Meeting with Reshad de Gerus and Vlad Lomko, the young shoots of COOL Racing

On board the Oreca 07 bearing the number 47 of COOL Racing, we find a former winner of the Indianapolis 500 who is also an actor in the adventure Peugeot 908 at the turn of the 2010s, simon pagenaud. But he is not the only one ! His two teammates may be damn young, Reshad de Gerus (19 years old) and Vladislav Lomko (18 years old) demonstrated great maturity during the testing of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023 with the 4th time of the Hyperpole.

We met the native of Reunion and the rookie winner of the 2022 Grand Prix de Pau to find out more about the agreement with the champion ofIndyCar 2016 and their expectations before this Centenary edition.

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What does Simon Pagenaud bring to you?
Reshad from Gerus: Vlad and I are young and we need someone experienced like Simon. It's exceptional to have him with us. He brings a lot of serenity, this allows us to rely on him a little in certain situations. With Nicolas (Stone) as a boss, we are well supervised.
Vladislav Lomko: Simon will be very useful in the race, when managing traffic. Experience of major 24-hour events is an asset.

Did you greet them when you first met?
RdG: No (laughs). There is very good cohesion between us, the team is family. We manage to relax when we need to, to laugh heartily, and when we need to be serious, we know what to do.

Vladislav, how are you experiencing this discovery of the 24 Hours of Le Mans?
VL: It’s special. Especially with extremely long days. For example, during testing, you have to wait several hours in the morning until the first session begins. On the other hand, once it starts, everything happens very quickly until qualifying. The track is atypical due to its length (13,626 km). I have never ridden on such a long circuit! I love the place, it's very cool. Many pilots would like to benefit from this type of opportunity, we must not forget to have fun and work in order to aim for the best possible result.

When Simon arrived in the stable, did we have to give him the user manual for the Oreca 07?
RdG: On the Oreca, he was well supervised by the engineers and Nicolas. We are used to driving this LM P2 in the European Le Mans Series, but its adaptation happened very naturally. We must not forget that Simon drives IMSA with an Acura GTP, also built by Oreca. It's not quite the same prototype, but the driving philosophy is similar.

Rain is forecast for the start of the 24 2023 Hours of Le Mans. Have you ever driven in these conditions?
RdG: I did one session on a wet track, but that's it. Honestly, I'm not too worried.
VL: I did a day of testing in the rain. This allows you to understand the behavior of the car. I don't think the rain will be a problem because the opponents haven't ridden much in these conditions either.

Vladislav, what is your link with France? You speak French very well !
VL: I was born in Russia, in Nizhny Tagil. I moved to France four years ago. I spent a year at the FFSA Academy in Le Mans, where I had already met Reshad in the same school, but not in the same class. Today, I live in Paris. (Vlad Lomko chose a French pilot's license in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Editor's note).