Lapierre calls time on illustrious driving career
Two-time FIA World Endurance Champion Nicolas Lapierre has announced his retirement from racing with immediate effect, as he prepares to permanently swap the steering wheel for a place on the pit wall.
Lapierre has been a mainstay of WEC since the series’ inception back in 2012, and prior to that, a successful single-seater star, catapulting himself into the limelight by winning the prestigious Macau F3 Grand Prix – in a high-calibre field that included the likes of future Formula 1 World Champions Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg – at the age of just 19.
In 2005, the Frenchman made history as the first pole position-winner in the GP2 Series – the antechamber to the FIA Formula One World Championship – and then played a pivotal role in Team France’s acquisition of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix title. He switched full-time to sportscars – a discipline in which he has gone on to achieve even greater glories – in 2008.
Success was swift. Contesting the Le Mans Series’ headlining LMP1 class alongside former Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis at Team Oreca Matmut, the pair secured third in the standings in 2009 before snatching the runner-up spoils the following season.
In 2011, Lapierre, Panis and Loïc Duval beat the works Peugeot and Audi entries to reach the top step of the rostrum in the 12 Hours of Sebring, bringing the Haute-Savoie native to the attention of Toyota, with the Japanese manufacturer recruiting him as a factory driver for its LMP1 programme in the newly-formed WEC for 2012.
From 16 starts with the team, he triumphed on six occasions, prior to being released midway through the 2014 campaign. That prompted a career reset and a step down to LMP2, but it was not long before Lapierre was winning again.
Joining Signatech-Alpine for 2016, he teamed up with Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi to dominate the category, with victories in almost half of the races propelling the crew to the coveted world championship crown. Lapierre repeated the feat during the 2018-19 ‘Super Season’, this time alongside André Negrão and Pierre Thiriet, with the trio never finishing lower than third.
Very much a lynchpin of Alpine’s endurance racing efforts, the 40-year-old contested the 2021 and 2022 WEC Hypercar campaigns with the French outfit – reaching the rostrum 11 times out of 12, and claiming a top three championship finish on both occasions – but last month’s 6 Hours of Fuji would be his swansong. Appropriately enough, he concluded it on the podium – the first top three result for the Alpine A424.
The statistics of Lapierre’s glittering career make for impressive reading: two WEC titles and three further top three championship finishes; 17 victories and 47 rostrum appearances across all WEC categories; four class triumphs and two outright podiums in the 24 Hours of Le Mans; and four top three championship finishes in the LMS/ELMS. He will be missed – but he will not be gone completely...
“It’s time for me to hang up my helmet and end this chapter of my life,” he reflected, in a video published to his social channels. “It was an honour for me to live out my passion for so many years and do what I love, and that was thanks to some very special people. My father was my first supporter, taking me to a go-kart track when I was nine. He has always been on my side and it was thanks to him that I could start this sport, and my wife has similarly supported me through all of my challenges.
“I would additionally like to thank Philippe Sinault and his team – standing on the top step of the Le Mans podium with Alpine was very special. I’m thinking also about Jean-Paul Driot, who left us too early; with DAMS, I achieved my first GP2 victory in 2007, and Jean-Paul definitely changed me as a person. Another very important man in my career was obviously Hugues de Chaunac, for bringing me into endurance racing. I raced many times with an Oreca chassis and have some great memories with that team.
“I want to thank David Floury as well; in 2015, I was at probably the lowest point of my racing career and very close to stopping, but he was the one who brought me back. Also to the FIA, ACO and LMEM teams, I spent a lot of my career in your championships and it was a pleasure to race with you. To every member of every team I raced for, all the marshals around the world and all the fans, thank you.
“It was great to finish this journey on the podium [in Japan] and spray the champagne once more. My heart is full of gratitude for everyone who shared the journey with me, but now, after so many unforgettable moments, it’s time to step away and begin a new chapter in my life, on the other side of the pit wall. This is something I love as much as I love racing, so I won’t be far away. See you soon!”
