Born in Voves, Eure-et-Loir, Alliot initially enrolled as a political science student before dropping out to pursue motorsport at the Motul Racing School at the Circuit de Nogaro. He competed in Formule Renault during 1976 and 1977 before winning the championship in 1978 with the BP Racing team, also taking the French Formula Renault title that year. He progressed to French Formula Three before moving to the European Formula Three Championship in 1980.
By 1983 Alliot had stepped up to Formula Two, but made headlines that year with a third-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans sharing a Kremer Porsche with Michael Andretti and Mario Andretti.
Alliot joined the Skoal Bandit RAM Formula One team in 1984 but achieved little success. Following Jacques Laffite's injury at the 1986 British Grand Prix, Alliot was drafted into the Ligier squad and showed marked improvement. He moved to Larrousse for 1987, then returned to Ligier in 1990, during which time he developed a reputation for incidents.
He holds the record for the most Formula One race starts without achieving at least a podium finish, a pole position, or a fastest lap — across all 116 of his Grands Prix he never led a lap.
After a stint in sports car racing, Alliot returned to F1 with Larrousse in 1993 and recorded the best result of his single-seater career: fifth place at the San Marino Grand Prix. For 1994, Peugeot insisted that McLaren — who were using Peugeot V10 engines — employ Alliot as a test and reserve driver, an arrangement resisted by team principal Ron Dennis but ultimately accepted due to Peugeot's contractual leverage.
This role yielded two race starts. At the 1994 Hungarian Grand Prix Alliot replaced a suspended Mika Häkkinen, qualifying 14th before retiring. He then substituted for Olivier Beretta at Larrousse for the Belgian Grand Prix, starting 19th and retiring with an engine failure. That Belgian race proved to be his last Formula One appearance.
Alliot's most consistent results came in sports cars racing alongside the Peugeot programme run by Jean Todt. In the World Sportscar Championship he won three races from 21 starts and finished third in the overall standings in both 1991 and 1992. He also entered ten editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, achieving third-place finishes in 1983, 1992 and 1993.
After retiring from Formula One in 1995, Alliot explored a career in politics and worked as a television commentator. He also competed in ice racing and the Paris-Dakar Rally before eventually establishing his own GT racing team.
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