Franck Lagorce: “We are all risking our lives and we asked for nothing”

How are you and how are you experiencing this special moment?

I am lucky to be a little away from a big city, I am with my wife and my 7 year old son, we have been living peacefully since March 3. We don't move, we go out shopping once a week, masked and gloved. We organized ourselves: my wife takes care of the lessons with the help of teachers by telephone or Internet; I do sports education. I've been locked up with my son for a month and a half, I discovered a different child! And I'm very happy about it. I also have two older daughters who are with their mother and whom I haven't seen in a long time.

How do you view what is happening at the moment?

I don't do politics... If I had known how to do it well, I would have had a great career in F1. I've always said what I think, and sometimes it's tricky. At the societal level, I think it is a utopia to send children back to school on May 11. If we do this, it means that everything we've done so far means nothing. By putting children back in school before September, we will revitalize the virus.

Because who is going to lead them, search for them? The elders, the grandparents, because the parents are going to work again. It does not seem logical to compare a population at risk with a population that is most likely to carry the virus. We all made efforts to respect confinement which seems to me to be the best thing. And it would be to achieve that!

How are things going for you, professionally?

I have an events company, so I am one of the first affected by what is happening. State aid will allow us to get over the hump and get back on track after this pandemic. When ? That's the whole question. But we will regain momentum, we will bounce back. When you're a pilot, you're never in the mindset of giving up. When it starts again, it will start very strong. I think there will be a wave. As at the Liberation, there will be this desire to do lots of things.

But that said, there will be some damage. To get state aid, if you have another bankrupt company at the same time, you won't be able to leave. You can't live on a deficit and ask for help to meet your own needs. This is also why I worry about a decision that would unblock the situation too soon. What can happen if we rush? We are going to close the shops and go back into confinement. Because it will start again as long as we don't have a vaccine.

A testing policy is put forward to gradually emerge from confinement and resume economic activity...

Yes, but will we have enough? We already don't have enough masks, confidence is eroded, so how are we going to bring people out? There are 66 million of us, we are currently unable to do 20 tests per day, that is the reality. You don't bring a country to its knees without activating all means to bring it back. In Germany, they have had the masks, they have the tests, it is anticipated. Until we have an antidote, putting people back out… to be polite, it's not good.

You are very critical...

I would have liked us to say: we are going to be clear with you. We have had poor consideration of our hospital staff for years, there are medical deserts because there are fewer and fewer field nurses and doctors. We had a problem supplying masks for populations at risk. And finally: don't send the children to school before September because we have a real problem.

When we say that 80% of people risk nothing, that means that there are 20% who are potentially in danger. Should they be killed? It's a concept. This is not mine. If they reopen the schools, they are murderers, I am not afraid to say it. We must not now jeopardize what has just been done. As a citizen, I feel French, but when I see some people applauding the nurses at 20 p.m. and then going out jogging, gathering… That's not my way of seeing things, no.

As for our “small” area of ​​motorsport, how will it start again?

This is catastrophic on an economic level. I can easily talk about it because we obviously have clients who are partners at different levels in motorsport. When you do sponsorship, you have to make money. And you put a small part of this figure back into sponsorship. These will be the first budgets affected. A business manager who does not achieve his objectives, will he finance his motorsport season as “leisure”? I know many who are in this situation.

It would be better to start from scratch next year. And those who think that we will start again on the same bases are wrong. For me, 2020 will be a blank year in many sectors of economic activity, not only in our sport. I don't find it coherent, for example, that we are talking about organizing the Tour de France in September when the Mondial de l'Auto has been canceled. In September, it will be back to school. We won't sleep anymore because there will be so many things to do when things start again. In events, we won't be able to do ten things a day, the calendar is not extendable.

If the international series will have difficulty bringing everyone together at the same time in a given place, we can still expect to see the restart of a French rally championship, circuits, when France leaves...

There remains the problem of budgets that I mentioned earlier. We will already need competitors. Between those who will not have the budgets or who will have to devote all their time to their activity which will be in full restart, there may not be many people left. I put myself in the shoes of a driver who would be registered for a French championship, I will cancel my 2020 season to concentrate on the next one, as it is impossible to have a clear vision or any grip on the events. And then, for the international championships, you are not going to award a world title in six races, a national title in three… That would make no sense.

This reflection must currently animate the brains of F1 promoters, WRC, WEC...

As the head of an F1 team, I would already put all resources into the new 2021 regulations (which have been postponed to 2022. Editor's note). Let's focus on the future, let's think differently. L'Endurance, it is even more complicated and delicate, with the Hypercar regulations. Who will follow now at this budget level? Initially, they were talking about 4-5 competitors, now they only have one. As for the car manufacturers, I am less worried about them than about myself.

They are losing money but have reserves and the strengths they possess allow them to think about building the post-pandemic era. I don't worry too much about products or sports programs. They are already working on this. Finally, on the promoters' side, they clearly have a problem: for example, are we going to be able to bring together 300 spectators at Le Mans in September, with the draconian health measures that must be taken? It's utopian.

But we must establish a road map... Those who do not make announcements today can be accused of inaction!

The organizers, the promoters have their problems, their convictions. It's not my priority. At the FFSA, I would like someone to speak up and say: in 2020, we are doing nothing. Build 2021 today by thinking differently. It would be better to say it now than to be forced into a corner, when we no longer have a choice and realize that we can no longer do anything this year. Today, we talk about health, we don't talk about sporting exploits.

Even if there were no French GT4 championship, even if there were no Andros Trophy this winter... The important thing is not to lose friends, friends, people. We have to see beyond our little world of motorsport, these days it's even my last worry. What I want to know is if my friends, my family, my loved ones are in good shape. We lose loved ones, we must not mix these feelings and keep in mind the essentials: humanism and health.

I feel like a humanist before being an athlete today. What is happening is pathetic. Everyone is thinking about their championship while we are saving our parents. Motorsport is secondary. A pilot, he risks his life but he knows it. He even pays for it sometimes. There, we are all risking our lives and we didn't ask for anything. Don't compare. If we don't realize this, it's a mistake at best.