Olivier Panis
Panis in June 2009
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|
| Born |
2 September 1966 Oullins, Lyon, France |
|---|---|
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Nationality |
 French |
| Active years | 1994–1999, 2001–2004 |
| Teams | Ligier, Prost, McLaren (Test Driver), BAR, Toyota |
| Entries | 158 (157 starts) |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 1 |
| Podiums | 5 |
| Career points | 76 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First entry | 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix |
| First win | 1996 Monaco Grand Prix |
| Last win | 1996 Monaco Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 2004 Japanese Grand Prix |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |
| Participating years | 2008–2011 |
| Teams | Team Oreca Matmut |
| Best finish | 5th (2009) |
| Class wins | 0 |
Olivier Panis (born 2 September 1966) is a French professional racing driver. Panis drove in Formula One for ten seasons, scoring one win at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix for the Ligier team. As of 2016, he is the last French driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix.
He is the father of racing driver Aurélien Panis.
Born in Oullins, Lyon, Panis, like many Formula 1 racing 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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