Nigel Melker

Nigel Melker
Nigel Melker
	Formula Renault 2.0 NEC; Formula Renault 2.0 Italy

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

Career

Karting

Melker was born 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

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.^[1] He also took part in ten races of the Italian Formula Renault Championship. He finished eighteenth with 37 points.^[2]

The

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championships with MP Motorsport. He finished eighteenth in the NEC standings, taking points in all six races he contested.^[3] In the Eurocup, he took part in the first five rounds, finishing 23rd with five points for sixth place at Spa.^[4]

GP3 Series

In 2010, Melker became the first driver to join

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.^[9]

Formula 3 Euro Series

As well as his 2011 GP3 campaign, Melker competed in the season's

Signature driver Marco Wittmann

.

GP2 Series

After participating in the non-championship

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 #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 4 podiums and 136 points, as well as posting 2 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 6th 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