Bruno Senna joins Oreca

Hugues de Chaunac brought together particularly talented crews for his second participation at Le Mans in Sport Prototypes. In 2009, the Var team will therefore be able to count on two duos combining youth, experience and attacking skills. Bruno Senna will thus be associated with Stéphane Ortelli on the No. 70 Courage-Oreca LC10, while Olivier Panis and Nicolas lapierre will share No. 11.

At only 25 years old, Bruno Senna will make his big debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Paulist, vice-champion in GP2 last season and long candidate for a seat in F1 this year, had already made its first laps in a prototype at Oreca, during the official Le Mans Series tests at the beginning of the month. Seduced by this discovery, Bruno Senna responded to Hugues de Chaunac's call and will therefore discover the legendary Sarthe circuit next June.

Before that, he will participate in the 1000 Km of Catalunya and the 1000 Km of Spa-Francorchamps in LMS, the opportunity for him to gain maximum experience in Endurance and to understand traffic management for example. He will also benefit from the wise advice of Stéphane Ortelli, winner at Le Mans in 1998 and FIA N-GT World Champion in 2007.

Same pattern for the crew of the No. 11, identical to that of last year, since Olivier Panis, with ten seasons in F1, will share his seat with Nicolas Lapierre, youngest winner of the Masters F3 from Macau, A1GP Champion, and several times victorious in GP2. After a first successful collaboration in 2008 in the discipline, including a third place at Spa, the two men will display great ambitions, and will strive for victory.

Bruno, Stéphane, Olivier and Nicolas will be joined at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by two other drivers whose names will be revealed very soon. Until then, Team Oreca-
Matmut will continue its development tests before the start of hostilities in
Le Mans Series, from April 3 to 5 in Barcelona.