Gachot was born in Luxembourg to a French father — a European Commission official — and a German mother. He began karting at fifteen and in 1983 attended the Winfield Racing School at Paul Ricard, competing alongside future F1 drivers Damon Hill, Jean Alesi, and Eric Bernard for the Volant Elf prize. Though Bernard won the prize, Gachot left university to pursue racing full-time.
He won the European Formula Ford 1600 series in 1985 driving for Pacific Racing, and the following year took the British Formula Ford 2000 title, with a fierce rivalry against Mark Blundell who won the European equivalent. In 1987 he joined the British Formula Three championship with West Surrey Racing, finishing second to Johnny Herbert in the championship. Gachot and Herbert would later share a famous victory together. He moved to Formula 3000 in 1988, taking pole at Silverstone and finishing fifth in the championship behind champion Roberto Moreno.
Gachot made his Formula One debut in 1989 with the newly formed Onyx team, having helped attract the Moneytron sponsorship from businessman Jean-Pierre Van Rossem. As a new entrant obliged to pre-qualify, he did not appear on the grid until the French Grand Prix, where he started eleventh. Despite some strong qualifying performances he was fired by Van Rossem after publicly airing complaints about testing time. He ended the season with the struggling Rial team, failing to qualify their ageing chassis for either of the final two races before the team folded.
In 1990, Gachot drove for Coloni with an experimental Subaru flat-12 engine designed by Carlo Chiti. The unit was overweight, underpowered, and mechanically fragile; Gachot failed to pre-qualify all season. After Subaru withdrew at the British Grand Prix, the car ran with a Cosworth DFR engine with improved but still insufficient results.
Gachot was signed to lead the new Jordan Grand Prix team for 1991, driving the Gary Anderson-designed 191 with Ford HB engines. The season began promisingly: Gachot scored fifth in Canada and sixth twice in other rounds, and the car proved competitive. Away from Formula One he co-drove a Mazda 787B at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Johnny Herbert and Volker Weidler, winning the race — Mazda's historic and still-unique Le Mans victory with a rotary-engined car.
The circumstances of Gachot's imprisonment became one of Formula One's most memorable sub-plots. On 10 December 1990, running late for a meeting, Gachot was involved in a road rage altercation with a London taxi driver at Hyde Park Corner. His car had collided with the back of the taxi without causing damage; Gachot later said the taxi driver pulled him by his tie and raised a fist, prompting Gachot to spray the driver with CS gas. He was charged with actual bodily harm and possession of a prohibited weapon.
His trial took place the week before the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, a race at Spa where Gachot expected the Jordan to perform strongly. He expected a fine or suspended sentence but was instead sentenced to 18 months in HMP Brixton. A campaign of support organised by Belgian racing driver Pascal Witmeur included flags, T-shirts and graffiti at Spa-Francorchamps during that weekend's Grand Prix. Eddie Jordan replaced Gachot with an unknown German, Michael Schumacher, whose performance at Spa launched one of the sport's greatest careers. After two months, Gachot's sentence was reduced on appeal and he was released.
Gachot returned to the paddock at Suzuka to seek his Jordan seat back, but the team refused. He drove for Larrousse at the Australian Grand Prix, failing to qualify but impressing the team enough to be signed for 1992. The Larrousse season, with a Robin Herd-designed Venturi chassis and V12 Lamborghini engines, was difficult: only six classified finishes from 31 starts between Gachot and teammate Ukyo Katayama. Gachot scored the team's sole point with sixth in Monaco, and finished fourth for Mazda at Le Mans.
In 1993, Gachot was out of Formula One, racing briefly in CART and Japanese touring cars while helping Keith Wiggins prepare the Pacific team for their 1994 F1 entry. He became a shareholder and drove as their lead driver in 1994, outqualifying Roland Ratzenberger to give Pacific its debut but not qualifying again that year. The 1994 Pacific PR01 ran 1992-spec Ilmor V10 engines and was not competitive.
For 1995, Pacific merged with the remains of Team Lotus, acquiring a new PR02 chassis with Cosworth ED engines. With only 26 entrants Gachot was a guaranteed starter and the car proved reliable, if slow. Gachot stood down mid-season to allow pay drivers to bring funds to the struggling team, but retook the seat for Japan and Australia after licensing issues prevented the nominated drivers from competing. His final Grand Prix was the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, which he finished eighth after much of the field retired. Pacific folded at season's end.
After F1, Gachot formed his own sports car team and attempted the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Welter Racing LM94 powered by SsangYong, one of the rare motorsport outings for the South Korean manufacturer. The car did not qualify. In 1997 he entered the energy drinks industry, signing a distribution agreement for Hype Energy Drinks — a company founded by Brian Cox, the founder of Hard Rock Cafe — with an aim to develop the French market. By 2000 he had taken a leadership role at Hype Energy, restructuring the product portfolio. He has since grown the brand globally, securing F1 sponsorships including Force India, the successor to his former team Jordan. He also owns F1i.com, a Formula One news site.
Gachot's career is remembered as much for its context as its results. His imprisonment directly handed Michael Schumacher the seat that launched an era-defining career. The 1991 Le Mans victory with Mazda's 787B — the only rotary-powered car to win the race — remains one of endurance racing's landmark results. A committed European, Gachot raced under a Belgian licence despite holding a French passport, and his helmet has long carried the European flag's circle of stars.
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