in 2002 to join the factory Toyota team the following year. By the end of the 2003 season, he was the most successful driver in the history of the series, with the most career championship points ever scored by a single driver. This was eventually surpassed by another Nismo driver, Satoshi Motoyama.After a decent run with Toyota, Comas spent the 2004/2005 seasons with Masahiro Hasemi's privateer Hasemi Sport team, running non-factory Nissan 350Zs in GT500, including inheriting the team's only win thus far, on the evening of 18 December 2004 at the "All-Star 200" exhibition race on California Speedway's combined oval / road course after the unofficial winners were penalized 60 seconds on their finishing time for a pit window infraction. Unfortunately, the race was a non-points scoring event and as such does not count towards the drivers' or teams' official win record.
In the 2006 Super GT championship season he raced for former JGTC driver and 24 Hours of Le Mans team owner Masahiko Kondo's all new privateer Nissan 350Z racing team. He also branched out into rallying, competing in various events around the world. Along with this, he created Comas Racing Management, a firm that focuses on the management and development of young up and coming drivers, primarily from his home country of France.
At 5th race of the 2006 season at Sportsland SUGO, Comas was replaced with later Pokka 1000 km third driver Seiji Ara due to what the CRM website referred on as, "ill health". After coming back for the Pokka 1000 km, on 5 September 2006, Comas announced on his website that because of his health, he would not compete in the final 3 races of the season.
Comas was known for not wearing a tinted visor, preferring to wear sunglasses underneath his visor. His son, Anthony Comas, competed in the Formula BMW UK series for Carlin Motorsport.
Comas has now effectively retired from all forms of racing. He spends his time running Comas Historic Racing, which provides for paying customers to enter historic rallies driving cars from his fleet of blue Alpine automobiles.
In 2010 and 2011, he won the electric vehicle category of the Rallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative with a Tesla Roadster.
In 2014 Comas won the Carrera Panamericana in a Studebaker.
Between 2012 and 2017 Comas has only rallied a Lancia Stratos, having a hard time finding a competent team able to support him on his target of winning the overall classification of the FIA European Historic Rally Championship, ahead of numerous younger cars.
Achievements
- Champion karting France class blue 1983
- Champion French Formula Renault Championship 1986
- Champion French Superproduction 1987
- Champion French Formula 3 Championship 1988
- Champion Intercontinental Formula 3000 Championship 1990
- Champion JGTC 1998
- Champion JGTC Nissan GTR 1999
- Champion Italian Historic Rally Championship 2015
- Champion FIA European Historic Rally Championship 2017
Racing record
Complete International Formula 3000 results
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Points |
| 1989 | DAMS | SIL 5 | VAL 4 | PAU DNQ | JER 2 | PER Ret | BRH 3 | BIR Ret | SPA 2 | BUG 1 | DIJ 1 | 2nd | 39 | |
| 1990 | DAMS | DON 1 | SIL 2 | PAU Ret | JER 1 | MNZ 1 | PER Ret | HOC 4 | BRH Ret | BIR Ret | BUG 1 | NOG 2 | 1st | 51 |
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 |
| 1991 | Ligier Gitanes | Ligier JS35 | Lamborghini V12 | USA DNQ | BRA Ret | SMR 10 | MON 10 | CAN 8 | MEX DNQ | FRA 11 | GBR DNQ | GER Ret | HUN 10 | BEL Ret | ITA 11 | POR 11 | ESP Ret | JPN Ret | AUS 18 | NC | 0 |
| 1992 | Ligier Gitanes Blondes | Ligier JS37 | Renault V10 | RSA 7 | MEX 9 | BRA Ret | ESP Ret | SMR 9 | MON 10 | CAN 6 | FRA 5 | GBR 8 | GER 6 | HUN Ret | BEL DNQ | ITA Ret | POR Ret | JPN Ret | AUS Ret | 11th | 4 |
| 1993 | Larrousse F1 | Larrousse LH93 | Lamborghini V12 | RSA Ret | BRA 10 | EUR 9 | SMR Ret | ESP 9 | MON Ret | CAN 8 | FRA 16 | GBR Ret | GER Ret | HUN Ret | BEL Ret | ITA 6 | POR 11 | JPN Ret | AUS 12 | 20th | 1 |
| 1994 | Tourtel Larrousse F1 | Larrousse LH94 | Ford V8 | BRA 9 | PAC 6 | SMR Ret | MON 10 | ESP Ret | CAN Ret | FRA Ret | GBR Ret | GER 6 | HUN 8 | BEL Ret | ITA 8 | POR Ret | EUR Ret | JPN 9 | AUS | 23rd | 2 |
Complete JGTC/Super GT results
| Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | DC | Pts |
| 1995 | Team Cerumo | Toyota Supra | GT1 | SUZ 5 | FUJ 14 | SEN 15 | FUJ Ret | SUG 11 | Mine Circuit| DSQ | 19th | 8 | |||
| 1996 | TOM'S | Toyota Supra | GT500 | SUZ 16 | FUJ 4 | SEN 1 | FUJ Ret | SUG 4 | MIN 2 | 3rd | 55 | |||
| 1997 | NISMO | Nissan Skyline GT-R | GT500 | SUZ 1 | FUJ | SEN 2 | FUJ 10 | MIN 9 | SUG 3 | 6th | 50 | |||
| 1998 | NISMO | Nissan Skyline GT-R | GT500 | SUZ 1 | FUJ C | SEN 1 | FUJ 10 | MOT 4 | MIN 4 | SUG 6 | 1st | 67 | ||
| 1999 | NISMO | Nissan Skyline GT-R | GT500 | SUZ 2 | FUJ 5 | SUG 6 | MIN 1 | FUJ 3 | TAI 7 | MOT 3 | 1st | 77 | ||
| 2000 | NISMO | Nissan Skyline GT-R | GT500 | MOT 1 | FUJ 6 | SUG Ret | FUJ 4 | TAI 3 | MIN 3 | SUZ 5 | 2nd | 68 | ||
| 2001 | NISMO | Nissan Skyline GT-R | GT500 | TAI 13 | FUJ 4 | SUG 10 | FUJ 2 | MOT Ret | SUZ 3 | MIN 2 | 4th | 53 | ||
| 2002 | NISMO | Nissan Skyline GT-R | GT500 | TAI 12 | FUJ 6 | SUG 4 | SEP 16 | FUJ 14 | MOT 17 | MIN Ret | SUZ 8 | 19th | 19 | |
| 2003 | TOM'S | Toyota Supra | GT500 | TAI 6 | FUJ 10 | SUG 2 | FUJ 7 | FUJ 5 | MOT 2 | AUT 8 | SUZ 8 | 5th | 61 | |
| 2004 | Hasemi Motorsport | Nissan Z | GT500 | TAI 6 | SUG 6 | SEP 4 | TOK 3 | MOT 7 | AUT Ret | SUZ 3 | 4th | 50 | ||
| 2005 | Hasemi Motorsport | Nissan Z | GT500 | OKA 3 | FUJ 9 | SEP Ret | SUG 15 | MOT 13 | FUJ 4 | AUT 3 | SUZ 4 | 8th | 42 | |
| 2006 | Kondo Racing | Nissan Z | GT500 | SUZ 10 | OKA 10 | FUJ 10 | SEP 8 | SUG | SUZ 5 | MOT | AUT | FUJ | 18th | 18 |