Érik Comas

Érik Comas (born 28 September 1963) 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.

Érik Comas
Comas in 2005
Born (1963-09-28) 28 September 1963
Romans-sur-Isère, Drôme, France
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality French
Active years1991–1994
TeamsLigier, Larrousse
Entries63 (59 starts)
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points7
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1991 United States Grand Prix
Last entry1994 Japanese Grand Prix

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 (because of a fuel leakage which put Comas' Ligier at the risk of an explosion) and held Comas' head in a stable position until the doctors could arrive.[1] 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 (JGTC), 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 (co-driving with Toshihiro Kaneishi) 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 (formerly JGTC) 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 (CRM), 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".[2] 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.[3]

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.[4]

In 2010 and 2011, he won the electric vehicle category of the Rallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative (the opening event of the FIA Alternative Energies Cup) with a Tesla Roadster.[5]

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 (GT 500) 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

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

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

(key)

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

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

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		 MIN
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

World Rally Championship results
Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 WDC Points
2000 Éric Comas Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI MON SWE KEN POR ESP ARG GRC NZL FIN CYP FRA ITA AUS
Ret		 GBR - 0
gollark: I haven't seen evidence of people actually thinking that way.
gollark: I doubt there's someone going "MUAHAHAHAHA, I will now WORSEN MATHS EDUCATION and claim it's for equality".
gollark: Presumably, they think it's *better* and they can make people more equal by focusing on what they see as inequality in it somehow.
gollark: Redraw the states using Voroni tessellation to reduce gerrymandering.
gollark: I think schools should definitely have less of the conformity stuff, more choice of subject etc., and actual acknowledgement of the existence of computers.

References
  1. YouTube.com
  2. ErikComas.com Archived February 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ErikComas.com Archived February 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  4. comashistoric.com Archived July 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Rallye Monte Carlo des Énergies Nouvelles et Électrique, in ACM.mc.
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Éric Bernard		 Championnat de France Formule Renault Turbo
Champion
1986		 Succeeded by
Claude Degremont
Preceded by
Xavier Lapeyre		 French Touring Car Championship
Champion
1987		 Succeeded by
Jean Ragnotti
Preceded by
Jean Alesi		 French Formula Three Championship
Champion
1988		 Succeeded by
Jean-Marc Gounon
Preceded by
Jean Alesi		 International Formula 3000
Champion
1990		 Succeeded by
Christian Fittipaldi
Preceded by
Pedro de la Rosa
Michael Krumm		 All-Japan Grand Touring Car
GT500 Champion
1998–1999
In 1998, with Masami Kageyama		 Succeeded by
Ryo Michigami
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