Nicolas Lapierre is back once again at Le Mans with the Alpine Endurance Team to try once again to add an overall win to his four LMP2 victories – The 38 year old Frenchman is still very much a force to be reckoned with aboard the A480 Hypercar – but he’s also still got skin in the game in LMP2, as the team Principal of Cool Racing.
Signatech Alpine this year are going about things in a quiet but pretty effective way?
“Yes, we did a very good job since the beginning of the year for sure. The first two races were just much better than what we did last year.
“This is for sure because in the winter, the team really took some time to work on small details, and is now operating at a much higher level than what we did last year. So this is helping a lot in terms of results.
“And also, maybe the fact that this year nobody was seeing us as a favourite. You know, we are a bit under the radar. And I think everybody underestimated that last year was the first year for the team with a new car and this year we could optimise a lot of details compared to last year.
“Last year the team did well, we didn’t have big mistakes in terms of strategy or stuff like this, but we had quite a big room for improvement, and this year the team did great, we are operating at a good level and it is paying off.
Alpine has one bullet in the gun? It’s just one car. You’ve got to run your own strategy. You can’t be distracted by anything else.
“I mean, our strategy is to push. If we want to be close to Toyota, we have no other choices, you know.
“Okay in Sebring, we were faster than them but it was a different track.
“Spa was much more the real picture, I think and here is going to be even a little bit worse for us.
“Okay, the BOP went a bit towards us, but still, we know that here with the long straights, Toyota and Glickenhaus should be faster than us, so we need to push as much as possible.
“We know that our car is reliable, we know it’s a very strong car. So we have to push it to the limit for the full 24 hours and we know that if we can push Toyota, if we can be close behind, it’s going to be a completely different race for them.
“Last year, we were shorter on fuel. We were much slower on track. So basically, we had no chance to to push them.”
It’s the end of an era. It’s the last race at Le Mans that we are going to see a car designed as an LMP1 competing. You’ve been a big part of that story for three different eras, back into the diesel era, through the hybrid era, and now here with the Alpine – Are you going to miss it?
“To be completely honest we’re gonna miss the time when there was no BOP because we loved it.
“You were trying to go as fast as possible and you were just happy to push the limit, where now it’s more like you need to find three drivers running the same pace. And if you get faster, they’re going to slow you down. So for me, this is very frustrating.
“And I’m going to miss the era where we had Toyota, Porsche and Audi with completely different hybrid systems, but doing a lot of development. For sure, it was not realistic in the long term because it was too expensive. “But still, as a driver, you know, we were testing new stuff all the time. We were trying to improve the gap every day. So yeah, I’m gonna be nostalgic about this.
“On the other hand, I’m a big fan and I’m so happy to see the manufacturers come back because for me, the last years, the most exciting races were in LMP2 or GTs, and LMP1 was just the Toyota going around.
“Okay, last year, we came back and it was a bit better. This year, I hope is going to be different as well. But for me, it was very disappointing to see only one manufacturer is going around for so many years.
You’re at Le Mans racing with Alpine, but the ‘day job’ now is as the Team Principal of Cool Racing – and you must be delighted that the results are coming there, in particular in LMP3?
“I’m very proud. You know, because we started last year with almost nothing. We had cars, but we had no tools. We had no people.
“My idea was to hire a lot of young guys and the team is very, very young. They are very motivated and we are improving and progressing everyday and quickly.
“The first year we did was decent, to be honest. But this year we took another step. And having a guy like Anthony Megevand (ex ORECA – recently appointed as Sporting Director) joining the team is a big proof of confidence and that we can achieve something great.
“We also have a great lineup. We have good drivers, Yifei Ye is a super strong guy, and we are very happy that Porsche Asia Pacific trusted us to run him. And also Nicklas Kruetten is improving everyday. It’s also nice for us, we took this kid from single seaters into LMP3 and he’s getting really well up to pace, he had a very strong race at Imola. And we have a young kid like Malthe Jakobsen and he is amazing, you know, this kid is very, very special and having him and having him shining in our team is now I have to say I’m very proud and very happy.”
So what is the scale of ambition for Cool Racing? Are you looking for consolidation? Are you looking to progress?
“It’s important is to consolidate first. This is why this year we had the opportunity to do more cars but we didn’t want to. We wanted to stay at the same scale but hiring new and better people you know to make a big step in terms of quality.
“For sure we have a lot of links with manufacturers by myself. This year we are running a Porsche driver (Yifei Ye) and an Acura driver with Ricky Taylor. So we are getting links with all these manufacturers. And maybe one day if LMDH is actually accessible, we will we will try to go for it but not at the expense of what we’ve got.
“As a team I think we need one or two years and beyond that the budget is still a big issue.
“Everybody’s dreaming about LMDH but it’s miles away from LMP2 budgets. So we have to go step by step. But for sure with what we see today how the team is operating and the results we re getting, and the push to go further, we have to to look at it again in one or two years.”
