Philippe Alliot

Philippe Alliot, a French driver born in 1954, had one of the longer careers among Formula 1's midfield and back-of-grid drivers, making 110 starts between 1984 and 1994. He drove for four teams: RAM, Ligier, Larrousse, and finally McLaren, with Larrousse accounting for the largest share of his career.

His first two seasons with RAM in 1984 and 1985 brought no points. The breakthrough came with Ligier in 1986, when he scored his first point, and he added three more with Larrousse in 1987 for seventeenth in the championship, which stood as his best classification alongside a matching seventeenth place in 1993.

Alliot's career had an unusual shape. After leaving Ligier at the end of 1990 he was absent from the grid for two seasons, then returned with Larrousse in 1993 and scored two points, before making his final appearance with McLaren in 1994, a rare taste of front-running machinery at the very end of his career.

Seven points from 110 starts is a modest return on paper, but in an era when only the top six finishers scored, each of his five points-scoring seasons represented hard-won results in cars that were rarely competitive.