Founded in 1988 near Le Mans, DAMS won titles in Formula 3000, GP2 and Formula E, and produced Formula One drivers from its junior ranks.
DAMS is a French racing team, formerly Driot-Arnoux Motorsport, founded in 1988 near Le Mans. It won Formula 3000 and GP2 titles, took the Formula E champion title with Sebastien Buemi and has been owned since 2022 by former F1 driver Charles Pic.
DAMS is a French racing team based near Le Mans. It has a long record in junior single-seaters, sports cars and electric racing, and its title list runs from Formula 3000 to Formula E. The team has also produced a steady stream of drivers who reached Formula One.
What is DAMS?
DAMS is a French motor racing team, formerly Driot-Arnoux Motorsport, that competes in many branches of the sport. It was founded in 1988 by Jean-Paul Driot and former Formula One driver Rene Arnoux. It is headquartered 2 km from the Bugatti Circuit and was bought by former F1 driver Charles Pic in 2022.
A French team that began in Formula 3000, won titles in GP2 and Formula E, and kept producing drivers for the top formulae.
Where did DAMS come from?
DAMS joined the International Formula 3000 Championship the year after it was founded and stayed in the category until 2001. It was one of many French teams in the Elf young driver sponsorship programme. The founders also planned a Formula One entry for 1996 with the GD-01 car, built by Reynard.
The F1 plan never reached the grid because funds ran short. The team moved into sports car racing from 1997 to 2002 instead.
How successful was DAMS in Formula 3000?
DAMS was one of the most successful Formula 3000 teams, alongside Super Nova Racing and Arden International. Between 1989 and 2001 it won four team titles and three drivers' titles, with 21 wins, 19 pole positions and 19 fastest laps. Its drivers' champions were Erik Comas in 1990, Olivier Panis in 1992 and Jean-Christophe Boullion in 1994.
Olivier Panis later became a Formula One Grand Prix winner, and he was one of the team's early Formula 3000 products.
How did DAMS perform in GP2?
DAMS has competed in the GP2 Series since its start in 2005, winning races with Jose Maria Lopez and Nicolas Lapierre. Its first GP2 Teams' Championship came in 2012, when Davide Valsecchi won the drivers' title and Felipe Nasr helped the team to the teams' crown. The team then won the 2014 Drivers' and Teams' championships.
Romain Grosjean's 2011 season brought the Asian and main series championships. DAMS also finished sixth in the 2010 teams' championship, and Kamui Kobayashi won the 2008-09 Asian championship with the team before moving to Sauber.
In 2010 the team's GP2 cars were liveried in yellow and black, matching the Renault R30 chassis, and Ho-Pin Tung and Jerome d'Ambrosio were both nominated as Renault F1 test drivers. Felipe Nasr finished tenth in the 2012 championship, the second-highest rookie behind James Calado.
In 2015 the team's lineup was Pierre Gasly and Alex Lynn, the 2014 GP3 champion. Lynn took his first GP2 win in the Barcelona sprint race, and Gasly joined him on the podium in third.
How did DAMS fare in Formula 2?
In 2018 DAMS ran Nicholas Latifi and Alexander Albon in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, finishing third in the constructors' championship with five wins. In 2019 it won the teams' title with 418 points and six wins. By 2020 the team had slipped to eighth, and it finished eighth again in 2021.
In 2019 Sergio Sette Camara replaced Alexander Albon, who was promoted to Formula One with Toro Rosso. Sette Camara later moved on to Formula E with the GEOX Dragon team.
The 2020 season brought Sean Gelael and Dan Ticktum, and Ticktum scored both of the team's wins at Spielberg and Silverstone. In 2021 Marcus Armstrong won at Jeddah, the team's only win that year. In 2022 Ayumu Iwasa scored both wins and finished fifth in the drivers' championship with 141 points.
DAMS championship record at a glance
| Series | Years | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Formula 3000 | 1989 to 2001 | 4 team titles, 3 drivers titles, 21 wins |
| Formula Renault V6 Eurocup | 2003 and 2004 | Title won with Jose Maria Lopez |
| GP2 | 2005 onward | Team titles in 2012 and 2014; drivers' title in 2014 |
| Formula E | 2014 to 2022 | Runner-up in the inaugural season; Buemi champion in 2015-16 |
| Formula 2 | 2018 to 2022 | Teams' title in 2019 with 418 points and 6 wins |
What did DAMS do in Formula Renault and A1 Grand Prix?
DAMS entered the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup in 2003 and 2004 and won that championship with Jose Maria Lopez. It entered the World Series by Renault in 2005 and also ran A1 Grand Prix teams for France, Switzerland, Mexico and later South Africa.
Driot was one of the owners of A1 Team France. DAMS was the first winner of the A1 Grand Prix series, and A1 Team France won 13 of the 22 races, including in the 2005-06 season.
How did DAMS join Formula E?
DAMS joined Formula E in 2014 as e.dams, with collaboration from Alain Prost. Sebastien Buemi was runner-up in the inaugural season and then champion in 2015-16, with eight wins and 13 podiums in 23 races. The team took three straight constructors' titles, the last of them in 2016-17.
In 2016-17 Buemi lost the drivers' title to Lucas di Grassi at the final round in Montreal. Buemi missed the New York City rounds because of World Endurance Championship commitments, and Pierre Gasly stood in for him there.
Why did the Nissan era end?
Nissan replaced Renault as the team's manufacturer for the 2018 to 2019 season, and its IM01 powertrain proved controversial. e.dams was the only team to use a dual-motor setup, which scored six poles before it was outlawed for 2019-20. After finishing 10th in 2020-21 and 9th in 2021-22, Nismo decided to part ways with the team and run it on its own.
The team had improved in the COVID-affected 2019-20 season, ending second in the teams' championship instead of fourth. Nicolas Prost had left at the end of the 2017 to 2018 season, when the team finished fifth.
What did DAMS do in sports car racing?
From 1997 Driot's team entered the FIA GT Championship in partnership with Panoz. The following year the team fielded a red-engined Lola B98/10 in the SportsRacing World Cup, where it won four races. The team also prepared General Motors Cadillac Northstar LMP prototypes in 2000 and 2001, but failed to get competitive results.
DAMS helped the Michel Vaillant movie crew at the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans. A 2003 attempt with two Nissan 350Z cars was halted by a lack of funds, and in 2004 the team ran two Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT cars in the final FIA GT rounds.
Which drivers came through DAMS?
DAMS alumni include Formula One Grand Prix winners Olivier Panis and Pierre Gasly. Le Mans winners who drove for the team include Allan McNish and Sebastien Bourdais, along with Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Buemi, Neel Jani, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez.
Bourdais won four consecutive Champ Car World Series titles, and Marcus Ericsson, also among the team's former drivers, won the 2022 Indianapolis 500. Drivers who won titles while at DAMS include Buemi in Formula E, Comas, Boullion and Panis in Formula 3000, and Jolyon Palmer, Romain Grosjean and Davide Valsecchi in GP2.
Who owns DAMS now?
Charles Pic, a former Formula One driver, bought the team in February 2022. Before that, founder Jean-Paul Driot died in August 2019, aged 68, and his sons Olivier and Gregory Driot took over as co-team principals. The team's history therefore passed from its founder to his family and then to an outside owner.
