DAMS

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France DAMS
DAMS Motorsport logo.png
Founded 1988
Base Ruaudin, France
Team principal(s) Francois Sicard
Founder(s) Jean-Paul Driot
René Arnoux
Current series GP2 Series
Formula Renault 3.5 Series
Formula E
Former series Formula 3000
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup
ALMS
FIA GT Championship
FIA Sportscar Championship
A1 Grand Prix
Formula BMW Europe
GP2 Asia Series
Auto GP
Formula Le Mans
Porsche Supercup
Current drivers Canada Nicholas Latifi
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
France Nicolas Prost
Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Website http://www.dams.fr/en/
Teams'
Championships		 International Formula 3000:
1989, 1990, 1993, 1994
A1 Grand Prix:
2005–06 (as A1 Team France)
GP2 Asia Series:
2008–09, 2011
Formula Le Mans Cup:
2009
Auto GP:
2010, 2011
GP2 Series:
2011, 2012, 2014
Formula Renault 3.5 Series:
2013, 2014
Formula E:
2014–15
Drivers'
Championships		 International Formula 3000:
1990: Érik Comas
1993: Olivier Panis
1994: Jean-Christophe Boullion
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup:
2003: José María López
GP2 Asia Series:
2008–09: Kamui Kobayashi
2011: Romain Grosjean
Auto GP:
2010: Romain Grosjean
GP2 Series:
2011: Romain Grosjean
2012: Davide Valsecchi
2014: Jolyon Palmer
Formula Renault 3.5 Series:
2013: Kevin Magnussen
2014: Carlos Sainz, Jr.

DAMS (formerly Driot-Arnoux Motorsport, currently Driot Associés Motor Sport) is an auto racing team from France, involved in many areas of motorsport. DAMS was founded in 1988 by Jean-Paul Driot and former Formula One driver René Arnoux.[1] It is headquartered near Le Mans, only 2 km from the Bugatti Circuit.

Notable DAMS drivers include Érik Comas, Allan McNish, Olivier Panis, Jean-Christophe Boullion, Sébastien Bourdais, Kazuki Nakajima, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.

History

The year after its foundation, DAMS joined the International Formula 3000 Championship. They stayed in F3000 until 2001. DAMS were one of many French teams that were part of the Elf young driver sponsorship program.

Aside from F3000, DAMS planned to join the F1 World Championship in 1996, with a car (the GD-01) developed by Reynard, but lack of funds prevented the team from advancing.[1]

DAMS enter in sports car racing since 1997 until 2002 where it helped the Michel Vaillant movie, preparing and racing cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

GP2 Series and Formula 3000

Right from its inception, the French team entered the FIA International Formula 3000 Championship, which they won in 1990 with Érik Comas, 1992 with Olivier Panis and 1994 with Jean-Christophe Boullion.

In 13 years, 1989 to 2001, DAMS won 4 team titles, 3 drivers titles, 21 wins, 19 pole positions and 19 fastest laps, making DAMS one of the most successful Formula 3000 teams with Super Nova Racing and Arden International.

The team competed in the GP2 Series since its beginning in 2005,[2] winning races with drivers José María López and Nicolas Lapierre.

Jérôme d'Ambrosio driving for DAMS at the Turkish round of the 2009 GP2 Series season.

DAMS was associated with the Toyota Drivers Program (TDP) from 2006 to 2009, and ran their drivers in the GP2 Series. In 2006, it was Franck Perera and then Kazuki Nakajima in 2007, who finished 5th in the GP2 championship and raced in the last Formula One Grand Prix of the season with Williams. Following this he won a full-time race seat with the team for 2008 and was retained for the 2009 season. In 2008, TDP driver Kamui Kobayashi replaced Nakajima at DAMS GP2 and became the Toyota Racing test driver.[3] Kobayashi stayed on in 2009, and was partnered by Jérôme d'Ambrosio for these two years. Neither driver was able to put together a consistent run of form in the main GP2 Series championships, but Kobayashi did win the 2008–09 Asian championship with the team.

Romain Grosjean won the championship with the team in 2011.

D'Ambrosio remained with the team for 2010, and was paired with Ho-Pin Tung, who replaced the Sauber-bound Kobayashi. As part of an agreement with the Renault Formula One team, both were nominated as Renault F1 test drivers, and the DAMS GP2 cars were liveried in an identical yellow-and-black scheme to the Renault R30 chassis.[4] D'Ambrosio won the sprint race at Monaco, but his form thereafter was disappointing and he was rested for one of the rounds in favour of Romain Grosjean, another driver with Renault F1 links. Grosjean later got the opportunity to move into the team full-time when Tung, yet to score a point after 12 races, sustained a broken vertebrae in a racing accident. D'Ambrosio, Grosjean and Tung finished 12th, 14th and 28th respectively in the drivers' championship, whilst DAMS finished sixth position in the teams' championship. Grosjean remained with the team for 2011, with Norwegian rookie Pål Varhaug replacing D'Ambrosio, who graduated to F1 with the Virgin Racing team. DAMS retained its links with Renault, although these were somewhat diluted by the F1 team's new sponsorship deal with Lotus Cars, which also backed the rival ART team in GP2. Grosjean dominated the year, winning both the Asian and main series championships. DAMS also won the Asian teams' title, but Varhaug's failure to score points in the main series saw the team beaten to the championship by Addax.

For the 2012 season, Grosjean moved to the Lotus (formerly Renault) Formula One team, and Varhaug switched to the Auto GP World Series; they were replaced by series veteran Davide Valsecchi and reigning British F3 champion Felipe Nasr. Valsecchi began the season strongly, winning an unprecedented three races in a row in Bahrain, and later prevailed over closest rival Luiz Razia to win the championship, whilst Nasr finished on the podium four times to finish tenth in the championship, the second-highest rookie behind James Calado. Between them, Valsecchi and Nasr scored enough points to win DAMS's first GP2 Teams' Championship, six points ahead of ART, competing under the Lotus GP banner.

The team wrapped up both the 2014 Drivers' and Teams' Championships, with Jolyon Palmer winning the former. DAMS went into the 2015 season with Red Bull Junior Team driver Pierre Gasly and 2014 GP3 champion Alex Lynn as their driver lineup. The team struggled in the Bahrain feature race with Gasly being involved in a fourth lap collision with Arthur Pic, Raffaele Marciello and Norman Nato and Lynn falling down the order after driving into the back of Alexander Rossi and damaging his front wing. Both drivers finished outside the points in the following day's sprint race. The team had an improved weekend in Barcelona, with Lynn taking his first GP2 victory in the sprint race and Gasly joining him on the podium in third.

A1 Grand Prix, Formula Renault and Formula E

In the 2003 and 2004 seasons, DAMS took part in the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, which they won that same year with Argentinian José María López. In 2005 the team entered the World Series by Renault.[5] Since 2005, DAMS joined the GP2 Series but also the A1 Grand Prix where it serviced three teams.

Driot is one of the owners of the A1 Team France.[6][7] DAMS also managed A1 Team Switzerland,[8] A1 Team Mexico[9] and later A1 Team South Africa[10] in the A1 Grand Prix championships. With A1 Team France, DAMS was the first winner of the series winning 13 of the 22 races including in the 2005–06 season.

For the 2007–08 season, A1 Team France and South Africa collaborated closely to finalize the car like it was previously done with A1 Team Switzerland.[11]

The team joined the new Formula E championship in 2014 under the name e.dams, with collaboration from Alain Prost.[12]

Sports car racing

A Panoz Esperante GTR-1 campaigned by DAMS in the 1997 FIA GT Championship season

Starting from 1997, Driot's team diversified into sports car racing, entering the FIA GT Championship in partnership with Panoz. Splitting up in the following year, DAMS ran a Lola B98/10 with a Judd engine in the SportsRacing World Cup, winning four races, as well as participating in the American Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In 2000 and 2001, DAMS associated themselves with General Motors, preparing the works Cadillac Northstar LMP prototypes for the American Le Mans Series, FIA Sportscar Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but failed to get any competitive results.

DAMS (running the Bob Berridge Racing Lola) helped the Michel Vaillant movie crew in the 2002, 24 Hours of Le Mans entering with a Lola B98/10-Judd as Vaillante and a Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S-Élan as Leader.[13]

They then switched their effort to an FIA GT return. In 2003, they tried entering two Nissan 350Z, but once again funds prevented the French team from developing the Japanese car. In 2004, they teamed with Lamborghini and entered two Murciélago R-GT cars in the final rounds of the FIA GT Championship.

Results

GP2 Series

Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Pod Points D.C. T.C.
2005 Dallara-Mecachrome Argentina José María López 23 1 0 0 3 36 9th 7th
Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 23 0 0 0 0 0 24th
2006 Dallara-Mecachrome France Franck Perera 21 0 0 0 1 8 17th 12th
Italy Ferdinando Monfardini 21 0 0 0 0 6 21st
2007 Dallara-Mecachrome Japan Kazuki Nakajima 21 0 1 3 5 44 5th 5th
France Nicolas Lapierre 21 2 1 2 2 23 12th
2008 Dallara-Mecachrome Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio 20 0 0 0 2 21 11th 8th
Japan Kamui Kobayashi 20 1 0 2 1 10 16th
2009 Dallara-Mecachrome Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio 20 0 0 0 3 29 9th 6th
Japan Kamui Kobayashi 20 0 0 0 1 13 16th
2010 Dallara-Mecachrome Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio 18 1 1 0 2 21 12th 6th
France Romain Grosjean 8 0 0 0 2 14 14th
China Ho-Pin Tung† 14 0 0 0 0 0 28th
2011 Dallara-Mecachrome France Romain Grosjean 18 5 1 6 10 89 1st 2nd
Norway Pål Varhaug 18 0 0 0 0 0 23rd
2012 Dallara-Mecachrome Italy Davide Valsecchi 24 4 2 5 10 247 1st 1st
Brazil Felipe Nasr 24 0 0 0 4 95 10th
2013 Dallara-Mecachrome Sweden Marcus Ericsson 22 1 2 4 5 121 6th 4th
Monaco Stéphane Richelmi 22 0 1 0 1 103 8th
2014 Dallara-Mecachrome United Kingdom Jolyon Palmer 22 4 3 6 12 276 1st 1st
Monaco Stéphane Richelmi 22 1 1 0 2 73 9th
2015 Dallara-Mecachrome France Pierre Gasly 21 0 3 1 4 110 8th 4th
United Kingdom Alex Lynn 21 2 2 1 4 110 6th

† Tung also competed in 2 races for Racing Engineering in 2010.
* Season still in progress.

Formula 3000

  • D.C. = Drivers' Championship position, T.C. = Teams' Championship position.

A1 Grand Prix and Formula Renault

World Series by Renault results[16]
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F/laps Podiums Points D.C. T.C.
2005 Dallara-Renault Sweden Alx Danielsson 7 0 0 0 1 32 15th 11th
Venezuela Pastor Maldonado 5 0 0 0 0 4 25th
Italy Ferdinando Monfardini 1 0 0 0 0 1 28th
United Kingdom Alex Lloyd 1 0 0 0 0 0 40th
France Nicolas Prost 1 0 0 0 0 0 41st
Italy Raffaele Giammaria 3 0 0 0 0 0 43rd
2012 Dallara-Zytek France Arthur Pic 17 1 2 2 2 102 8th 9th
Brazil Lucas Foresti 17 0 0 0 0 8 23rd
2013 Dallara-Zytek Denmark Kevin Magnussen 17 5 8 4 13 274 1st 1st
France Norman Nato 17 0 1 0 0 33 13th
2014 Dallara-Zytek Spain Carlos Sainz, Jr. 17 7 7 6 7 227 1st 1st
France Norman Nato 17 2 1 1 2 89 7th
2015 Dallara-Zytek Netherlands Nyck de Vries 17 1 1 1 6 160 3rd 2nd
United Kingdom Dean Stoneman 17 0 0 0 4 130 6th
  • † Davide di Benedetto drive only the last round for DAMS. He drive also for Guidare Formula this season and is final 9th place take both team results.
  • D.C. = Drivers' Championship position, T.C. = Teams' Championship position.

Sports car racing

  • T.C. = Teams' Championship position.

Formula E

Year Chassis Tyres No. Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Points T.C.
2014–15 Spark-Renault SRT 01E M BEI PUT PDE BNA MIA LBH MON BER MSC LON 232 1st
8 France Nicolas Prost 12† 4 7 2 1 14 6 10 8 7 10
9 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi Ret 3 1 Ret 13 4 1 2* 9* 1 5*
2015–16 Spark-Renault Z.E.15 M BEI PUT PDE BNA MEX LBH PAR BER MSC LON 73* 1st*
8 France Nicolas Prost Ret 10 5
9 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi 1 Ret 1

* Season still in progress.

Timeline

Current series
GP2 Series 2005–2016
Formula E 2014–2016
GP3 Series 2016
Former series
Formula Renault 3.5 Series 2005, 2012–2015
International Formula 3000 1989–2001
FIA GT Championship 1997–1998
24 Hours of Le Mans 1997–2002
American Le Mans Series 1999–2000
FIA Sportscar Championship 1999–2000
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup 2003–2004
A1 Grand Prix 2005–2009
Formula BMW Europe 2008–2010
GP2 Asia Series 2008–2011
Formula Le Mans 2009–2010
Auto GP 2010–2011
Porsche Supercup 2013

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Team history dams.fr
  2. ↑ DAMS presentation at gp2series.com gp2series.com
  3. ↑ DAMS signs Kobayashi for 2008 season automobilsport.com (23 November 2007)
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Renault World Series claims 30 cars grandprix.com
  6. ↑ Driot, directeur principal france.a1gp.com
  7. ↑ A1 Team France informations a1podium.com
  8. ↑ A1 Team Switzerland information a1podium.com
  9. ↑ A1 Team Mexico information a1podium.com
  10. ↑ A1 Team Switzerland information a1podium.com
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Alain Prost joins with DAMS to field Formula E squad - Racer, 24 October 2013
  13. ↑ Preliminary practice Lola Cars notes motorsport.com, 2002-05-07
  14. ↑ GP2 and Formula 3000 entry list and complete results speedsportmag.com
  15. ↑ A1GP complete resultsresults.a1gp.com
  16. ↑ WSbR complete results speedsportmag.com
  17. ↑ FRV6 Eurocup complete results speedsportmag.com
  18. ↑ 24h of Le Mans complete results wsrp.ic.cz
  19. ↑ ALMS complete results wsrp.ic.cz
  20. ↑ FIA Sportscar complete results wsrp.ic.cz
  21. ↑ FIA GT complete results wsrp.ic.cz

External links

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