Gachot was born in Luxembourg City to a French father and German mother and began karting at fifteen. In 1983 he attended the Winfield Racing School at Paul Ricard, competing against future F1 drivers Damon Hill, Jean Alesi, and Eric Bernard for the Volant Elf prize — a funded Formula Renault season. Though Bernard won the prize, Gachot dropped out of university to pursue racing professionally.
He won the European Formula Ford 1600 series in 1985 with Pacific Racing after finishing third at the Formula Ford Festival in 1984. Moving to Formula Ford 2000 in 1986, he competed in a season-long rivalry with Mark Blundell: Gachot won the British title while Blundell took the European championship. In 1987 he finished second in British Formula Three behind Johnny Herbert for West Surrey Racing. He contested the Formula 3000 series from 1988, taking pole at Silverstone and finishing fifth in the final standings.
Gachot entered Formula One in 1989 with the newly formed Onyx team, having played a role in attracting its Moneytron sponsorship. The team's preparation was delayed and Onyx was obliged to pre-qualify; Gachot made the grid for the first time at the French Grand Prix, starting eleventh and running in the points before battery problems dropped him to thirteenth. He qualified for four of the next five events but was fired after privately voicing grievances about testing that were aired publicly by the team. He spent the final two races of 1989 with the struggling Rial team, failing to qualify on both occasions before the team folded.
The 1990 season was wasted at Coloni, which had signed an exclusive deal with Subaru for a new flat-12 engine that proved overweight, underpowered, and unreliable. Gachot rarely managed more than a few laps in pre-qualifying; after Subaru withdrew following the British Grand Prix, a Cosworth DFR engine improved the car's performance but it still could not reach the main qualifying sessions.
For 1991, Gachot was signed to lead the new Jordan Grand Prix team alongside 7-Up sponsorship and Ford HB engines. The Gary Anderson-designed Jordan 191 was genuinely competitive, and Gachot accumulated points through the first half of the season — finishing fifth at Canada and sixth twice — while also winning the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Mazda 787B.
His season ended abruptly off the track. On 10 December 1990, running late to a meeting with Jordan and 7-Up representatives, Gachot was involved in a road rage incident at Hyde Park Corner with a London taxi driver. He sprayed the driver with CS gas after the driver pulled him by his tie and raised a fist. Gachot hid the canister and was later arrested. His trial at Southwark Crown Court fell the week before the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, where he expected the Jordan to perform strongly. Expecting a fine or suspended sentence, he was instead sentenced to 18 months in HMP Brixton; an appeal later reduced and ultimately freed him after approximately two months.
Team owner Eddie Jordan replaced Gachot with Michael Schumacher, whose stunning debut at Spa-Francorchamps earned him a race drive with Benetton — a career launch that was a direct consequence of Gachot's absence. Roberto Moreno and Alessandro Zanardi also filled the seat before Gachot's return. Gachot later described prison as "a fantastic human experience" and said he received around 10,000 letters of support.
Gachot rejoined the Formula One paddock at Suzuka in 1991 but could not reclaim his Jordan seat from Zanardi. He joined Larrousse, replacing the injured Eric Bernard for the Australian Grand Prix, failing to qualify but impressing the team enough to be retained for 1992. The Larrousse season was difficult: the Venturi-Lamborghini chassis suffered reliability and financial problems, and Gachot and teammate Ukyo Katayama managed just six classified finishes from 31 combined starts. Gachot scored the team's only point of the year with sixth place at Monaco, and finished fourth for Mazda at Le Mans.
After a year away from Formula One racing in CART and Japanese touring cars, Gachot became a shareholder in Keith Wiggins' Pacific team and was signed as their lead driver for 1994. The PR01, built around a chassis originally designed for Reynard's aborted F1 entry and running 1992-specification Ilmor V10 engines, was not competitive. Gachot outqualified Roland Ratzenberger to give Pacific its debut at the opening round of 1994 but the team never again beat fellow newcomers Simtek, though a series of accidents that season produced smaller grids allowing Gachot occasional starts. He failed to finish any of his races that year.
Pacific fielded the new PR02 for 1995 with Cosworth ED engines and experienced personnel following a merger with remains of Team Lotus. With only 26 entrants, Pacific were guaranteed grid slots, and the improved reliability at least enabled the cars to complete races. Financial difficulties forced Gachot to stand down mid-season so that pay drivers could bring money to the team; he returned for the final two races. At the season finale in Australia he matched Pacific's best result with eighth place after much of the field retired. It was his final Grand Prix; Pacific folded at the season's end.
Following his racing career, Gachot built a significant business portfolio. He signed a distribution agreement with Hype Energy Drinks in 1997 and by 2000 had taken a leadership role within the company, simplifying its product range and driving growth. By 2014 he had returned Hype Energy to the F1 paddock, sponsoring Andre Lotterer, and in 2015 secured a sponsorship deal with Force India — the team formerly known as Jordan, for whom Gachot had raced. He has continued as CEO of Hype Energy. Gachot also owns F1i.com, a Formula One news website.
Gachot raced under a Belgian FIA Super Licence initially, despite holding a French passport, switching to a French licence from 1992 onward. A committed European federalist, his helmet features the circle of yellow stars on a blue background drawn from the European flag — reflecting his Luxembourg birth, French nationality, and German heritage.
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