Nico Prost


Nicolas Jean Prost is a French professional racing driver. He recently raced in the FIA Formula E Championship before quitting the series. He is also a longstanding racer in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Lotus Rebellion Racing. He also competes in the Andros Trophy and he was a reserve driver for Lotus F1. He is a son of four-time Formula One world champion Alain Prost.

Career

Early years

Born in Saint-Chamond, Loire, and despite being the oldest son of four-time Formula One World Drivers' champion Alain Prost and his wife Anne-Marie, he started his career at the late age of 22 in Formula Campus. Like his father, Prost was a golfer, winning tournaments when he was at Columbia University in New York.

Formula Three

In 2006, he joined Racing Engineering to contest in the Spanish Formula Three Championship. 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 Spanish Formula Three Championship 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, Nicolas was the rookie driver for Team France.
For A1 GP season 4, 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 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 and Nick Heidfeld, their Lola B12/60 Coupe Toyota covered a total of 367 laps, in the Circuit de la Sarthe. Prost drove the last stage of the competition.

Le Mans Series

In 2009, he participated in the European Le Mans Series for Speedy Racing Team Sebah alongside Marcel Fässler and Andrea Belicchi. The trio finished 5th in the championship.
Since 2010 he is racing in the European Le Mans Series for Rebellion Racing alongside Swiss racing driver Neel Jani.

FIA World Endurance Championship

In 2012 and 2013, Prost competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Rebellion Racing 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. 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 Andros Trophy 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

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.
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.
For 2014, he remains test and development driver for Lotus.

Formula E

On 30 June 2014, Prost signed up for the inaugural FIA Formula E Championship with the team e.dams Renault. At the first race in Beijing, Prost became the first man to achieve a pole position in Formula E. He led the race until the last lap in the last corner where he was involved in a heavy crash with Nick Heidfeld. 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, 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

YearTeamChassisPowertrain123456789101112PosPoints
2014–15e.dams RenaultSpark SRT01-eSRT01-eBEI
12†
PUT
4
PDE
7
BUE
2
MIA
1
LBH
14
MCO
6
BER
10
MSC
8
LON
7
LON
10
6th
2015–16Renault e.damsSpark SRT01-eRenault Z.E 15BEI
Ret
PUT
10
PDE
5
BUE
5
MEX
3
LBH
11
PAR
4
BER
4
LON
1
LON
1
3rd115
2016–17Renault e.damsSpark SRT01-eRenault Z.E 16HKG
4
MRK
4
BUE
4
MEX
5
MCO
9
PAR
5
BER
5
BER
8
NYC
8
NYC
6
MTL
6
MTL
Ret
6th93
2017–18Renault e.damsSpark SRT01-eRenault Z.E 17HKG
9
HKG
8
MRK
13
SCL
10
MEX
Ret
PDE
15
RME
14
PAR
16
BER
14
ZUR
Ret
NYC
10
NYC
11
19th8

Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.