Christophe Perrin: “A driver who has confidence in his engineer (…) is 3/10th won”

You welcome us in your pretty Tesla Model S. Did you particularly want to buy a Tesla or would you rather embrace the idea of ​​acquiring an electric car at all costs?

None of that, it was first and foremost the choice of an innovative car. I love everything disruptive on the market. It turns out that it is an electric car and that the innovation is now coupled with electricity. Basically, it was the autopilot part that caught my attention. And then, as far as the electrical part is concerned, it's not any worse, it helps to clear your conscience when working in motorsport. (Laughs)

Do you sometimes let yourself be driven by the autopilot of your sedan?

Sometimes yes ! This works especially on dual carriageways and motorways. For urban areas, it is more complicated, the technology is not yet advanced enough and the legislation does not yet authorize us to do it. Autonomous driving is an area that interests me a lot. With Tesla, there is no radar to estimate distances from the car in front, rather they put cameras everywhere, and they do everything based on image processing because they estimate that if a humans can see with their two eyes and their brain, they too should be able to make algorithms with cameras. And then, what I like is this… (abruptly, he engages the right pedal fully and presses us against the seat). That's crazy.

As technical manager of a British team based in England, you live in the Paris region. Explain to us…

I travel back and forth to England regularly. I'm there before every week