Larrousse & Calmels was established in 1987, based in Antony, on the southern outskirts of Paris. The team initially commissioned chassis from Lola, with the LC87 being their first car, powered by a Cosworth DFZ V8 engine. The team entered the underpopulated normally aspirated category. The maiden season in 1987 saw one car for Philippe Alliot, with Yannick Dalmas joining in a second car towards the end of the year. A three-year deal with Lola was secured, and Chris Murphy was recruited from Zakspeed to assist with design. For 1989, the team planned to switch to Lamborghini V12 engines.
In 1988, the team hired engineer Gérard Ducarouge. However, in the spring of 1989, Didier Calmels was imprisoned for the murder of his wife, leading to the team being renamed simply Larrousse. For the 1989 season, Alliot remained, while Dalmas was replaced by Éric Bernard and later by Michele Alboreto. At the end of 1989, 50% of the team's shares were sold to Japan's Espo Corporation, paving the way for Aguri Suzuki to partner Bernard in 1990. The team also relocated to new premises at Signes, near the Paul Ricard circuit.
The 1990 season proved to be Larrousse's most successful. Despite needing to pre-qualify for the first half of the season, Aguri Suzuki achieved the team's first and only podium finish with a third place at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix. The team finished sixth in the 1990 Constructors' Championship. However, subsequent issues arose when Lamborghini announced it would supply engines to Ligier instead. Additionally, the FIA questioned the chassis's design origin, discovering it was designed and built by Lola, despite being registered as a Larrousse design. Larrousse lost its 1990 championship points due to this administrative misstep, though they retained the associated prize money and were exempted from pre-qualifying in the following year.
For 1991, Larrousse secured an engine deal with Brian Hart. However, Espo Corporation withdrew its support early in the year, leaving the team in financial difficulty. In July, the team sought protection from creditors. Japanese company Central Park invested in the team, but Ducarouge soon departed. Merger talks with AGS were unsuccessful, and Larrousse ended its relationships with both Lola and Hart without making payments. In the autumn of 1991, Gérard Larrousse made arrangements with Robin Herd for chassis construction, and 65% of the team was sold to the Venturi car company. A new Lamborghini engine deal was agreed upon, with Bertrand Gachot and Ukyo Katayama driving. Gachot scored the team's sole point of the season with a sixth-place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix.
In September 1992, Venturi sold its stake to a group called Comstock, led by Rainer Walldorf, who was later revealed to be a fugitive and died in a police gun battle. In 1993, Larrousse fielded an in-house chassis, but drivers Philippe Alliot and Érik Comas secured only two points finishes. Japanese driver Toshio Suzuki briefly substituted for Alliot, bringing additional sponsorship.
For the 1994 season, after failing to secure Peugeot engines, Larrousse signed a deal with Ford for customer HB engines. New partners included Swiss-based Fast Group SA, headed by Michel Golay and Patrick Tambay. Sponsorship came from Danone, with the cars running in Tourtel colors for Comas and Olivier Beretta. As finances dwindled, pay drivers, including Hideki Noda and Jean-Denis Délétraz, replaced them.
At the end of 1994, Gérard Larrousse fell out with Robin Herd, and cars for 1995 were not built. Attempts to merge the team with DAMS and another operation called Junior Team, backed by Petronas, failed. In April 1995, the team finally folded amidst numerous lawsuits. Gérard Larrousse later attempted to run sportscars with the company but without success.
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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