Xavier Pompidou: “Ayrton Senna knew me, the young kart driver!”

Xavier, what car are we driving this week?

I chose this 911 (GT3. Ed.) because it's a car that has marked my entire career. When I drove for Porsche, it was almost always with a 911. With Marc Lieb, we imposed ourselves in Le Mans Series (GT2 winners in 2004 and 2005. Editor's note). This one is a Type 991, more recent than the models I've known in racing. But it's a fabulous car: you can do everything with it: your shopping, pick up the kids from school... or have fun on the track.

Who in your family gave you the running bug?

It's not very original, but it comes from my father (Georges. Ed.). Recently, I came across a photo from the 70s on social media. I don't know which race it was, but there were quite a few of us from my generation hanging around the paddocks while our dads were competing in the Cup. RenaultMine was one of the pillars of the R5 Cup, from 1972 to 1986. As I was born in 1972, I grew up on the circuits. There was the Alesi family, Canal, Derlot, Bourdais… What's funny is that my generation is more that of Sébastien (Bourdais), but I found myself fighting for victories with his father, Patrick. I did the first year of the Clio Cup. Coming out of the karting, it was the most accessible discipline for learning French circuits.

Growing up, did this reinforce your desire to pursue a career in this sport?

It's simple: as a child, I never said "I want to be a firefighter" or "I want to be a police officer." I always said, "I want to be a racing driver." I also had another passion: becoming an airplane pilot—but in a combat aircraft, not for commercial flying. Those were really the two careers I dreamed of when I was between 3 and 14 years old. As a teenager, I had already started karting and it was going well. And then when I saw the studies you had to do to become a fighter pilot... the car won out.

Who were you racing against in karts at that time?

There was an incredible level: Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jan Magnussen, Daniel Rossi, in particular. Internationally, we were the hopes of our respective countries. With our backgrounds and the current economic climate, we knew that our careers in cars could succeed. Afterwards,