The Isotta Frashini Hypercar programme has had more twists and turns than the Stelvio Pass since DSC first revealed its existence in an exclusive story back in May 2022.
The Michelotto designed car was initially backed by a Colombian oil man, but by the end of the year the effort was an all-Italian funded enterprise with the news coming as 2022 drew to a close that Vector Sport would be the effort’s race partner for the Tipo 6 Competizione.
Things progressed in a fairly linear fashion thereafter with the first car in build and then testing ahead of the public presentation of the car, including its non-racing but track-only ‘Pista’ sister – and a large scale model of the later ‘Stradale’ road car version.
Isotta Fraschini occupied a large awning in the paddock with plenty of interest from the WEC paddock and fans in their new machine. And there were some other interested parties in attendance too!
DSC spotted Gilles Duqueine in repeated conversations with Isotta’s Claudio Berro, and as Jean Karl Vernay explained to us during the Asian Le Mans Series earlier this month, that was a conversation that started discussing one thing, and became quite another rather more recently! Vernay involved with the Isotta project as a Michelotto-appointed test and development driver and already with a consultancy role with Duqueine Engineering.
“Gilles was at Monza where the Isotta Fraschini was presented publicly and I was able to present the project to him there.
“This made sense because I was working for Gilles already on the LMP3 side and also working on the development of the Isotta.
Whilst Isotta was then working with another team (Vector Sport), there looked to be a possibility to do a second car, which was our target at the beginning. That’s why I put Gilles in contact with Isotta.
And so we started a relationship to talk with them during the summer, Gilles went to see some testing. We had some some drivers who were really interested by the programme. And, until October our target was very firmly the possibility of a second car, possibly for the full season, but we were also thinking about a possible programme after Le Mans.”
Things would change rapidly though as the end of the 2023 WEC season approached:
“After whatever happened, between Isotta and Vector, that relationship ended and we had the possibility to go for the full season.”
This was late though, very, very late.
“It was extremely late,” confirmed Vernay. As you can imagine, LMH and WEC takes a lot of resources, to build up a team. Duqueine Team and Duqueine Engineering have the LMP2 team, the build and development of the new LMP3 and customer support, and we have other external external projects. So to put the resources on Hypercar, it was a bit late, but at the end we are we were able to make it and to make it with the right people with great engineers, people we think that have all the tools to do something good.
Is there potential for Duqueine Engineering to be involved with the build of the cars car or is this simply a programme where Duqueine Team is running the car?
“Right now it’s only a race team programme,” confirmed Gilles Duqueine. “Michelotto have dealt with the design and build of the cars. The drivers though are contracted by Duqueine
“It’s like a partnership. more like Proton and Jota but in this case we are much closer to the manufacturer and we have more help from them. It’s likely closer to the relationship between Signatech and Alpine.
And this entry is for the Manufacturers World Championship, not the World Cup for the private teams?
“We’re not doing the World Cup this is a factory entry.”
A word here about Jean-Karl Vernay, it’s been a while since he ran in the FIA WEC, the now 36 year old ran in a single season in 2013 with a GTE Am class win at Le Mans the highlight in a season that saw the IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche squad take third in the title stakes – But it could have been a very different story. Vernay was all set to be part of the driving squad for Peugeot’s 2012 LMP1 effort in the inaugural year of the FIA WEC before the French giant pulled the plug whilst the team were set to stsrt their pre-season test at Sebring!
“That deal was signed and done. And I was in Sebring already when the news came through that they had stopped (the programme)! It was 12 years ago but it’s like this sometimes. It comes around. And here we are – I’m back!
“Since then I have raced and won in some great Championships in some good cars, of course it could have been better – but it could have been worse!
Vernay then is very much the elder statesman on the three man driving crew with both Antonio Serravalle and Carl Wattana Bennett now confirmed for the team after the initially announced Alejandro Garcia dropped out of the squad.
It’s some challenge!
“I agree, for Duqueine to be fighting with Porsche, Ferrari, Toyota, it’s amazing. We’re going to fight against manufacturers, big guys with much more resources and staff.
“But the (Isotta) car for me, I’m always optimistic, but I really believe in this, I have been able to do more than 6000 kilometres in testing just myself.
“I’ve had plenty of time and experience with the car and I really do think that we are not going to be ridiculous.
“I don’t think we’ll be fighting for Le Mans, there we need to learn, there’s many things we need to learn.
We need also to develop as you said, my teammates, but we saw what Carl did (in the Duqueine LMP2) in Sepang and Dubai. These guys are young, but they have already showed great potential.
“For Carl, when you look at his averages here in Asia and compare them to the times of other guys who are going to be in Hypercar he’s not that far away at all.
“Yes, of course he has a lack of experience. Of course, he might make some mistakes, just like I will and like the team will. It’s a first year right, a year for learning.”
And Antonio?
“If you look at when he did the 24 Hours of Daytona last year. He was in front of Nico Pino, our driver last year in LMP2.
“We did great last year and he has a huge programme this year. He was just behind Nico Varrone last year and that’s a good bar and I think it’s a good reference to see where he is.
“In Indy Lights he didn’t have the best conditions to shine, running his own team, fighting against some very big and experienced outfits. I did Indy Lights. I know where you should be if you have potential.
“We will see in in the Prologue where we are, we have definitely a lack of experience compared to those with fulll factory drivers, ex F1 guys etc but we won’t be ridiculous, far from that and we’re going to show good speed. I think their pace will be pretty similar.
“Carl has more experience. But Antonio has done Indy Lights, LMP3, the 24 Hours of Daytona so he also has some good experience of 24 hour races. So we’ll see.
“What we want from both of them is to improve as we move forwards, not making mistakes and crashes and stuff like this, we need to go step by step. I’m genuinely not worried at all.”
So that’a the drivers – but what about the team around them? With no clashes with ELMS, is it basically the same pit crew that are running both cars (including Duqueine team’s ELMS LMP2 effort) or are these two completely separate outfits.
“Last year, it was the year where we performed the best (in ELMS LMP2). The team made a massive step. It was really good, ” said Jean Karl.
“Our target is, as we’re going to have a really strong lineup again this year, is not to take all these guys to put on the LMH. It is to keep all the guys in LMP2 to continue improving to make sure that we are performing our best. That’s because on top of last year’s ELMS grid some of the WEC LMP2s are coming to the LMS. So it will be even stronger. So we will be using the same same guys and mechanics, same engineer, data engineers etc.”
So for the LMH programme?
“It’s a mix between Isotta and our guys”.
Coming into the season, the Isotta hasn’t been seen publicly for a while in testing:
“That’s correct, since early December, but we are ready to go for the Prologue.”
But there are plans to step up the pace in test and development after the season opener:
“We have got to test – we have to. And there is the opportunity to test with five test days for the manufacturer and five days by the team available.
“One of our problems was the homologation timetable and that was late, you can see the same problem has come to Peugeot with their new car.
“We were supposed to test in Motorland, it was impossible to do it with the current shipping issues. Again, we don’t have the resources of Peugeot. We don’t have five cars with a test car that we can take to Barcelona!
“So we do our best with what we have. The Prologue is going to be 15 hours of testing. It’s a lot of time, you have plenty of time to work and also for the for the guys to learn.”
So are you happy that the team has enough resource, and materiel, at this point?
“We’re all fine batteries, electric motors, engines, and we have three extra monocoques. We are all good.
“Where everybody is struggling is for spare parts, but that is not just for our car, it’s every car, everywhere – Oreca is struggling to give us spare parts for the LMP2!
“Carbon parts and other parts are in pretty short supply so it’s a matter of being sensible at this stage – As with anyone else if we have trouble on track it will cause us trouble in the garage!”
So moving forward, this is year one. A development year for the team, for the car, for the drivers, for everybody. What’s the ambition? You’re in hypercar with a new brand. What is the ambition this year? And what is the ambition moving forward in HyperCar?
Gilles Duqueine was ready for that question:
“The ambition is to build a strong relation with Isotta definitely. And a long term one is the target definitely. If we can have two cars in 2025 that’s what we would like. Let’s see what the ACO will decide. But first of all, if we want them to help us to get to two cars we need to show performance.
Jean Karl Vernay continued:
“Our car is not an LMDH, it’s an LMH. I think it’s a huge positive for us. The fact that it’s a four wheel drive for different conditions it’s much better than LMDH.
“We saw it with Peugeot at Le Mans when it was slightly raining the Peugeot was flying.
“Michelotto built this car and they have won Le Mans down through the years what, maybe 20 times? They know how to build cars to do the job.
“Whilst we don’t have the resources of Porsche or the other guys, the work has been done very correctly. They have put their efforts into building this car with the best possible materials. When you look at the dampers, electric motor, battery, everything. They have only chosen the top brands to build the car.
“To develop the car we have done, and will continue to do, our very best – We have had 12000 kilometres of test running, again, the big factories may have done more but it’s not nothing and we will start from there.
“We have all this information. We have a great team. We have motivation, we have determination, because otherwise we won’t be in Qatar without this spirit.
“We are David against a pack of Goliaths but I think it’s it’s gonna be wonderful because I’m quite definitely convinced that we’re going to be at a higher level than what many people think we are going to be.|
We, and they, are about to find out!
