PEGASUS RACING TEAM TOTAL - A prestigious partnership and greater ambitions

This season, Pegasus Racing Team Total is going to take a major step forward in its history. The clinching of this new partnership owes a lot to Rémy Brouard, a Frenchman who is particularly knowledgeable when it comes to motor sport in Asia in general and in China in particular. He gives us his opinion a few days after the signing of the contract: “Motor sport is still very new in China. The Formula 1 Grand Prix has been run there for only twelve years and endurance in the last five. Even though there are one hundred million cars in the country it has only six circuits. Sponsorship is still in its infancy, and with David and Ho-Pin we have two of the best Chinese ambassadors who are also real pros. They speak fluent English, and they know the Chinese TV and media inside out, crucial in a country in which the impact of digital technology has reached a very high level. More than 30 000 fans and bloggers logged on to the Total website for the press conference and watched it on Wechat, for example.”

Julien Schell also said how delighted he was: “Today, our team has become associated with one of the big names in the lubricants industry. I’m very happy about this, and I’d like to say a big thank you to Patrick Devemy, the Total Lubricants China general manager, for his trust and Rémy Brouard from Sagcom whose involvement proved decisive in this project. It’s really great news for us a few days before the second round of the European Le Mans Series at Imola, and just a month from the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Thirty-two-year-old Ho-Pin Tung has built up a great reputation for himself since he began his racing career in Formula Ford. In 2003, he won the Formula BMW Asia title which led to him becoming the first Chinese driver to test an F1 car (Williams BMW). After wrapping up the German F3 Championship he moved up to GP2 before doing more F1 testing with Renault. He is the first Chinese to have raced in the Indy 500 and he is currently one of the pioneers in the FIA Formula E Championship. In 2014, he made impressed onlookers in the American Tudor United SportsCar Championship by setting the fastest lap in Watkins Glen and the Petit Le Mans. He also won the Asian Le Mans Series title with David Cheng at the wheel of a Morgan LM P2 identical to the one he will drive this year with Pegasus Racing Team Total.

Last year, twenty-five-year-old David Cheng clinched his second title in the Asian Le Mans Series in the LM P2 category after that of 2013 at the wheel of the OAK Racing Team Total’s Morgan. He began his career in the United States in single-seaters and filled the runner-up spot in the Formula 2000 Pacific Championship on two occasions. His best results in the USA were at the wheel of an LM PC prototype (Le Mans Prototype Challenge), in particular a category victory in the 2013 Sebring 12 Hours. He made his Le Mans debut in 2014 finishing in a well-deserved seventh place in LM P2.

Nineteen-year-old Léo Roussel cut his teeth in Formula Renault 2.0 and CN protos in the V de V Endurance Challenge. He was already part of the Pegasus line-up in 2014 when he became the youngest-ever French driver to race in the Le Mans 24 Hours. He finished in the top 10 in LM P2 to both his and the team’s delight.

Thus, the team will tackle the Imola 4 Hours on 16-17 May with their tails up as they continue their ELMS campaign. Julien Schell will team up with David Cheng and Léo Roussel for this event. Then the preparations for the Le Mans test day will begin followed by the Pegasus Racing Team Total’s main objective for the 2015 season - the 83rd running of the greatest endurance race in the world - the Le Mans 24 Hours!