Gaëtan Paletou – from game console to the cockpit of an LMP2

You will be on the grid for the Le Mans 24 Hours ... but what were you doing exactly a year ago?
Exactly one year ago, I was in the middle of qualifying for the Nissan GT Academy ... I then qualified for the national final (France), and finally I qualified for the European final from among 42,000 applicants. In August 2014, I won the GT Academy at Silverstone, it was a dream.  I spent two months with Nissan in England to work on development which was really amazing. Sometimes I still cannot believe it.  I've never learned and advanced as much, both physically and mentally, as during those two months.  It was a radical life-changing experience and I completely became a different person.  I left with the idea of ​​replacing my dad in his industrial packaging company in the future, nothing to do with motorsport, although I've always liked that.  But today, I am looking at the future very differently.

Did you ever imagine you’d be one day at the Le Mans 24 Hours?
In my dreams, yes, for sure!  But beyond that it's for real ... when they told me I was going to do the Blancpain season, it was already amazing, and then there was the LMP3 programme in the ELMS and it was just magic! But when, in addition, we add in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, my childhood dream, it's ... the words are hard to find to explain what I felt.
You learned that you would take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the end of the test session on Sunday 31st?
Not even then ... I learned just last Thursday (June 4). Initially I was going to run in the LMP3, but in the end I took the wheel of the Greaves Motorsport LMP2.  I thought they had something in mind, but from there to be in the race ...
I learned last Thursday that I’d be doing Le Mans and it is now Sunday and I'm going through the technical and administrative checks. Things are moving fast, very, very quickly ...
And how did you find the LMP2?
I’d only driven an LMP2 once before, in the United States, and I really like this car.  It’s much faster than what I’ve been able to drive so far, but it really is a great car. I now look forward to getting out on track.