Olivier Panis

Birthdate: September 2nd 1966   Country: France   Gender: M

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History: 1980 -  1987 Karting 1987 -  Winner of Elf Driving Scholarship award at Paul Ricard 1988 -  French Formula Renault Championship, 4th (5 podiums) 1989 -  French Formula Renault Championship, Champion (5 wins) 1990 -  French Formula Three Championship, 4th (4 podiums) 1991 -  French Formula Three Championship, 2nd (5 wins) 1992 -  International F3000 Championship, 10th (2 podiums) 1993 -  International F3000 Championship, Champion (3 wins) 1994 -  Ligier: 1 podium finish; nine points, 11th in drivers' championship. - Second in German Grand Prix 1995 -  Ligier: 1 podium; 16pts, eighth in drivers' championship. - Second in Australian Grand Prix 1996 -  Ligier: 13pts, ninth in drivers' championship. - First Grand Prix win in Monaco 1997 -  Prost: 2 podiums; 16pts, 10th in drivers' championship. Second in Spain and third in Brazil. Missed part of season owing to injury. 1998 -  Prost: 0 points 1999 -  Prost: 2 points; 2000 -  Joins West McLaren Mercedes as third driver 2001 -  Joins BAR 2003 -  Formula 1: Panasonic Toyota Racing 2004 -  Formula 1: Panasonic Toyota Racing, 6 points

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Olivier Panis made his Formula 1 debut in 1994, after a championship winning year in F3000 the previous season.

The Frenchman made his debut for a French team, Ligier, and was an instant hit. He scored a podium in his debut year, and then another one the season after.

He stayed with Ligier again in 1996, and actually won. He kept the car on the road in brilliant circumstances to win at a monsoonal Monaco Grand Prix, taking his first and only Grand Prix victory. Despite this Ligier were struggling for cash, and were bought out by Alain Prost for 1997.

Prost chose to retain Panis for 1997, and it was a good move. Panis was on the podium twice in the early part of the season, second in Spain and third in Brazil, before he crashed heavily in Montreal. He broke his leg and missed most of the rest of the season. At the time he had been running third in the championship, but his hopes of any success in 1997 were all but over.

Sadly the 1998 car wasn't as good. Panis failed to score a single point, while team-mate Jarno Trulli could only manage one in Spa. Panis scored two points in 1999, but his relationship with Prost was at an end.

Olivier had a year testing for McLaren in 2000, but these performances were enough to attract attention from BAR. He became their second driver for the 2001 and 2002 seasons. Sadly he was outperformed by team-mate Jacques Villeneuve, who was even getting on the podium.

Panis spent the final two years of his racing career at Toyota, where he scored the odd point but nothing more. His final race was at Suzuka in 2004, before being replaced by Ricardo Zonta for the season finale. He has continued his relationship with Toyota and is giving valuable experience developing the car over the course of the 2005 season.

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Statistics

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Statistic	#	Percentage	First	Last
Number of Grand Prix	158	100%	1994	2004
Number of starts	158	100.00%	1994	2004
Number of finishes	97	61.39%	1994	2004
Number of finishes on podium	5	3.16%	1994	1997
Number of finishes in points	29	18.35%	1994	2004
Number of retirements	61	38.61%	1994	2004
Number of wins	1	0.63%	1996	1996

Seasons:	11 (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005)
Leading:	1 times during 16 laps in 1 Grand Prix with a total of 53.248 Km
Points:	76 (Average per start: 0.48)
	Points per season - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 9 16 13 16 0 2 5 3 6 6 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2001 2002 2003 2004
Team:	Ligier Gitanes Blondes (1994), Ligier Gitanes Blondes (1995), Equipe Ligier Gauloises Blondes (1996), Equipe Prost Gauloises Blondes (1997), Equipe Prost Gauloises Blondes (1998), Equipe Prost Gauloises Blondes (1999), Lucky Strike Reynard British American Racing BAR Honda (2001), Lucky Strike BAR Honda (2002), Panasonic Toyota Racing (2003), Panasonic Toyota Racing (2004), Panasonic Toyota Racing (2005)
Chassis:	Ligier JS39B (1994), Ligier JS41 (1995), Ligier JS43 (1996), Prost JS45 (1997), Prost AP01 (1998), Prost AP02 (1999), BAR 003 (2001), BAR 004 (2002), Toyota TF103 (2003), Toyota TF104 (2004), Toyota TF104B (2004), Toyota TF105 (2005)
Engine:	Renault 3.5 V10 (1994), Mugen-Honda 3.0 V10 (1995), Mugen-Honda 3.0 V10 (1996), Mugen-Honda 3.0 V10 (1997), Peugeot 3.0 V10 (1998), Peugeot 3.0 V10 (1999), Honda RA001E (2001), Honda RA002E (BAR) (2002), Toyota RVX-03 (2003), Toyota RVX-04 (2004), Toyota RVX-05 (2005)