Norman Nato (born 8 July 1992) is a French professional racing driver who is set to drive in Formula E for Andretti Global. Nato is known for finishing as the runner-up in the 2010 F4 Eurocup 1.6 season and the 2012 Formula Renault 2.0 Alps season, and for winning both in Monaco and Hungary in the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series season.
Career
Early career
Karting
Born in Cannes, Nato began his karting career at the age of nine and won the Championnat de France "Minimes" and "Cadet" categories in 2004 and 2005 before winning the Copa Campeones Trophy KF2 in 2007. In 2009, Nato won the French KZ2 Championship which he followed with a win at the KZ2 Monaco Kart Cup in 2010.
Formula Renault
Nato made his debut in single-seater competition in 2010 by joining the F4 F4 Eurocup 1.6 series with the Autosport Academy team. The Frenchman won on debut at the Ciudad del Motor de Aragón and took one further victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Nato ended the season with eight podium finishes and 123 points to finish as runner-up to Stoffel Vandoorne.
In 2011, Nato graduated to Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with the R-ace GP team. He finished 11th overall after taking two podiums at the Nürburgring and the closing race of the season in Barcelona, with another five points-scoring finishes. He also partially competed in Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup with the same team, bringing another podium at Nürburgring.
For 2012, Nato continued to race in the Eurocup but joined debutants RC Formula. He took one victory at Spa alongside three podium finishes at Aragon, the Nürburgring and the Hungaroring to finish fourth overall with 96 points.
Nato also raced in Formula Renault 2.0 Alps in 2012 and battled against Daniil Kvyat for the title. In the final race of the season in Barcelona, he was involved in an accident with Kvyat and finished as the runner-up with a three-point deficit. He ended the season with four wins and four further podium finishes.
Nato graduated to the highest tier of the World Series by Renault in 2013 by joining DAMS in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series as a team-mate to Kevin Magnussen. He took one pole position and finished 13th in the Drivers' Championship with 33 points.
The Frenchman stayed on with the team for the 2014 season, this time partnering Carlos Sainz Jr. Nato took two victories which included a Grand Slam performance at the prestigious Monaco race in which he won from pole position and set the fastest lap. He finished seventh in the standings with 89 points.
GP2 Series
On 29 January 2015, it was confirmed that Arden International had signed Nato as its number one driver in the GP2 Series. He finished 18th overall with 20 points.
Nato joined Racing Engineering for the 2016 GP2 Series and won the opening race of the season in Barcelona. He finished on the podium again in Monaco, Hungary and Malaysia, and took one further victory at Monza to finish fifth in the Drivers' Championship with 136 points.
In 2017, Nato returned to Arden to start his third season in the Formula One feeder series, now renamed as Formula 2. He took one win after beating eventual champion Charles Leclerc at the Baku City Circuit and recorded two further podiums, finishing as the runner-up in the Bahrain and Silverstone Feature Races. Nato finished ninth overall, accumulating 91 points.
European Le Mans Series
For the 2018 season, Nato made a switch to sportscar racing by joining the European Le Mans Series with Racing Engineering in the LMP2 class. He won the opening race of the season at Le Castellet alongside team-mates Paul Petit and Olivier Pla. Nato took one further podium at the Red Bull Ring to finish third in the championship standings with 66 points.
Alongside his ELMS campaign, Nato contested his first 24 Hours of Le Mans in which he finished in 10th place with SMP Racing. He also raced at the 2018 Petit Le Mans in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, finishing in 11th place with Tequila Patron ESM.
For 2019, the Frenchman joined reigning ELMS champions G-Drive Racing and contested the opening two races of the season, taking fourth place at Le Castellet and winning at Monza.
World Endurance Championship
Nato made his debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2019 in which he raced at the 6 Hours of Spa with LMP2 team TDS Racing, taking fourth in class.
For the 2019–20 season, Nato joined LMP1 team Rebellion Racing. The Frenchman took his first FIA World Endurance Championship victory at the 4 Hours of Shanghai and also won the 2020 Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas.