Nigel Melker

Nigel Melker (born 25 January 1991) is a Dutch former racing driver.

Career

Karting Melker was born in Rotterdam. He began his motorsport career in karting in 2001, winning in the Dutch Mini Junior Cup. In 2005, he won the German Junior championship and finishing as runner-up in the European ICA Junior championship.

Formula Renault After sitting out the 2007 season, Melker moved up to single-seaters in 2008. He participated in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup with Van Amersfoort Racing. He finished in twelfth place in the standings with eleven point-scoring positions that gave him 120 points. He also took part in ten races of the Italian Formula Renault Championship. He finished eighteenth with 37 points.

The following season, Melker competed in both the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup and Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championships with MP Motorsport. He finished eighteenth in the NEC standings, taking points in all six races he contested. In the Eurocup, he took part in the first five rounds, finishing 23rd with five points for sixth place at Spa.

GP3 Series In 2010, Melker became the first driver to join RSC Mücke Motorsport for the 2010 GP3 Series season. His team-mates were compatriot Renger van der Zande and German Tobias Hegewald. He started the season by taking the first pole position of his open-wheel racing career in the opening round at Barcelona, but in the race, he was involved in an accident on the opening lap and retired. In the sprint race, he started from the back and rose to fourteenth place. He took another pole in Turkey, but did not finish in the points until the final race of the season at Monza, restricting him to 23rd place in the championships.

Melker remained in GP3 with the Mücke team for the 2011 season, alongside Michael Christensen and Luciano Bacheta (who was later replaced by Daniel Mancinelli). With the benefit of a year's experience in the category, his form was much stronger and he won the first race of the season in Turkey. This gave him the early championship lead, and he took a further four podium finishes, but he ultimately slipped to third place behind the Lotus ART duo of Valtteri Bottas and James Calado after his team appeared to lose its competitive edge following mid-season testing at Barcelona.

Formula 3 Euro Series As well as his 2011 GP3 campaign, Melker competed in the season's Formula 3 Euro Series, also with Mücke, finishing in fourth position in the drivers' standings with four wins. He finished ahead of his team-mates Felix Rosenqvist, Marco Sørensen and Facu Regalia, but was unable to consistently challenge dominant champion Roberto Merhi, his Prema Powerteam colleague Daniel Juncadella, or Signature driver Marco Wittmann.

GP2 Series After participating in the non-championship 2011 GP2 Final with DAMS, Melker switched to Ocean Racing Technology for the 2012 season, initially alongside Jon Lancaster. With a best race finish of fourth at Silverstone, he ended the season 19th in the championship.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series Melker made his racing début in a Formula Renault 3.5 car at Silverstone 2012, replacing César Ramos at the Lotus team. He qualified a respectable 14th for the first race and went on to take a podium at his first race at a wet racing track, finishing 3rd. He retired in the second race and was replaced by Estonian Kevin Korjus for the remainder of the season. He was the only driver in Lotus car No. 11 to get a podium that year.

After a disappointing season in GP2, Melker went to Formula Renault 3.5 full-time for 2013, driving for previous year's team champions Tech 1 Racing alongside series veteran Mikhail Aleshin. Melker spent most of the season in the subtop of the championship, amassing four podiums and 136 points, as well as posting two fastest laps. His best weekend of the season was at the Red Bull Ring when he was runner-up twice behind dominant winner Marco Sørensen. He finished the season in sixth place.

Formula Acceleration 1 Unable to find a drive in Formula Renault 3.5 for 2014, Melker turned his attention elsewhere. He signed with Azerti Motorsport for the inaugural Formula Acceleration 1 season. He was competitive immediately, finishing second twice at the opening round in Portugal, before taking a double victory at Circuito de Navarra. He went on to win the drivers' championship after a victory at the Nürburgring and a double victory at Assen.

Racing record

Career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position 2008 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC Van Amersfoort Racing 15 0 0 0 0 120 12th Formula Renault 2.0 Italy 10 0 0 0 0 37 18th 2009 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup MP Motorsport 10 0 0 0 0 5 23rd Formula Renault 2.0 NEC 6 0 0 0 0 77 18th 2010 GP3 Series RSC Mücke Motorsport 16 0 2 0 0 5 23rd ATS F3 Cup Jo Zeller Racing 2 0 0 0 0 0 NC† Masters of Formula 3 Mücke Motorsport 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 14th 2011 GP3 Series RSC Mücke Motorsport 16 1 0 2 5 38 3rd Formula 3 Euro Series Mücke Motorsport 24 4 2 2 9 251 4th Masters of Formula 3 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 4th GP2 Final DAMS 2 0 0 0 0 0 20th 2012 GP2 Series Ocean Racing Technology 24 0 0 0 0 25 19th Formula Renault 3.5 Series Lotus 2 0 0 0 1 15 19th 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 Series Tech 1 Racing 17 0 0 2 4 136 6th 2014 Formula Acceleration 1 Acceleration Team Netherlands 10 5 4 3 9 183 1st 2016 Supercar Challenge – Super GT DayVTec 2 2 2 2 0 0 NC† Supercar Challenge – Superlights 1 4 3 2 4 4 84 3rd † – As Melker was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 NEC results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP3 Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 DC Points 2010 RSC Mücke Motorsport CATFEA CATSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR VALFEA VALSPR SILFEA SILSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR 23rd 5 2011 RSC Mücke Motorsport ISTFEA ISTSPR CATFEA CATSPR VALFEA VALSPR SILFEA SILSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR 3rd 38

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results (key) Year Entrant Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 DC Points 2011 Mücke Motorsport Mercedes LEC1 LEC2 LEC3 HOC1 HOC2 HOC3 ZAN1 ZAN2 ZAN3 RBR1 RBR2 RBR3 NOR1 NOR2 NOR3 NÜR1 NÜR2 NÜR3 SIL1 SIL2 SIL3 VAL1 VAL2 VAL3 HOC1 HOC2 HOC3 4th 251

Complete GP2 Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Final results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 DC Points 2011 DAMS YMCFEA YMCSPR 20th 0

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Pos Points 2012 Lotus ALC1 ALC2 MON1 SPA1 SPA2 NÜR1 NÜR2 MSC1 MSC2 SIL1 SIL2 HUN1 HUN2 LEC1 LEC2 CAT1 CAT2 19th 15 2013 Tech 1 Racing MNZ1 MNZ2 ALC1 ALC2 MON1 SPA1 SPA2 MSC1 MSC2 RBR1 RBR2 HUN1 HUN2 LEC1 LEC2 CAT1 CAT2 6th 136

Complete Formula Acceleration 1 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos Points 2014 Netherlands ALG1 ALG2 NAV1 NAV2 NÜR1 NÜR2 MNZ1 MNZ2 ASS1 ASS2 1st 183