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. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
After starting in karts, Erik Comas moved into car racing and, after winning a place in the Volant Elf finals at Paul Ricard, he later won the competition. Moving into Formula Renault he won at Croix-en-Ternois though he dominated in the following year, taking eight wins and then raced with the factory team in the French Superproduction series. He won that title and then graduated to Formula 3, finishing sixth in his first year and then won the French F3 title in 1988 with Oreca.
1989 saw him race in Formula 3000 with DAMS, where he won in the Lola T89/50-Mugen at Le Mans and Dijon, and finished equal on points with Jean Alesi, though Alesi was declared champion due to winning more races. Staying with the team in F3000 the following year, he took victories at Donington, Jerez, Monza and Le Mans on his way to being champion.
He was signed by Ligier in 1991 (partnering Thierry Boutsen) though it proved a disappointing time with the Lamborghini-powered JS35 (the engines were a stop-gap until the following year, when they would be using Renault V10s) and his best result was in Canada, where he finished eighth.
Erik stayed with Ligier for 1992 though before the start of the season, Alain Prost test drove several times with a view to joining them, after leaving Ferrari the previous year, though did not join. Now with Renault power, he took three points scoring finishes, including sixth in Canada (scoring the team’s first point in almost three years), fifth in France and after qualifying seventh, finished sixth in Germany. He failed to qualify in Belgium after a heavy crash in practice on the Friday, in which he was knocked unconscious, and did not participate any further in the race weekend.
1993 saw a move to the Larrousse team, and in Spain, he finished ninth after a race long battle with Mark Blundell, Christian Fittipaldi, and Aguri Suzuki and later in the season took a point with sixth place at the Italian Grand Prix.
Remaining with Larrousse for the following year, the team had split liveries for the season, a green livery and at Imola, a red and white striped car with sponsorship from French beer Kronenbourg. The season began promisingly and he took a point at Aida but regulation changes resulted in development work on the car ceasing, and the team suffered a run of engine failures through the middle of the season. He scored another point in Germany though at the season’s final race in Australia, he left the team (being replaced by Jean-Denis Délétraz) but it would also prove to be Larrousse’s final F1 race.
Unfortunately, at Imola during 1994’s season, he arrived upon the scene of Ayrton Senna’s accident as he was mistakenly waved out of the pits and drove onto the circuit during the red flag which followed the crash. Marshals frantically tried to flag him down through the Tamburello corner and he only narrowly avoided the rescue workers and vehicles, including the helicopter which had landed at the scene. He retired from the race following the incident, due to the distressing scenes he witnessed. It had such an impact on him as Ayrton Senna saved his life in 1992 at Spa after his major crash during qualifying. Ayrton was the first car to arrive at the scene and he jumped from his own car and ran over to the Ligier, shut down the engine and held Erik’s head in a stable position until the doctors could arrive.
In an interview some years later about the 1992 crash, he said “I don’t remember anything but I have seen the videos. The front right wheel hit me on the helmet which knocked me out. The car then slid back onto the track but I was accelerating full throttle. Ayrton arrived and immediately heard the sounds, the revving of the engine. He stopped, took off his seatbelt and came running towards me while there were still cars running. He then looked for the short circuit and shutdown my car because at that time, there was a real risk of an explosion or fire. It’s likely Ayrton saved my life at that moment.”
Erik had also tested the DAMS F1 car, though the team never entered the championship, so left F1. He went on to competed in the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship and would win the GT500 title in 1998 and 1999, and finished second in 2000, driving a Nismo-prepared Skyline GT-R in all those three years. He left Nismo in 2002 and joined Toyota and by the end of 2003 he was the most successful driver in the history of the series, with the most career championship points ever scored by a single driver (though this was eventually surpassed by another Nismo driver, Satoshi Motoyama).
2004/2005 was spent with Masahiro Hasemi’s Hasemi Sport team, running Nissan 350Zs in GT500, while in 2006 he raced in the Super GT championship with Masahiko Kondo’s privateer Nissan 350Z racing team, though missed a number of races due to ill health. During this time he competed in 2005’s Le Mans 24 Hours and finished second in a hybrid Pescarolo C60-Judd, with Emmanuel Collard and Jules Boullion.
He had a passion for rallies and classic cars and is involved in running Comas Historic Racing, which allows clients to enter historic rallies driving cars from his fleet of Alpine automobiles, plus also involved with the Green Cars Challenge business.
In 2010 and 2011, he won the electric vehicle category of the Rallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative (part of the FIA Alternative Energies Cup) with a Tesla Roadster. In 2011 he began racing a Lancia Stratos (he also has a website about the car plus wrote a book ‘Lancia Stratos, Mythe et réalité’) and in 2014 won the Carrera Panamericana in a Studebaker. In 2015 he won the Italian historic rally championship title and the Rally Legend then in 2016 won the Targa Florio Historic Rally.
His son, Anthony used to compete in the Formula Renault Campus France, Formula BMW UK and Formula BMW Europe.
During his racing, rather than wearing a tinted visor, Erik often preferred to wear sunglasses underneath his visor.
