Scrutineering Conversations – Part 10
Daniel Poissenot

What do you think of the grid for the 2009 race?
It’s a great grid, I am very happy. A lot of very strong teams, cars and drivers.

Are you satisfied that enough has been done to equalise the petrol and diesel LMP1’s?
We have tried very hard to get them close but we won’t know how close they are until the race. It is difficult to get a true comparison as we still do not have a full factory petrol fuelled effort in Europe. The Aston Martin seems to be the closest car to the diesels but that is based on a production engine. For me, I would like to see a real Aston Martin with a real Aston Martin race engine.

Luca di Montezemolo will start the race this year. Are you hopeful that we may see Ferrari step up from their successful GT2 programme to the LMP classes?
Of course we would love to see another Ferrari programme and of course in 2011 LMP2 will feature production engines. Ferrari of course already have a strong and successful production engine in the 430.

You announced an impressive list of  entries in the Asian Le Mans Series. Have you seen any further progress since Spa?
Yes, we are now up to 32 entries for the series. I am particularly pleased that will feature new teams from Asia including China and Hong Kong.

The Audis took a long time to pass through scrutineering yesterday and there is still talk of further protests about their eligibility?
There were no problems for the R15’s we of course checked everything very carefully, but will see what Peugeot and the journalists think.

GG