DAMS

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. It is headquartered near Le Mans, only 2 km from the Bugatti Circuit.

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 , with a car developed by Reynard, but lack of funds prevented the team from advancing.

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.

GP2 Series and Formula 3000

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, winning races with drivers José María López and Nicolas Lapierre.

Since 2006, DAMS has been associated with the Toyota Drivers Program (TDP) to ran their drivers in 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. In 2008, TDP driver Kamui Kobayashi replaced Nakajima at DAMS GP2 and became the Toyota F1 test driver.

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. 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. DAMS also managed A1 Team Switzerland, A1 Team Mexico and later A1 Team South Africa 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.

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.

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.

Results

GP2 Series and Formula 3000

GP2 Series Results
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2005	Dallara-Mecachrome	José María López	22	1	0		36	9th	7th
		Fairuz Fauzy	22	0	0		0	24th
2006	Dallara-Mecachrome	Franck Perera	21	0	0	0	8	17th	12th
		Ferdinando Monfardini	20	0	0	0	6	21th
2007	Dallara-Mecachrome	Kazuki Nakajima	21	0	1	3	44	5th	5th
		Nicolas Lapierre	20	2	1	2	23	12th
2008	Dallara-Mecachrome	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	20	0	0	0	21	11th	8th
		Kamui Kobayashi	20	1	0	2	10	16th

International Formula 3000 Championship Results
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	3th
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
		Eric 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 Redon	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	23th
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.

A1 Grand Prix and Formulas Renault

A1 Grand Prix Results
Year	Car	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	T.C.
2005-06	Lola-Zytek	A1 Team France	22	13	3	5	127	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 is the current season.

World Series by Renault results
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2005	Dallara-Renault	Alx Danielsson	7	0	0	0	32	15th	11th
		Pastor Maldonado	5	0	0	0	4	25th
		Ferdinando Monfardini	1	0	0	0	1	28th
		Alex Lloyd	1	0	0	0	0	40th
		Nicolas Prost	1	0	0	0	0	41th
		Raffaele Giammaria	3	0	0	0	0	43th

Formula Renault V6 Eurocup results
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	2th
		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 Langley-Khan	6	0	0	0	4	22th
2004	Tatuus-Renault V4Y RS	Neel Jani	10	4	7		239	4th	3th
		Bruce Lorgere-Roux	8	0	0		72	14th
		José María López	2	0	0		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.

Sports car racing

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

American Le Mans Series results
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 Eric Bernard	1	0	0	0	87	7th
	LMP	Cadillac Northstar LMP-Cadillac Northstar	Christophe Tinseau Marc Goossens	1	0	0	0

FIA Sportscar Championship results
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 Eric Bernard Christophe Tinseau	10	3	5	3	80	3th
2000	SR	Cadillac Northstar LMP-Cadillac Northstar	Emmanuel Collard Eric Bernard	3	0	0	0	14	8th
	SR	Cadillac Northstar LMP-Cadillac Northstar	Christophe Tinseau Marc Goossens	3	0	0	0

FIA GT Championship results
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 Eric Bernard	9	0	0	0	0	NC
1998	GT1	Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8	Eric Bernard David Brabham Johnny O'Connell Christophe Tinseau Franck Lagorce	10	0	0	0	17	5th

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

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

References

External links

• DAMS official site dams.fr
• DAMS at gp2series.com gp2series.com
• A1 Team France at a1gp.com france.a1gp.com