GP2 Feature - Lapierre’s GP2 Future
01/08/2006
The moment Nicolas Lapierre’s Arden GP2 car headed skywards after being hit by another car in the first corner mayhem at Monaco, his season went out the window. What was supposed to be his GP2 Championship-winning year was effectively over.
When the car landed, his lower back took the brunt of the impact, crushing two vertebrae. He climbed out of the car and collapsed. The excruciating pain in his back made him wince. He lay down and waited for an ambulance.
As he lay on the ground, he knew immediately that he’d miss at least the next round of the championship at Silverstone.
“It was painful,” says Nicolas, “but I didn’t know how bad it was until I went to hospital. The doctors kept me in bed for a week, and I then had to wear a corset for a further six weeks.”
As events panned out, Neel Jani subbed for Lapierre at Arden for the following races at Silverstone and Magny Cours, as well as the all-important mid-season test at Paul Ricard.
Lapierre’s recouperation was slow and it was only at the beginning of July that the doctors took off his corset and he was able to start swimming. However, it took a visit to a sports clinic in Finland for him to set a comeback date.
“Initially I wanted to return for my home race at Magny Cours,” says Nicolas, “but that went out the window very quickly because my back was still painful. After I went to Finland, where they told me I was okay, I focused on coming back at Hockenheim. To test that I was ready, I completed 60 laps of Magny Cours in a Formula Renault the week before, and that went well.”
He was in the car at Hockenheim, but, unfortunately, there has been no victorious comeback. He finished 20th in race one and seventh in race two, and the results didn’t improve in Hungary, where he registered two DNFs.
So what’s next? “I am still one hundred percent focused on F1,” he says. “In Plus, I have a loyal French sponsor who want me to achieve my aims, so I’m now focusing on next year. I’d like to do A1 GP again this winter and if I do GP2 again next year, I need to win the Championship.
“After spending two years living in England, I’d like to return to France. I’ve had fun living in Oxford – in the same block of apartments as Fernando Alonso – but I want to return to France. There are some very good French teams in GP2, like ART Grand Prix, so we’ll see what happens.”