People

Pierre Cornetet

Pierre Cornetet grew up in Rheims - the champagne capital of the world - and he went to watch French Grands Prix at the Rheims circuit in the late 1960s. This was to sew the seed for a passion for F1. It helped that the Cornetet family knew a local family called Alliot and young Philippe Alliot was the same age. The friendship continued through their teens and when Alliot and his brother Frederic started racing in Formule Renault Cornetet went to a few races to see his pal in action but concentrated on studying physiotherapy at Lille University's faculty of medicine. He went on do further studies in osteopathy and acupuncture while practicing as a physiotherapist in the Rheims area.

It was only in 1983 that Alliot asked him if he would come along to the Le Mans 24 Hour race to look after the Frenchman and his co-drivers Mario and Michael Andretti. The three were driving a Kenwood-sponsored Kremer Porsche 956 and, with a little help from Cornetet, the trio finished third in the race.

Then it was back to a quiet life again in Rheims for a few years before Cornetet decided to move to Paris in 1990. This led to further work in racing with Alliot. In 1993 he was signed up by the Larrousse team to look after Alliot and his team mate Erik Comas. That same year Cornetet was recruited to join the Rhone-Poulenc chemical company's biomedical research program in Grand Prix racing. The Institut Biomedical Sport et Vie team, under Dr. Francois Duforez, was based at Maison Laffitte near Paris and carried out in-depth research into what racing drivers undergo in the car and how their performance can be improved.

This led to work with Jordan and Ligier and in 1995 with Ukyo Katayama - who had particular problems because of a neck injury which he received in a violent accident at Clermont-Ferrand when he was racing in the French junior formulae.

When he isn't involved in racing Cornetet continues to practice his physiotherapy in Paris.