Ollie Panis

[ralf fan]

SO Ollie is starting his final GP in Japan... howd you rate him?
he seems to be part of the furniture in f1... either testing or with a driving role year in year out since he joined...
Obviuosly his finest hour was the victory at Monaco 96... a crazy race but nonetheless a win is a win..

all in all a fast driver with one of those nice guy attitudes... he was no mug starting 157 GP's and obviously is rated highly by those who took him on...

BTW this also will make MS the oldest driver on the grid.... Michelle is the Grandpa of the grid...

[luke]

Who is replacing him for Brazil?

And has Trulli replaced Zonta?

Or is it Zonta and Trulli what is the line up?

:confused:

[ralf fan]

Panis and Trulli for Japan
ZOnta and Trulli for Brazil

[Knowlesy]

Solid driver. And who could forget his Monaco win and his flying start to 1997.

I think his best aspect was his personality.....easy going, friendly. He'll be missed.

[Kicking-back]

He'll be missed, but he's had a good career and it is the right time to be retiring.

He had his day of days in Monaco - most drivers don't ever get near a win anywhere.

He could have had more wins, I think, if it hadn't been for his crash in Canada.

But thanks for the memories, Olivier.

[Jordi]

It was a shame, 1997. He could have finished well up the standings that year and after that it was quite difficult to repeat the success as Prost was less and less competitive. And the BAR and Toyota stints haven't reported the results he deserved.

By the way, I think 2005 will be the first year since the 60's (can't recall the last year) without a French driver on the grid. Who would have thought that when Depailler, Laffite, Jabouille, Prost, Tambay, Arnoux et al raced?

[Kicking-back]

We may see Franck Montagny in a Minardi.

[BSchneiderFan]

I think it's 1964, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Panis. Hmmm. As fast as Hakkinen and Coulthard? The testing at McLaren suggested it was possible. But who can know? 1997 was the disaster - if it hadn't have been for Canada... But I'm sorry he's going. I still wonder - do Toyota know or fear something about Ralf that we don't? Maybe Panis will return. But, if not, adieu, mon ami.

[climb]

A very good driver, whose career was irremediably damaged from that nasty accident in Canada.

[Suzy]

Good, solid driver right from the start. His first year in F1 saw him finish 16 out of the 17 races which was rather impressive for a rookie driver.

The start of 1997 was extremely good - would Prost still be going if Olivier hadn't had that awful accident in Canada? The pace he'd showed up until that point indicated that another race win on merit was not far away.

The crash in Canada left him with ankle to knee places in both legs for 18 months - who knows what a further crash would have done to him and to get back behind the wheel was impressive.

His year at McLaren shook a lot of people up and transformed F1 to a certain extent. No longer did teams look towards young inexperienced drivers for test roles - now there are quite a few former F1 drivers with experience carrying out the crucial testing jobs.

He's a very friendly person too. I will miss him a lot from F1 but I'm glad to see that he'll still be in a testing role next season.

[jetsetter]

Whenever i watched Panis i have always wondered what may have been except for that accident in '97, i believe he has far more talent than his solitary victory indicates.

[Tweed]

Was it Jacques Laffitte who said that Schumacher and Panis were the most impressive through the Swimming Pool section at Monaco in 1997? He'd have probably won in Argentina that year, as well as Spain. But ever since those 2 horrible years at Prost ( 1998-1999 ) he seemed to lose something and everyone forgot about him. Since then, he's probably been seen as a safe pair of hands, but not much else.

[Ryo28]

He had the advantage of the Bridgestone tyres in 1997, but still had an exceptional year until his Montreal crash. I seem to recall that in his first test at Magny Cours after the crash, he set a time quick enough for pole for the '97 French GP! He always comes across as a decent bloke as well.

[Dani Filth]

solid driver .. reliable. .

[BootsOntheSide]

Definitely one of the 'nice guys' of motor racing, and a fast, smart and capable driver as well. Not one of the greatest by any means, but plenty of worse drivers have won races. Looking at his pace at McLaren I suspect he fully recovered,e ventually, from Canada, but the career momentum was gone.

[mp356a]

One of our all time favorite drivers. A good all-arounder. The Mrs. & I will miss him.

[BSchneiderFan]

Will he have any interest in racing elsewhere, I wonder? La Sarthe, perhaps?

[raul_iulian]

He made enough money, 4 him and for his family to live the rest of their lives in peace! God speed, O.Panis! God bless u!

[raul_iulian]

Hope we will see u in LeMans or DTM!!!!

[Kicking-back]

I think his ambassadorial and testing role with Toyota will prevent him from doing other forms of racing.

[Kirk]

Originally posted by jetsetter
Whenever i watched Panis i have always wondered what may have been except for that accident in '97, i believe he has far more talent than his solitary victory indicates.

Agreed. A class act Olivier is and I know he will be missed by many in F1. I'm happy for him that he gets to stay as a tester for a while longer and who knows he may get a another start or 2 before he's out of F1 entirely.