obert Benoist was a member of the Delage Works Team from 1924 to 1927. His victory in the 1927 Grand Prix of the R.A.C. at Brooklands in which Delage achieved a 1-2-3 finish, was the supreme conclusion of a year in which he won every Grand Prix in the newly-created World Championship driving a 1½ litre single-seater straight eight Delage. This feat earned Benoist the Légion d'Honneur and Delage the distinction of being the first ever marque to be declared 'World Champion'.

He first raced at Brooklands in 1922 when he won the 1,100cc Class of the 1922 200 Miles Race driving a Salmson.

During the 1930s he became Competition Manager of Bugatti and won the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1937 at the wheel of a T57 'Tank' with Jean-Pierre Wimille as co-driver.

As a member of the Special Operations Executive during World War II, Benoist became an important figure in the French resistance in Paris but was betrayed in June 1944. He was executed by the Nazis at Buchenwald concentration camp in September 1944.

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