Schlesser grew up in Morocco before returning to France to study and complete military service. He began racing in the early 1970s after enrolling at the racing school at Le Mans. In 1976 he entered Formula Three, alternating between the French and European series for six years, and sharing the 1978 French Formula Three championship with Alain Prost. He began racing sports cars in 1977. In 1981 he attempted the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time, placing second with Philippe Streiff and Jacky Haran. He began racing touring cars in 1980, competing in the French Supertouring Championship. In 1982 he moved from Formula Three to Formula Two without success, then moved into Formula One in 1983 while continuing in sports cars and touring cars.
Schlesser was working as a test driver for Williams when he gained his first Formula One experience in early 1983, buying a drive in the RAM team's March-RAM 01-Cosworth. His first race was the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, where he started last of the 13 entrants and finished sixth. A week later, at the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, he was the slowest qualifier and failed to qualify. He did not take part in another Formula One race for five years, though he continued to test for Williams.
In 1988, Williams called upon Schlesser to deputise for an unwell Nigel Mansell at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Schlesser qualified 22nd — one of 26 of the 31 cars permitted to start — making his Grand Prix debut the day before his 40th birthday.
During the race Schlesser worked his way up to 11th while Senna led from pole in his McLaren. In the closing stages, the Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto were closing on Senna, only a few seconds behind at the start of lap 49 with three laps remaining. Senna came up to lap Schlesser for the second time at the tight Rettifilo chicane at the end of the start-finish straight. Schlesser went wide, expecting Senna to pass on the inside, and locked his brakes. Wishing to keep his car on the track, Schlesser turned inside, and his left front wheel hit Senna's right rear. With its rear suspension broken, the McLaren spun and beached itself on a kerb, leaving the Ferraris to secure a one-two finish on home soil — less than a month after Enzo Ferrari's death. The collision also meant that Alain Prost's earlier retirement had already denied McLaren the chance of winning all 16 races of the 1988 season.
Schlesser said afterwards that he did not think the collision was his fault, but made a tearful apology to Senna. Twenty-five years later, at the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren chairman Ron Dennis was reintroduced to Schlesser and said: "This is the man who ruined my life and our perfect record back in 1988." Schlesser replied: "what happened that day at Monza kept you hungry."
In 1985 Schlesser won the French Touring Car Championship with a TWR Rover Vitesse. In 1986 he raced in the British Touring Car Championship again in a TWR Rover Vitesse. In 1988 he joined the Sauber-Mercedes squad full-time, winning the German Supercup and finishing the World Sportscar Championship in second place behind Martin Brundle. He won the WSC title in 1989 and 1990, on the latter occasion sharing the title with co-driver Mauro Baldi. His final WSC season was 1991, when he raced alongside Michael Schumacher with Sauber-Mercedes. He also won the "Classic Masters" title at the 1994 Race of Champions.
After a first outing in 1984, Schlesser began competing regularly in the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1989. In 1992 he began building his own dune buggies for the Dakar and other desert marathons and European bajas. His first buggy, the Porsche-powered Schlesser Original, debuted in 1992 in the Baja Portugal 1000, which Schlesser won outright, beating the works Citroën cars with a two-wheel-drive vehicle and without a navigator.
Schlesser took overall victory at the Dakar in 1999 (Granada-Dakar) and 2000 (Paris-Dakar-Cairo). In the 2001 Dakar he was near victory but was penalised one hour for unsportsmanlike conduct after illegally blocking his closest competitor at the start and during the penultimate stage. He returned to the podium in 2004 (third overall) and again in 2007. The outfit had three cars entered for the 2008 Dakar Rally, but that event was cancelled due to concerns over a possible terrorist attack, and the team did not return for 2009.
Schlesser won the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup from 1998 to 2002 and the 2WD FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup on multiple occasions. He won every edition of the Africa Eco Race from its establishment in 2009 to 2014.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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