Olivier Pla | |
---|---|
Nationality | French |
Born | Toulouse (France) | 22 October 1981
Le Mans Series (LMP2) career | |
Debut season | 2008 |
Current team | Quifel ASM Team |
Racing licence | FIA Platinum |
Starts | 10 |
Wins | 2 |
Poles | 3 |
Fastest laps | 5 |
Best finish | 1st in 2009 |
Previous series | |
2007 2005–07 2004 2003 2001–02 2000 | Porsche Cup Germany GP2 Series World Series by Nissan Formula 3 Euro Series French Formula Three Formula Campus |
24 Hours of Le Mans career | |
Years | 2008–2016 |
Teams | OAK Racing, Quifel ASM Team |
Best finish | 8th (2013) |
Olivier Pla (born 22 October 1981) is a French racing driver currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Glickenhaus Racing. [1]
Born in Toulouse, Pla started his career in 2000 in French Formula Campus before moving on to French Formula Three Championship in 2001 with the Saulnier Racing team. He finished eighth in the series standings, taking nine points-scoring positions in eleven races, including a podium in the penultimate race of the season at Magny-Cours. [2]
In 2002, Pla stayed in the series but switched to the ASM team. He finished third, behind Renaud Derlot and Tristan Gommendy, taking nine podium places from fourteen races, including wins at Croix-en-Ternois and Bugatti Circuit. [3]
In 2003, Pla joined the Formula 3 Euro Series with ASM. He finished third, behind Christian Klien and Ryan Briscoe, taking nine podium places from twenty races. [4]
2004 saw Pla leave the Euroseries, joining the World Series by Nissan. He contested two rounds with RC Motorsport before joining Carlin Motorsport to replace Michael Keohane. He finished ninth, taking thirteen points-scoring positions in eighteen races, including a win at Estoril. [5]
In 2005 he raced in the inaugural GP2 Series season for David Price Racing. In the early part of the season he stalled on the grid several times — some blamed the GP2 cars for the high number of stallings, while others noticed that the same drivers seemed to be affected regularly. In another race his team mate selected reverse instead of first gear and went backwards into Pla's car. However, he took advantage of the reverse grid system to finish eighth in Race One and thus take pole for Race Two twice (at Hockenheim and Silverstone), winning both those races to finish 11th in the championship. He remained with DPR for 2006, but was dropped mid-season after running out of sponsorship, after a difficult period which saw him score no points and injure his hand in Monaco.
In 2007, he competed in the German Porsche Carrera Cup. However, he was recalled to DPR in the latter stages of the GP2 season to replace the injured Christian Bakkerud. In 2008, he moved to sports car racing, driving a Lola Le Mans Prototype in the Le Mans Series and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Pla joined Mazda Motorsports for part of the 2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaign and signed with Meyer Shank Racing for a full DPi season in 2021. [6]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | DC | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | ASM F3 | Dallara F303/014 | Mercedes | HOC 1 DSQ | HOC 2 2 | ADR 1 8 | ADR 2 3 | PAU 1 2 | PAU 2 16 | NOR 1 3 | NOR 2 Ret | LMS 1 4 | LMS 2 24 | NÜR 1 2 | NÜR 2 9 | A1R 1 27 | A1R 2 4 | ZAN 1 3 | ZAN 2 3 | HOC 1 10 | HOC 2 6 | MAG 1 2 | MAG 2 7 | 3rd | 74 |
Sources: [7] [8] |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | DC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2005 | DPR | IMO FEA 9 | IMO SPR 5 | CAT FEA Ret | CAT SPR Ret | MON FEA 9 | NÜR FEA Ret | NÜR SPR 8 | MAG FEA Ret | MAG SPR 9 | SIL FEA 8 | SIL SPR 1 | HOC FEA 8 | HOC SPR 1 | HUN FEA 7 | HUN SPR Ret | IST FEA 9 | IST SPR 17 | MNZ FEA Ret | MNZ SPR Ret | SPA FEA 11 | SPA SPR 10 | BHR FEA Ret | BHR SPR DNS | 13th | 20 |
2006 | DPR Direxiv | VAL FEA 10 | VAL SPR 15 | IMO FEA Ret | IMO SPR 20† | NÜR FEA 15 | NÜR SPR Ret | CAT FEA DSQ | CAT SPR 20 | MON FEA Ret | SIL FEA | SIL SPR | MAG FEA 16 | MAG SPR 9 | HOC FEA | HOC SPR | HUN FEA | HUN SPR | IST FEA | IST SPR | MNZ FEA | MNZ SPR | 27th | 0 | ||
2007 | DPR | BHR FEA | BHR SPR | CAT FEA | CAT SPR | MON FEA | MAG FEA | MAG SPR | SIL FEA | SIL SPR | NÜR FEA | NÜR SPR | HUN FEA | HUN SPR | IST FEA | IST SPR | MNZ FEA Ret | MNZ SPR 13 | SPA FEA | SPA SPR | VAL FEA | VAL SPR | 35th | 0 | ||
Sources: [7] [8] |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)
Gianmaria "Gimmi" Bruni is an Italian Porsche factory auto racing driver who drove in the 2004 Formula One World Championship for Minardi. He is a GP2 Series race winner and is now racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, in which he gained the 2013 and 2014 GT Drivers' Titles whilst driving as a factory Ferrari driver. He won the 2008 FIA GT Championship, 2011 Le Mans Series and 2012 International GT Open and took three class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2008, 2012 and 2014. He also was successful at the 2009 and 2015 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, 2010 12 Hours of Sebring and 2011 Petit Le Mans.
José Pedro Mourão Nunes Lamy Viçoso, OIH, known as Pedro Lamy, is a Portuguese former professional racing driver. He was the first Portuguese driver to score a point in a Formula One World Championship event, in the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, for Minardi.
Neel Jani is a Swiss professional racing driver.
Jeroen Pascal Bleekemolen is a Dutch professional racing driver. In the Chrysler Viper GTS-R he drove in the FIA GT Championship, with great success. He competed in the very competitive German Formula Three Championship and drove a number of times at the Masters of Formula 3 at Circuit Zandvoort, the unofficial F3 World Championship. Together with Opel he raced in the DTM. In 2005 Bleekemolen won the ELF BRL V6 championship.
Pierre Kaffer is a race car driver from Germany, currently living in Switzerland.
Oliver Benjamin Gavin is a British racing driver who joined Corvette Racing in 2002. He has won five American Le Mans Series class championships, five 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins, six 12 Hours of Sebring class wins and five Petit Le Mans class wins.
Renger Adriaan van der Zande is a Dutch racing driver who currently competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Chip Ganassi Racing. He is the son of the 1978 National Dutch Rallycross Champion Ronald van der Zande. In 2016, Van der Zande won his first major sports car championship with co-driver Alex Popow and Starworks Motorsport in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship PC Class. Renger resides in Amsterdam with his partner Carlijn and their daughter.
Augusto Farfus Jr. is a Brazilian professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He lives in Monaco.
Filipe Miguel Delgadinho Albuquerque is a Portuguese professional racing driver, currently driving an Acura ARX-06 in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Wayne Taylor Racing, and an Oreca 07 in the FIA World Endurance Championship for United Autosports. He has claimed a LMP2 class title at the 2019–20 FIA World Endurance Championship, an LMP2 class win at the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, and overall wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2018 and 2021.
Davide Rigon is an Italian professional racing driver who is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and other selected GT races for AF Corse. He is also currently part of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One test driver team.
Alessandro Balzan is an Italian auto racing driver.
Antonio García Navarro is a Spanish professional racing driver. He has three class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning GT1 with Aston Martin Racing in 2008 and with Corvette Racing in 2009 (GT1) and 2011 (GTE-Pro).
Mirko Bortolotti is an Italian racing driver from Trento. He has won the Italian Formula 3 Championship in 2008, the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2011, the Eurocup Megane Trophy in 2013 and the Blancpain GT Series Endurance and Overall Championship in 2017. He competed as a factory driver for Lamborghini between 2016 and 2019, before moving to Audi for 2020 and rejoining Lamborghini in 2021. He competed in the 2022 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters with GRT Grasser Racing Team, a factory-backed Lamborghini team based in Austria, and has since been competing with Iron Lynx in the WEC, piloting their Lamborghini SC63 prototype starting in 2024.
Jesse Kurki-Suonio, more commonly known as Jesse Krohn, is a Finnish professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver.
Andrea Caldarelli is an Italian racing driver who currently competes in IMSA in the GTP class for Lamborghini- Iron Lynx in the Lamborghini SC63 Hypercar alongside Matteo Cairoli and former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean. He has competed in such series as Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, the Formula Three Euroseries, GP2 Asia, the GP3 Series and the Super Formula series.
Patrick Grégory Yoan Pilet is a French professional racing driver. He has competed in major sports car endurance races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Daytona, 24 Hours of Spa, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans.
Jens Klingmann is a German racing driver.
Luís Felipe "Pipo" Derani is a Brazilian race car driver who currently drives a Cadillac prototype for Action Express Racing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and is an overall winner of the 2016 24 Hours of Daytona and the 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2023 12 Hours of Sebring. Pipo is the son of the late Walter Derani and younger brother of Rafael Derani, both well-known Brazilian racing drivers.
Dane Richard Cameron is an American racing driver from Glen Ellen, California. He won the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship overall in 2016 and 2019, and also in the GTD class in 2014.
Jack W. Hawksworth is a British professional racing driver from Bradford, West Yorkshire. As of 2020, he competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for AIM Vasser Sullivan. He also competes part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 1 Toyota Tundra for Tricon Garage.