French Formula Campus and Formula Three Born in
Toulouse, Pla started his career in 2000 in
French Formula Campus before moving on to
French Formula Three Championship in 2001 with the Saulnier Racing team. He finished eighth in the series standings, taking nine points-scoring positions in eleven races, including a podium in the penultimate race of the season at
Magny-Cours. In 2002, Pla stayed in the series but switched to the
ASM team. He finished third, behind Renaud Derlot and
Tristan Gommendy, taking nine podium places from fourteen races, including wins at Croix-en-Ternois and
Bugatti Circuit. In 2003, Pla joined the
Formula 3 Euro Series with ASM. He finished third, behind
Christian Klien and
Ryan Briscoe, taking nine podium places from twenty races.
World Series by Nissan 2004 saw Pla leave the Euroseries, joining the
World Series by Nissan. He contested two rounds with
RC Motorsport before joining
Carlin Motorsport to replace Michael Keohane. He finished ninth, taking thirteen points-scoring positions in eighteen races, including a win at
Estoril.
GP2 Series In 2005, Pla raced in the inaugural
GP2 Series season for
David Price Racing. In the early part of the season he stalled on the grid several times — some blamed the GP2 cars for the high number of stallings, while others noticed that the same drivers seemed to be affected regularly. In another race his team mate selected reverse instead of first gear and went backwards into Pla's car. However, he took advantage of the reverse grid system to finish eighth in Race One and thus take pole for Race Two twice (at
Hockenheim and
Silverstone), winning both those races to finish 11th in the championship. He remained with DPR for 2006, but was dropped mid-season after running out of sponsorship, after a difficult period which saw him score no points and injure his hand in
Monaco. . In 2007, Pla competed in the German Porsche Carrera Cup. However, he was recalled to DPR in the latter stages of the
GP2 season to replace the injured
Christian Bakkerud. In 2008, he moved to sports car racing, driving a
Lola Le Mans Prototype in the
Le Mans Series and
24 Hours of Le Mans.
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Pla joined Mazda Motorsports for part of the 2020
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaign and signed with
Meyer Shank Racing for a full DPi season in 2021. ==Racing record==