Franck Montagny

Franck Montagny (born 5 January 1978) is a French former racing driver. He briefly raced for the Super Aguri Formula One team in 2006.

Early career

Born in Feurs, Loire, Montagny started racing karts there in 1988, winning the cadet class in the French Karting Championship in 1992, and the National 1 class the following year.

He made his debut in cars in 1994, aged sixteen, promptly winning the French Renault Campus championship. The next two years were spent in Formula Renault, with finishes in fourth (the highest-finishing rookie that year) and sixth (despite missing half the season with multiple fractures obtained in an accident at Le Mans) respectively, before transferring up to French Formula Three in 1997 with the La Filière Martini team, debuting with another fourth place championship finish.

Formula Three breakthrough

Montagny had a breakthrough year in Formula Three in 1998, including a pole position at the Spa-Francorchamps race ahead of much more experienced drivers including Mark Webber, Luciano Burti, Enrique Bernoldi and Peter Dumbreck. He repeated the feat in the Zandvoort Masters in the Netherlands later that year, beating then German Formula Three champion Nick Heidfeld. He consistently outpaced long-time teammate Sébastien Bourdais and ended the season with ten wins from 22 races, including twelve pole positions, finishing the championship as runner-up behind David Saelens.

Formula 3000 and sports cars

Montagny moved up to Formula 3000 in 1999, driving for the DAMS team which was falling from its peak by then. One podium finish at the Hungaroring was his main success; he totalled only 6 points and tenth place that season. He however ended the year with success in the Elf Masters Karting at Paris-Bercy.

A repeat of his unsuccessful year in Formula 3000 prompted a move to World Series by Nissan in 2001, signing for the Epsilon by Graff team. He won 8 races out of a possible 16, and beat Tomas Scheckter to the championship. He changed teams for 2002 to Racing Engineering, but was beaten into second place in the championship by Ricardo Zonta. He supplemented this with a sixth-place finish for Oreca at the Le Mans 24 hours.

Formula One

Renault and Jordan

Montagny returned to the World Series by Nissan in 2003 with Gabord Competicion, and secured his second championship title with nine victories, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. This performance earned him a test with the Renault Formula One team, in which he impressed sufficiently to earn a contract as a test driver in 2003, moving up to become third driver during the 2004 & 2005 seasons. He did an impressive one-off for Jordan as third driver on the Friday of the 2005 European Grand Prix, clocking a quicker time than Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro, the official Jordan drivers.

In mid-2004, as part of his Renault F1 testing duties, Montagny became the chief test and development driver for the new GP2 Series, which would be powered by Renault engines. Montagny was the first driver to take the wheel of the car, and along with former F1 driver and ex-Renault F1 tester and Friday driver Allan McNish, divided testing duties between them, before the GP2 Series was officially launched in 2005. Much of the success of the championship and the drivability of the car has been placed on the development skills of Montagny. This was further evidenced at the start of the 2006 GP2 Series season, when Montagny was called in to test for the newly created FMS International team, to aid them and their drivers in understanding the complexities of the car, at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, Spain, where Montagny had put in hundreds of testing laps in his time with Renault F1.

Super Aguri

File:Franck Montagny 2006 French Grand Prix.jpg

Montagny driving for Super Aguri at the 2006 French Grand Prix.

File:Pescarolo C60 2006.JPG

Montagny driving for Pescarolo Sport during practice for the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans.

For 2006, Super Aguri took Montagny on as third driver; however, he was promoted to full race driver in May after it was announced that Yuji Ide was to drop back into testing; Ide was demoted at the behest of the governing body who considered him insufficiently experienced for Formula One. Montagny hence competed in his first Grand Prix, the 2006 European Grand Prix on 7 May, qualifying last and retiring with a hydraulics problem. He did not finish his second race 2006 Spanish Grand Prix: after a great start, enabling him to gain 3 positions, he retired on lap 10 with a mechanical failure. It was third time lucky for him at the Monaco Grand Prix, when he finished the 78-lap race in sixteenth place, three laps behind the leader.

During the break between the British Grand Prix and the Canadian Grand Prix, Montagny was able to participate in the Le Mans 24 Hours, finishing second for Pescarolo Sport behind only the dominating Audi factory R10s. He was the first active Formula One driver to also participate at Le Mans in the same year since Mark Blundell in 1995.

On 12 July, Super Aguri announced that Sakon Yamamoto would replace him from the German Grand Prix onwards. Montagny did not appear in his role as third driver for the next two weekends as only two Super Aguri SA06s were available but a third chassis was prepared during the summer break enabling him to reprise this role at the Turkish Grand Prix.

Toyota

Montagny tested for Toyota F1 in September 2006 at Silverstone. A month later, Toyota confirmed that he would join the team as test driver for the 2007 season, as Olivier Panis and Ricardo Zonta were leaving the team. After spending 2007 as a test driver, Montagny left the team after a test at the Circuit de Catalunya in November.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was still interested in gaining a drive in F1,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and had been linked with the Renault F1 team for the 2010 season,<ref>Montagny confirms Renault Talks F1-Live.com 21/10/2009</ref> but Renault signed Vitaly Petrov.

After Formula One

File:ILMC Zhuhai start 2048.jpg

Montagny leads the field at the start of the 2010 1000 km of Zhuhai. He and teammate Stéphane Sarrazin won the race.

Montagny competed in the final Champ Car World Series race, held at the Long Beach circuit on April 20, 2008. He finished second in his first appearance in a race in the United States, five seconds behind Australian Will Power. In June, he drove the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP at the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished in the third place with Ricardo Zonta and Christian Klien.

Montagny made his debut in the American Le Mans Series with Andretti Green Racing at the 2008 Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in July 2008, driving an Acura ARX-01B.<ref>ALMS News: ANDRETTI, MONTAGNY IN AGR ACURA AT LIME ROCK Template:Webarchive</ref>

He made his IndyCar Series debut in 2009 at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway with Andretti Green Racing.

Superleague Formula

Montagny has signed up to drive the Girondins de Bordeaux entry in the Superleague Formula for the 2010 season.<ref name="Bordeaux">Template:Cite news</ref>

Formula E

In May 2014, Andretti Autosport announced that Montagny would race for them in the inaugural season of the FIA Formula E Championship in 2014–15.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He raced for the team in Beijing and Putrajaya, scoring a podium in Beijing and scoring 18 points overall in the two races. However, he was replaced in Punta del Este by Jean-Éric Vergne. It was not immediately known why, but Montagny later admitted that he tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a cocaine derivative after the Putrajaya ePrix.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In March 2015, Montagny was given a two-year ban from racing, and was also disqualified from the Putrajaya race, in which he initially placed fifteenth.<ref name="Ban">Template:Cite news</ref>

Current life

Montagny now works as a pit lane summariser and expert for French television.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Position
1994	Formula Renault Campus France	?	?	?	3	284	1st
1995	Formula Renault France	La Filière	14	0	1	70	4th
1996	Formula Renault France	La Filière	8	0	2	74	6th
1997	French Formula 3 Championship	La Filière	17	1	4	129	4th
	British Formula 3 Championship		1	0	0	12	18th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	N/A	DNF
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	N/A	14th
1998	French Formula Three	La Filière	22	12	10	226	2nd
	Le Mans 24 Hours - LMP1		1	0	0	N/A	5th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	N/A	DNF
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	N/A	6th
1999	International Formula 3000	DAMS	10	0	0	6	12th
	American Le Mans Series - LMP		1	0	0	0	NC
	Le Mans 24 Hours		1	0	0	N/A	DNF
2000	International Formula 3000	DAMS	10	0	0	5	15th
	Le Mans 24 Hours		1	0	0	N/A	19th
2001	Open Telefónica by Nissan	Epsilon by Graff	18	8	7	221	1st
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Viper Team Oreca	1	0	0	N/A	DNF
2002	World Series by Nissan	Racing Engineering	18	3	4	222	2nd
	FIA Sportscar Championship - SR1	Team Oreca	1	0	0	15	15th
	Le Mans 24 Hours		1	0	0	N/A	6th
2003	World Series by Nissan	Gabord Competición	17	4	9	241	1st
2004	Formula One	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	Test driver
2005	Formula One	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	Test driver
		Jordan Grand Prix
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Audi PlayStation Team Oreca	1	0	0	N/A	4th
2006	Formula One	Super Aguri F1	7	0	0	0	27th
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Pescarolo Sport	1	0	0	N/A	2nd
2007	Formula One	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Test driver
2007–08	A1 Grand Prix	France	4	0	0	118**	4th**
2008	Champ Car World Series	Forsythe/Pettit Racing	1	0	0	N/A†	N/A†
	American Le Mans Series - LMP2	Andretti Green Racing	7	1	2	90	11th
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Team Peugeot Total	1	0	0	N/A	3rd
2009	IndyCar Series	Andretti Green Racing	1	0	0	12	38th
	American Le Mans Series	Team Peugeot Total	2	0	1	56	9th
	Le Mans 24 Hours		1	0	0	N/A	2nd
2010	American Le Mans Series - LMP1	Team Peugeot Total	1	0	1	N/A	NC
	Le Mans 24 Hours		1	0	0	N/A	NC
	Intercontinental Le Mans Cup		2	0	2	N/A	NC
	Superleague Formula	Girondins de Bordeaux	12	0	1	372**	11th**
2011	American Le Mans Series - LMP1	Peugeot Sport Total	2	0	1	N/A	NC
	Le Mans 24 Hours		1	0	0	N/A	3rd
2012	International V8 Supercars Championship	Kelly Racing	2	0	0	0	NC‡
	Le Mans 24 Hours	OAK Racing	1	0	1	N/A	DNF
2014	IndyCar Series	Andretti Autosport	1	0	0	8	36th
2014–15	Formula E	Andretti Autosport Formula E Team	2	0	0	18	16th
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** Team standings
† Championship merged into the IndyCar Series after one race.
‡ Not Eligible for points

Sportscar racing

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Courage Compétition	Template:Flagicon Henri Pescarolo Template:Flagicon Olivier Grouillard	Courage C36-Porsche	LMP1	304	15th	4th
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Team DAMS	Template:Flagicon Christophe Tinseau Template:Flagicon David Terrien	Lola B98/10-Judd	LMP	77	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Team DAMS	Template:Flagicon Éric Bernard Template:Flagicon Emmanuel Collard	Cadillac Northstar LMP	LMP900	300	19th	9th
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Viper Team Oreca	Template:Flagicon Yannick Dalmas Template:Flagicon Stéphane Sarrazin	Chrysler LMP	LMP900	126	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon PlayStation Team Oreca	Template:Flagicon Stéphane Sarrazin Template:Flagicon Nicolas Minassian	Dallara SP1-Judd	LMP900	359	6th	5th
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Audi PlayStation Team Oreca	Template:Flagicon Jean-Marc Gounon Template:Flagicon Stéphane Ortelli	Audi R8	LMP1	362	4th	4th
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Pescarolo Sport	Template:Flagicon Sébastien Loeb Template:Flagicon Éric Hélary	Pescarolo C60 Hybrid-Judd	LMP1	376	2nd	2nd
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Peugeot Sport Total	Template:Flagicon Ricardo Zonta Template:Flagicon Christian Klien	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	LMP1	379	3rd	3rd
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Team Peugeot Total	Template:Flagicon Sébastien Bourdais Template:Flagicon Stéphane Sarrazin	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	LMP1	381	2nd	2nd
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Team Peugeot Total	Template:Flagicon Nicolas Minassian Template:Flagicon Stéphane Sarrazin	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	LMP1	264	DNF	DNF
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon Peugeot Sport Total	Template:Flagicon Stéphane Sarrazin Template:Flagicon Nicolas Minassian	Peugeot 908	LMP1	353	3rd	3rd
Template:24hLM	Template:Flagicon OAK Racing	Template:Flagicon Dominik Kraihamer Template:Flagicon Bertrand Baguette	OAK Pescarolo 01 Evo-Judd	LMP1	219	DNF	DNF
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Complete American Le Mans Series results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points	Ref
1999	DAMS	LMP	Lola B98/10	Judd GV4 4.0 L V10	SEB	ATL	MOS	SON	POR	PET Template:Small	MON	LSV					NC	0	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2000	Motorola DAMS	LMP	Cadillac Northstar LMP	Cadillac Northstar 4.0 L Turbo V8	SEB	CHA	SIL	NÜR Template:Small	SON	MOS	TEX	ROS	PET	MON	LSV	ADE	40th	20	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2008	Andretti Green Racing	LMP2	Acura ARX-01b	Acura 3.4L V8	SEB	STP	LNB	UTA	LIM Template:Small	MID Template:Small	AME Template:Small	MOS Template:Small	DET Template:Small	PET Template:Small	MON Template:Small		11th	90	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2009	Team Peugeot Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Peugeot HDi 5.5 L Turbo V12 (Diesel)	SEB Template:Small	STP	LNB	UTA	LIM	MID	AME	MOS	PET Template:Small	MON			9th	56	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2010	Team Peugeot Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Peugeot HDi 5.5 L Turbo V12 (Diesel)	SEB	LNB	MON	UTA	LIM	MID	AME	MOS	PET Template:Small				NC	–	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2011	Peugeot Sport Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908	Peugeot HDi 3.7 L Turbo V8 (Diesel)	SEB Template:Small	LNB	LIM	MOS	MID	AME	BAL	MON	PET Template:Small				NC	–	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2012	Level 5 Motorsports	P2	HPD ARX-03b	Honda HR28TT 2.8 L Turbo V6	SEB	LNB	MON 2	LIM	MOS	MID	AME	BAL	VIR	PET			NC	–	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
1999	DAMS	IMO Template:Small	MON Template:Small	CAT Template:Small	MAG Template:Small	SIL Template:Small	A1R Template:Small	HOC Template:Small	HUN Template:Small	SPA Template:Small	NÜR Template:Small	12th	6
2000	DAMS	IMO Template:Small	SIL Template:Small	CAT Template:Small	NÜR Template:Small	MON Template:Small	MAG Template:Small	A1R Template:Small	HOC Template:Small	HUN Template:Small	SPA Template:Small	15th	5
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Complete Open Telefónica/World Series by Nissan results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	DC	Points
2001	Epsilon by Graff	JAR 1 Template:Small	JAR 2 Template:Small	EST 1 Template:Small	EST 2 Template:Small	ALB 1 Template:Small	ALB 2 Template:Small	VAL1 1 Template:Small	VAL1 2 Template:Small	MZA 1 Template:Small	MZA 2 Template:Small	MAG 1 Template:Small	MAG 2 Template:Small	CAT 1 Template:Small	CAT 2 Template:Small	VAL2 1 Template:Small	VAL2 2 Template:Small			1st	Template:Tooltip
2002	Racing Engineering	VAL1 1 Template:Small	VAL1 2 Template:Small	JAR 1 Template:Small	JAR 2 Template:Small	ALB 1 Template:Small	ALB 2 Template:Small	MZA 1 Template:Small	MZA 2 Template:Small	MAG 1 Template:Small	MAG 2 Template:Small	CAT 1 Template:Small	CAT 2 Template:Small	VAL2 1 Template:Small	VAL2 2 Template:Small	CUR 1 Template:Small	CUR 2 Template:Small	INT 1 Template:Small	INT 2 Template:Small	2nd	Template:Tooltip
2003	Gabord Competición	JAR1 1 Template:Small	JAR1 2 Template:Small	ZOL 1 Template:Small	ZOL 2 Template:Small	MAG 1 Template:Small	MAG 2 Template:Small	MZA 1 Template:Small	MZA 2 Template:Small	LAU 1 Template:Small	LAU 2 Template:Small	A1R 1 Template:Small	A1R 2 Template:Small	CAT 1 Template:Small	CAT 2 Template:Small	VAL 1 Template:Small	VAL 1 Template:Small	JAR2 1 Template:Small	JAR2 2 Template:Small	1st	241
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Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
Template:F1	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	Renault R23	Renault V10	AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	FRA Template:Small	GBR	GER	HUN	ITA	USA	JPN				–	–
Template:F1	Jordan Grand Prix	Jordan EJ15	Toyota V10	AUS	MAL	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR Template:Small	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	BRA	JPN	CHN	–	–
Template:F1	Super Aguri F1 Team	Super Aguri SA05	Honda V8	BHR	MAL	AUS	SMR	EUR Template:Small	ESP Template:Small	MON Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	USA Template:Small	FRA Template:Small									27th	0
		Super Aguri SA06													GER	HUN	TUR Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	CHN Template:Small	JPN Template:Small	BRA Template:Small
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Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points	Ref
2007–08	France	NED SPR	NED FEA	CZE SPR	CZE FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	NZL SPR	NZL FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	CHN SPR Template:Small	CHN FEA Template:Small	GBR SPR Template:Small	GBR FEA Template:Small	4th	118	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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American open–wheel racing results

(key)

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	No.	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points	Ref
2008	Forsythe/Pettit Racing	7	Panoz	Cosworth	HMS	STP	MOT1	LBH1 Template:Small	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	40th	0	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2009	Andretti Green Racing	25	Dallara	Honda	STP	LBH	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	TOR	EDM	KTY	MDO	SNM Template:Small	CHI	MOT	HMS			38th	12	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2014	Andretti Autosport	26	Dallara DW12		STP	LBH	ALA	IMS Template:Small	INDY	DET	DET	TXS	HOU	HOU	POC	IOW	TOR	TOR	MDO	MIL	SNM	FON		36th	8	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Complete Superleague Formula results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	Pos	Pts
2010	Girondins de Bordeaux Template:Small	SIL 1 Template:Small	SIL 2 Template:Small	ASS 1 Template:Small	ASS 2 Template:Small	MAG 1 Template:Small	MAG 2 Template:Small	JAR 1 Template:Small	JAR 2 Template:Small	NÜR 1 Template:Small	NÜR 2 Template:Small	ZOL 1	ZOL 2	BRH 1 Template:Small	BRH 2 Template:Small	ADR 1	ADR 2	POR 1	POR 2	ORD 1	ORD 2	BEI 1	BEI 2	NAV 1	NAV 2	11th	372

Super Final results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
2010	Girondins de Bordeaux Template:Small	SIL Template:Small	ASS Template:Small	MAG Template:Small	JAR Template:Small	NÜR Template:Small	ZOL	BRH Template:Small	ADR	POR	ORD	BEI	NAV

Complete Formula E results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Chassis	Powertrain	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos	Points
2014–15	Andretti Autosport	Spark SRT01-e	SRT01-e	BEI Template:Small	PUT Template:Small	PDE	BUE	MIA	LBH	MCO	BER	MSC	LDN	LDN	16th	18
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External links

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