24h Le Mans
At the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary in June, Fabio Scherer representing Inter Europol Competition in the LMP2 category proved determination and daring can overcome pain and adversity.
Fabio Scherer, the Swiss driver of Inter Europol Competition's ORECA 07-Gibson, knows a thing or two about rising to the occasion. To win the LMP2 category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary, he achieved the extraordinary: "The race started really bad for me. At the first pit stop after 50 minutes, the Corvette (#33, Ed.) ran over my foot, and I knew straightaway something was quite bad, but I wasn't allowed to tell anyone, otherwise I couldn't finish the race. So, the first job was to look that the foot doesn't swell up, and after that it was just to control the pain and go through it. That somehow worked quite well because of quite a hard treatment. During driving, I didn't really feel anything. After that, I knew we could win this race, so I forgot for sure everything about the pain. I was even capable of kind of walking. But Monday after the race, I wasn't able at all to put any pressure on the foot. The first thing I did was to go to the doctor in Switzerland to see what happened." Scherer was diagnosed with a triple heel fracture!
In addition to the injury, the #34 ORECA presented another hurdle near the end of the race. "At the end of the race, the radio failed and I had no radio. I had to watch the big TV screens to see the gap because our car was quite damaged, so I knew I needed to push like hell and that paid off really well and I think that made it evern more epic."
Scherer, with teammates Jakub Śmiechowski and Albert Costa, pulled off an upset in a category more competitive than ever. "I think it was the hardest LMP2 field ever. And to win [the race] against all these big names is insane with the smallest team on the grid and with a broken foot, it was three-times broken. For me, the best part was when I overtook Kubica in the morning. I think the party was jumping [because of that]. [The celebration] was a really big party so it was quite intense."
Antonello Coletta, the head of Ferrari's endurance racing programme, while attending a screening of the official Centenary film, was asked about Scherer's outstanding performance and possible recruitment by a team in the Hypercar category, like Ferrari. He responded: "I hope so for him!"
