François Hesnault
François Hesnault is a former racing driver from France. He participated in 21 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 25 March 1984. He scored no championship points.
Hesnault enjoyed some success in the French Formula Three Championship, finishing third in the series in 1982 and second in 1983.
The Frenchman debuted in Formula One in the season with Ligier, with a best result of 7th at the Dutch Grand Prix. For the season, he was hired to be Nelson Piquet's teammate at Brabham, but he was sacked after four uncompetitive races. He returned for a one-off at the German Grand Prix in a third Renault which carried a prototype onboard camera, making it the first use of this technology in a Grand Prix. This is also the last race in which three cars have been entered for the same team. After this race, Hesnault retired from motor racing, having suffered a particularly heavy crash in testing at Circuit Paul Ricard shortly before parting company with Brabham.
Complete Formula One World Championship results
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | WDC | Points |
1984 | Ligier Loto | Ligier JS23 | Renault V6 | BRA Ret | RSA 10 | BEL Ret | SMR Ret | FRA DNS | MON Ret | CAN Ret | DET Ret | DAL Ret | GBR Ret | GER 8 | AUT 8 | NED 7 | ITA Ret | EUR 10 | POR Ret | NC | 0 |
1985 | Motor Racing Developments | Brabham BT54 | BMW S4 | BRA Ret | POR Ret | SMR Ret | MON DNQ | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | NC | 0 | ||||||||
1985 | Equipe Renault Elf | Renault RE60 | Renault V6 | GER Ret | AUT | NED | ITA | BEL | EUR | RSA | AUS | NC | 0 |