DAMS

DAMS

Founded	1988
Founder(s)	Jean-Paul Driot René Arnoux
Base	Ruaudin, France
Team principal(s)	Francois Sicard
Current series	FIA Formula 2 Championship Formula E
Former series	GP2 Series GP3 Series Formula Renault 3.5 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	Sébastien Buemi[1] Nicolas Prost[1] Alexander Albon[2] Nicholas Latifi[2]
Teams' Championships	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, 2015–16, 2016–17
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. Formula E: 2015-16: Sebastien Buemi
Website	http://www.dams.fr/en/

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.^[3] 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, Kevin Magnussen, Jolyon Palmer and Pierre Gasly.

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.^[3]

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.

Formula 3000/GP2 Series/FIA Formula 2 Championship

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,^[4] 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.

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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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 vertebra 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

The e.dams Formula E car on show at Battersea Park Street Circuit, June 2015

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.^[7] 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.^[8][9] DAMS also managed A1 Team Switzerland,^[10] A1 Team Mexico^[11] and later A1 Team South Africa^[12] 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.^[13]

The team joined the new Formula E championship in 2014 under the name e.dams, with collaboration from Alain Prost.^[14] Sébastien Buemi was runner-up in the inaugural season and champion in 2015-16, having claimed 8 wins and 13 podiums in 23 races. Nicolas Prost finished sixth and third respectively, claiming three wins.

In 2018, the team fielded Nicholas Latifi and Alexander Albon in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.^[2]

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.^[15]

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.

Current series results

Formula E

Year	Chassis	Tyres	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Points	T.C.
2014–15	Spark-Renault SRT 01E	M			BEI	PUT	PDE	BUE	MIA	LBH	MON	BER	MSC	LON			232	1st
			8	Nicolas Prost	12†	4	7	2	1	14	6	10	8	7	10
			9	Sébastien Buemi	Ret	3	1	Ret	13	4	1	2	9	1	5
2015–16	Spark-Renault Z.E.15	M			BEI	PUT	PDE	BUE	MEX	LBH	PAR	BER	LON				270	1st
			8	Nicolas Prost	Ret	10	5	5	3	11	4	4	1	1
			9	Sébastien Buemi	1	12	1	2	2	16	3	1	5	Ret
2016–17	Spark-Renault Z.E.16	M			HKG	MAR	BUE	MEX	MON	PAR	BER		NYC		MTL		268	1st
			8	Nicolas Prost	4	4	4	5	9	5	5	8	8	6	6	Ret
			9	Sébastien Buemi	1	1	1	13	1	1	DSQ	1			DSQ	11
				Pierre Gasly									7	4
2017–18	Spark-Renault Z.E. 17	M			HKG		MAR	SAN	MEX	PDE	ROM	PAR	BER	ZÜR	NYC		133	5th
			8	Nicolas Prost	9	8	13	10	Ret	15	14	16	14	Ret	10	11
			9	Sébastien Buemi	11	10	2	3	3	Ret	6	5	4	5	3	4

* Season still in progress.

FIA Formula 2 Championship

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	FLaps	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2017	Dallara-Mecachrome	Oliver Rowland	22	2	1	1	191	3rd	3rd
		Nicholas Latifi	22	1	0	2	178	5th

Former series results

Formula 3000

International Formula 3000 Championship Results[16]
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	D.C.	T.C.
1989	Lola-Mugen	Érik Comas	9	2	2	3	39	2nd	1st
		Éric Bernard	10	1	3	3	25	3rd
1990	Lola-Mugen	Érik Comas	11	4	3	2	51	1st	1st
		Allan McNish	11	2	1	1	26	4th
1991	Lola-Mugen	Laurent Aïello	9	0	1	0	4	15th	8th
		Allan McNish	8	0	0	0	2	16th
1992	Lola-Cosworth	Jean-Marc Gounon	10	1	0	0	19	6th	5th
		Frédéric Gosparini	7	0	0	0	0	NC
		Jérôme Policand	9	0	0	0	0	NC
		Éric Hélary	1	0	0	0	0	NC
1993	Reynard-Cosworth	Olivier Panis	9	3	2	2	32	1st	1st
		Franck Lagorce	8	2	1	1	21	4th
1994	Reynard-Cosworth	Jean-Christophe Boullion	8	3	0	1	36	1st	1st
		Guillaume Gomez	8	0	1	0	12	7th
1995	Reynard-Cosworth	Tarso Marques	7	1	2	2	15	5th	4th
		Guillaume Gomez	7	0	1	2	8	8th
1996	Lola-Zytek Judd	Laurent Rédon	9	0	0	0	7	8th	8th
		Jean-Philippe Belloc	10	0	0	0	0	NC
1997	Lola-Zytek Judd	Jamie Davies	9	1	1	1	22	4th	5th
		Grégoire de Galzain	6	0	0	0	0	NC
1998	Lola-Zytek Judd	Jamie Davies	12	0	0	0	8	10th	9th
		Grégoire de Galzain	9	0	0	0	0	NC
1999	Lola-Zytek	Franck Montagny	10	0	0	0	6	10th	10th
		David Terrien	6	0	0	0	0	NC
2000	Lola-Zytek	Franck Montagny	10	0	0	0	5	15th	11th
		Kristian Kolby	6	0	0	0	2	23rd
2001	Lola-Zytek	Sébastien Bourdais	12	1	1	1	26	4th	4th
		Derek Hill	12	0	0	0	0	NC

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

FIA GT Championship

FIA GT Championship results[17]
Year	Class	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	T.C.
1997	GT1	Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8	Franck Lagorce Éric Bernard	9	0	0	0	0	NC
1998	GT1	Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8	Éric Bernard David Brabham Johnny O'Connell Christophe Tinseau Franck Lagorce	10	0	0	0	17	5th

• T.C. = Teams' Championship position.

24 Hours of Le Mans

24 Hours of Le Mans results[18]
Year	Class	No	Tyres	Car	Drivers	Pole	Fast lap	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1997	GT1	52	M	Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8	Franck Lagorce Éric Bernard Jean-Christophe Boullion	no	no	149 (DNF)	28th	13th
1998	GT1	44	M	Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8 with Panoz Motorsports Inc.	Éric Bernard Christophe Tinseau Johnny O'Connell	no	no	236 (DNF)	26th	11th
1999	LMP	25	P	Lola B98/10 Judd GV4 4.0L V10	Christophe Tinseau Franck Montagny David Terrien	no	no	77 (DNF)	37th	15th
2000	LMP900	3	P	Cadillac Northstar LMP Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8	Éric Bernard Emmanuel Collard Franck Montagny	no	no	300	19th	9th
	LMP900	4	P	Cadillac Northstar LMP Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8	Marc Goossens Christophe Tinseau Kristian Kolby	no	no	4 (DNF)	47th	19th
2001	LMP900	6	M	Cadillac Northstar LMP Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8	Wayne Taylor Max Angelelli Christophe Tinseau	no	no	270	15th	5th
	LMP900	5	M	Cadillac Northstar LMP Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8	Éric Bernard Emmanuel Collard Marc Goossens	no	no	56 (DNF)	38th	15th
2002	LMP900	10	M	Lola B98/10 Judd GV4 4.0L V10 (Vaillante Camera Car) with Bob Berridge Racing	Philippe Gache Emanuele Clerico Michel Neugarten	no	no	150 (NC)	27th	12th
	LMP900	22	M	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S Élan 6L8 6.0L V8 (Leader Camera Car)	Jérôme Policand Marc Duez Perry McCarthy	no	no	98 (DNF)	42nd	18th

American Le Mans Series

American Le Mans Series results[19]
Year	Class	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	T.C.
1999	LMP	Lola B98/10-Judd	Jean-Marc Gounon Christophe Tinseau Franck Montagny	4	0	0	0	26	14th
2000	LMP	Cadillac Northstar LMP-Cadillac Northstar	Emmanuel Collard Éric Bernard	1	0	0	0	87	7th
	LMP	Cadillac Northstar LMP-Cadillac Northstar	Christophe Tinseau Marc Goossens	1	0	0	0

FIA Sportscar Championship

FIA Sportscar Championship results[20]
Year	Class	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	T.C.
1999	SR	Lola B98/10-Judd GV4 4.0L V10	Jean-Marc Gounon Éric Bernard Christophe Tinseau	10	3	5	3	80	3rd
2000	SR	Cadillac Northstar LMP-Cadillac Northstar	Emmanuel Collard Éric Bernard	3	0	0	0	14	8th
	SR	Cadillac Northstar LMP-Cadillac Northstar	Christophe Tinseau Marc Goossens	3	0	0	0

Formula Renault V6 Eurocup

Formula Renault V6 Eurocup results[21]
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2003	Tatuus-Renault V4Y RS	José María López	18	5	8	7	505	1st	2nd
		Davide di Benedetto	1	0	0	0	14	9th†
		Christian Murchison	7	0	0	0	69	10th
		Mike den Tandt	3	0	0	0	62	11th
		Adam Khan	6	0	0	0	4	22nd
2004	Tatuus-Renault V4Y RS	Neel Jani	19	4	8		239	4th	3rd
		Bruce Lorgère-Roux	15	0	0		72	14th
		José María López	4	0	1		2	27th

• † 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.

GP2 Series

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Pod	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2005	Dallara-Mecachrome	José María López	23	1	0	0	3	36	9th	7th
		Fairuz Fauzy	23	0	0	0	0	0	24th
2006	Dallara-Mecachrome	Franck Perera	21	0	0	0	1	8	17th	12th
		Ferdinando Monfardini	21	0	0	0	0	6	21st
2007	Dallara-Mecachrome	Kazuki Nakajima	21	0	1	3	5	44	5th	5th
		Nicolas Lapierre	21	2	1	2	2	23	12th
2008	Dallara-Mecachrome	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	20	0	0	0	2	21	11th	8th
		Kamui Kobayashi	20	1	0	2	1	10	16th
2009	Dallara-Mecachrome	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	20	0	0	0	3	29	9th	6th
		Kamui Kobayashi	20	0	0	0	1	13	16th
2010	Dallara-Mecachrome	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	18	1	1	0	2	21	12th	6th
		Romain Grosjean	8	0	0	0	2	14	14th
		Ho-Pin Tung	14	0	0	0	0	0	28th
2011	Dallara-Mecachrome	Romain Grosjean	18	5	1	6	10	89	1st	2nd
		Pål Varhaug	18	0	0	0	0	0	23rd
2012	Dallara-Mecachrome	Davide Valsecchi	24	4	2	5	10	247	1st	1st
		Felipe Nasr	24	0	0	0	4	95	10th
2013	Dallara-Mecachrome	Marcus Ericsson	22	1	2	4	5	121	6th	4th
		Stéphane Richelmi	22	0	1	0	1	103	8th
2014	Dallara-Mecachrome	Jolyon Palmer	22	4	3	6	12	276	1st	1st
		Stéphane Richelmi	22	1	1	0	2	73	9th
2015	Dallara-Mecachrome	Pierre Gasly	21	0	3	1	4	110	8th	4th
		Alex Lynn	21	2	2	1	4	110	6th
2016	Dallara-Mecachrome	Alex Lynn	22	3	0	0	5	124	6th	5th
		Nicholas Latifi	22	0	0	0	1	23	16th

† Tung also competed in 2 races for Racing Engineering in 2010.

A1 Grand Prix

A1 Grand Prix Results[22]
Year	Car	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	T.C.
2005–06	Lola-Zytek	A1 Team France	22	13	3	5	172	1st
		A1 Team Switzerland	22	1	2	0	121	2nd
		A1 Team Mexico	22	1	1	0	59	10th
2006–07	Lola-Zytek	A1 Team France	22	0	0	0	67	4th
		A1 Team Mexico	22	0	0	1	35	10th
		A1 Team South Africa	22	1	1	1	24	14th
2007–08	Lola-Zytek	A1 Team France	20	1	2	1	118	4th
		A1 Team Mexico	20	0	0	1	22	16th
		A1 Team South Africa	20	2	4	2	96	5th
2008–09	Ferrari	A1 Team France	14	1	0	1	47	5th
		A1 Team South Africa	14	0	0	0	19	14th

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

World Series by Renault results[23]
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F/laps	Podiums	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2005	Dallara-Renault	Alx Danielsson	9	0	0	0	1	32	15th	11th
		Pastor Maldonado	8	0	0	0	0	4	25th
		Ferdinando Monfardini	2	0	0	0	0	1	28th
		Alex Lloyd	1	0	0	0	0	0	40th
		Nicolas Prost	2	0	0	0	0	0	41st
		Raffaele Giammaria	4	0	0	0	0	0	43rd
2012	Dallara-Zytek	Arthur Pic	17	1	2	2	2	102	8th	9th
		Lucas Foresti	17	0	0	0	0	8	23rd
2013	Dallara-Zytek	Kevin Magnussen	17	5	8	4	13	274	1st	1st
		Norman Nato	17	0	1	0	0	33	13th
2014	Dallara-Zytek	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	17	7	7	6	7	227	1st	1st
		Norman Nato	17	2	1	1	2	89	7th
2015	Dallara-Zytek	Nyck de Vries	17	1	1	1	6	160	3rd	2nd
		Dean Stoneman	17	0	0	0	4	130	6th

GP3 Series

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Pod	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2016	Dallara-Mecachrome	Santino Ferrucci	16	0	0	0	1	34	12th	5th
		Jake Hughes	16	1	1	2	3	69	9th
		Kevin Jörg	16	0	0	0	0	13	17th
2017	Dallara-Mecachrome	Dan Ticktum	5	0	0	1	1	36	11th	6th
		Tatiana Calderón	15	0	0	0	0	7	18th
		Santino Ferrucci	6	0	0	0	0	3	19th
		Bruno Baptista	15	0	0	0	0	1	20th
		Matthieu Vaxivière	4	0	0	0	0	0	22nd

Timeline

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to DAMS.

• DAMS official website dams.fr
• DAMS at gp2series.com gp2series.com