When it came down to writing an article on which driver's potential hadn't been filled, I had a lot of drivers to choose from.
The list includes Jean Alesi, Gilles Villeneuve, Stirling Moss, Chris Amon, John Watson, Ronnie Petersen, Giancarlo Fisichella, Riccardo Patrese, Juan Pablo Montoya, Peter Collins and Francois Cevert.
After much thinking, I decided to go for a driver who had his time in the limelight cruelly taken away from him.
Olivier Panis was a driver who stood out for many during his time racing in the lower formulae in France. After winning several kart championships, he graduated into Formula Renault in 1987 and took the title there in 1989.
He moved up to French F3 in 1990 with a best championship finish of second in 1991. For 1992, he graduated in the F1 feeder series of Formula 3000, and continuing the trend of two seasons in a series, he claimed the championship after a great season-long battle in 1993. After taking the title, it was a natural step to move up to the world of Formula 1, and he signed with the Ligier Renault team for 1994.
For many, he was the new French hope, with Alain Prost retiring at the end of 1993. Prost had claimed a fourth world title, and the other French drivers in the field were on lower-ranked teams.
Olivier had a solid if not spectacular start to his F1 career, finishing his first six races with a best finish of seventh in Spain before recording his first F1 DNF at his home race in France.
But in Germany a spate of retirements, where 11 cars failed to finish the first lap, gave Olivier the chance to score his first F1 points—a chance he wasn't going to miss.
A number of other retirements for the leading drivers left Olivier in second place at the finish behind Gerhard Berger. Despite only scoring another three points all season, France had a new hero to watch out for, one who drove a French car with a French engine. It was a possible match made in heaven for Les Bleus. But for 1995, it was all changed. Out had gone the Renault engine to Benetton, and in had come Mugen-Honda engines.
It was a much stronger year for Olivier, as he began scoring regular points and out-scoring the second Ligier, which was shared between Aguri Suzuki and Martin Brundle.
He scored fourth at both Canada and Britain, and at the season-ending race in Australia it once again came good. Despite finishing two laps behind race-winner Damon Hill, Olivier managed to score another second place ahead of Gianni Morbadelli in the Arrows, despite his engine failing over the last few laps.
It left Olivier going into 1996 full of optimism, and a sixth place in Brazil got him one point over the first five rounds. But everything was to change for him at Monaco. Having qualified 14th, the best Olivier could probably hope for on the narrow streets was for retirements in front of him to claim a point or two.
But on race day, the heavens opened and left the track soaked for the race, giving Olivier reason for optimism. On the first lap, both Verstappen and Schumacher crashed into the carrier promoting Olivier two places, and further retirements from Katayma, Barrichello and Diniz elevated Panis further.
5 comments Last one added 12 months ago — Leave a Comment
Ben Auty 12 months ago
Great article Paul, well written matey, keep up the good work ... Never heard of Olivier Pansi though ? Ha ha ha ... I will amend it for you.
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Dave Harris 12 months ago
Olivier was always a top bloke. I don't think it was the accident that proved the turning point for him though, it was a series of relatively uncompetitive cars. The Prost team started on their downward spiral in 1999 (Alesi had to endure it in 2000) and he showed his worth as McLaren's test driver. The Toyota years showed that he could still be competitive, but they were very much a time of development for the constructor. He was unlucky not to be picked up for a better drive, but also that he stuck with Prost when the going got bad (ahem, Peugeot engines, cough).
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steven stones 12 months ago
5 stars for this gem, Paul. I remember the crash vividly. Nasty times once again in Montreal. I'm not sure about Panis' competative edge being lost. Maybe the machinery was just never as good again? Prost was suffering financial problems from the end of 1997 and BAR had a difficult time in the early 00s as well.
I think the very fact that Olivier was chosen as Mclaren tester and then picked by Toyota to help them in their maiden year speaks volumes about his abilities.
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Billy Amann 12 months ago
I remember Panis but not to the dergree i remember Hakkinen or Irvine. So I will comment on the article. Good job. well researched and well written...
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Daniel Chalmers 12 months ago
Good arcticle, Panis was a good driver. It would have been interesting to see how well he could have done without that crash.
Very similar circumstances to Johny Herbert who had that horrific crash at Brands Hatch before he came into F1. Without that crash his career could have been very different, he did very well to get 3 wins considering.
The most wasted talent from France though in my view is Jean Alesi, he looked very promising when he first came into F1 and a potential champion.
When the decision came as to whether he should join Ferrari or Williams, he listened to his heart instead of his head. Ferrari were nowhere during the time he was with them whilst Williams were dominating championships. Imagine if Alesi had joined Williams, France could possibly have had another champion and maybe even a double or three times world champion.
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