Alexandre Cougnaud (born 5 December 1991) is a French

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

. who currently competes in the

European Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

with

Graff Racing Graff Racing is an auto racing team based in France. Graff Racing
Translation from fr, February 20, 2021,The team was founded in 1 ...

Career

Early career

Cougnaud, born in

Les Sables-d'Olonne Les Sables-d'Olonne (; French meaning: "The Sands of Olonne"; Poitevin: ''Lés Sablles d'Oloune'') is a seaside town in Western France, on the Atlantic Ocean. A subprefecture of the department of Vendée, Pays de la Loire, it has the administ ...

, France, began

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

in 2002 and raced primarily in his native France country. Having finished sixth in the Formula Kart France series in 2008, he entered the Formul'Academy Euro Series the following year, driving for Signatech; he finished 14th in the championship, with eight points.
In 2010, he entered four rounds of the Formula Renault 2.0 Suisse for ARTA Engineering; he took a single podium, and finished ninth in the championship, with 57 points.
In 2011, he entered a single round of the Championnat VdeV with AB Sport Auto, in addition to fourteen rounds of the

Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Formula Renault 2.0 Alps was a category of Formula Renault open-wheel racing, created by the merging of the Formula Renault 2.0 Middle European Championship (formerly known as Formula Renault 2.0 Switzerland) and Formula Renault 2.0 Italia. Ov ...

with ARTA Engineering, and three races of the

Formula Ford EuroCup The Formula Ford EuroCup, or European Formula Ford Championship, refers to two pan-European championships for Formula Ford competitors. 1969–2001 The original series was one of the earliest Formula Ford series, first run in 1969 and won by Gerr ...

with Cliff Dempsey Racing; he was classified tenth in the Championnat VdeV, and 17th in the Formula Renault Alps.

European F3 Open

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, Cougnaud decided to race in "Copa/Cup Class" of the

European F3 Open Championship The Euroformula Open Championship (formerly the Spanish Formula Three Championship, European F3 Open Championship) is a junior formula racing series based in Spain. It was one of six national and international Formula Three championships in Europe ...

for the

Dallara Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari (Parma), Italy he created "D ...

F308 cars with Top F3 French team. He had a successful season, finishing 3rd in the overall classification of the Cup class with eight podiums. In

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, Cougnaud joined the Italian team

RP Motorsport RP Motorsport was an auto racing team based in Italy in Piacenza. The Italian team won many times the EuroFormula Open Championship, becoming one of the most successful outfit in the series. In February 2022 the team assets were sold to Irish ra ...

to drive a

F312 car. He and

Santiago Urrutia Santiago Urrutia Lausarot (born 30 August 1996) is an Uruguayan racing driver. He currently competes in the World Touring Car Cup, driving for Cyan Performance Lynk & Co. He formerly competed in Indy Lights, and was the 2015 Pro Mazda series ch ...

were originally the two drivers chosen to drive a F312 car for Fabio Pampado's team; and they have been joined by Alexander Toril and Sandy Stuvik to compete in the European F3 Open with a Dallara Formula 3 F312 as well. Cougnaud 2013 Jerez

Cougnaud had some difficulties with the set-up of his car at the beginning of the season, especially in bad weather conditions and he also incurred several penalties, like at Silverstone, where he finished fifth in the second race but got a 30-second penalty after the race, so fifth place was for Stern. He had a good result at

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the ...

where he finished fourth in the first race, and third in the second one. At

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

, in October, he did his best performance of the season in the second race : pole position, P2 and fastest lap. He could not resist to his teammate Sandy Stuvik in the last lap. Cougnaud had a great finish of the season at Barcelona finishing in third position for the first race and winning the second one (his first victory in Formula 3).

Porsche Carrera Cup France

In both 2014 and 2015 Alexandre Cougnaud raced in the

Porsche Carrera Cup France Porsche Carrera Cup France is a one make motor racing championship held in France. The cars are Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (Type 991.2) with 4.0 liters, flat-6 naturally aspirated engines that produce and 480 N·m. Champions References External li ...

championship. He finished in 10th position the first year and in 12th position the second year.

European Le Mans Series

In 2016, Alexandre joined the famous

(ELMS), a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and run by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). For his first year in ELMS, Alexandre won two races for the Yvan Muller Racing team. The first one being the prestigious Road To Le Mans race and the second one, the last leg of the 2016 championship in Estoril. In 2017, Alexandre extended his contract with the Yvan Muller racing team for one year. After two legs he is in second position of the LMP3 classification with one podium (2nd position) in Monza.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

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

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cougnaud, Alexandre 1991 births Living people French racing drivers Formula Renault 2.0 Alps drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers European Le Mans Series drivers Auto Sport Academy drivers RP Motorsport drivers Graff Racing drivers Saintéloc Racing drivers 24H Series drivers Le Mans Cup drivers