Three questions to Philippe Sinault at the Sparco press conference

The drivers of the No.0 Nissan ZEOD are taking the lead in this 82nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, wearing the latest generation suit.

Sparco and Alpine have also launched a joint venture for the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans by producing for sale 100 T-Shirts signed by the Alpine drivers, the proceeds of which will go to the Resto du Coeur.

At the press conference held by Sparco, a global leader in motorsport equipment and a partner to the Signatech Alpine team, we met up with team manager Philippe Sinault.

Signatech Alpine set the second fastest time in LMP2 in qualifying yesterday evening, the No.36 Alpine A450b in the hands of Nelson Panciatici, Paul-Loup Chatin and Oliver Webb. The Franco-British trio includes two rookies who will make their debut at this year's Le Mans - Chatin and Webb.

Three questions to Philippe Sinault, Team Manager of Signatech Alpine.

How was the run-up to the 24 Hours?

The 1 June tests were a good chance for the team and drivers to get things under control. All went very well and we achieved all we needed to in a very busy schedule, which primarily involved learning about the new aero kit and doing endurance runs for the tyres which we hadn't had the chance to do as we recently changed manufacturer. 

Wednesday's free practice and first qualifying sessions were pretty frustrating, because we weren't able to run as much as we'd have liked because of multiple interruptions. We did about half of the expected mileage ... We have not yet tried a real qualifying lap but we'll see what happens tonight, even if pole position at a 24-hour race is not our No.1 goal.

Our aim is instead to put everything in place for a good race and to show our competitors that we are here and that they will have to watch out for us!

Your line-up includes two rookie drivers...

Yes, Oliver Webb and Paul-Loup Chatin. Following yesterday's shortened sessions, Oliver still needs to run more because he doesn't yet know the track well and hasn't been able to do much mileage at night.  Endurance racing is still a new discipline for him, so we still have a lot of work to do from here to the end of the day.

As far as Paul-Loup is concerned, he set the best lap time yesterday, second in the LMP2 class, even though his lap was interrupted by a red flag. He was in a good rhythm but the most important thing was that when he got out of the car he felt it was good. That's the most important thing going into the race.

Qualifying is tonight…

During our sessions, even if they've been shortened, we've been able to validate that our car is pretty well balanced, our performance is encouraging and the drivers feel comfortable in the car; they have confidence in it.