Adrien Tambay

Adrien Tambay is a French racing driver who competed in different championships in recent years. Previously, he spent five seasons in the DTM with Audi between 2012 and 2016. Earlier in a career, he was active in different single-seater competitions (Formula BMW, Formula 3, Auto GP, GP3 Series).

Adrien Tambay

Son of an F1 legend Patrick Tambay

Although he is a son of former F1 Grand Prix winner Patrick Tambay, it was his mother Dominique who initially approached him to karts when he was only five years old. He started to drive go-karts competitively in 2002. He reached a peak of his karting career in 2006, finishing third in the World Series of Karting championship.

The young Formula BMW racer Adrien Tambay with his father

Two seasons in Formula BMW

Adrien's first competition with cars was the Formula BMW ADAC in 2007. He won two races, earning the Rookie of the Year award and finishing fourth overall. He also appeared in some races of the Formula BMW USA and participated in the Formula BMW World Final.

In 2008, Tambay stepped into the European Formula BMW series, winning two races and finishing third in the points, behind Esteban Gutierrez and Marco Wittmann.

Adrien Tambay in 2011

No success in Formula 3, winning races in Auto GP and GP3 Series

The next step was the Formula 3 Euro Series with the ART Grand Prix Team. Driving a Dallara-Mercedes, he scored no points over the season. He was also forced to miss three rounds due to a heavy head concussion he suffered while playing a football match.

In 2010, Tambay moved to Auto GP Series, driving for Gravity-Charouz Racing. He was a race winner at Imola and finished sixth in the points. During the year, he entered a couple of rounds in the GP3 Series with Manor Racing, winning a sprint race at Spa.

In 2011, he was driving for two teams in the Auto GP Series ( (DAMS, Campos Racing), winning a race at Mugello and finishing fourth in the points. During 2011, he made two guest appearances in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series.

Two starts in rallying

While racing in different formula competitions, Andrien Tambay made two starts in rally events in 2010 and 2011. In November 2010, he was driving a Peugeot 207 R3T at Rallye du Var, navigated by Denis Giraudet, not finishing the rally.

In January 2011, he started at Rallye Monte-Carlo, again with Giraudet. This time. Tambay was driving Citroen DS3 R3T and finishing in 18th place.

Adrien Tambay's Audi RS5 DTM

Joining Audi DTM team in 2012

Early in 2012, Tambay was invited by Audi to test their A5 DTM car. He showed strong performance at the test, earning a contract to drive the #18 car in the 2012 DTM season.

He was on a podium in a show event at Olympic Stadium in Munich and then in a championship race at Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Torno. He finished a season tenth in the points, what remained his best result in all five DTM seasons.

Adrien Tambay spent five seasons with Audi in DTM

Racing in the DTM until 2016

In 2013, he moved to Audi Sport Team Abt's #24 Audi RS5 DTM. He was among point-scorers four times, finishing 14th in the final classification. He was again 14th in the points in 2014 when he was driving the #16 Audi RS5 DTM. The highlight of the season was a pole position and third place in the season-opening race at Hockenheimring.

In 2015, the DTM race schedule had been expanded to two races at every event. In eighteen races, Tambay managed to score points just twice in the #27 Audi, finishing 24th in the final standings. In the 2017 DTM season, Tambay was driving the #27 Audi for Team Rosberg. The second-place finish at Hungaroring was his only podium and he finished 18th in the points.

Various competitions in recent years

In 2017, Audi's DTM line-up was cut off from eight to six drivers and Tambay left the series, spending a year without racing. In 2018, he joined Strakka Racing to drive a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the Blancpain GT Series and Intercontinental GT Challenge.

In 2019, his main competition was the French GT Championship with Cool Racing's Porsche Cayman GT4.