Olivier
Panis

Olivier Panis was born on 2 September 1966 in Oullins and started out in karting. He spent several years in junior categories, winning a Formula Renault title in 1989 and finishing second in French Formula 3 in 1991. In 1993 he won the Formula 3000 championship.

He moved up to Formula One with Ligier in 1994. He finished eleventh on his debut in Brazil, took second place at Hockenheim and ended the year 11th in the championship. In 1995 he finished second again at the Australian Grand Prix, even though he was two laps behind the leader, Damon Hill. He finished that season eighth overall, which remained his best championship position.

His only win came at Monaco in 1996. He started 14th on a wet track, passed a number of rivals during the race and changed to slick tyres. Only three cars saw the chequered flag, and the race was stopped after 75 of 78 laps because the time limit had been reached. It was Ligier's first win in 15 years and the first victory by a French car at Monaco in 66 years. He ended the season ninth in the standings.

In 1997 Panis drove for Prost. He took Bridgestone's first podium in Brazil, finished second in Spain and sat third in the championship after six races. He then had a serious accident at the Canadian Grand Prix and missed seven races. He came back for the final three events and finished sixth in Luxembourg. Despite the absence, he took ninth in the championship. He stayed with Prost in 1998 and 1999, drove for BAR in 2001 and 2002, and for Toyota in 2003 and 2004. In all he made 157 starts, with one win and five podiums. In October 2004 he announced that he would retire from racing after the Japanese Grand Prix and carry on as a Toyota test driver in 2005 and 2006. In September 2006 he declared his full retirement from Formula One.

In sports car racing he drove for Oreca in the Le Mans Series from 2008 and finished fifth at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009 and 2011. In 2016 he founded his own team with Fabien Barthez, which took LMP2 podiums at Le Mans in 2020 and 2021 and won the European Le Mans Series LMP2 title in 2025. His son Aurélien Panis is also a racing driver.

Source: Wikipedia, “Olivier Panis”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.