Remembering Driot, Campos and Gresini.
In The Eternal Racing Tracks, we remember drivers and paddock figures who have made a significant impact on motorsport and their rules and regulations. Part 4 of the series is dedicated to a trio of team bosses in junior formula categories, Formula E and MotoGP, who have tragically died in recent times.
Jean-Paul Driot (7th September 1950 – 4th August 2019)
Just hours after the DAMS team tasted the champagne following Nicholas Latifi’s Sprint Race victory at the Hungarian Formula 2 round, team founder Jean-Paul Driot suddenly lost his fight against short-term illness, aged 68. The Frenchman had been a catalyst for overseeing an incredibly successful junior team across a number of single seater and sportscar series.
Jean-Paul set up his eponymous team, Driot Associes Motor Sport, at the end of 1988 and it made its debut in Formula 3000 the following year. Driot’s team has won 13 drivers’ and 12 teams’ championships; whilst claiming 147 victories across various series including Formula 2, Formula 3 (and their predecessors GP2 and GP3), Formula 3000 and Formula Renault 3.5.
Kevin Magnussen, who drove for DAMS in his title winning Formula Renault 3.5 campaign in 2013, paid tribute to Jean-Paul and recalled the professional environment that helped him on his way to securing promotion to F1:
“The team made a massive difference to me. The way they work is really similar to what I’ve experienced in F1 and being with DAMS really prepared me well. The professionalism and F1-like environment is all down to Jean-Paul. That season was a breakthrough year for me.”
In recent years, DAMS collaborated with four-time F1 World Champion, Alain Prost, to establish a team in the FIA Formula E Championship. They found immediate success in partnership with Renault and won three consecutive Team’s Championships and also guided Sébastien Buemi to the Driver’s Championship in Season 3. Now running under the Nissan brand, the team still continues to challenge for victories and titles.
Jean-Paul was known for his ambition and whilst being more widely recognised for his contribution to junior formula categories, he led the team to pursue various avenues in sportscar racing. DAMS entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans on six occasions, the FIA GT Championship, as well as winning races in the Sports Racing World Cup and Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup and titles in Formula Le Mans Cup.
Driot’s death was a significant loss in the paddock, he had overseen more than 30 DAMS drivers go on to race in F1 – including Romain Grosjean, Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz. His team continues to run today at the hands of his sons, Olivier and Gregory, with the Driot legacy still continuing to find success to this date.
Adrián Campos (17th June 1960 – 28th January 2021)
The Formula 2 paddock had barely healed from the loss of one influential team boss before Adrián Campos died in January this year due to a heart condition. The former-F1 driver played a fundamental role in furthering Fernando Alonso’s career.
Adrián took part in 21 Grand Prix for Minardi between 1987 and 1988, with a best finish of 14th before leaving after five races of the 1988 season.Though Campos’ F1 career was void of success, he found his calling in team ownership. Focussing on Spain’s rapidly growing Open by Nissan series, Campos Motorsport won the title in three consecutive years between 1998 and 2000, with Marc Gene, Fernando Alonso and Antonio Garcia.
In 2005, the team entered the new GP2 category under the Campos Grand Prix name. After two anonymous years, the squad made a big step in 2007 after Italian driver, Giorgio Pantano, picked up two victories on his way to finishing third in the series. The following year, future Virgin Racing F1 Driver, Lucas di Grassi, finished in the same position and, with support from future-Renault driver, Vitaly Petrov, Campos won the teams’ title.
Campos then took the bold decision to move into F1, handing the baton over to new ownership to run the GP2 team under the Addax name. Having gained an F1 entry as Campos Grand Prix, he began to prepare for the 2010 season. Ultimately, financial problems led to a change of ownership and the team morphed into HRT before its first race weekend. The team would only survive three seasons in the sport before collapsing at the end of 2012.
The Campos name returned to GP2 in 2014, Indonesian driver Ryo Haryanto would finish 4th for the Spanish Team in 2015 and secure promotion to F1 with Manor. Campos had a difficult first year under the new F2 rules in 2017, when a revolving door of drivers led to it giving Lando Norris his first outing in the category in the Abu Dhabi finale.
In 2019, Jack Aitken starred for the team after a difficult thrashing at ART in 2018 at the hands of George Russell, the Anglo-Korean driver scored three victories and a further four podiums to finish 5th in the standings. He would then go on to make that substitute appearance at the Sakhir Grand Prix in 2020 for Williams, challenging regular driver Nicholas Latifi.
Fernando Alonso paid a poignant tribute to the enthusiastic team owner:
“One of the saddest days for the motorsport family,” he said. “Thank you for dreaming about Formula 1. Thank you for believing in young people. Thank you and rest in peace.”
The team enters 2021 with a stunning tribute livery for their cars in FIA Formula 2, FIA Formula 3 and Spanish Formula 4.
Fausto Gresini (23rd January 1961 – 23rd February 2021)
The world of motorsport was still reeling from the sudden loss of Adrián Campos when Fausto Gresini tragically passed away just a few weeks later, owing to complications of COVID-19, having been in and out of an induced coma since Christmas 2020. He leaves behind a significant legacy in the world of MotoGP, notably a successful team who appears in all three divisions of the FIM MotoGP World Championship and the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup.
The Italian rider began competing in the 125CC World Championship (now Moto3) in 1983 and took his debut win the following season. Just two years later, he took the crown for the first time as he won the 1985 125cc World Championship. Fausto added a second title in 1987, taking an impressive 10 victories on his way to the crown.
After hanging up his leathers at the conclusion of the 1994 season, he then found equal and impressive success as he began a career on the other side of the pit wall. Overseeing his first championship success as a team owner in 2001 at the hands of Japanese rider, Daijiro Kato in the 250CC Championship (Moto2) with 11 victories that season.
It wasn’t plain sailing for Gresini’s team, having promoted Kato to MotoGP in 2002 to his Telefónica Movistar Honda squad, the young star unfortunately died after a crash at the 2004 season opening Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka. Yet the Italian minnows guided rider Sete Gibernau to finish runner up to Valentino Rossi that season.
Success had dried up for the team and the switch from Honda to become the de facto Aprilia factory team has only sent them further down the grid, however additional rider Championships came in 2010 with Toni Elias (Moto2) and 2018 with Jorge Martin (Moto3) showing Gresini’s incredible tact in preparing young riders.
For the 2021 season, the team will be running a special tribute livery with Aleix Espargaro and Lorenzo Savadori forming their line-up – they will both be eager to catapult the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini back into regular points contenders. Espargaro has already topped the first day of pre-season testing in Qatar, in a much-needed boost after such a tragic winter for the team.
Their legacy:
Driot, Campos and Gresini were all charismatic and successful bosses that have left significant voids in their respective teams. Whilst the shockwaves at DAMS have calmed, both Campos and the Gresini teams face a tough first season without their leaders in such extraordinary times for the world of motorsport. The trio had a knack of nurturing young talent into the premier divisions of both single-seater and motorcycle racings, and it cannot be underestimated how much their passing’s have impacted the teams they ran so successfully.
All three teams have enshrined the ethos of young talent and whilst the motorsport community mourns the loss of influential paddock figures, the torch of eponymous team ownership has been passed on to the next generation, who are more than capable to continue the legacy of their founders.
