Olivier Panis

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Olivier Panis

Nationality French

Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1994–1999, 2001–2004
Teams	Ligier, Prost, McLaren (as Test Driver in 2000), BAR, Toyota
Races	158 (157 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	1
Podium finishes	5
Career points	76
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1994 Brazilian Grand Prix
First win	1996 Monaco Grand Prix
Last win	1996 Monaco Grand Prix
Last race	2004 Japanese Grand Prix

Olivier Panis, born in Oullins, Lyon, 2 September 1966, is a French racing driver.

Panis, like most drivers, raced karts early in his career. After graduating from karts, Olivier raced several years in a number of "junior" series before racing in French Formula 3. He won a championship in that series in 1991. He eventually found himself in Formula 3000, and he won the series' championship there in 1993.

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 Eric 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.

The following year in 1995, he earned another surprise second place at the 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.

Undoubtedly, though, his biggest surprise came in 1996 in Monaco. Starting a lowly 14th on a wet track, Panis bravely and confidently 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 a deserved third place before the Williams-Renault of Damon Hill and Benetton-Renault of Jean Alesi both hit terminal technical difficulties. One of only 4 cars to finish the race, (David Coulthard, Johnny Herbert, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen being the other three) 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 rule. Panis' victory was his 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 a very competitive second in Argentina before retirement. After 6 races, he stood third in the championship thanks to another podium finish with second place in Spain. It all fell apart however in Canada, when 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 the 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.

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

In 1998, though, it all fell apart for Olivier. After managing to be in the top 10 in points, Olivier failed to score a single point for Prost, partially due to an unreliable car. The highlight was a ninth place finish in Australia. The following year, he could only score two points with sixth places in both Brazil and Germany. After this season he ended his relationship with the Prost team.

Despite his struggles, 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, and 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 any different from previous seasons, as he was 14th again 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.^[1] His final outing as a Formula 1 test driver took place at Jerez, Spain on 14 December 2006.

He was remembered as a very big talent that shone in very poor equipment, with his win at Monaco and series of podiums places a testament to this. He was also considered by the likes of Mika 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 on the field.

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Team	WDC	Points
1994	Ligier	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				Ligier	11th	9
1995	Ligier	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			Ligier	8th	16
1996	Ligier	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				Ligier	9th	13
1997	Prost	AUS 5	BRA 3	ARG Ret	SMR 8	MON 4	ESP 2	CAN 11	FRA Inj	GBR Inj	GER Inj	HUN Inj	BEL Inj	ITA Inj	AUT Inj	LUX 6	JPN Ret	EUR 7			Prost	9th	16
1998	Prost	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				Prost	22nd	0
1999	Prost	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				Prost	15th	2
2001	BAR	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			BAR	14th	5
2002	BAR	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			BAR	14th	3
2003	Toyota	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				Toyota	15th	6
2004	Toyota	AUS 13	MAL 12	BHR 9	SMR 11	ESP Ret	MON 8	EUR 11	CAN DSQ	USA 5	FRA 15	GBR Ret	GER 14	HUN 11	BEL 8	ITA Ret	CHN 14	JPN 14	BRA		Toyota	14th	6
2005	Toyota	AUS	MAL	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA TD	GBR	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	BRA	JPN	CHN	Toyota	-	-