European Le Mans Series – A Word from The Champions 1 /3 - SMP Racing

Benjamin Durand SMP Racing General Manager: "the appetite comes from eating"

Q: In 2013 you landed the ELMS Championship after only starting at Imola and while still learning about the discipline.  This year you have a car in GTE and also three cars in GTC, on top of cars in LMP2 in the FIA WEC.  What has been going on in the off season?

BD: “That's part of the initial working plan we set out.  We are still taking the necessary steps for our growth which is all going well at the moment. The team has always had ambitions and appetite comes with eating. Last year's good results motivated us.  We have even been contacted by Ferrari about moving to the next class up, and the Italian manufacturer has provided us with a driver to help us make further progress this season. These partnerships are part of what we have developed this year but it's also the logical progression for a team wanting to move from GTC to GTE.”

Q: We're back now from the Paul Ricard circuit which is where the 2013 season ended. How did the first test sessions of the season go?

BD: “For us, pretty well.  We left with a lot of good data to help up prepare for the first race at Silverstone.  Even if everyone holds a bit back because it's only a test session, we were able to see what the competition is going to be like and that it's going to be very high. “So we expect a very tough fight in both GTE and GTC and that motivates us to prepare even better for the beginning of the season. We also worked very well with Michelin. “We have a number of new things this year.  Firstly a car in GTE, and then among the people who make up the team, engineers, mechanics ... this test was a good opportunity to break ourselves in and give the team a test-run before leaving for Silverstone.”

Q: You have two cars in GTC and a GTE for the entire season – 3 at every race.  Silverstone takes place in 15 days, what do you expect from the first race of the season?

“For us it's going to be quite complicated, firstly because it is a weekend where we will be competing in both ELMS and WEC.  Some of our drivers run in both championships and it will be a little complicated, especially as these drivers will also go from GTE to LMP2.  That complicates the drivers' job but also that of the engineers because they will not have quite enough time necessary to work with the drivers. “We would have preferred to start with a somewhat calmer weekend as Silverstone is unlikely to yield that. That's why it was important to work well at the Paul Ricard test so we will arrive at Silverstone in the best state of preparation possible.”

As a reminder, the list of SMP Racing drivers at Silverstone in 2014 is:

ELMS - GTC:

No.57 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Boris Rotenberg (RUS) / Mika Salo ( FIN) / Maurizio Mediani (ITA)

No.71 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Kirill and Anton Ladygin (RUS) / Aleksey Basov (RUS)

No.73 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Olivier Beretta (MCO) / Alexander Frolov (RUS) / David Markozov (RUS)

ELMS - LMGTE:

No.72 Ferrari 458 Italia:  Andrea Bertolini (ITA) / Viktor Shaitar (RUS) / Sergey Zlobin (RUS)

FIA WEC - LMP2:

No.27 ORECA 03 Nissan: Sergey Zlobin (RUS) / Nicolas Minassian (FRA) / Maurizio Mediani (ITA)

No.37 ORECA 03 Nissan: Kirill and Anton Ladygin (RUS) / Viktor Shaitar (RUS)

The first round of the 2014 European Le Mans Series, the 4 Hours of Silverstone, will take place at one of the temples of European motorsport, Silverstone, on Saturday April 19.  On offer is a great weekend of endurance racing as the first round of the FIA World Endurance Championship will run on April 20.

Mapidu Media (Translation Fiona Miller)