1. Olivier Panis competed in Formula One for Ligier, Prost, BAR and Toyota, winning the Monaco Grand Prix in 1996 with the former, amongst five podiums.
31 Facts About Olivier Panis
1. 2.
Olivier Panis moved into sportscar racing after Formula One, and is a race-winner in the FFSA GT Championship and the Le Mans Series.
3.
Olivier Panis competed in four editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing fifth in 2009 and 2011 with Oreca.
4.
Olivier Jean Denis Marie Panis was born on 2 September 1966 in Oullins, Lyon.
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Olivier Panis won a championship in Formula Renault in 1989 and finished second in French Formula 3 in 1991.
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Olivier Panis eventually found himself in Formula 3000, and he won the series' championship there in 1993.
7.
The 27-year-old Olivier Panis earned an F1 drive in 1994 for the French-based Ligier team.
8.
Olivier Panis earned a surprise second place that season at Hockenheim ahead of teammate Eric Bernard, and finished 11th in the standings for the marque.
9.
Olivier Panis was however disqualified in Portugal for illegal skid block wear.
10.
Olivier Panis earned another surprise second place at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, in spite of being two laps behind the leader Damon Hill, and he added a handful of fourths to his resume, giving him an 8th-place finish in the championship.
11.
Olivier Panis took a shock win in the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix.
12.
Olivier Panis overtook Eddie Irvine at the Loews 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.
13.
One of only three to finish the race, British drivers David Coulthard and Johnny Herbert being the other two, Olivier Panis held off a late charge from Coulthard to win.
14.
Olivier Panis' victory was the Ligier team's first victory in 15 years, and it was the first French victory in a French car at Monaco in 66 years.
15.
Olivier Panis had the potential for a big season in 1997 while driving for Alain Prost, who had purchased Ligier.
16.
Olivier Panis 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.
17.
Olivier Panis failed to score a single point for the Prost team, primarily due to a poor quality car.
18.
Olivier Panis 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.
19.
Irrespective of the improvements, Olivier Panis ended his relationship with the Prost team.
20.
Olivier 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.
21.
Olivier Panis was rumoured to replace David Coulthard for the 2000 Spanish Grand Prix after his plane crash, however Coulthard was cleared to race.
22.
Olivier Panis 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 Raikkonen to score a debut point.
23.
Olivier Panis 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.
24.
Olivier Panis remained with Toyota for 2004, his tenth season in Formula One.
25.
Olivier Panis 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.
26.
On 18 September 2006, Olivier Panis announced his complete retirement from F1 in order to race in other disciplines.
27.
Olivier Panis was considered by the likes of Hakkinen, 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.
28.
Olivier Panis returned to racing in 2008 with the Oreca Courage team in the Le Mans Series.
29.
Olivier Panis has worked as a consultant for the French A1 Grand Prix team and participated in the Andros Trophy ice race.
30.
In 2016 Olivier Panis formed his own sports car racing team, Olivier Panis Barthez Competition, alongside professional footballer turned racing driver Fabien Barthez.
31.
Olivier Panis Racing subsequently picked up two consecutive podiums in the LMP2 class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2020 and 2021.