Olivier Pla

Olivier Pla
Olivier Pla
	Pla at the 2013 6 Hours of Silverstone
Nationality	French
Born	22 October 1981 (age 40); Toulouse (France)
Le Mans Series (LMP2) career
Debut season	2008
Current team	Quifel ASM Team
Starts	10
Wins	2
Poles	3
Fastest laps	5
Best finish	1st in 2009
Previous series
2007; 2005–07; 2004; 2003; 2001–02; 2000	Porsche Cup Germany; GP2 Series; World Series by Nissan; Formula 3 Euro Series; French Formula Three; Formula Campus
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	2008–2016
Teams	OAK Racing, Quifel ASM Team
Best finish	8th (2013)

Olivier Pla (born 22 October 1981) is a professional racing driver from France.

Career[]

French Formula Campus and Formula Three[]

Born in Toulouse, Pla started his career in 2000 in French Formula Campus before moving on to French Formula Three Championship in 2001 with the Saulnier Racing team. He finished eighth in the series standings, taking nine points-scoring positions in eleven races, including a podium in the penultimate race of the season at Magny-Cours.^[1]

In 2002, Pla stayed in the series but switched to the ASM team. He finished third, behind Renaud Derlot and Tristan Gommendy, taking nine podium places from fourteen races, including wins at Croix-en-Ternois and Bugatti Circuit.^[2]

In 2003, Pla joined the Formula 3 Euro Series with ASM. He finished third, behind Christian Klien and Ryan Briscoe, taking nine podium places from twenty races.^[3]

World Series by Nissan[]

2004 saw Pla leave the Euroseries, joining the World Series by Nissan. He contested two rounds with RC Motorsport before joining Carlin Motorsport to replace Michael Keohane. He finished ninth, taking thirteen points-scoring positions in eighteen races, including a win at Estoril.^[4]

GP2 Series[]

In 2005 he raced in the inaugural GP2 Series season for David Price Racing. In the early part of the season he stalled on the grid several times — some blamed the GP2 cars for the high number of stallings, while others noticed that the same drivers seemed to be affected regularly. In another race his team mate selected reverse instead of first gear and went backwards into Pla's car. However, he took advantage of the reverse grid system to finish eighth in Race One and thus take pole for Race Two twice (at Hockenheim and Silverstone), winning both those races to finish 11th in the championship. He remained with DPR for 2006, but was dropped mid-season after running out of sponsorship, after a difficult period which saw him score no points and injure his hand in Monaco.

In 2007, he competed in the German Porsche Carrera Cup. However, he was recalled to DPR in the latter stages of the GP2 season to replace the injured Christian Bakkerud. In 2008, he moved to sports car racing, driving a Lola Le Mans Prototype in the Le Mans Series and 24 Hours of Le Mans.

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship[]

Pla joined Mazda Motorsports for part of the 2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaign and signed with Meyer Shank Racing for a full DPi season in 2021.^[5]

Racing record[]

Career summary[]

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2000	Formula Renault Campus France	Formula Campus	?	?	?	?	?	391	3rd
2001	French Formula Three Championship	Saulnier Racing	11	0	0	0	1	74	8th
2002	French Formula Three Championship	ASM	14	2	3	1	9	159	3rd
	FIA European Formula Three Cup		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	7th
	Korea Super Prix		1	1	1	0	1	N/A	1st
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	2nd
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
2003	Formula 3 Euro Series	ASM	20	0	3	0	8	74	3rd
2003	Masters of Formula 3	ASM	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	7th
2004	World Series by Nissan	RC Motorsport	18	1	0	0	1	56	9th
2004	World Series by Nissan	Carlin Motorsport	18	1	0	0	1	56	9th
2005	GP2 Series	DPR	22	2	0	1	2	20	13th
2006	GP2 Series	DPR/DPR Direxiv	9	0	0	0	0	0	27th
2007	Porsche Carrera Cup Germany	MRS-Team	9	0	1	0	0	34	15th
2007	GP2 Series	DPR	2	0	0	0	0	0	35th
2008	Le Mans Series - LMP2	Quifel ASM Team	5	0	0	0	1	12	8th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2	Quifel ASM Team	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	4th
	American Le Mans Series	Team LNT	1	0	0	0	0	20	14th
2009	Le Mans Series - LMP2	Quifel ASM Team	5	2	3	5	3	33	1st
2009	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2	Quifel ASM Team	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
2010	Le Mans Series - LMP2	Quifel ASM Team	5	1	0	0	3	44	6th
2010	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2	Quifel ASM Team	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	7th
2011	Le Mans Series - LMP1	Quifel ASM Team	3	0	0	0	1	9	5th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP1	Quifel ASM Team	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	Blancpain Endurance Series	SOFREV ASP	1	0	0	0	0	8	29th
	French GT Championship	SOFREV ASP	14	0	1	3	2	58	10th
2012	FIA World Endurance Championship	OAK Racing	8	0	1	?	0	18.5	20th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	European Le Mans Series - LMP2		2	1	1	0	2	62	2nd
	Blancpain Endurance Series	SMG Challenge	4	0	0	0	0	9	22nd
2013	World Endurance Championship - LMP2	OAK Racing	8	0	1	0	5	132.5	2nd
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2	OAK Racing	1	0	1	0	1	N/A	2nd
	Blancpain Endurance Series - Pro-Am	SMG Challenge	1	0	0	0	0	13	28th
2014	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2	G-Drive Racing	8	4	7	7	6	137	2nd
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship - Prototype		6	1	0	1	2	172	14th
	Blancpain Endurance Series - Pro-Am	TDS Racing	1	0	0	0	0	9	22nd
	FFSA GT Championship	TDS Racing	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2015	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP1	Nissan Motorsports	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	European Le Mans Series - LMP2	Krohn Racing	2	0	0	0	0	14	15th
	IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship - Prototype	Krohn Racing	2	0	1	0	5	45	20th
	Blancpain Endurance Series - Pro-Am	Nissan GT Academy Team RJN	1	0	0	0	0	6	25th
2016	FIA World Endurance Championship - GTE Pro	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	9	1	1	0	3	118	4th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - GTE Pro	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	4th
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - Prototype	Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	4	1	2	3	2	113	13th
	European Le Mans Series - LMP2	Krohn Racing	5	0	0	0	0	8	12th
2017	FIA World Endurance Championship - GTE Pro	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	9	0	0	1	1	95	8th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - GTE Pro		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	10th
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - GTLM		2	0	0	0	0	50	20th
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - Prototype	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	4	0	0	2	0	99	16th
	European Le Mans Series - LMP2	IDEC Sport Racing	3	0	0	0	0	2.5	23rd
2018	European Le Mans Series - LMP2	Racing Engineering	5	1	0	0	2	66	3rd
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - Prototype	Tequila Patrón ESM	3	0	0	0	0	43	40th
	Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup	Garage 59	1	0	0	0	0	0	85th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - GTE Pro	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	6th
2018-19	FIA World Endurance Championship - GTE Pro	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	8	1	2	0	2	88	5th
2019	24 Hours of Le Mans - GTE Pro	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	6th
	European Le Mans Series - LMP2	Thunderhead Carlin Racing	1	0	0	0	0	27.5	15th
	European Le Mans Series - LMP2	Algarve Pro Racing	4	0	0	0	0	27.5	15th
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - DPI	Mazda Team Joest	4	1	1	1	1	102	14th
2020	24 Hours of Le Mans - GTE Pro	Risi Competizione	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	4th
2020	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - DPI	Mazda Team Joest/Mazda Motorsports	4	0	1	1	2	110	13th
2021	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - DPI	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	10	0	0	0	2	2668	8th
2021	FIA World Endurance Championship - Hypercar	Glickenhaus Racing	2	0	0	0	0	24	7th

Complete GP2 Series results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	DC	Points
2005	DPR	IMO FEA 9	IMO SPR 5	CAT FEA Ret	CAT SPR Ret	MON FEA 9	NÜR FEA Ret	NÜR SPR 8	MAG FEA Ret	MAG SPR 9	SIL FEA 8	SIL SPR 1	HOC FEA 8	HOC SPR 1	HUN FEA 7	HUN SPR Ret	IST FEA 9	IST SPR 17	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR Ret	SPA FEA 11	SPA SPR 10	BHR FEA Ret	BHR SPR DNS	13th	20
2006	DPR	VAL FEA 10	VAL SPR 15	IMO FEA Ret	IMO SPR 20†																				27th	0
2006	DPR Direxiv					NÜR FEA 15	NÜR SPR Ret	CAT FEA DSQ	CAT SPR 20	MON FEA Ret	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	MAG FEA 16	MAG SPR 9	HOC FEA	HOC SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	IST FEA	IST SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR			27th	0
2007	DPR	BHR FEA	BHR SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MAG FEA	MAG SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	NÜR FEA	NÜR SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	IST FEA	IST SPR	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 13	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	VAL FEA	VAL SPR			35th	0

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results[]

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2008	Quifel ASM Team	Miguel Amaral Guy Smith	Lola B05/40-AER	LMP2	325	20th	4th
2009	Quifel ASM Team	Miguel Amaral Guy Smith	Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S/2	LMP2	46	DNF	DNF
2010	Quifel ASM Team	Miguel Amaral Warren Hughes	Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S/2	LMP2	318	20th	7th
2011	Quifel ASM Team	Miguel Amaral Warren Hughes	Zytek 09SC	LMP1	48	DNF	DNF
2012	OAK Racing	Jacques Nicolet Matthieu Lahaye	Morgan LMP2-Judd	LMP2	139	DNF	DNF
2013	OAK Racing	David Heinemeier Hansson Alex Brundle	Morgan LMP2-Nissan	LMP2	328	8th	2nd
2014	G-Drive Racing	Roman Rusinov Julien Canal	Morgan LMP2-Nissan	LMP2	120	DNF	DNF
2015	Nissan Motorsports	Jann Mardenborough Max Chilton	Nissan GT-R LM Nismo	LMP1	234	DNF	DNF
2016	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Billy Johnson Stefan Mücke	Ford GT	GTE Pro	339	21st	4th
2017	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Billy Johnson Stefan Mücke	Ford GT	GTE Pro	332	27th	10th
2018	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Billy Johnson Stefan Mücke	Ford GT	GTE Pro	340	21st	6th
2019	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Billy Johnson Stefan Mücke	Ford GT	GTE Pro	340	25th	6th
2020	Risi Competizione	Sébastien Bourdais Jules Gounon	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	GTE Pro	339	23rd	4th
2021	Glickenhaus Racing	Franck Mailleux Pipo Derani	Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH	LMH	367	4th	4th

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results[]

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Pts
2012	OAK Racing	LMP2	Morgan LMP2	Judd HK 3.6 L V8	SEB 2	SPA 5	LMS Ret							20th	18.5
2012	OAK Racing	LMP2	Morgan LMP2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8				SIL 6	SÃO 3	BHR 6	FUJ 3	SHA 3		20th	18.5
2013	OAK Racing	LMP2	Morgan LMP2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 2	SPA 2	LMS 2	SÃO 6	COA 6	FUJ 3	SHA 2	BHR 2		2nd	132.5
2014	G-Drive Racing	LMP2	Morgan LMP2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 1	SPA 1	LMS Ret							2nd	137
2014	G-Drive Racing	LMP2	Ligier JS P2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8				COA 3	FUJ 1	SHA 1	BHR 3	SÃO Ret		2nd	137
2015	Nissan Motorsports	LMP1	Nissan GT-R LM Nismo	Nissan VRX30A 3.0 L Turbo V6	SIL	SPA	LMS Ret	NÜR	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR		34th	0
2016	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	LMGTE Pro	Ford GT	Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Turbo V6	SIL 5	SPA Ret	LMS 1	NÜR 4	MEX 11	COA 13	FUJ 2	SHA 2	BHR 6	4th	118
2017	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	LMGTE Pro	Ford GT	Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Turbo V6	SIL 4	SPA 3	LMS 6	NÜR 6	MEX 7	COA 8	FUJ 4	SHA 4	BHR 5	8th	95
2018–19	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	LMGTE Pro	Ford GT	Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Turbo V6	SPA 1	LMS 3	SIL 6	FUJ 8	SHA 7	SEB 18	SPA 10	LMS 4		5th	88
2021	Glickenhaus Racing	LMH	Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH	Glickenhaus 3.5 L Turbo V8	SPA	ALG	MNZ Ret	LMS 4	BHR	BHR				7th	24

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Team	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Points
2014	OAK Racing	P	Morgan LMP2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 V8	DAY 6	SEB 4	LBH 4	LGA	DET 3	WGL	MOS 1	IMS	ELK 11	COA	PET		21st	172
2015	Krohn Racing	P	Ligier JS P2	Judd HK 3.6 V8	DAY 13	SEB 6	LBH	LGA	DET	WGL	MOS	ELK	COA	PET			20th	45
2016	Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	P	Ligier JS P2	Honda HR35TT 3.5 Turbo V6	DAY 11	SEB 7	LBH	LGA	DET	WGL 3	MOS	ELK	COA	PET 1			13th	113
2017	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	GTLM	Ford GT	Ford 3.5 EcoBoost V6	DAY 7	SEB 5	LBH	COA				LIM		VIR			20th	50
2017	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	P	Ligier JS P217	Gibson GK428 4.2 V8					DET	WGL 4	MOS		ELK 7		LGA 7	PET 10	16th	99
2018	Tequila Patrón ESM	P	Nissan Onroak DPi	Nissan VR38DETT 3.8 Turbo V6	DAY 19	SEB 16	LBH	MDO	DET	WGL 15	MOS	ELK	LGA	PET			40th	43
2019	Mazda Team Joest	DPi	Mazda RT24-P	Mazda MZ-2.0T 2.0 L Turbo I4	DAY 9	SEB 6	LBH	MDO	DET	WGL 1	MOS	ELK	LGA	PET 11			14th	102
2020	Mazda Team Joest	DPi	Mazda RT24-P	Mazda MZ-2.0T 2.0 L Turbo I4	DAY 2	DAY	SEB	ELK									13th	110
2020	Mazda Motorsports	DPi	Mazda RT24-P	Mazda MZ-2.0T 2.0 L Turbo I4					ATL 7	MDO	PET 7	LGA	SEB 3				13th	110
2021	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	DPi	Acura ARX-05	Acura AR35TT 3.5 L Turbo V6	DAY 4	SEB 3	MDO 6	DET 6	WGL 2	WGL 6	ELK 5	LGA 4	LBH 6	PET			8th	2668

References[]

^ "2001 French Formula 3 Championship". speedsport-magazine.com. Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
^ "2002 French Formula 3 Championship". speedsport-magazine.com. Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
^ "2003 Formula 3 Euro Series". speedsport-magazine.com. Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
^ "2004 Formula Nissan V6 World Series". speedsport-magazine.com. Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
^ Pruett, Marshall (October 16, 2020). "Pla confirmed for 2021 Meyer Shank Acura DPi seat". Racer. Retrieved October 17, 2020.

External links[]

Official website
Olivier Pla career summary at DriverDB.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Jonathan Cochet	Korea Super Prix Winner	Succeeded by Richard Antinucci
Preceded by Jos Verstappen	Le Mans Series — LMP2 Champion 2009 With Miguel Amaral	Succeeded by Thomas Erdos Mike Newton

[1] "2001 French Formula 3 Championship". speedsport-magazine.com. Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-26.

[2] "2002 French Formula 3 Championship". speedsport-magazine.com. Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-26.

[3] "2003 Formula 3 Euro Series". speedsport-magazine.com. Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-26.

[4] "2004 Formula Nissan V6 World Series". speedsport-magazine.com. Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-26.

[5] Pruett, Marshall (October 16, 2020). "Pla confirmed for 2021 Meyer Shank Acura DPi seat". Racer. Retrieved October 17, 2020.

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