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Olivier Jean Denis Marie Panis (; born 2 September 1966) is a French former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to 2004, earning the first and only win of his F1 career at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix.
Panis competed in Formula One for Ligier, Prost, BAR and Toyota, winning the in with the former, amongst five podiums. Panis moved into sportscar racing after Formula One, and is a race-winner in the FFSA GT Championship and the Le Mans Series. He competed in four editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing fifth in and with Oreca.
Panis is the father of racing driver Aurélien Panis.
He earned another surprise second place at the 1995 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 Loews Hairpin and was running in third place before the Williams-Renault of Damon Hill and Benetton Formula-Renault of Jean Alesi both hit terminal technical difficulties. One of only three to finish the race, British drivers 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 Equipe 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 season, and he otherwise failed to do any better than 5th place in Hungary.
Panis had the potential for a big season in 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 second in Argentina before retirement. After 6 races, he stood third in the championship thanks to another podium finish with second place in Spain. A win could have been possible in that race had he not been held up lapping backmarkers for seven laps, losing him a total of 6 seconds to leader Jacques Villeneuve. At the 1997 Canadian Grand Prix, 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 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.
1998 would prove to be a difficult season for Panis. He failed to score a single point for the Prost team, primarily due to a poor quality car. However, his full potential was restricted by the pins which remained in his legs, a legacy of the surgery following his crash in 1997. The highlight of the season was a ninth-place finish in Australia, although he also ran strongly at the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix until car failure intervened. An indicator of the team's problems in 1998 was the solitary point scored by Panis' team-mate Jarno Trulli at Spa-Francorchamps.
The following year saw an improvement for the partnership. A stronger car, and unusual circumstances, saw an irregular return to form for the Frenchman. After a troubled race he still claimed 6th in Brazil, a feat he repeated at Hockenheim. He 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. Despite the signs of a return to form in 1999, strategical errors and misfortune restricted his points tally. Irrespective of the improvements, Panis ended his relationship with the Prost team.
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 Team McLaren. This helped showcase Panis to other top teams in F1, where he would regularly match the testing times of regular drivers David Coulthard and double World Champion Mika Häkkinen. He was rumoured to replace David Coulthard for the 2000 Spanish Grand Prix after his plane crash, however Coulthard was cleared to race. Due to this 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.
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 much different from previous seasons, as he was 15th 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. Grandprix.com article dated September 18, 2006 His final outing as a Formula 1 test driver took place at Jerez, Spain on 14 December 2006.
Panis was highly regarded for his racecraft. He was also considered by the likes of 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 in the field.
In 2016 Panis formed his own sports car racing team, Panis Barthez Competition, alongside professional footballer turned racing driver Fabien Barthez. The pair entered cars in the European Le Mans Series and the Blancpain GT Series, overseen by Tech 1 Racing, before Barthez stepped down at the end of 2019. Panis Racing subsequently picked up two consecutive podiums in the LMP2 class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2020 and 2021. TDS Racing took over from Tech 1 as operational partner in 2024, a year that also saw the team strike a sponsorship deal with Marc VDS.
| Macau Grand Prix | Montagut Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 12th |
| Porsche Carrera Cup France | Porsche France | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans | Team Oreca-Matmut | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | DNF |
| Le Mans Series | Oreca-Matmut AIM | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 3rd |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 5th | |
| FIA GT Championship | Solution F | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 24th |
| Le Mans Series | Oreca-Matmut | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 39 | 8th |
| FIA GT1 World Championship | Matech Concepts | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60th |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans | Team Oreca-Matmut | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | DNF |
| Intercontinental Le Mans Cup | Oreca-Matmut | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | NC |
| American Le Mans Series | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | NC | |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 5th | |
| Blancpain Endurance Series | Graff Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 20th |
| Blancpain Endurance Series | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 25th | |
| Blancpain Endurance Series | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC | |
| 1992 ! nowrap | Apomatox ! nowrap | Reynard/92D ! nowrap | Ford Cosworth | SIL | PAU | CAT | PER | Hockenheimring | NÜR | SPA | ALB | NOG | MAG ! 10th ! 10 | ||
| 1993 ! nowrap | DAMS ! nowrap | Reynard/93D ! nowrap | Cosworth | Donington Park | SIL | PAU | PER | Hockenheimring | NÜR | SPA | MAG | NOG | 1st | 32 | |
| ! nowrap Equipe Ligier Gitanes ! nowrap | Equipe Ligier JS39B ! nowrap | Renault RS6 3.5 V10 | BRA | PAC | SMR | MON | ESP | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | EUR | JPN | AUS | ! 11th ! 9 | |||
| ! nowrap Equipe Ligier Gitanes ! nowrap | Equipe Ligier JS41 ! nowrap | Mugen Honda MF301 3.0 V10 | BRA | ARG | SMR | ESP | MON | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | EUR | PAC | JPN | AUS | ! 8th ! 16 | |
| ! nowrap Equipe Ligier Gauloises ! nowrap | Equipe Ligier JS43 ! nowrap | Mugen Honda MF301HA 3.0 V10 | AUS | BRA | ARG | EUR | SMR | MON | ESP | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | JPN | ! 9th ! 13 | ||
| ! nowrap Prost Gauloises ! nowrap | Prost JS45 ! nowrap | Mugen Honda MF301HA/B 3.0 V10 | AUS | BRA | ARG | SMR | MON | ESP | CAN 11† | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | AUT|style="background:#DFFFDF;" LUX | JPN | EUR | ! 9th ! 16 | ||
| ! nowrap Gauloises Prost Peugeot ! nowrap | Prost AP01 ! nowrap | Peugeot A16 3.0 V10 | AUS | BRA | ARG 15† | SMR 11† | ESP 16† | MON | CAN | FRA | GBR | AUT | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | LUX | JPN | ! NC ! 0 | ||
| ! nowrap Gauloises Prost Peugeot ! nowrap | Prost AP02 ! nowrap | Peugeot A18 3.0 V10 | AUS | BRA | SMR | MON | ESP | CAN | FRA | GBR | AUT | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA 11† | EUR | MAL | JPN | ! 15th ! 2 | ||
| ! nowrap Lucky Strike BAR Honda ! nowrap | BAR 003 ! nowrap | Honda RA001E 3.0 V10 | AUS | MAL | BRA | SMR | ESP | AUT | MON | CAN | EUR | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | USA | JPN | ! 14th ! 5 | |
| ! nowrap Lucky Strike BAR Honda ! nowrap | BAR 004 ! nowrap | Honda RA002E 3.0 V10 | AUS | MAL | BRA | SMR | ESP | AUT | MON | CAN | EUR | GBR | FRA | GER | HUN | BEL 12† | ITA | USA | JPN | ! 14th ! 3 | |
| ! nowrap Panasonic Toyota Racing ! nowrap | Toyota TF103 ! nowrap | Toyota RVX-03 3.0 V10 | AUS | MAL | BRA | SMR | ESP | AUT | MON | CAN | EUR | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | ITA | USA | JPN | ! 15th ! 6 | ||
| !rowspan=2 nowrap Panasonic Toyota Racing ! nowrap | Toyota TF104 !rowspan=2 nowrap | Toyota RVX-04 3.0 V10 | AUS | MAL | BHR | SMR | ESP | MON | EUR | USA | FRA | GBR | !rowspan=2 14th !rowspan=2 | 6 | |||||||
| ! nowrap Panasonic Toyota Racing ! nowrap | Toyota TF105 ! nowrap | Toyota RVX-05 3.0 V10 | AUS | MAL | BHR | SMR | ESP | MON | EUR | CAN | USA | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | TUR | ITA | BEL | BRA | JPN | CHN ! – ! – |
| 2010 ! nowrap | Matech Competition ! nowrap | Ford GT | ABU QR | ABU CR | SIL QR | SIL CR | BRN QR | BRN CR | PRI QR | PRI CR | SPA QR | SPA CR | NÜR QR | NÜR CR | ALG QR | ALG CR | NAV QR | NAV CR | INT QR | INT CR | SAN QR | SAN CR ! 60th ! 0 ! |
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