What the 24 Hours of Le Mans Means to Me...Roman Rusinov

Roman Rusinov has competed at Le Mans several times and has known the joy of standing on the podium at the end of the twice around the clock race and also the heartache of not finishing or being excluded for post race technical issues. The Russian driver has won WEC and ELMS driver titles but still wants to add the 24 Hours of Le Mans winner’s title to his impressive motor sport resume.

In 2019 Rusinov will compete at Le Sarthe with his young Dutch teammate Job Van Uitert, who he won with at Monza earlier in May, and Jean-Eric Vergne, the French driver rejoining the team after missing the opening two rounds of the ELMS.

We asked Roman Rusinov what Le Mans means to him as a driver.    

“Le Mans is almost too complicated to explain in how special it is,” said Roman Rusinov. “Everytime you race there you try to do your best and maybe, after 24 hours, you have a chance to win if you put everything together.  

“But at Le Mans you need to have luck, you need to have the best car; the best drivers and you need to have the right strategy. Motor sport is not difficult, you just need to brake later than the others and get on the throttle earlier than the others, but it is very hard to put everything together.  

“At the end of the day a race team is a very human experience and you have to get the best from each and every person who is working in the team. Le Mans is all about the people, all about teamwork and the race result will come if everything is right.”

The 87th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will take place on 15/16 June 2019 with Free Practice and Qualifying beginning on Wednesday 12 June.