Tristan Vautier

Tristan Vautier
Vautier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2015
Nationality	French
Born	22 August 1989 Saint-Martin-d'Hères (France)
IndyCar Series career
Debut season	2013
Current team	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
Car no.	55
Starts	20
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	20th in 2013
Previous series
2012 2010–2011 2009 2009 2008 2007–09 2007 2006	Firestone Indy Lights Star Mazda Championship FIA Formula Two Formula Palmer Audi Formula Renault 2.0 WEC Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 2.0 France Formula Renault Campus
Championship titles
2012 2011	Firestone Indy Lights Star Mazda Championship

Tristan Vautier (born 22 August 1989) is a French professional racing driver.

Racing career

Formula Renault

Born in Saint-Martin-d'Hères, Isère, Vautier began his career in the French Formula Renault Campus series in 2006, where he finished runner-up.^[1] He moved up to the main Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0 series in 2007, finishing fourth, also competing in some events in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, scoring a 2nd and 3rd in Zolder.^[1] In 2008 the French series was replaced by the West European Cup, in which Vautier finished sixth.^[1]

Formula Palmer Audi

Vautier moved to the Formula Palmer Audi series in 2009, where he finished fourth with six victories.^[2]

Formula Two

Vautier made his FIA Formula Two Championship debut at Circuit de Catalunya, in place of Edoardo Piscopo.^[3][4] Vautier excelled in the pre-race tests and in the first race, where he finished third behind Andy Soucek and Mikhail Aleshin. He also finished in the points in the second race, finishing sixth. Those two results were enough to place him thirteenth overall in the championship standings.

Star Mazda

2010 saw Vautier move to the American Star Mazda Championship driving for Andersen Racing. Vautier won the season-opener at Sebring Raceway and then in June at New Jersey Motorsports Park. However, several mechanical issues saw him achieve only fifth in the final standings despite being the only driver other than champion Conor Daly to win more than one race. He returned to the series in 2011, this time driving for JDC Motorsports. He won four races and finished every race in the top five, winning the championship over Connor De Phillippi by 25 points. With the title he won a scholarship to move to Firestone Indy Lights in 2012 through the Road to Indy program.

Indy Lights

Vautier signed with Sam Schmidt Motorsports to race in Firestone Indy Lights in 2012.^[5] He won the pole in his first race on the Streets of St. Petersburg and took a flag-to-flag victory,^[6] duplicating his Star Mazda feat from two years before by winning on debut. Another win on the Milwaukee Mile came in the midst of a remarkable run of 20 consecutive Top 5 finishes (including the final 2 Star Mazda events of 2010, and his championship season of 2011) in his Road to Indy career. The streak ended at Toronto when a first-lap collision put him out of the race for the first time in an open-wheel car in nearly two years.

Vautier clinched the 2012 Firestone Indy Lights championship by eight points over Esteban Guerrieri.^[7] Winning a partial scholarship to compete in the IndyCar Series in 2013 through the Road to Indy program.

IndyCar

Vautier signed to compete in the 2013 IndyCar Series season for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.^[8] He is the first driver to be champion of two rungs of the Road to Indy ladder and move onto the IndyCar Series. Vautier finished 20th in points with a best finish of tenth in the second race of the season at Barber Motorsports Park. Vautier qualified in the Firestone Fast-Six on his debut race in St Petersburg, and 3rd for the following round in Barber. He won rookie of the year honors. He finished sixteenth in his first Indianapolis 500 race.

The Frenchman returned to IndyCar in 2015 as a part-time driver for Dale Coyne Racing. He qualified James Davidson's car for the Indianapolis 500, then raced in place of Carlos Huertas. A week later, he finished fourth in Detroit for the second race, starting last on the grid after qualifying was canceled. His showing got Dale Coyne to keep him in the car for the remainder of the season, and he backed his strong Detroit result with a 6th place in Mid-Ohio.

Sports car racing

Vautier debuted Sports Car racing while still racing open wheels, in the 2009 French GT Championship, and won on his debut race in Nogaro, teaming-up with French driver Jean-Charles Levy.

In 2014, Vautier was hired by the Mazda factory team to race at the four endurance races of the 2014 United SportsCar Championship in a LMP2 diesel prototype. At the 2015 24 Hours of Daytona he joined JDC/Miller, resulting third in the Prototype Challenge class.

The Frenchman has completed the 24 Hours of Spa twice for team Akka-ASP, in 2012 and 2014.

He recently competed in the Rolex 24 for team Stevenson Motorsports in the GTD class, and is scheduled to compete in the BlancPain Sprint Series with Team Akka-ASP for the 2016 season, alongside Mercedes factory driver, Swede Felix Rosenqvist.

Racing record

Complete Formula Two results

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

Year	No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2009	38	VAL 1	VAL 2	BRN 1	BRN 2	SPA 1	SPA 2	BRH 1	BRH 2	DON 1	DON 2	OSC 1	OSC 2	IMO 1	IMO 2	CAT 1 3	CAT 2 6	13th	9

American open–wheel racing results

(key)

Star Mazda Championship

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Rank	Points
2010	Andersen Racing	SEB 1	STP 9	LAG 15	IND 6	IOW 8	NJ1 6	NJ2 1	ACC1 23	ACC2 2	TRO 11	ROA 13	MOS 4	ATL 5	5th	400
2011	JDC Motorsports	STP 3	BAR 1	IND 4	MIL 4	IOW 4	MOS 5	TRO1 1	TRO2 3	SON 1	BAL 1	LAG 5			1st	426

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2012	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	STP 1	ALA 2	LBH 3	INDY 3	DET 5	MIL 1	IOW 4	TOR 11	EDM 6	TRO 1	BAL 1	FON 4	1st	461

IndyCar Series

(key)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2013	Schmidt Peterson Hamilton HP Motorsports	Dallara DW12	Honda	STP 21	ALA 10	LBH 17	SAO 16	INDY 16	DET 11	DET 14	TXS 18	MIL 21	IOW 13	POC 19	TOR 19	TOR 16	MDO 21	SNM 12	BAL 11	HOU 22	HOU 11	FON 21	20th	266
2015	Dale Coyne Racing			STP	NLA	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY 28	DET 17	DET 4	TXS 20	TOR 17	FON 17	MIL 16	IOW 12	MDO 6	POC 21	SNM 23				22nd	175

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2013	Dallara	Honda	28	16	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
2015	Dallara	Honda	32	28	Dale Coyne Racing

Complete Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos.	Points
2016	AKKA ASP	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Pro	MIS QR 7	MIS CR 32	BRH QR 9	BRH CR 9	NÜR QR 27	NÜR CR 10	HUN QR 2	HUN CR 4	CAT QR 3	CAT CR 1	7th	51

References

1. "Career statistics at Driver Database". Retrieved 2009-10-26.
2. "Tristan Vautier". Formula Palmer Audi. Retrieved 2009-10-26.
3. "Tristan Vautier to replace Edoardo Piscopo for Barcelona". FIA Formula Two Championship. 2009-10-23. Archived from the original on 2010-01-17. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
4. O'Leary, Jamie (23 October 2009). "Vautier to make F2 debut in Spain". autosport.com. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
5. "Vautier Joins Schmidt for 2012 Firestone Indy Lights Season". Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. 18 November 2011. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
6. Lewandowski, Dave (24 March 2012). "Vautier wins from pole in series debut at St. Pete". IndyCar. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
7. Lewandowski, Dave (15 September 2012). "Vautier claims championship by 8 points over Guerrieri". IndyCar.com. Retrieved 2012-09-15.
8. Tristan Vautier makes the jump to IndyCar, Autoweek, 28 January 2013, Retrieved 2013-01-29

External links

• Official website
• Tristan Vautier career summary at DriverDB.com