DAMS

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DAMS
Motor racing team
Founded 1988
Country Flag of France France
Team Principal(s) Jean-Paul Driot
Current series GP2 Series
A1 Grand Prix
Former series Formula 3000
World Series by Renault
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup
ALMS
FIA GT Championship
Le Mans 24 Hours
FIA Sportscar Championship
Drivers' titles 1990 Formula 3000 (Comas)
1993 Formula 3000 (Panis)
1994 Formula 3000 (Boullion)
2003 FR V6 Eurocup (López)
Teams' titles 1989 Formula 3000
1990 Formula 3000
1993 Formula 3000
1994 Formula 3000
2005-06 A1 GP (France)

Driot-Arnoux Motorsport (DAMS) is a racing team from France, involved in many areas of motorsports. 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.

Contents

[edit] 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 tried joining the F1 World Championship in 1995, with a car 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.

Actually, the team is involved in GP2 Series and A1 Grand Prix. Since 2006, DAMS is associate with the Toyota Drivers Program to race their drivers in GP2 Series.

[edit] GP2 Series and Formula 3000

Jérôme d'Ambrosio's DAMS GP2 Series car in 2008.
Jérôme d'Ambrosio's DAMS GP2 Series car in 2008.

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.

Since 2006, DAMS is associate with the Toyota Drivers Program (TDP) to ran their drivers in GP2 Series. In 2006, it was Franck Perera and Kazuki Nakajima in 2007, who finish 5th in the GP2 championship and race the last Formula 1 2007 Grand Prix in Brazil with AT&T Williams. In 2007, Kamui Kobayashi replace Nakajima at DAMS GP2 and became the Toyota F1 test driver.[3]

[edit] A1 Grand Prix and Formula Renault

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 their entered in the World Series by Renault.[4] 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.[5][6] DAMS also managed A1 Team Switzerland,[7] A1 Team Mexico[8] and later A1 Team South Africa[9] 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.[10]

[edit] Sports car racing

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 Le Mans 24 Hours.

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 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.[11]

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.

[edit] Results

[edit] GP2 Series and Formula 3000

GP2 Series Results[12]
Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles Fast laps Points D.C. T.C.
2005 Dallara-Mecachrome Flag of Argentina José María López 22 1 0 36 9th 7th
Flag of Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 22 0 0 0 24th
2006 Dallara-Mecachrome Flag of France Franck Perera 21 0 0 0 8 17th 12th
Flag of Italy Ferdinando Monfardini 20 0 0 0 6 21th
2007 Dallara-Mecachrome Flag of Japan Kazuki Nakajima 21 0 1 3 44 5th 5th
Flag of France Nicolas Lapierre 20 2 1 2 23 12th
  • D.C. = Drivers' Championship position, T.C. = Teams' Championship position.

[edit] A1 Grand Prix and Formulas Renault

A1 Grand Prix Results[13]
Year Car Team Races Wins Poles Fast laps Points T.C.
2005-06 Lola-Zytek Flag of France A1 Team France 11 13 3 5 127 1st
Flag of Switzerland A1 Team Switzerland 11 1 2 0 121 2nd
Flag of Mexico A1 Team Mexico 11 1 1 0 59 10th
2006-07 Lola-Zytek Flag of France A1 Team France 11 0 0 0 67 4th
Flag of Mexico A1 Team Mexico 11 0 0 1 35 10th
Flag of South Africa A1 Team South Africa 11 1 1 1 24 14th
2007-08 Lola-Zytek Flag of France A1 Team France
Flag of Mexico A1 Team Mexico
Flag of South Africa A1 Team South Africa
  • † 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.

[edit] Sports car racing

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

[edit] Timeline

1980s 1990s 2000s
88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08
Formulas International Formula 3000 GP2 Series
FRV6E WSbR
A1 Grand Prix
Sports car 24 Hours of Le Mans
ALMS
Sportscar

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Team history dams.fr
  2. ^ DAMS presentation at gp2series.com gp2series.com
  3. ^ DAMS signs Kobayashi for 2008 season automobilsport.com (23rd November 2007)
  4. ^ Renault World Series claims 30 cars grandprix.com
  5. ^ Driot, directeur principal france.a1gp.com
  6. ^ A1 Team France informations a1podium.com
  7. ^ A1 Team Switzerland informations a1podium.com
  8. ^ A1 Team Mexico informations a1podium.com
  9. ^ A1 Team Switzerland informations a1podium.com
  10. ^ Team France and RSA to continue to work together a1.gpupdate.net, 2007-Aug-14
  11. ^ Preliminary practice Lola Cars notes motorsport.com, 2002-05-07
  12. ^ a b GP2 and Formula 3000 entry list and complete results speedsportmag.com
  13. ^ A1GP complete resultsresults.a1gp.com
  14. ^ WSbR complete results speedsportmag.com
  15. ^ FRV6 Eurocup complete results speedsportmag.com
  16. ^ 24h of Le Mans complete results wsrp.ic.cz
  17. ^ ALMS complete results wsrp.ic.cz
  18. ^ FIA Sportscar complete results wsrp.ic.cz
  19. ^ FIA GT complete results wsrp.ic.cz

[edit] External links