DAMS

Both DAMS cars for the 2019 Formula 2 season

DAMS (an abbreviation for Driot Associés Motor Sport , formerly Driot-Arnoux Motorsport ) is a French racing team founded in 1988 by Jean-Paul Driot and former Formula 1 racing driver René Arnoux . The team is based in Le Mans and is currently active in the FIA Formula 2 championship and the FIA Formula E championship .

history

The year after it was founded, the team started in Formula 3000 and stayed there until 2001. DAMS was one of the many French teams that took part in the Elf program for young drivers. In addition to its involvement in Formula 3000, the team tried to enter the Formula 1 World Championship in 1995 with a car developed by Reynard Motorsport , but failed for financial reasons.

From 2006, drivers of the Toyota trainee program took part in the GP2 series in DAMS vehicles. The team has also competed in the FIA ​​Formula E championship since 2014 and in the GP3 series since 2016 .

From 1997 to 2001 DAMS was also active in the sports car sector.

After the death of founder Jean Paul Driot in August 2019, the team management was taken over by his sons Gregory and Olivier.

Formula 3000 / GP2 / Formula 2 series

Jérôme D'Ambrosio in the DAMS car during the 2008 GP2 series

In Formula 3000, the team won the championship several times: 1990 with Érik Comas , 1992 with Olivier Panis and 1994 with Jean-Christophe Boullion . In the thirteen years from 1989 to 2001, DAMS won the team championship four times, three drivers' titles, achieved 21 victories and 19 pole positions and drove 19 fastest laps in Formula 3000. Together with Super Nova Racing and Arden International, DAMS is one of the most successful teams in this racing series.

In the GP2 series, the successor to Formula 3000, DAMS has been driving since the first season in 2005 and was able to win a race with driver José María López in its debut year. As part of the Toyota trainee program, one sponsored driver has been driving for DAMS since 2006. In 2006 this was Franck Perera and in 2007 Kazuki Nakajima , who was sixth overall and contested the last Formula 1 race of the season in Brazil for Williams F1 . The second driver in 2007 was Nicolas Lapierre . In 2008 DAMS drove with Jérôme D'Ambrosio and Kamui Kobayashi , who was also a test driver for the Toyota Formula 1 team .

In the 2011 season, the future Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean won the GP-2 championship with DAMS.

Nicholas Latifi at the F2 race in Spielberg 2019 in a DAMS car

In 2019 DAMS became team champion in the FIA ​​Formula 2 Championship with Nicholas Latifi and Sérgio Sette Câmara . In 2020 the team will start with Daniel Ticktum from Britain and Sean Gelael from Indonesia.

A1 Grand Prix and Formula Renault

In 2003 and 2004 DAMS took part in the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup and won in the second year with José María López . In 2005 the team started in Formula Renault 3.5 .

From 2005 DAMS provided the racing team for several teams in the A1 Grand Prix : A1 Team France ( 2005/2006 to 2008/2009 ), A1 Team Switzerland ( 2005/2006 ), A1 Team Mexico (2005/2006 and 2006/2007 ) and A1 Team South Africa (2006/2007 and 2007/2008 ). With Team France, DAMS was the first winner of this racing series after victories in 13 of 22 races.

In the 2013 and 2014 seasons, DAMS won the drivers' championship in Formula Renault 3.5. Both drivers, Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz jr . subsequently rose to Formula 1.

Sports car racing

In 1997, in partnership with the Panoz team, the company entered the FIA GT championship . After separating from Panoz, DAMS competed in the FIA Sports Car Championship the following year and won four races. The team also competed in the American Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans .

In 2000 and 2001 DAMS worked with General Motors . However, starts in the American Le Mans Series, the FIA ​​Sports Car Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans remained without a countable result.

In 2002 DAMS drove again at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2003 the team wanted to return to the FIA ​​GT championship with two Nissan 350Z ; However, lack of money prevented the further development of the cars. In 2004 DAMS merged with Lamborghini and entered the final laps of the FIA ​​GT Championship with two Murciélago R-GT cars.

FIA Formula E Championship

Nicolas Prost at the Berlin ePrix 2017

In 2014 the racing team entered the newly founded FIA Formula E Championship as e.dams . DAMS cooperated with Renault in Formula E , Renault ambassador Alain Prost also became a partner in the team. His son Nicolas Prost and Sébastien Buemi started as drivers . In the debut season, the team managed to secure the championship title after the eleventh of twelve races, and Buemi was also runner-up behind Nelson Piquet junior, just one point behind .

At the end of the season, Renault announced that it would enter the FIA ​​Formula E Championship as the official manufacturer and develop the drive for the team now known as Renault e.dams . The team competed with the same drivers and won the team championship again, Buemi became champion for the first time.

Buemi and Prost also started for Renault e.dams in the third season . The team won the team title for the third time in a row. Buemi won six of the twelve races, but had to admit defeat to Lucas di Grassi in the drivers' championship and was runner-up.

Before the fourth season , the team announced that they had extended the driver contracts with Buemi and Prost for a further two years. The season was the weakest of the team, for the first time neither of the two drivers won a race. At the end of the season they finished fifth in the team ranking with 133 points. At the end of the season, Renault left the team as a drive partner; for the new season, Renault alliance partner Nissan and its motorsport department Nismo will be responsible for designing the drive for the team now known as Nissan e.dams . During the season, Alain Prost sold his team shares to Driot, who now became sole owner of the Formula E team, in view of Renault's exit.

In the 2018/19 season , the team competed again with Buemi, his new teammate became Oliver Rowland . Both drivers were able to achieve three pole positions, and Buemi also won a race and was runner-up. Rowland was tenth in the drivers' championship with two second places as the best results. The team took fourth place in the team ranking with 190 points.

statistics

Individual results in the FIA ​​Formula E Championship

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
FIA Formula E Championship 2014/15		AT	PUT	PUN	BUE	MIA	LBH	MON	BER	MOS	LON							232	1.
Nicolas Prost	08th	*12 *	4th	7th	2	1	14th	6th	10	8th	7th	10
Sébastien Buemi	09	DNF	3	1	DNF	13	4th	1	°2 °	°9 °	1	°5 °
FIA Formula E Championship 2015/16		AT	PUT	PUN	BUE	MEX	LBH	PAR	BER	LON								270	1.
Nicolas Prost	08th	DNF	10	5	5	3	11	4th	4th	1	1
Sébastien Buemi	09	1	12	1	2	2	*16 *	3	1	°5 °	°DNF °
FIA Formula E Championship 2016/17		HKG	MAR	BUE	MEX	MON	PAR	BER		NYC		MTR						268	1.
Nicolas Prost	08th	4th	4th	4th	5	9	5	5	8th	8th	6th	6th	DNF
Sébastien Buemi	09	°1 °	°1 °	°1 °	°13 °	°1 °	°1 °	°DSQ °	°1 °			°DSQ °	°11 °
Pierre Gasly										7th	4th
FIA Formula E Championship 2017/18		HKG		MAR	SAN	MEX	PUN	ROME	PAR	BER	ZUR	NYC						133	5.
Nicolas Prost	08th	9	8th	13	10	DNF	15th	14th	16	14th	DNF	10	11
Sébastien Buemi	09	11	10	°2 °	°3 °	°3 °	°DNF °	°6 °	°5 °	°4 °	°5 °	°3 °	°4 °
FIA Formula E Championship 2018/19		TO YOU	MAR	SAN	MEX	HKG	SAY	ROME	PAR	MCO	BER	BRN	NYC					190	4th
Oliver Rowland	22nd	7th	15th	DNF	* °20 * °	DNF	2	6th	12	2	8th	DNF	14th	6th
Sébastien Buemi	23	6th	°8 °	°DNF °	* °21 * °	°DNF °	°8 °	°5 °	°15 °	°5 °	°2 °	°3 °	°1 °	°3
FIA Formula E Championship 2019/20		TO YOU		SAN	MEX	MAR	BER		BER		BER							167	2.
Oliver Rowland	22nd	4th	5	17th	7th	9	14th	7th	6th	5	1	DNF
Sébastien Buemi	23	°DNF °	°12 °	13	3	4th	7th	2	11	3	10	3

Legend

Web links

Commons : DAMS  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Official website of Renault e.dams

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Team history ( memento from November 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) www.dams.fr
2. ↑ http://www.motorsport-total.com/formelsport/news/2015/10/dams-steig-in-die-gp3-serie-ein-15100102.html
3. ↑ ^{a b} With Ticktum and Gelael: DAMS is repositioning itself for the F2 season 2020. Retrieved March 3, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Toyota signs Kobayashi as the new third driver motorsport-total.com on November 16, 2007
5. ↑ ^{a b} Jean-Paul Driot is dead: The motorsport world mourns the DAMS founder. Retrieved March 3, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Norman Fischer: Formula E: Prost and DAMS form e.dams. Motorsport-Total.com, October 24, 2013, accessed February 13, 2014 . 
7. ↑ Norman Fischer: Official manufacturer: Renault is committed to Formula E. Motorsport-Total.com, July 2, 2015, accessed on July 30, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Season two team names confirmed. (No longer available online.) FIAFormulaE.com, July 29, 2015, archived from the original on August 1, 2015 ; accessed on July 30, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Tobias Bluhm: Formula E: Renault e.dams extends contracts with Buemi & Prost. e-Formel.de, June 9, 2017, accessed October 30, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Tobias Bluhm: Formula E: Renault e.dams extends contracts with Buemi & Prost. e-Formel.de, April 27, 2018, accessed on March 2, 2018 .