Panis Racing Triple A e-Sports at the Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans

For this unprecedented event, the French team led by Olivier Panis associated with Sarah and Simon Abadie (Tech1 Racing) will be supported by the Triple A e-Sports structure led by Stéphane Koch, one of the pioneers of simracing in France, in close collaboration with Panis Racing.

Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans line-up:

Oreca 07 #9 - LMP2

Olivier Panis / Aurélien Panis / Nuno Pinto / Adam Pinczes

Oreca 07 #31 - LMP2

Tristan Vautier / Nico Jamin / Hany Alsabti / Thibault Cazaubon

Olivier Panis - Panis Racing Team Principal & Triple A Motorsport director:
"I had no clue that just one year ago when we built our esports department within Triple A we would be with Panis Racing on the starting grid of the 2020 Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans, replacing the real race that had been postponed in September. This is a huge challenge, and we are proud to be part of it. It will be a great opportunity for our dear partners to be involved in such an amazing event, while we are also looking forward to the real 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

I'm also very excited to get back in action myself, especially with my son Aurelien. I had the honor of taking part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times, from 2008 to 2011, and now I'm back... in simracing thus! I'm training a lot as it's a very special exercise, facing real specialists. I'm lucky to have a great sim installation at home, thanks to our partner Simétik (within Triple A), and to be able to count on the expertise of our e-Sports director, as well as the talent pool within his structure. They will coach me so that I can be competitive.

For this unique virtual race, Triple A e-Sports is bringing four great simracers onboard: the Dutchman Hany Alsabti, very experienced on RFactor 2 - he has participated in some Formula E eSport races -, the Portuguese Nuno Pinto, finalist of the McLaren Shadow Project last year, the Hungarian Adam Pinczes, who is competing in both ADAC GT Masters eSports and SRO ESPORTS GT Series, and the young French gun Thibault Cazaubon. At the age of 18, Thibault qualified himself for the most competitive championship, the Porsche Esports Super Cup.

Alongside these top level simracers, I will be sharing my Oreca 07 #9 with my son Aurélien, whose results in motorsport are exponential and who will start a new GT3 season in July with Tech1 Racing as official Lexus driver.

The second Oreca 07 #31 will be driven by Nicolas Jamin who joined Panis Racing in ELMS and the real 24 Hours of Le Mans this season after a very promising debut in LMP2 and a remarkable single-seater career in the USA. He will be partnered by Tristan Vautier, whose talent (Star Mazda champion, Indy Lights champion, IGT Challenge champion) has already proven itself in e-Sports as well.

Unfortunately, motorsport, like life in general, has been hit hard by a serious health crisis, but the strength of human being is always to find ways to keep moving forward, and I would like to congratulate the ACO, the WEC and Motorsport Games for putting together an event of such magnitude in such a short time.

We will be preparing as best as we can for the race. Because we are going there with the same spirit as in reality: to fight for the win. »