For FIA WEC CEO Gerard Neveu, today was a huge day. With a quality 60-car grid at Le Mans, an enormous 44-car grid in the ELMS and a 32 car-grid in the WEC for the season, he had a lot of reasons to be happy.
While there will be some teams who aren’t satisfied with the result of the entry lists, that was always going to be inevitable when you’ve got a set of technical and sporting regulations so strong that people were getting left off the lists, or turned away completely in large numbers. Having 10 reserves for Le Mans is a real showcase of strength for the ACO’s marquee event.
In light of that, here’s what Neveu himself had to say about today’s conference in Paris in conversation with DSC:
Let’s start by talking about the ELMS entry, because this year’s it’s astonishing with 44 cars?
“Oh it’s very impressive because there are 35 LMPs across both classes and nine GTs, it means that this is a very strong grid with a very high level of competitors. Some people said that if you have more cars in P2 in WEC you will lose cars in ELMS which is wrong, at this moment there is a good balance between the European championship and the World championship.
“The serious arrival of LMP3 is a success for sure, and lets see. It sounds like a very good championship for this year.”
Did you expect the number of LMP3s to be quite that high before you started taking entries?
“We expected it to be a good number, but we didn’t expect it to be this good. During the winter we were in touch with teams and we understood that through the manufacturers like Ligier that a lot of cars were being sold. Apparently the ELMS calendar kept everyone happy, so they’ve joined.
“This is more than we expected.”
Did you have turn people away?
“Yeah, some. It wasn’t part of the committee selection though, it was people arriving late regarding entries. I have to say that we had four or five more requests for the entry this year.”
Are you in any way disappointed that it’s pretty much all Ligier? With only one Riley chassis out there?
“It’s just a question of timing, I think with the Riley cars have been made late compared to the Ligiers. I hope that Ginetta will find a solution to provide a car again too. At this moment there’s a lot of Ligiers, but this is a gentlemen driver championship more than a manufaturer championship, so in the end it’s not as important.
“The regulations ensure that the performance of the cars is very close anyway, so if you choose another one from now that isn’t a Ligier, you should be ok.”
Tell me about the relationship with Ginetta then? They’ve released the G57 which isn’t LMP3 homologated. What’s your expectation going forward?
“It is my understanding that Ginetta and the ACO are in negotiations. All I can say though is that they did a great job last year, the technical problems were ironed out with the car. I think that this is just a question of positioning, I am very confident we will see Ginetta back. I think that (Lawrence) Tomlinson is working very hard on that.
He’s part of the story with LMP3, so the only thing we regret is that Ginetta are not on the grid this year. I hope they’re back very soon.”
Looking forward to Le Mans, 60 cars! When did you find out you’d have the extra two garages to play with?
“That was a decision from the ACO directly, I think they took this decision when they saw the number of requests they have. The decisions were always going to be difficult so they made a great effort to make sure that they can deliver four new garages this year. This is still a work in progress but it was the right decision. There’s nothing worse than refusing a candidate.”
Even with the extra entries there’s still a huge reserve list, what was the process like of trying to sort through those cars?
“It’s very difficult to say because at the same time you can see that the quality of the competitors is so high. The entry looks very competitive. It’s always very difficult to have more people than slots on the grid. The ACO have done a great job in the last five years, and this is the return. The technical regulations are good and it shows.”
How do you feel about the LMP1 field this year? The numbers are down and the privateer sub-class is no different?
“You never know. The very interesting thing, from our knowledge if you read correctly from what’s going on, there’s a lot of privateers coming. We have to pay a lot of attention to the LMP1 privateers, there’s a strong future for them and we’re not surprised that next year there will probably be three or four more LMP1 privateers on the grid.
“Some very solid teams are working on projects now, that’s why the ACO is working in partnership with them to see how we can organise the best situation from them in the future.”
Do you expect that when the regulations come out LMP2 teams will make the jump?
“I think that’s the plan. When you discuss LMP1 and technical regulations and other things this is what they are looking for now. We have to make our best effort that when we propose to them that we will have the best place for them to race, as privateers in LMP1.
“We want them on this grid next season.”
Let’s talk specifically about GTE Pro, it’s an astonishing field, full of manufacturers. What’s your impression of that class, we’ve got two Porsches, we’ve got the extra Risi car? It’s going to be a real dogfight. You must be really impressed and proud that you’ve attracted that sort of backing for the class?
“Absolutely. David Richards said today that GTE is back on top in terms of visibility. At the same time it’s really appreciated that Porsche will have a car in the WEC, and two cars at Le Mans because we know they are focused on next year with the new car. It’s very fair from them.
“With Aston and Ferrari, they have a huge challenge with Ford, who have mad a huge impact for the GT categories. The only regret we have is that we are missing Corvette in the WEC.”
How disappointing is it that Corvette once again won’t be in the WEC?
“Yeah, it is. There’s a real position for them in the WEC, and when you see such intensive GT grids in the WEC you want them there, Corvette is part of endurance, they should join this grid.”
Did you expect them to follow Ford when they announced its programme?
“Next year maybe?”
So with Ford then, with four cars. If you look at the manufacturer situation, Nissan aren’t around this year, so how key is it to have a new one with four cars? It has an enormous amount of potential for marketing and visibility of the WEC and Le Mans by having them surely?
“The return of Ford is something very important. It’s part of Le Mans’ DNA to have them in the race and this is going to have a huge impact. For the visibility, for the interest for all the fans this is huge. The way that Chip Ganassi has used Ford to come to us brings a lot of investment. Look at the drivers? It’s special. We can hope that the return brings with it everything we dream of.”
With the WEC, we’re seeing more manufacturers, more fans, more races. What can fans expect from going to a WEC race or watching on TV?
“We’re working on it. We have things to announce soon. We have lots of things to announce which will make the WEC better this year for the fans, for the teams. You have surprises to look forward to.”
Stephen Kilbey
