Nicolas "Nico" Jean Prost (born 18 August 1981) is a French professional racing driver. He most recently raced in the

FIA Formula E Championship Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The series was conceived in 2011 in Paris by FIA president Jean Todt and Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag, who ...

before quitting the series. Also, he was a longstanding racer in the

FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship is an auto racing world championship organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The series supersedes the ACO's former Intercont ...

for Lotus

Rebellion Racing Rebellion Racing is a Swiss racing team that competes in endurance racing. The team competed in the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup season and won the LMP1 teams' title in the 2011 Le Mans Series season. The team started as an association ...

. Furthermore, He competes in the

Andros Trophy The Andros Trophy (''Trophée Andros'') is the French national ice racing championship. History The idea of an ice racing series first became an idea when professional racer Max Mamers (French Rallycross Champion 1982 and 1983 with Talbot Ma ...

and he was a reserve driver for the now defunct Lotus F1 team. He is a son of four-time Formula One world champion

Alain Prost Alain Marie Pascal Prost (; born 24 February 1955) is a French retired racing driver and Formula One team owner. A four-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion, from 1987 until 2001 he held the record for most Grand Prix victories until Mich ...

Career

Early years

Born in

Saint-Chamond, Loire Saint-Chamond () is a commune in the Loire department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in central France. Situated 13 km northeast of the city of Saint-Étienne and 50 km southwest of Lyon, the town dates back to the Roman period. ...

, and despite being the oldest son of four-time

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

World Drivers' champion

and his wife Anne-Marie, he started his career at the late age of 22 in Formula Campus. He was born 2 days after his father had competed in the

1981 Austrian Grand Prix The 1981 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Österreichring on 16 August 1981. It was the eleventh race of the 1981 Formula One World Championship. The 53-lap race was won by Frenchman Jacques Laffite, driving a Talbot L ...

. Like his father, Prost was a golfer, winning tournaments when he was at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York.

Formula Three

In 2006, he joined Racing Engineering to contest in the

Spanish Formula Three 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 ...

. He won one race and had six podiums, which earned him 4th place in the championship as well as the best rookie title. In 2007, he finished third in the

with 2 wins, 1 pole and 7 podiums.

Euro Formula 3000

In 2008, he joined Bull racing and won the Euroseries 3000 championship in his first year with one win, two poles and seven podiums.

A1 Grand Prix

For A1 GP season 3 (2007–2008), Nicolas was the rookie driver for Team France. For A1 GP season 4 (2008–2009), Nicolas was still the rookie driver and topped every single rookie sessions. He was promoted to racing driver for the end of the season and showed that he had the pace to fight on top. The team issued in a statement at the end of the seasons that he should be driving the entire 2009–2010 season.

Sports car racing

24 Hours of Le Mans

In 2007, he competed with Team Oreca in a Saleen S7-R with Laurent Groppi and

Jean-Philippe Belloc Jean-Philippe Belloc is a racecar driver from France. He was born in Montauban, on 24 April 1970. Belloc started racing in single-seaters and won the French Formula Renault Championship in 1992, at his second attempt, after four wins. Moving up t ...

and finished 5th in his category. In 2009, he raced for the first time in the LMP1 category, with Speedy Racing Team Sebah. He drove a great race, especially on Sunday morning with a stunning quadruple stint which moved the car from 8th to 5th. Unfortunately, a gearbox problem later dropped the car to 14th. After a difficult year in 2010, where he nonetheless drove the fastest lap of rebellion cars, he had a great race in 2011. Prost and his teammates Jani and Bleekemolen finished 6th and 1st in the unofficial petrol class. In the 80th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012, Prost and the Rebellion Racing Team got the fourth place in the LM-P1 class along with his co-drivers

Neel Jani Neel Jani (born 8 December 1983) is a Swiss professional Porsche factory driver. His father is from India and his mother is German Swiss. He achieved his greatest success winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016 after first joining Porsche's LMP ...

and

Nick Heidfeld Nick Lars Heidfeld (born 10 May 1977) is a German professional racing driver. Despite scoring regular podium finishes in with Williams Grand Prix Engineering, Williams, and in and with BMW in Formula One, BMW Sauber, Heidfeld never won a rac ...

, their Lola B12/60 Coupe Toyota covered a total of 367 laps (3,108.123 miles), in the

Circuit de la Sarthe The Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, also known as Circuit de la Sarthe (after the 1906 French Grand Prix triangle circuit) located in Le Mans, Sarthe, France, is a semi-permanent motorsport race course, chiefly known as the venue for the 24 Hou ...

. Prost drove the last stage of the competition.

Le Mans Series

In 2009, he participated 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 ...

for Speedy Racing Team Sebah alongside Marcel Fässler and

Andrea Belicchi Andrea Belicchi (born 18 December 1976) is an Italian professional racing driver. He has competed in such series as the Porsche Supercup, Le Mans Series and FIA World Endurance Championship. He won the Russian Formula Three Championship in 200 ...

. The trio finished 5th in the championship. Since 2010 he is racing in the European

for Rebellion Racing alongside Swiss racing driver

FIA World Endurance Championship

In 2012 and 2013, Prost competed in the

with

in a LMP1-class Lola B12/60 Toyota. With his mate Neel Jani, they won 9 races in these two years in the LMP1 privateer category. He will race the new Rebellion R-One in the

2014 FIA World Endurance Championship season The 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship season was the third season of the FIA World Endurance Championship auto racing series, co-organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). Th ...

. Prost has won the first four races of 2014 in the LMP1-L Category and has already clinched the title in the category.

American Le Mans Series

Prost clinched back to back victories at Petit Le Mans in 2012 and 2013. He also finished 3rd in the Sebring 12 Hours in 2013.

Andros Trophy

During the 2009–2010 winter, Prost participated to the famous

ice racing series in the electrical car category. He clinched the championship with 5 poles, 6 wins, and 18 podiums out of 21 races. He successfully defended his title during the 2010–2011 winter. In 2011–2012, he joined his dad in the works Dacia team and claimed the rookie title in the main series.

Formula One

Nicolas Prost Lotus 2013 Silverstone F1 Test 005

In 2010, he drove a Renault F1 for the first time in Magny-Cours and impressed the team, beating his daily opponent by more than 2 seconds. In 2011, he joined the gravity management structure and remained a driver for Lotus Renault F1. He drove some test sessions and straight line tests for the team, as well as some commercial roadshows. In 2012, he remained a part of the Lotus Renault program and on 4 October 2012 it was announced that he would be testing with Lotus Renault Formula One during the young driver test at Abu Dhabi.Nicolas Prost to test for Lotus in Abu Dhabi
/ref> In 2013, he was still test and development driver for Lotus. He drove the rookie test in Silverstone where he posted the absolute fastest lap among the rookies and was only three tenths behind Vettel in the Red Bull. In 2014, he remained test and development driver for Lotus.

Formula E

Nicolas Prost ePrix de Punta del Este 2014

On 30 June 2014, Prost signed up for the inaugural

with the team e.dams Renault. At the first race in Beijing, Prost became the first man to achieve a

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 ...

in Formula E. He led the race until the last lap in the last corner where he was involved in a heavy crash with

. Prost turned into Heidfeld's car when he was being challenged into the last corner, lunging Heidfeld's car into a barrier. He later apologised for the incident. He was subsequently given a ten place grid penalty for the following race in Malaysia. In the second race in Putrajaya, Malaysia, he took pole position again but was given a ten place grid penalty carried from the previous race. He took his first win in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, despite a late challenge from Scott Speed. The result was enough for Prost to take the lead in the drivers' championship from Lucas di Grassi.

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Prost was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Le Mans Series results

Intercontinental Le Mans Cup results

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Complete Formula E 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) ^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Prost, Nicolas 1981 births Living people People from Saint-Chamond French people of Armenian descent French racing drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers German Formula Renault 2.0 drivers French Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Formula Renault Eurocup drivers A1 Team France drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers European Le Mans Series drivers World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers American Le Mans Series drivers FIA GT1 World Championship drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers Formula E drivers Stock Car Brasil drivers Sportspeople from Loire (department) A1 Grand Prix drivers Graff Racing drivers DAMS drivers Racing Engineering drivers Rebellion Racing drivers Oreca drivers Campos Racing drivers