Primacy worthy of Aston Martin

harold, Aston Martin arrives at the 24 Hours with what ambitions?
Our wish is to be on the podium on Sunday. But you have to be realistic, there is an advantage in Peugeot and Audi. We are here to do our best. We will know after the qualifying tests where we stand compared to the Diesels. Then the race is long. David Richards first wants all three cars to finish. But a podium would be a great reward.

It will still be tough against the Diesels. Isn't your match more against gasoline engines?
Our desire remains to fight overall. Of course, it won't be easy. We could see at Spa that there is still a class gap. Last year, I finished best “gasoline” at Henri (Pescarolo). But at the end of the day, that's not what we want. We cannot be satisfied with this. The goal is really the podium overall. Finishing “best gasoline” is not an end in itself.

When you drive for Aston Martin, do you feel the weight of tradition?
We first feel the Prodrive atmosphere, then that of Aston Martin. But it's true that we want to represent the colors of Aston well, which is a performance brand, which has an incredible history in the world of motorsport, which makes people dream. We want to be worthy of that.

Aston Martin won in 1959. Is it important for you to race with Aston 50 years after this victory?
It's official: Aston Martin is coming back this year based on this success, to regain the overall race. It was necessary to mark the event, they made a good decision. The program is here to stay, at least for 2010. Ideally, the idea is to win in the year of the 50th anniversary. It's true that it?s ambitious, especially with Peugeot and Audi as competitors. We are arriving at a moment where it is less open but the team is doing a very good job and wants to reach this level.