Pescarolo: “Return in several stages”

The page on 2010 is now well turned and it was a refreshed man who answered our questions this morning during the presentation of the 24 Hours entrants at the Maison de la Radio.

A year ago, no Pescarolo from your team was at the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 2011 marks the rebirth of Pescarolo Sport. Do you need to be relieved after going through difficult times?
Yes of course. It was not easy to get out of this mess. This was done in several stages, the first being the intervention of Joël Rivière, who had offered to take over the assets of Pescarolo Sport. This step was important, necessary, but not sufficient because it was necessary to find a budget to relaunch the team. As the staff were unemployed, they had to be rehired. Just as the two cars had to be recovered. It was then thanks to our partnership with Autovision that we were able to completely relaunch the team and prepare for 2011. Moreover, I am also already working on 2012.

There was a strong mobilization to prevent Pescarolo Sport from disappearing!
This momentum started when Doctor Ullrich, on the podium of the last 24 Hours of Le Mans, was kind enough to say that he had to help me come back in 2011. Then, the Pescarolo 2011 association was extraordinary and I? allowed me to restart even though I did not yet have any sponsor. Today, we can count on the support of 1200 members. It was in response to this enthusiasm that the partners then arrived, focusing their communication around our adventure, whether or not they had been involved in motorsport before, like Autovision.

Alongside Manu Collard and Christophe Tinseau, you have chosen to trust Julien Jousse. Can you explain this choice?
I have always tried to promote young pilots, with the Elf sector in particular. My choice therefore fell on Julien Jousse, who will compete in the entire LMS championship as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He was with Luc Alphand for two years and he delivered very good performances in car. This is exactly the type of driver I have always tried to support. We continue in this vein with a very strong crew, which proves that we have real ambitions at Pescarolo Team Autovision.

What is the testing program between now and the first LMS round at Castellet on April 3?
We have not yet started our tests because John Judd is still in the engine transformation phase. Due to the regulations, we have to reduce the displacement which will be 5,0 liters instead of 5,5 liters, because the small flanges imposed caused large vibrations on the latter. The block is therefore still on the bench. We should be racing at the end of February in order to be ready for the LMS tests at Paul Ricard at the beginning of March.