Johannes Antonius "Jan" Lammers (born 2 June 1956) is a Dutch racecar driver, most notable for winning the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans world endurance race, for Silk Cut Jaguar/TWR; after four seasons in Formula One racing, from 1979 through 1982, for the F1 teams of Shadow, ATS, Ensign and Theodore, respectively. After a world-record setting ten-year hiatus, Lammers made a brief Formula One comeback, for two races, with team March in 1992. Aside from racing in these two of the highest leagues of global auto-sports, Lammers has raced in an exceptionally wide number of racing series and competitions, domestic and abroad, over four decades.
Later in life, Lammers became a team owner as well, first setting up his own Formula Opel Lotus team, Vitaal Racing, winning the EFDA Opel Lotus Euroseries with Peter Kox in 1989, then creating the Racing for Holland outfit that raced in sportscars class in 2001–2007. Between 2005 and 2009, he was the seatholder of the Dutch A1 Grand Prix team. During his Racing for Holland days, Lammers combined racing and management duties to win the 2002 and 2003 FIA Sportscar Championship.
One of the most versatile drivers in modern motor racing history, Lammers started in touring cars, to become the youngest Dutch champion in history in 1973 while repeating the act in 1976. He also raced in the European Renault 5 Turbo Cup, taking the 1983 and 1984 European titles. As a single-seater driver, his steps towards Formula One include securing the title in the 1978 European Formula 3 Championship. He remains the only Dutch driver to have done so. At the zenith of his career in Group C sports-prototypes, Lammers lifted the crown in the 1992 Japanese Sportscar Championship.
Lammers has further raced in Formula Ford, Formula 2, IndyCar racing, International F3000, Japanese F3000, the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), BPR Global GT, FIA GT, the European Le Mans Series, the IMSA SportsCar Championship, the American Le Mans Series, Grand-Am, and the Dakar Rally.
Guest appearances include the Grand Prix Masters for retired F1 drivers, the BMW M1 Procar Series, the Dutch Supercar Challenge, the Dubai 24 Hours and Gulf 12 Hours endurance races, the VW Scirocco R-Cup and the Dutch domestic Tulpenrallye.
In recent years, Lammers was an important figurehead / ambassador for reviving the Dutch Formula One GP on the coastal dunes situated Zandvoort circuit, achieved since 2021.
Early career
Touring cars
Born in Zandvoort, Lammers grew up washing cars at the nearby school for advanced and anti-skid driving skills training, run by Dutch touring-car legend Rob Slotemaker. Encouraged by Slotemaker, and while still under-age for a regular Dutch driving licence, the teenager nicknamed 'Jantje' ('Little John') was also hired to teach drivers on a private, closed track, how to safely recover a car from a skid situation. Having recognised Lammers' talent, Slotemaker set him up in a Simca Rallye 2 for the 7,500-9,000 guilder Group 1 production car class in the 1973 Dutch Touring Car Championship. At 16 years of age, Lammers won his first-ever car race and continued to take the season title in his rookie year, becoming the youngest Dutch national auto racing champion in history.
Two more years in the Simca followed in a revised 8,000-10,000 guilder class, with Lammers taking four more wins in 1974 but narrowly missing out on a title repeat. Wins elude him in 1975 but his name has already been made. In 1976, he switched to an Opel Dealer Team Holland-run Opel Kadett GT/E to take his second Dutch title.
Road to Formula One
Formula Ford Dovetailing his 1976 touring-car campaign with a first season in Formula Ford, Lammers quickly realises his future is in single-seaters. Driving a Crosslé in the Benelux, German and European Championship, the touring-car boy wonder surprises everyone by grabbing pole position at his first race, winning at the Jyllandring and Mengen and shining in the soaking wet finale of the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.
Formula 3
Stepping up with Hawke to Formula 3 in 1977 proves to be a false dawn, as the Hawke proves no match for the Marches and the Ralts. For 1978, he switches to the Racing Team Holland outfit run by Alan Docking, with fellow future Formula 1 driver Huub Rothengatter and later Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendijk as his team mates. This is an inspired move as it leads to Lammers winning the 1978 European Formula 3 Championship after a close battle with Swede Anders Olofsson, while beating highly touted rivals such as Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. Lammers takes wins at Zandvoort, Magny-Cours, Karlskoga and in the famous Lotteria race at Monza to lift the crown. At the time, leading British magazine Autosport predicts: "He just has to be a World Champion of the eighties."
Formula 2 Having received an offer from the works March Formula 2 team, Lammers decides to jump the category to go straight into Formula One with Shadow in 1979. He will make his single Formula 2 appearance in 1980, driving a March-BMW in his home race at Zandvoort, where he retires from third place.
Formula One
Lammers spent four seasons in Formula One, racing largely uncompetitive machinery and failing to score a World Championship point in any of his 41 appearances. He was considered talented, however; Lammers only narrowly missed out on the chance to join Ferrari in 1982 to replace Gilles Villeneuve, who was killed at Zolder earlier in the year. The drive went to Patrick Tambay instead.
In 1979, Lammers and fellow rookie Elio de Angelis joined Shadow, but the team led by American Don Nichols was close to shutting down; the pair failed to make an impact with a poor car, with de Angelis scoring the team's only points that year, coming in fourth place at Watkins Glen. Lammers' best result was a ninth place in the Canadian GP. Both were invited by Colin Chapman to test for Lotus, with De Angelis getting the job for 1980; Lammers was unwilling to wait for Chapman's decision. Instead, he decided to sign for the German-owned ATS team.
The underfunded outfit handed Lammers the old D3 car while team leader Marc Surer debuted with the new D4, but when Surer broke his legs in an accident, Lammers took the D4. He immediately qualified fourth on the grid at Long Beach but the car broke on the opening lap of the race. Other notable ATS performances included battling Jody Scheckter's Ferrari at Zolder, and retiring from a points-scoring position at Jarama. When Surer made a return to ATS, Lammers moved to Ensign. Meanwhile, his former teammate De Angelis had a fine season at Lotus while Lammers failed to qualify the cumbersome Ensign on several occasions.
For 1981, Lammers was invited for a test to become Nelson Piquet's teammate at Brabham, but team principal Bernie Ecclestone chose to go with Mexican pay driver Hector Rebaque. Instead, Lammers rejoined ATS and performed well in the controversial non-championship South African GP at Kyalami; he fought De Angelis for second place until being hit by brake problems. When Swede Slim Borgudd arrived with healthy funding from pop band ABBA, Lammers was made to gave up his seat.
In 1982, Lammers switched to Theodore but the team was largely underfunded. At Monaco, Lammers' TY02 had to stay on nude rims for a day because the team did not have any tyres. Still seen as a natural talent, he was asked by Renault to replace the injured Prost at Detroit, only for the championship leader to recover in time. Lammers stepped back into the Theodore, but before the start of the first session, he was approached by Ferrari to replace Gilles Villeneuve from Zandvoort on. In a twist of fate, the Theodore's throttle stuck during the session, causing Lammers to hit the wall and break his thumb. As a result, Patrick Tambay signed the Ferrari contract. At Zandvoort, instead of driving the Ferrari, Lammers took part in his last Grand Prix before Tommy Byrne took over the seat.
In late 1985, Lammers was given a test by Toleman at Estoril but with the team unable to get a tyre contract for 1986, plans for a Formula One return fell through. In 1989, another Formula One opportunity came to nothing when Lammers was asked by Ken Tyrrell to replace Michele Alboreto, but the Dutchman decided to stick with TWR Jaguar, and Tyrrell signed Jean Alesi instead.
Then in 1992, Lammers made a surprise Formula One comeback when he stepped in at March for the final two races of the season – a full ten years after his initial final Grand Prix, a record career gap in Formula One. Replacing Karl Wendlinger, Lammers lapped sixth fastest in wet free practice at Suzuka, before retiring from the race with a broken gearbox. At Adelaide, he finished 12th. Looking set to continue with March in 1993, his Formula One ambitions received a blow when the team was denied an engine deal by Ilmor unless they paid their bills. This left Lammers as a spectator at Kyalami, after which the team folded.
Another Formula One option hit the rocks when Lammers was signed by the DAMS F3000 team for its debut season in 1996, having already tested their GD-01 car all through 1995. The project remained stillborn when DAMS fails to gather sufficient funding.
Sportscars Fed up with driving inferior machines at the back of the Formula One grid, Lammers decides to switch to sportscar racing where he becomes a mainstay for the next three decades, both as a driver and a team owner. His time in Group C includes seasons with Richard Lloyd Racing's private Porsche 956, the works Jaguar team and the works Toyota team, while in the days of LMP900 and LMP1, Lammers runs his own Racing for Holland team with the Japanese Dome S101 chassis. His final call at Le Mans comes in 2017 and 2018 when he races the Racing Team Nederland Dallara in LMP2, sharing with Rubens Barrichello and Jumbo Supermarkets CEO and team owner Frits van Eerd.
Prototypes Having turned his back on Formula One, Lammers started his World Sportscar Championship career in 1983 by joining top Porsche privateer Richard Lloyd Racing, taking several podium finishes with Thierry Boutsen, Keke Rosberg and Jonathan Palmer, while finishing sixth on his Le Mans debut. In 1984, he was paired with Palmer, and the Canon-liveried 956 takes victory over the works cars at Brands Hatch. The two add podiums at Monza, the Nürburgring, Sandown Park and Imola, and retire from Le Mans in a winning position.
A mid-season switch sees Lammers snapped up by Tom Walkinshaw at TWR Jaguar, and on his debut for the team at a very hot Shah Alam in Malaysia he brings home the Jag in second place. Meanwhile, he makes his IMSA GTP debut racing a March-Buick at Miami with Roberto Guerrero. In the 1986 Daytona 24 Hours, driving the BF Goodrich Porsche 962, he is heading for victory when his brakes fail, leading to a sizeable crash that he escapes from. Later in the season, when his promising IndyCar adventure collapses with the disappointing Eagle, Walkinshaw is quick to lure Lammers back to TWR. The Dutchman is immediately competitive with second at Spa and third at Jerez, before racing for Nissan at Watkins Glen in IMSA GTP.
In 1987, Lammers joins TWR Jaguar – now sponsored by Silk Cut – as a proper works driver, and is teamed with Grand Prix veteran John Watson. They win at Jarama, Monza and Fuji and take podiums at Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Spa. At Le Mans, third driver Win Percy crashes their car out of the race. Team orders mean that they finish second in the championship.