Le Mans – Paletou: “I’m getting my bearings”

From GT Academy to 24 Hours of Le Mans, not much time will have passed to move from virtual to real to Gaëtan Paletou. The 22-year-old driver was signed just a few days before the Le Mans classic on the Gibson 015S-Nissan LM P2 from Graeves Motorsport in place of Björn Wirdheim for the top of the World Championship seasonEndurance. The Frenchman has been discovering the Sarthe track since the Test Day.

«  Le Mans is crazy. I have never seen an event like this. It's my very first time here, he told us this Friday. Plus, it's my first time with this car in the dry, so these are different shift speeds to what I was used to before, so it's a lot to take in at once. I think I did the right thing in testing, but then I made a little mistake. The team did a great job getting the car back into shape. She ran perfectly with good times. »

Lined up alongside Jon Lancaster and Gary Hirsch, Paletou believes that the British team will play its own race, notably against the Oreca 05 and the Ligier JS P2. “Since I am a Bronze driver, for me the goal is not to be too far from my teammates. In total, I completed around 25 laps including the Test Day. I'm starting to get my bearings, especially at night where these are different. It's progressing slowly. We haven't discussed strategy yet. What is certain is that Jon Lancaster will start. Our team is really playing something, Nissan has placed me in a team which is at the forefront. Our package works well, even if the car is starting to date. We know the strength of our car, which is reliable. We will do our race during the first few hours. »

Already seen in Blancpain Endurance Series on a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3, and in ELMS this year on a Ginetta-Nissan LM P3, Aquitain knows that major endurance races like Le Mans, with the differences in performance between categories, involve certain specificities. « I have a little more pressure. The speed is there. Before my accident, I was the fastest on the track, it's not in terms of speed where I have to learn, it's in terms of traffic on the track that I have to improve. »

In qualifying, the #41 Gibson set the third fastest time behind the #05 KCMG Oreca 47 and the #2 G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P26.