Olivier Pla

Olivier Pla

Olivier Pla in the Ford GT at the 6-hour race of Silverstone 2018

Olivier Pla (born October 22, 1981 in Toulouse ) is a French racing driver .

Career

His racing career began in 2000 in the French Formula Campus . In 2001 he was promoted to the French Formula 3 as a driver for the Saulnier team . The following year he switched to Team ASM and stayed there in 2003, but this year he drove in European Formula 3. In 2004 he left European Formula 3 and continued in the World Series by Renault , first for the RC team, then for Carlin Motorsport . In 2005 he drove in the new GP2 series . He often stalled his engine in the first few races. In a race, he mistakenly put the car in reverse at the start and drove backwards into his teammate's car, so that both had to end the race at the start. In the course of the season, however, he gained more experience, so that he even took pole position in the second race twice ( Hockenheim and Silverstone ) and won it.

In 2006 he moved to the David Price Racing team . In the middle of the season, however, his contract was terminated due to lack of success. Up until that point he hadn't got a single point and had broken his hand during the Monaco race . In 2007 he took part in the German Porsche Carrera Cup , but in a later phase of the 2007 season he was brought back into the GP2 series by the DPR team to replace the injured Christian Bakkerud .

In the 2008 season , however, he withdrew from formula racing and drove a Le Mans prototype from Lola for the Quifel ASM Team in the LMP2 class in the Le Mans Series . He collected twelve championship points by the end of the year and finished the season in sixth place in his category. He also contested his first Le Mans 24-hour race , although he was registered for a race in a Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello in 2004 . However, the team withdrew before the start of the race, so that his first use was only in 2008 on the side of Guy Smith and Miguel Amaral . The driver trio finished fourth in the LMP2 category and 20th overall. In 2009, Pla stayed with Quifel ASM and now drove a prototype from Ginetta-Zytek. At the end of the year, he and his teammate Amaral were able to show two class wins and win both the team and the LMP2 drivers' championships.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2008	Quifel ASM team	Lola B05 / 40	Miguel Amaral	Guy Smith	Rank 20
2009	Quifel ASM team	Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S / 2	Miguel Amaral	Guy Smith	failure	Brakes
2010	Quifel ASM team	Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S / 2	Miguel Amaral	Warren Hughes	Rank 20
2011	Quifel ASM team	Zytek 09SC	Miguel Amaral	Warren Hughes	failure	accident
2012	OAK Racing	Morgan LMP2	Jacques Nicolet	Matthieu Lahaye	failure	no oil pressure
2013	OAK Racing	Morgan LMP2	Alex Brundle	David Heinemeier Hansson	Rank 8
2014	G-Drive Racing	Oreca 03	Roman Russinov	Julien Canal	failure	malfunction
2015	Nissan Motorsports	Nissan GT-R LM Nismo	Max Chilton	Jann Mardenborough	failure	Clutch damage
2016	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford GT	Stefan Mücke	Billy Johnson	Rank 21
2017	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford GT	Stefan Mücke	Billy Johnson	Rank 27
2018	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ford GT	Stefan Mücke	Billy Johnson	Rank 21
2019	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing UK	Ford GT	Stefan Mücke	Billy Johnson	Rank 25

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2012	OAK Racing	Morgan LMP2	Matthieu Lahaye	Jacques Nicolet	Rank 5
2013	DeltaWing Racing Cars	DeltaWing LM12	Andrew Meyrick		failure	electronics
2014	OAK Racing	Morgan LMP2	Alex Brundle	Gustavo Yacamán	Rank 4
2015	Krohn Racing	Ligier JS P2	Tracy Krohn	Niclas Jönsson	Rank 8
2016	Michael Shank Racing	Ligier JS P2	John Pew	Oswaldo Negri	failure	Engine failure
2017	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford GT	Stefan Mücke	Billy Johnson	Rank 11
2018	Tequila Patron ESM	OnRoak Nissan DPi	Ryan Dalziel	Scott Sharp	failure	accident
2019	Mazda Team Joest	Mazda RT24-P	Jonathan Bomarito	Harry Tincknell	Rank 6

Individual results in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
2012	OAK Racing	Morgan LMP2	SEB	SPA	LEM	SIL	SAO	BAH	FUJ	SHA
			5	17th	DNF	13	10	11	10	9
2013	OAK Racing	Morgan LMP2	SIL	SPA	LEM	SAO	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH
			8th	9	8th	11	10	7th	6th	4th
2014	G-Drive Racing	Oreca 03	SIL	SPA	LEM	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH	SAO
			5	8th	DNF	14th	7th	9	12	DNF
2015	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	SIL	SPA	LEM	ONLY	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH
					DNF
2016	Chip Ganassi Racing	Ford GT	SIL	SPA	LEM	ONLY	MEX	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH
			21st	DNF	21st	21st	26th	29	18th	18th	24
2017	Chip Ganassi Racing	Ford GT	SIL	SPA	LEM	ONLY	MEX	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH
			16	19th	27	20th	20th	20th	15th	17th	18th
2018/19	Chip Ganassi Racing	Ford GT	SPA	LEM	SIL	FUJ	SHA	SEB	SPA	LEM
			13	21st	16	18th	16	28	24	25th

Web links

Commons : Olivier Pla  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Olivier Pla at Racing Sports Cars