You ended your career as a driver. Now you are the team manager of your own outfit. Was becoming a team manager the next logical step?

"Not at all! Actually, I was more headed toward driver management with Renaud Derlot and I have also worked a lot with Aurélien (his son who is currently competing in the Formula V8 3.5 championship, editor's note). It took me awhile and I continued to drive. Everything happened because of Renaud. One of his shareholder friends wanted to start a team to do the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the European Le Mans Series. We had lunch together to talk about it. He told me he was ready to invest three years and wanted to put together a team with me. That's as far as it went, I talked about it that night with Renaud and told him I needed to think about it. I also talked about it with my wife Anne. At the time, we were doing a GT Tour race and the next day we sat down with Fabien (Barthez, editor's note) and discussed it. He told me: 'I am in! You told me I could do the 24 Hours of Le Mans in an LM P2 when the cars would be closed, and now they are! I want to be a part of this.' So that's how it all began. Then we defined the team's mission. We thought of young drivers, trying to create a small avenue for them to be able to progress. Our goal was to have young drivers get discovered by manufacturers. Meanwhile, a concern remained: to find a team, because I couldn't see starting from zero. We talked with several very good outfits and we landed on Tech One. Simon and Sarah (Abadie, editor's note) have been doing this for a long while, they are passionate like I've rarely seen. They have a wonderful outfit, with great results in single-seaters and they like endurance. Everything has been going well with them since the beginning of the year! After only two races, we claimed a podium finish in LM P3 with our young drivers and Eric Debard. We have solid sponsors, our relationship with Jacques Nicolet and Onroak Automotive is fantastic. The adventure is unfolding. It's up to us to go with it."

Is it an advantage for you as a team manager to have been a driver?

"It's definitely an advantage! First from a purely business angle and contacts as well. I am connected to people I know, people I've worked with, like Jean Paul Driot (DAMS owner competing in the GP2 Series, editor's note) who shares with me how he manages his team, how he has made progress. I am trying to get used to being team manager which isn't easy at all. My experience as a driver helps me in terms of what I've gone through, difficult moments but also great ones. For example, I did the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times with Oreca and had a blast. So it's a positive thing especially when arriving at Le Mans with a new team and young drivers. I'm starting at zero. To be team manager is to be on the other side of the wall, it's a different profession. Here at Le Mans, we have around 30 people, you have to live with everyone's egos, reassure them when needed, push them when you should, it's a real profession. Sarah and Simon are used to it. The members of the team ask me different questions than they do them. It's not simple, it's quite tiring but also very interesting to experience." 

Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

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