Guillaume Gauthier

Guillaume Gauthier (Born 6th January 1956 in Toulon, Var, France) is a former French racing driver and owner of Equipe Gauthier. He is the father of Arnaud Gauthier, and grandfather of F1RDS driver Aimée Gauthier.

Early Life
Guillaume was born in 1956 in Toulon to Pierre and Gabrielle Gauthier. Pierre was briefly an amateur racing driver in the years before World War II, and fought in the French Resistance during it. After the war, he settled down and opened a successful chain of garages which eventually covered most of southern France, and which is still in operation today by Guillaume's older brother Robert.

In this position, much of Guillaume's pre-school days were surrounded by cars, and naturally he had a fascination with them that would shape his life. At first however, he wished to work on cars, like his father, not race them. That changed on his father's 50th birthday, when the family travelled to Monaco to watch the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix. After watching the race, Guillaume was certain: He wanted to be a Formula 1 driver. His brother, Robert was equally convinced and the two began working hard to ensure their dreams would come true. Eventually the pair earned enough to buy a kart; they would participate infrequently until the end of Guillaume's school days, with mixed success for both brothers.

Early Career
After leaving school at the age of 18 in 1974 with mostly average grades, Guillaume's father proposed a deal to Guillaume and Robert. He was looking to advertise his garage business, and so offered to buy them a competitive kart, and free use of his tools, on the condition that they service it themselves and purchase all necessary parts themselves. The only question left was who would drive. Guillaume and Robert took turns setting times around the local go-kart track, until Robert spun off on his third lap. Pierre decided at that point that Robert's driving style was too wild and declared that Guillaume would be the driver and Robert the mechanic - which was fortunate because Robert happened to be better than Guillaume at servicing cars anyway.

Very quickly upon joining the French karting scene proper, Guillaume found himself one of the chief protagonists there. Indeed, by the end of 1975, he was second only to Alain Prost. Pierre was more than happy to finance Guillaume's rise to Formula Renault for 1976, after his results had been matched with a marked increase in the business that Pierre's garages were doing. The 1976 French Formula Renault title was bitterly fought, with Prost only just beating Gauthier by 7 wins to 6. Prost then moved on to Formula Renault Europe for 1977, whereas Guillaume remained, allowing himself to win every race in French Formula Renault that year.

Guillaume then moved up to French Formula 3 for 1978, where he would again clash with his rival, Alain Prost. This time, Guillaume was determined to prevail, and did so, winning 5 races. This gained the attention of Teddy Mayer, boss of the McLaren team, who was looking for a rising young star to partner defending World Champion Mario Andretti for the upcoming 1979 F1 season. The offer was an excellent one - an established, experienced team, if a little down on its luck, and perhaps looking for some money from Guillaume's father, with a World Champion to learn from. It was the ideal situation for a rising star such as Guillaume.

1979
At first, there was some concern that Guillaume was not experienced enough to make the jump to F1 after only a single F3 season. Such concerns were rapidly dashed at the first pre-season test in Jarama, as Guillaume not only set the 7th fastest time that day, within 6 tenths of the fastest time, but he beat Mario Andretti's best effort by 3 tenths in doing so, with the American only 14th. Come the first round of the season in Argentina, however, and fortunes for McLaren seemed much more dire. The team was saddled with the rather uncompetitive M28D as the M29 was not ready in time for the start of the 1979 season. Gauthier and Andretti could only manage 20th and 22nd on the grid, yet Guillaume proved his pre-season pace was no fluke by outqualifying Andretti by 4 tenths of a second in his first attempt. However, Gauthier's debut ended abruptly after 7 laps with a suspension failure; a great shame when Andretti went on to finish 4th, only 8 seconds behind 3rd-placed James Hunt.

Fortunes at Interlagos were little better, as both McLarens qualified over 5 seconds off of pole-sitter Callum McAllister's blistering pace, though once again, Gauthier showed up his World Champion teammate, beating him by 2 tenths this time. The race was much less chaotic than the one in Buenos Aires, however, though this time Guillaume's car held together and the Frenchman picked up his first ever F1 race finish - 14th place, 1 minute and 48 seconds behind winner Jody Scheckter. Still, he was on the lead lap, which was more than could be said for Mario Andretti.

The South African Grand Prix saw Andretti outqualify Guillaume for the first time that year - even then, the McLarens were only 21st and 22nd, with barely a tenth between them. This carried through to the race, with Andretti finishing 15th and Gauthier 18th, a lap down. The team was in for a shock at the 4th race of the season, in Long Beach. Guillaume barely squeaked on to the grid in 29th, a little over a tenth from failing to qualify, but that paled in comparison to Andretti's performance - 3 seconds off the pace and 7 tenths slower than Guillaume meant that Andretti was only 35th, and thus failed to qualify! In the race, it was another quiet day for Guillaume, only finishing 13th thanks to the mass attrition during the race.

The Spanish Grand Prix could not have come soon enough for the team, as the M29 was finally ready in time for it. Gauthier quickly put the car to good use and qualified 11th, within a second of pole. In the race, things finally began looking upm as Guillaume put in a steady, measured drive to place 5th and score his first career points. Gauthier came crashing back to earth in the next race at Spa, however, as he suffered numerous difficulties in setting up his car, and eventually wound up failing to qualify, as the second slowest car.

At Monaco, it was Andretti's turn to have setup difficulties - although he did qualify, it was in 29th, 2 seconds slower than Guillaume, 20 places ahead of him in 9th. It seemed like things were set for Guillaume to impress in front of what was virtually a home crowd - many of his friends and relatives lived within driving distance of Monaco, and many of them turned up for his first race there. Alas, while running strongly, his gearbox broke, denying him more points. After Monaco, however, Teddy Mayer had had enough of Andretti's underperformance and replaced the American with Derek Daly for the French Grand Prix. Once there, Daly immediately proved his worth by outqualifying Gauthier, even if it was by less than a tenth of a second. Gauthier made little progress in the race and retired with a broken gearbox on lap 27, while Daly went on to finish 5th.

The British Grand Prix saw Mario Andretti return to the team, and it seemed that Gauthier's early season pace was losing it's lustre - the American qualified 13th, 2 tenths faster than Gauthier in 19th. The race ended very quickly for both McLarens, however; Guillaume made an excellent start to make it up to 13th, but his engine failed on only the second lap, while Andretti collided with Stefan Bellof moments later. The German Grand Prix saw the positions reversed, more or less; now it was Gauthier in 12th and Andretti in 19th, with a whole 6 tenths between the pair. The race was fairly eventful for Guillaume - he was involved in a collision on lap 21 with Niki Lauda which forced him to pit for a new front wing, before his engine failed on the very last lap. This was not enough to deny him his second points finish, however, as he was still classified 7th.

At the Austrian Grand Prix, there was nothing to choose between Gauthier and Andretti - literally. The pair set the exact same time in qualifying, with Gauthier being awarded the position having set the time first. The McLarens lined up 13th and 14th, and Gauthier remained ahead in the race, until Andretti pushed too hard in trying to match his rookie teammate, spinning and being collected in a collision with Hiroshi Takagi. This sparked a rivalry between the two drivers which would become one of the major talking points in the latter stages of the 1979 season. Meanwhile, Guillaume soldiered on, until another engine failure on lap 24 ended his day as well.

At the Dutch Grand Prix, Gauthier continued his qualifying form, beating the American by two tenths and 4 places. After several races with quite a bit of bad luck, a quiet solid day was on the cards for Guillaume, and that's just what he delivered with another 7th place. Gauthier once again outqualified Andretti at the Italian Grand Prix, by a massive 1.2 seconds, and 7 places. In the race, Guillaume produced another steady drive to score 3 more points for the team in 6th place, putting him ahead of his World Champion teammate. Andretti, however, retired early after another collision with Hiroshi Takagi, which this time resulted in a punch-up between the two drivers.

In Brands Hatch, Andretti was given a warning by Mayer that if he did not score a podium in the European Grand Prix, then he would be fired from McLaren. It did not look good for the American after qualifying, as he was beaten for the 10th time in 13 qualifying sessions by Guillaume. On race day, Guillaume put in his best performance at that point, with a storming drive to 4th, challenging Ed Kevin and Rene Arnoux, both championship contenders that year, for a podium position. Guillaume decided that discretion was the better part of valor, however, and settled for 4th place, not willing to risk losing valuable points for McLaren. Andretti, however, was sacked as he got into another collision with Hiroshi Takagi, prompted Derek Daly to return as Gauthier's teammate.

The final 3 races of the year were fairly quiet - Gauthier qualified well in Canada, but succumbed to a car failure, while he could not find a good setup at Watkins Glen or Adelaide, retiring from those races as well. He finished the season with 16 points, good enough for 14th in the championship. It was 2 more than what Andretti and Daly achieved together, and ensured that the Frenchman would continue for a second season with McLaren in 1980.

1980
Going in to 1980, Guillaume was now the established driver at McLaren, and given his trouncing of former World Champion Mario Andretti the previous year, was fully expected to lead the way for the team. This was a challenge that he would relish, and Guillaume proceeded to up his game. This was most apparent given that Derek Daly, who had been able to match Gauthier's pace in 1979, was now completely unable to match the Frenchman.

Through pre-season testing, Gauthier managed to drag his McLaren into the top ten on the time sheets, though all indications were that this would be another difficult season for the team, and only occasional points finishes were expected, and indeed that seemed to be the case in Australia, where Guillaume could only manage 17th on the grid. However, his easy style came to the fore in the race, as it was one of attrition. By not taking too much out of his car but still driving strongly, Guillaume finished 6th and claimed McLaren's first point of the season.

At the South African Grand Prix, things seemed much more positive for McLaren, with both Gauthier and Daly qualifying in the top ten. However, Guillaume was unable to match the race pace of others on Sunday, and slipped to 9th from 7th. In Brazil, the car was again not good enough for Guillaume to drag higher than 18th, though once again, the race became one of attrition and Guillaume finished, albeit outside the points in 8th.

It was a similar story in Belgium, although this time Guillaume was able to finish 5th and score another 2 points from 18th on the grid. He followed this up with an excellent performance in the French Grand Prix; on a day where bad luck befell many French elements in the race, Gauthier qualified a superb 9th and held on for a 6th place finish. This gave him the impressive record of 5 finishes from 5 races, and underlined Guillaume's ability to perfectly balance speed, consistency, and reliability.

Unfortunately, Guillaume's finishing streak came to an end in Monaco; he was one of many drivers to succumb to the vast rate of attrition in that race, with his stalwart Ford turbo giving up the ghost fairly early on. Had that not happened, Guillaume was potentially on track for his first ever podium finish.

Post-racing career
Following Guillaume's retirement from racing, he intended to return to the booming family business, now run by his brother Robert. However, he was contacted by Mercedes late in 1993, and offered a position at the head of their driver academy, specifically, looking to mentor young drivers to spear their single-seater efforts. Among the various drivers on Mercedes' books, Guillaume identified a young Welshman by the name of James Davies as the most promising, and proceeded to take him under his wing. Throughout 1994 and 1995, he encouraged Davies to be more forceful, both on and off the track, something which Davies would take to heart. Guillaume was also a key part in switching Mercedes' backing from Sauber to McLaren, and also in convincing F1RGP2C McLaren team boss Don Rennis to take on James Davies.

Late in 1996, however, Guillaume quietly resigned from his position, and was employed by seatholder Éadbhard Ó'Caoimhín in an advisory role at Tyrrell, in an attempt to aid the struggling constructor. However, as he later revealed in interviews, Tyrrell's finances were in a sorry state, and the team was, "one [very] bad day away from bankruptcy". When Ó'Caoimhín's attempts at securing sponsorship for the team for 1997 failed, however, he bowed out of the team, and Tyrrell's future was in doubt, until Guillaume offered to buy it from Ken Tyrrell for a nominal fee, taking on the massive debts the team accrued.

F1RGP2C (1997-)
Guillaume's first year as a team owner was something of a baptism of fire. He had taken on a team in severe debt, without any sponsors or drivers, a somewhat more reliable update of Tyrrell's 1996 challenger, or even an engine supply. The first thing he did was agree to a two-year contact with Ford for their lowest-grade engines, the only ones the team could afford. On the driver front, Guillaume could hardly afford to take on a paid driver, so instead hired former F1RGP2C driver Samael Meerwick and occasional F3000 points-scorer Lawrence Tucker on the basis of their robust sponsor packages as opposed to their skill. Guillaume also ensured that there were numerous clauses in their contracts enabling them to be cancelled if certain conditions were not met, though Guillaume would retain the full amount of sponsorship. This would be a feature in all of Guillaume's driver contracts in 1997, and it would prove to be frequently used.

Guillaume also applied for a name change to the series bosses, given the change in ownership, though it would only be partially approved after a protest from Ferrari seatholder Andreas Stefano. Throughout the first 5 races, Gauthier's driver lineup was proclaimed to be the worst in F1RGP2C, culminating in a Reject of the Race for the team. Both Tucker and Meerwick were sacked from the team, and replacing them were Martin McFry, who had shown some pace at Forti in 1996 amongst his litany of crashes and errors, and Robert Anderson, who was heavily criticised for his lack of racing ability, and had recently recovered from severe injuries following a crash with Éadbhard Ó'Caoimhín at the 1996 Belgian Grand Prix. Anderson did, however, come with significant backing from British-American Tobacco, enabling Gauthier to pay McFry a meager salary.