Laurent Tapie
Laurent Tapie
(re-founder & ceo)
Laurent was born in 1974, EXACTLY 100 years after Louis Delage, founder of Delage-Automobiles.
He finished his studies in 1998, after completing ESCP business school (French top 3) and a Degree in economics.
Laurent created his first company while still being a student, in partnership with Reebok.
He started his professional career at McKinsey, as a consultant in the Paris office.
Then left the firm to create or take over several companies in various sectors over the years, among which online sportsbetting, credit grouping, and the online sale of gold and silver.
He has been several times a member of a jury for an entrepreneurship competition in France, and organized a seminary on entrepreneurship for “Les Mines” (top 3 engineering school in France).
But beyond his inclination for business, Laurent’s passion has always been Cars.
With the money he made in his first business as a student, Laurent bought a 1982 Porsche 911 turbo tuned for track by the Almeras brothers in France, and started going on tracks on a regular basis.
In 1996, aged 21 years old, he won an amateur driving competition organized by a Porsche Club. The first prize was to get the privilege of driving a Formula 1 car.
This experience changed Laurent’s life forever.
Even though he did own several cars from the “Big 5” (Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren and Aston Martin), he never could find again the thrill he felt in the Formula 1 car.
So when Laurent decided to relaunch Delage, he wanted the first Hypercar to provide a feeling as close as possible to driving a F1 car.
Hence the D12.