Le Mans 24 Hours - Scrutineering 3

Pescarolo People

We caught up with Nicolas Minassian, smiling as always, and a popular man with the media and public alike with the clock ticking on Pescarolo Team’s two car effort, ‘Quick Nic’ of course anchors the #17 Dome 102.5 .

So Nic, is this a different Le Mans experience, without the pressure to win?

“I think the best situations are when you put yourself under pressure.  I always work better that way.

“My target, my personal target at least, this year is to finish 5th, Audi will be difficult to beat at all but this is a first year for Toyota.

“The car is quick and we’ve had plenty of problems early that would otherwise have caught us out in the race.  There’s plenty to come in the race, and in ultimate lap time but the job is to bring the car home.

“What surprised me most after the Peugeot was how much hard work it is to even deal with the faster LMP2s in a private petrol car, even one as fast as the Dome – In straight line speed there is very little difference, I can attack under braking but it is very difficult to overtake.”

Stuart Hall meanwhile is looking forward immensely to the race, despite the pretty substantial teething problems for the new Pescarolo 03.

“I have to say that whilst there is work to do the car feels great.  Getting back in an LMP1 was like putting a comfortable old sock back on.

“It is already very good in high speed corners but we are lacking some straight line speed and some mechanical grip in the slow speed turns too but nobody was thinking that this would be easy.

“There are though some big developments coming this week, new bits to try and speed to come.  It’s a very long shot but whilst Audi have to be odds on to take the win there’s a lot of new cars and new technology out there – Anything could happen!

“It would be arrogant and naïve to say we have a chance on form but if we do it right and hit a bit of luck we can bring it home.

“With the benefit of hindsight, despite the 4th place (with Rollcentre) in 2007 being a massive high it was also a big disappointment – We thought Bourdais had broken down (he was actually waiting for the finish!!).  In 2008 I had a big shunt in the Creation after the suspension broke and in 2009 there was the exclusion after I tangled with Tim Greaves.  He was a gentleman about it all but there are plenty of people here that can’t get beyond that incident.  I want to put the record straight and show what I can do.”