2014 Champion Back in the ELMS

Chatin got the 2018 campaign off to a great start by posting the first pole position of the season for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. However technical problems in the race saw the no28 Oreca-Gibson, which had only been delivered to the team in the previous week, drop down the order.  The IDEC Sport team worked hard and following a brilliant fight back from all three drivers, the car took the chequered flag in seventh place at the end of the four hour race. 

The French team demonstrated that the pace is there, now they just need to find the reliability before the next race in Monza on Sunday 13 May.

We caught up with Paul Loup Chatin in Le Castellet to talk about the new ELMS season.

Q: You have the reigning driver’s champion, Memo Rojas, with you and Paul Lafarge in the car.  Have you raced with Memo before and what are your thoughts going into the 2018 season?

“Memo is a new teammate for me. I know he has lot of experience in endurance racing and he is really fast.  So I am really happy to have him as a teammate and I think with Paul (Lafarge), Memo and I we can get some great results this season.”

Q: How is everything going with the team? We understand that the car is brand new, have the team been able to prepare everything for the ELMS season?

“Everything is going well with the team; IDEC Sport did a lot of work during the winter.  For 2018 we have a new car, an Oreca 07, which we only got a week ago.  I think it is very good and it works well with the Michelin tyres.  I think we have everything we need to be able to fight for a good result at each race.”

Q: LMP2 is the strongest grid in Endurance Racing.  Do you welcome the challenge posed by so many cars and drivers?

“LMP2 is looking very strong this season, it is what we look for when we decide to go racing.  It is great to be against some great drivers and great teams.  Everything is in place to have a great championship.  If you are able to have some good results in this championship it will prove that we are really a good team with a strong line up.  The target is the 2018 title and I hope we will do it.”