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Olivier Panis

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Olivier Panis
Panis in 2009
Born (1966-09-02) 2 September 1966 (age 58)
Oullins, Lyon, France
Spouse
Anne
​
(m. 1996)​
Children3, including Aurélien
Formula One World Championship career
NationalityFrance French
Active years1994–1999, 2001–2004
TeamsLigier, Prost, BAR, Toyota
Entries158 (157 starts)
Championships0
Wins1
Podiums5
Career points76
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1994 Brazilian Grand Prix
First win1996 Monaco Grand Prix
Last entry2004 Japanese Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years2008–2011
TeamsOreca
Best finish5th (2009, 2011)
Class wins0

Olivier Jean Denis Marie Panis (French pronunciation: [ɔlivje panis]; born 2 September 1966) is a French former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1994 to 2004. Panis won the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix with Ligier.

Panis competed in Formula One for Ligier, Prost, BAR and Toyota, winning the Monaco Grand Prix in 1996 with the former, amongst five podiums. Panis moved into sportscar racing after Formula One, and is a race-winner in the FFSA GT Championship and the Le Mans Series. He competed in four editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing fifth in 2009 and 2011 with Oreca.

Early and personal life

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Olivier Jean Denis Marie Panis was born on 2 September 1966 in Oullins, Lyon.[1] Panis started his career in karting.

Panis is the father of racing driver Aurélien Panis.[2]

Career

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After graduating from karts, Olivier raced several years in a number of junior series, including before French Formula 3. He won a championship in Formula Renault in 1989 and finished second in French Formula 3 in 1991. He eventually found himself in Formula 3000, and he won the series' championship there in 1993.

Formula One

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The 27-year-old Panis earned an F1 drive in 1994 for the French-based Ligier team. He made his debut at Brazil, finishing eleventh. He earned a surprise second place that season at Hockenheim ahead of teammate Éric Bernard, and finished 11th in the standings for the marque. He finished every race except France. He was however disqualified in Portugal for illegal skid block wear.

Panis driving for Ligier at the 1995 British Grand Prix.

He earned another surprise second place at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, in spite of being two laps behind the leader Damon Hill, and he also added a handful of fourths to his resume, giving him an 8th-place finish in the championship.

Panis took a shock win in the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. Starting 14th on a wet track, Panis passed other rivals on the narrow circuit, including Martin Brundle, Mika Häkkinen and Johnny Herbert, and timed his change onto slick tyres perfectly. He overtook Eddie Irvine at the Lowes Hairpin and was running in third place before the Williams-Renault of Damon Hill and Benetton-Renault of Jean Alesi both hit terminal technical difficulties. One of only 3 cars to finish the race, (Brits David Coulthard and Johnny Herbert being the other two) Panis held off a late charge from Coulthard to win. The race finished on 75 of the 78 scheduled laps due to the two-hour time limit being reached. Panis' victory was the Ligier team's first victory in 15 years (and their last), and it was the first French victory in a French car at Monaco in 66 years. However, it was the only highlight to his 1996 season, and he otherwise failed to do any better than 5th place in Hungary.

Panis had the potential for a big season in 1997 while driving for Alain Prost, who had purchased Ligier. On Bridgestone tyres, he took the tyre company's first podium at Brazil. He was running second in Argentina before retirement. After 6 races, he stood third in the championship thanks to another podium finish with second place in Spain. A win could have been possible in that race had he not been held up lapping backmarkers for seven laps, losing him a total of 6 seconds to leader Jacques Villeneuve.[3] At the 1997 Canadian Grand Prix, he broke both legs in a high-speed accident, causing him to miss the next seven races of the season. His place in the team was taken by Jarno Trulli, until he returned for the final three races of the season. He achieved sixth place at Luxembourg and appeared to show that he had fully recovered from his accident, as he drove as well as he had done before the crash. Despite missing half of the year, he still managed 9th in the championship with 16 points.

Panis driving for the Prost Formula One team in Montreal in 1998

1998 would prove to be a difficult season for Panis. He failed to score a single point for the Prost team, primarily due to a poor quality car. However, his full potential was restricted by the pins which remained in his legs, a legacy of the surgery following his crash in 1997. The highlight of the season was a ninth-place finish in Australia, although he also ran strongly at the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix until car failure intervened. An indicator of the team's problems in 1998 was the solitary point scored by Panis' team-mate Jarno Trulli at Spa-Francorchamps.

The following year saw an improvement for the partnership. A stronger car, and unusual circumstances, saw an irregular return to form for the Frenchman. After a troubled race he still claimed 6th in Brazil, a feat he repeated at Hockenheim. He began to qualify much more strongly, with a third place in France, fifth at the Nurburgring, and sixth at Suzuka, where he spent the first stages of the race in third. Despite the signs of a return to form in 1999, strategical errors and misfortune restricted his points tally. Irrespective of the improvements, Panis ended his relationship with the Prost team.

Panis was a consideration to drive for Williams, a team that was in a state of flux at the time, but turned it down to test for McLaren. This helped showcase Panis to other top teams in F1, where he would regularly match the testing times of regular drivers David Coulthard and double World Champion Mika Häkkinen. He was rumoured to replace David Coulthard for the 2000 Spanish Grand Prix after his plane crash, however Coulthard was cleared to race. Due to this he landed a drive with BAR for 2001. BAR wasn't the top team he had hoped, and he finished in 14th place during both of the years he was there, scoring a total of 8 points. His highest finish for BAR was in Brazil with fourth position. He had been fourth at his debut race for the team in Australia but was penalised for a yellow flag infringement which added twenty five seconds to his race time and put him seventh, and enabled Kimi Räikkönen to score a debut point.

Olivier Panis driving for Toyota at the 2004 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, his 150th Grand Prix.

Panis left for Toyota's racing team in 2003. He was signed to drive and provide the second-year team his knowledge, as well as help his new Brazilian teammate, Cristiano da Matta, learn the ropes of F1. Early results were an improvement, in part because he handled the new one-lap qualifying well, but the end result wasn't much different from previous seasons, as he was 15th with 6 points.

Panis remained with Toyota for 2004, his tenth season in Formula One. In early October 2004 he announced his intention to retire from racing following the 2004 Japanese Grand Prix; he planned to continue at Toyota as a test driver in 2005 and 2006. Before his retirement, he was the oldest active driver in F1 at the age of 37. 2004 saw him again score only 6 points, before being replaced for Brazil by his Brazilian teammate test driver Ricardo Zonta.

He was the nominated third driver for Toyota in France in 2005, but this was the last time he participated competitively at a Grand Prix weekend. On 18 September 2006, Panis announced his complete retirement from F1 in order to race in other disciplines.[4] His final outing as a Formula 1 test driver took place at Jerez, Spain on 14 December 2006.

Panis was highly regarded for his racecraft. He was also considered by the likes of Häkkinen, who was particularly upset when Panis left the McLaren testing team to return to full-time driving, to be one of the best test-drivers in the field.

Sports cars

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Panis driving for Oreca at the 2010 1000 km of Spa.

He returned to racing in 2008 with the Oreca Courage team in the Le Mans Series. He has also worked as a consultant for the French A1 Grand Prix team[5] and participated in the Andros Trophy ice race.[6] He had an appearance in an episode of Top Gear, facing the team in an ice race, where he was jokingly referred to in the intro as 'France's second-best racing driver', presumably to Alain Prost.

In 2016 Panis formed his own sports car racing team, Panis Barthez Competition, alongside professional footballer turned racing driver Fabien Barthez. The pair entered cars in the European Le Mans Series and the Blancpain GT Series, overseen by Tech 1 Racing, before Barthez stepped down at the end of 2019.[7][8] Panis Racing subsequently picked up two consecutive podiums in the LMP2 class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2020 and 2021. TDS Racing took over from Tech 1 as operational partner in 2024, a year that also saw the team strike a sponsorship deal with Marc VDS.[9]

Racing record

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Career summary

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Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position
1988 Championnat de France Formule Renault Turbo Ecurie Elf 12 0 1 3 4 87 4th
1989 Championnat de France Formule Renault Ecurie Elf 13 5 4 2 9 127 1st
1990 French Formula Three Elf Gitanes 12 0 0 1 4 70 4th
Macau Grand Prix Montagut Racing 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 12th
1991 French Formula Three La Filière Elf 12 5 6 1 6 103 2nd
1992 International Formula 3000 Apomatox 10 0 0 0 2 10 10th
1993 International Formula 3000 DAMS 9 3 2 2 4 32 1st
1994 Formula One Ligier Gitanes Blondes 16 0 0 0 1 9 11th
1995 Formula One Ligier Gitanes Blondes 17 0 0 0 1 16 8th
1996 Formula One Ligier Gauloises Blondes 14 1 0 0 1 13 9th
1997 Formula One Prost Gauloises Blondes 10 0 0 0 2 16 9th
1998 Formula One Gauloises Prost Peugeot 15 0 0 0 0 0 NC
1999 Formula One Gauloises Prost Peugeot 16 0 0 0 0 2 15th
2000 Formula One West McLaren Mercedes Test driver
2001 Formula One Lucky Strike BAR Honda 17 0 0 0 0 5 14th
2002 Formula One Lucky Strike BAR Honda 17 0 0 0 0 3 14th
2003 Formula One Panasonic Toyota Racing 17 0 0 0 0 6 15th
2004 Formula One Panasonic Toyota Racing 17 0 0 0 0 6 14th
2005 Formula One Panasonic Toyota Racing Test driver
2006 Formula One Panasonic Toyota Racing Test driver
2008 Le Mans Series Team Oreca-Matmut 5 0 0 0 1 6 12th
Porsche Carrera Cup France Porsche France 2 0 0 0 0 0 NC
24 Hours of Le Mans Team Oreca-Matmut 1 0 0 0 0 N/A DNF
2009 FFSA GT Championship DKR Engineering 12 4 0 3 8 243 3rd
Le Mans Series Team Oreca-Matmut AIM 4 1 0 0 1 22 3rd
24 Hours of Le Mans 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 5th
FIA GT Championship Solution F 1 0 0 0 0 2 24th
2010 FFSA GT Championship DKR Engineering 9 0 0 0 1 32 14th
Le Mans Series Team Oreca-Matmut 4 1 0 0 1 39 8th
FIA GT1 World Championship Matech Competition 2 0 0 0 0 0 60th
24 Hours of Le Mans Team Oreca-Matmut 1 0 0 0 0 N/A DNF
2011 FFSA GT Championship Graff Racing 14 0 1 1 1 75 7th
Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Team Oreca-Matmut 3 1 0 0 1 0 NC
American Le Mans Series 1 1 0 0 1 0 NC
24 Hours of Le Mans 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 5th
Blancpain Endurance Series Graff Racing 1 0 0 0 0 9 20th
2012 FFSA GT Championship SOFREV-ASP 14 1 1 2 8 182 2nd
Blancpain Endurance Series 1 0 0 0 1 15 25th
2013 FFSA GT Championship Hexis Racing 14 0 0 0 1 40 15th
Blancpain Endurance Series 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2014 FFSA GT Championship SOFREV-ASP 14 0 0 0 3 125 5th
2015 FFSA GT Championship Team AKKA ASP 14 0 0 0 1 109 6th
2020 FFSA GT Championship CMR 2 1 0 0 2 43 8th
Source:[10]

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DC Points
1992 Apomatox Reynard/92D Ford Cosworth SIL
3 		PAU
Ret 		CAT
7 		PER
Ret 		HOC
20 		NÜR
Ret 		SPA
Ret 		ALB
Ret 		NOG
Ret 		MAG
2 		10th 10
1993 DAMS Reynard/93D Ford Cosworth DON
3 		SIL
6 		PAU
Ret 		PER
Ret 		HOC
1 		NÜR
1 		SPA
1 		MAG
10 		NOG
Ret 		1st 32
Sources:[11][12]

Complete Formula One results

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 WDC Points
1994 Ligier Gitanes Blondes Ligier JS39B Renault RS6 3.5 V10 BRA
11 		PAC
9 		SMR
11 		MON
9 		ESP
7 		CAN
12 		FRA
Ret 		GBR
12 		GER
2 		HUN
6 		BEL
7 		ITA
10 		POR
DSQ 		EUR
9 		JPN
11 		AUS
5 		11th 9
1995 Ligier Gitanes Blondes Ligier JS41 Mugen Honda MF301 3.0 V10 BRA
Ret 		ARG
7 		SMR
9 		ESP
6 		MON
Ret 		CAN
4 		FRA
8 		GBR
4 		GER
Ret 		HUN
6 		BEL
9 		ITA
Ret 		POR
Ret 		EUR
Ret 		PAC
8 		JPN
5 		AUS
2 		8th 16
1996 Ligier Gauloises Blondes Ligier JS43 Mugen Honda MF301HA 3.0 V10 AUS
7 		BRA
6 		ARG
8 		EUR
Ret 		SMR
Ret 		MON
1 		ESP
Ret 		CAN
Ret 		FRA
7 		GBR
Ret 		GER
7 		HUN
5 		BEL
Ret 		ITA
Ret 		POR
10 		JPN
7 		9th 13
1997 Prost Gauloises Blondes Prost JS45 Mugen Honda MF301HA/B 3.0 V10 AUS
5 		BRA
3 		ARG
Ret 		SMR
8 		MON
4 		ESP
2 		CAN
11† 		FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA AUT LUX
6 		JPN
Ret 		EUR
7 		9th 16
1998 Gauloises Prost Peugeot Prost AP01 Peugeot A16 3.0 V10 AUS
9 		BRA
Ret 		ARG
15† 		SMR
11† 		ESP
16† 		MON
Ret 		CAN
Ret 		FRA
11 		GBR
Ret 		AUT
Ret 		GER
15 		HUN
12 		BEL
DNS 		ITA
Ret 		LUX
12 		JPN
11 		NC 0
1999 Gauloises Prost Peugeot Prost AP02 Peugeot A18 3.0 V10 AUS
Ret 		BRA
6 		SMR
Ret 		MON
Ret 		ESP
Ret 		CAN
9 		FRA
8 		GBR
13 		AUT
10 		GER
6 		HUN
10 		BEL
13 		ITA
11† 		EUR
9 		MAL
Ret 		JPN
Ret 		15th 2
2001 Lucky Strike BAR Honda BAR 003 Honda RA001E 3.0 V10 AUS
7 		MAL
Ret 		BRA
4 		SMR
8 		ESP
7 		AUT
5 		MON
Ret 		CAN
Ret 		EUR
Ret 		FRA
9 		GBR
Ret 		GER
7 		HUN
Ret 		BEL
11 		ITA
9 		USA
11 		JPN
13 		14th 5
2002 Lucky Strike BAR Honda BAR 004 Honda RA002E 3.0 V10 AUS
Ret 		MAL
Ret 		BRA
Ret 		SMR
Ret 		ESP
Ret 		AUT
Ret 		MON
Ret 		CAN
8 		EUR
9 		GBR
5 		FRA
Ret 		GER
Ret 		HUN
12 		BEL
12† 		ITA
6 		USA
12 		JPN
Ret 		14th 3
2003 Panasonic Toyota Racing Toyota TF103 Toyota RVX-03 3.0 V10 AUS
Ret 		MAL
Ret 		BRA
Ret 		SMR
9 		ESP
Ret 		AUT
Ret 		MON
13 		CAN
8 		EUR
Ret 		FRA
8 		GBR
11 		GER
5 		HUN
Ret 		ITA
Ret 		USA
Ret 		JPN
10 		15th 6
2004 Panasonic Toyota Racing Toyota TF104 Toyota RVX-04 3.0 V10 AUS
13 		MAL
12 		BHR
9 		SMR
11 		ESP
Ret 		MON
8 		EUR
11 		CAN
DSQ 		USA
5 		FRA
15 		GBR
Ret 		14th 6
Toyota TF104B GER
14 		HUN
11 		BEL
8 		ITA
Ret 		CHN
14 		JPN
14 		BRA
2005 Panasonic Toyota Racing Toyota TF105 Toyota RVX-05 3.0 V10 AUS MAL BHR SMR ESP MON EUR CAN USA FRA
TD 		GBR GER HUN TUR ITA BEL BRA JPN CHN – –
Sources:[11][12][13]

† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete GT1 World Championship results

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Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pos Points Ref
2010 Matech Competition Ford GT1 ABU
QR 		ABU
CR 		SIL
QR 		SIL
CR 		BRN
QR 		BRN
CR 		PRI
QR
18 		PRI
CR
Ret 		SPA
QR 		SPA
CR 		NÜR
QR 		NÜR
CR 		ALG
QR 		ALG
CR 		NAV
QR 		NAV
CR 		INT
QR 		INT
CR 		SAN
QR 		SAN
CR 		60th 0 [12]

24 Hours of Le Mans results

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Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2008 France Team Oreca-Matmut Switzerland Marcel Fässler
France Simon Pagenaud 		Courage-Oreca LC70-Judd LMP1 147 DNF DNF
2009 France Team Oreca-Matmut AIM France Nicolas Lapierre
France Soheil Ayari 		Oreca 01-AIM LMP1 370 5th 5th
2010 France Team Oreca-Matmut France Nicolas Lapierre
France Loïc Duval 		Peugeot 908 HDi FAP LMP1 373 DNF DNF
2011 France Team Oreca-Matmut France Nicolas Lapierre
France Loïc Duval 		Peugeot 908 HDi FAP LMP1 339 5th 5th
Sources:[11][14]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Information légale sur PANIS Olivier Jean Denis Marie Gérant de PROMOTION AUTO CONCEPT". edecideur.com/ (in French). Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  2. ^ "Olivier Panis' son Aurelien graduates to Formula Renault 3.5". autosport.com. 19 December 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  3. ^ Murray Walker, Martin Brundle (Commentators) (1997). ITV F1 - Spanish Grand Prix (Television). Barcelona, Spain: ITV.
  4. ^ Grandprix.com article dated September 18, 2006
  5. ^ "Olivier Panis joins A1 Team France". a1.gpupdate.net. GPUpdate. 26 September 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  6. ^ Gough, Alicia (2008-10-14). "Ice race returns to Alpe D'Huez". OnTheSnow.com. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
  7. ^ "Panis-Barthez Compétition: champions with ambitions!". 24 Hours of Le Mans. Automobile Club de l'Ouest. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  8. ^ Watkins, Gary (12 February 2019). "Panis-Barthez ties up with Lexus for Blancpain effort". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  9. ^ Goodwin, Graham (22 March 2024). "(Almost) All Change At Panis Racing For 2024". Dailysportscar. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
  10. ^ "Olivier Panis". Driver Database. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  11. ^ a b c "Olivier Panis Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  12. ^ a b c "Olivier Panis". Motor Sport. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  13. ^ "Olivier Panis – Involvement". StatsF1. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  14. ^ "Olivier Panis". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Olivier Panis.
Sporting positions
Preceded by Championnat de France Formule Renault Champion
1989 		Succeeded by
Preceded by International Formula 3000 Champion
1993 		Succeeded by
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