François Hesnault

François Hesnault
Born	(1956-12-30) December 30, 1956 France
Occupation	Racing driver
Years active	1980–1985
Known for	Formula One driver for Ligier and Brabham (1984–1985)

François Hesnault (born 30 December 1956) is a retired French racing driver who competed in 21 Formula One Grands Prix between 1984 and 1985, making his first appearance on 25 March 1984. Throughout his F1 career, he did not accumulate any championship points.

Coming from a prosperous family that owned a significant transport enterprise, Hesnault served in the French parachute regiment during his military duty, including operations in West Africa. His motorsport journey began in the French Formula Renault series in 1980, after which he advanced to the French Formula Three Championship. There, he secured third place in 1982 with two race wins and finished as runner-up in 1983, achieving five victories and narrowly missing the championship by just two points. Additionally, Hesnault took part twice in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in 1982 and 1983.

Hesnault made his Formula One debut with Ligier in 1984, where his highest race result was seventh place at the Dutch Grand Prix. The following year, he moved to Brabham to partner Nelson Piquet but was released after four races due to underwhelming performance. His final F1 outing occurred at the 1985 German Grand Prix when he piloted a third Renault car equipped with an experimental onboard camera—the inaugural use of such technology during a Grand Prix—and this event also marked the last instance of a team entering three cars simultaneously. After suffering a severe crash during testing at Circuit Paul Ricard and parting ways with Brabham, Hesnault decided to retire from professional racing.

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
Template:F1	Ligier Loto	Ligier JS23	Renault V6 (t/c)	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
Template:F1	Motor Racing Developments	Brabham BT54	BMW S4 ( t/c)	BRA Ret	POR Ret	SMR Ret	MON DNQ	CAN	DET	FRA	GBR									NC	0
	Equipe Renault Elf	Renault RE60	Renault V6 ( t/c )									GER Ret	AUT	NED	ITA	BEL	EUR	RSA	AUS

24 Hours of Le Mans Results

Year	Team	Drivers	Vehicle	Category	Completed Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
Template:24hLM	Template:Country data CHETemplate:Namespace detect showall C. Haldi	Template:Country data CHETemplate:Namespace detect showall Claude Haldi Template:Country data PANTemplate:Namespace detect showall Rodrigo Terran	Porsche 934/5	Gr.5 SP	141	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Country data FRATemplate:Namespace detect showall A.S. École Supérieure de Tourisme	Template:Country data FRATemplate:Namespace detect showall Thierry Perrier Template:Country data FRATemplate:Namespace detect showall Bernard Salam	Lancia LC1	Gr.C	133	NC	NC