May 19, 1996. It is a date Olivier Panis will never forget in his life. The Frenchman is forever linked to the day he won his first and only Grand Prix. And not just any.
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Graham Hill, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Lewis Hamilton, Olivier Panis. An illustrious list, in which Panis (with all due respect) is the odd one out. Hill, Senna, Schumacher, Prost, and Hamilton: they won multiple titles, countless races, and all triumphed several times in Monaco. Panis did the latter only once, in 1996, and it was his only victory. But like every win in Monaco, Panis’s is very special.
Ligier’s JS43 was a developed Benetton B195, with a Mugen-Honda instead of Renault at the back (Motorsport Images)
1996 is an important year for Panis, who debuted in Formula 1 for Ligier in 1994. Ligier is up for sale, making the future of the team (and Panis) uncertain. Panis scores a point early in ’96, in Brazil, and can keep up in the midfield, but no more. So on the rainy Sunday afternoon of May 19, he walks to the fourteenth grid spot in Monaco to get into the Ligier with number 9. But there is already a bit of a buzz. “It’s going to be a good day,” he tells his wife that morning.
It also turns out to be a chaotic day. At the start, five drivers drop out immediately, after which the race becomes a game of ‘and then there were…’ Panis steadily moves forward. With Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, and Gerhard Berger dropping out ahead of him, but also thanks to opportunistic overtaking maneuvers – there is no other style in Monaco – on, for example, Martin Brundle, Mika Häkkinen, and Eddie Irvine. He is third when engine trouble for Damon Hill and a broken suspension for Jean Alesi put him in the lead.
The many retirements helped, but Panis also drove an attacking race himself (Motorsport Images)
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That is in lap sixty, when the Grand Prix, wet then dry again, turns into a race against the clock. While the two-hour maximum time ticks away, Panis holds firm with David Coulthard on his tail. When the flag falls after 75 of the originally 78 laps – Panis crosses first under it.
“The fireworks, honking boats in the harbor, the French flag pressed into my hands… I will never forget it,” Panis, visibly stunned, can’t believe it either. “I thought about points beforehand, maybe a podium, but the win…” The driver who already proved in 1994 in Germany and 1995 in Australia that he could hold his own in attrition races and earned podiums, now stands on the highest step. He rightly wants nothing to do with pure luck. “I didn’t win because so many people dropped out, but because I attacked the whole race.”
Monaco is the highlight for Panis
That May 19 in Monaco remains the highlight of Panis’s Formula 1 career, although in ’97 (the year he broke his legs in a crash in Canada) he scored two nice podiums with Ligier’s successor Prost GP. He raced Formula 1 until 2004. Panis’s name ultimately remains in another list: Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Jarno Trulli, Olivier Panis. Drivers who scored their only wins in Monaco. But if you only win once, it might as well be in Monaco.
David Coulthard, Panis, and Johnnie Herbert (from left to right) were three of the four drivers who finished the race running in Monaco (Motorsport Images)
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