Nigel Melker (born 25 January 1991) is a Dutch racing driver.

Career

Karting

Melker was born in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. He began his

motorsport Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

career in

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 2001, winning in the Dutch Mini Junior Cup. In 2005, he won the German Junior championship and finishing as runner-up in the European ICA Junior championship.

Formula Renault

After sitting out the 2007 season, Melker moved up to

single-seaters An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. He participated in the

Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup The Formula Renault Northern European Cup (formerly Formula Renault 2.0 NEC) was a Formula Renault, Formula Renault 2.0 championship originally held in Northern Europe (Germany, Netherlands and Belgium), but has expanded over the years to the whol ...

with

Van Amersfoort Racing Van Amersfoort Racing is an auto racing team based in the Netherlands. In 2022 the team competes in the Formula 2 Championship, the Formula 3 Championship, the Formula Regional European Championship, Euroformula Open Championship, Italian F4 Cha ...

. He finished in twelfth place in the standings with eleven point-scoring positions that gave him 120 points. He also took part in ten races of the

Italian Formula Renault Championship Formula Renault 2.0 Italia was a Formula Renault 2.0 racing series that is based in Italy. The series raced mostly on Italian races but it had regular races at Belgium's Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and in Spain. Several Formula One drivers ra ...

. He finished eighteenth with 37 points. The following season, Melker competed in both the

and Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championships with MP Motorsport. He finished eighteenth in the NEC standings, taking points in all six races he contested. In the Eurocup, he took part in the first five rounds, finishing 23rd with five points for sixth place at

Spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...

GP3 Series

In 2010, Melker became the first driver to join RSC Mücke Motorsport for the 2010 GP3 Series season. His team-mates were compatriot

Renger van der Zande Renger van der Zande (born 16 February 1986) is a Dutch racing driver who currently competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Chip Ganassi Racing. He is the son of the 1978 National Dutch Rallycross Champion Ronald van der Zan ...

and German

Tobias Hegewald Tobias Hegewald (born 3 August 1989 in Neuwied) is a German racing driver. Career Karting Hegewald spent three seasons racing in professional karting, including a 5th place in the 2002 Junior Monaco Kart Cup at ICA Junior level, racing against ...

. He started the season by taking the first

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

of his open-wheel racing career in the opening round at

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, but in the race he was involved in an accident on the opening lap and retired. In the sprint race he started from the back and rose to fourteenth place. He took another pole in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, but did not finish in the points until the final race of the season 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 ...

, restricting him to 23rd place in the championships. Melker remained in GP3 with the Mücke team for the 2011 season, alongside Michael Christensen and

Luciano Bacheta Akshay Luciano Bacheta (born 26 April 1990 in Romford, England) is a British professional racecar driver, born to Indian parents with Italian ancestry. Career Bacheta started karting at the age of fourteen in 2004 and stepped up to cars in 200 ...

(who was later replaced by

Daniel Mancinelli Daniel Mancinelli (born 23 July 1988, in San Severino Marche) is a professional racing driver from Italy. Career Karting Mancinelli enjoyed a long karting career prior to stepping up to single-seater racing. In 2003, he finished fourth in the It ...

). With the benefit of a year's experience in the category, his form was much stronger and he won the first race of the season in Turkey. This gave him the early championship lead, and he took a further four podium finishes, but he ultimately slipped to third place behind the Lotus ART duo of

Valtteri Bottas Valtteri Viktor Bottas (; born 28 August 1989) is a Finnish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Alfa Romeo, having previously driven for Mercedes from to and Williams from to . Bottas has scored race wins and podiums. H ...

and

James Calado James John Calado (born 13 June 1989) is a British professional racing driver from England, currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and other selected GT races for AF Corse. He won the LMGTE Pro class of the 2017 FIA World ...

after his team appeared to lose its competitive edge following mid-season testing at Barcelona.

Formula 3 Euro Series

As well as his 2011 GP3 campaign, Melker competed in the season's

Formula 3 Euro Series The Formula 3 Euro Series was a European-based junior single seater formula for Formula Three chassis that was launched (in its current form) in 2003 as a merger of the French Formula Three Championship and German Formula Three Championship. The ...

, also with Mücke, finishing in fourth position in the drivers' standings with four wins. He finished ahead of his team-mates

Felix Rosenqvist Felix Rosenqvist (born 7 November 1991) is a Swedish professional racing driver who currently drives the No. 6 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren SP in the NTT IndyCar Series. He was named Rookie of the Year for the IndyCar Series in 2019. Racing car ...

, Marco Sørensen and

Facu Regalia Facundo "Facu" Regalia (born 23 November 1991 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine racing driver. He competed in his first two Formula BMW seasons under a Spanish racing licence. Career Karting Regalia began karting in 2006 and raced primarily in S ...

, but was unable to consistently challenge dominant champion

Roberto Merhi Roberto Merhi Muntan (born 22 March 1991), is a Spanish racing driver who drove in Formula One for the Manor Marussia F1 Team during the 2015 season. Merhi has also raced in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for Pons Racing, and won the Formula 3 ...

, his

Prema Powerteam Prema Powerteam (competing as Prema Racing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, the FIA Formula 3 Championship and European Le Mans Series and as Prema Orlen Team in the FIA World Endurance Championship) is a motorsport team from Italy. It mainly ...

colleague

Daniel Juncadella Daniel Juncadella Pérez-Sala (born 7 May 1991) is a Spanish racing driver who currently competes in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. He is son of Xavier Juncadella and nephew of José María Juncadella, Alex Soler-Roig and Luis Pérez-Sala, als ...

, or

Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a ...

driver

Marco Wittmann Marco Wittmann (born 24 November 1989) is a German professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He currently resides in Markt Erlbach. Wittmann has competed in such series as Formula Three Euroseries The Formula 3 Euro Series wa ...

GP2 Series

After participating in the non-championship

2011 GP2 Final The 2011 GP2 Final was a special round of the 2011 GP2 Series, supporting the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 12 and 13 November 2011. The race was originally scheduled to be the first round of the 2012 GP2 Asia championship, but with the GP2 Asia s ...

with

DAMS A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...

, Melker switched to

Ocean Racing Technology Ocean Racing Technology (ORT) was a racing team that took part in both the GP2 Main Series and the GP2 Asia Series Championships. The team, owned by Tiago Monteiro and José Guedes, was formed at the end of the 2008 season after being purchased f ...

for the 2012 season, initially alongside

Jon Lancaster Jon Lancaster (born 10 December 1988 in Leeds) is a British auto racing driver. Career Early life and karting Lancaster was born on 10 December 1988 in Leeds, Yorkshire. He used to watch Formula One since he was three years old and always lik ...

. With a best race finish of fourth at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

, he ended the season 19th in the championship.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

Melker made his racing début in a Formula Renault 3.5 car at

2012, replacing

César Ramos César Altair Zanetti Ramos (born 25 July 1989 in Novo Hamburgo) is a Brazilian racing driver currently competing in the Stock Car Pro Series with Ipiranga Racing. Ramos has also previously raced in Formula Renault, Italian Formula Three, Blan ...

at the Lotus team. He qualified a respectable 14th for the first race and went on to take a podium at his first race at a wet racing track, finishing 3rd. He retired in the second race and was replaced by Estonian

Kevin Korjus Kevin Korjus (born 9 January 1993) is an Estonian racing driver. Career Karting Kevin Korjus was born in Tallinn, the son of former sidecarcross racer Aivar Korjus. He made his pan-European karting début in 2006, competing in the Rotax Max Euro ...

for the remainder of the season. He was the only driver in Lotus car #11 to get a podium that year. After a disappointing season in GP2, Melker went to Formula Renault 3.5 full-time for 2013, driving for previous year's team champions

Tech 1 Racing Tech 1 Racing is a racing team based in Toulouse, France. They currently compete in the World Series by Renault and Eurocup Mégane Trophy. Tech 1 also operate the Panis Racing LMP2 entry to the European Le Mans Series and the Ultimate LMP2 Pro ...

alongside series veteran

Mikhail Aleshin Mikhail Petrovich Aleshin ( rus, Михаи́л Петро́вич Алёшин, p=mʲɪxɐˈil pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ɐˈlʲɵʂɨn, born 22 May 1987 in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a Russian professional racing driver and the 2010 champion of the For ...

. Melker spent most of the season in the subtop of the championship, amassing 4 podiums and 136 points, as well as posting 2 fastest laps. His best weekend of the season was at the

Red Bull Ring The Red Bull Ring is a motorsport race track in Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race circuit was founded as Österreichring (translation: Austrian Circuit) and hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from to . It was later sh ...

when he was runner-up twice behind dominant winner Marco Sørensen. He finished the season in 6th place.

Formula Acceleration 1

Unable to find a drive in Formula Renault 3.5 for 2014, Melker turned his attention elsewhere. He signed with

Azerti Motorsport Azerti Motorsport (also known as Racing for Belgium) is a Belgian motorsport team founded by former racer Wim Coekelbergs. History Racing for Belgium started racing in Belgian Clio Cup in 2003, but graduated to the Eurocup Mégane Trophy in 200 ...

for the inaugural

Formula Acceleration 1 Formula Acceleration 1 (FA1) was a single make, open wheel auto racing series. It was unusual in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most formula racing series. ...

season. He was competitive immediately, finishing second twice at the opening round in Portugal, before taking a double victory at

Circuito de Navarra Circuito de Navarra is a motorsport race track that opened in June 2010 near Los Arcos in the Navarre region of Northern Spain. It is a permanent road course that hosted the Superleague Formula series and the FIA GT1 World Championship. Histo ...

. He went on to win the drivers' championship after a victory at the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

and a double victory at

Assen Assen () is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1809. Assen is known for TT Circuit Assen, the ...

Racing record

Career summary

† – As Melker was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete GP3 Series 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 ...