Benoît Nogier (Renault): “The TCR is an interesting category”

It was in the Nogaro paddock that Benoît Nogier made one of his first appearances in yellow and black, the colors of Renault Sports Racing. The former Citroën resident, who notably set up the Junior Team with Sébastien Ogier, Kimi Räikkönen… became Racing commercial director within the Losange sports entity.

© Renault Media

Barely inducted, this ESTACA graduate returned to the potential developments for Renault's customer competition, one of the brand's spearheads, alongside the main program in F1.

“The first mission is to understand the in-house operation and try to project into the future, and I hope to continue the competition-customer adventure, with new products, new projects as quickly as possible, Benoît Nogier tells us.

I look in all directions, seeing everything that is being done. You need a coherent project in terms of marketing. There is no priority at the moment. The link with the road car is the common thread of our activities, we will have difficulty doing without it. »

With this in mind, endurance in its entirety, including “tourism” events, is part of the avenues for reflection. " Do 24 Hours of Le Mans, that seems a bit far away to me, continues the manager.

On a smaller scale, in various series, we would be wrong not to watch what is happening there. In TCR, there is a Renault that will run, which is not an official car, even if we are aware of this project. The initiative was launched with the agreement of Renault, but it is not supported by Renault.

For the approval, Renault must and has given its approval, but we do not spend any energy. TCR is an extremely interesting category, wide, which makes it possible to make the link with the production cars. For me, we can link the marketing and then commercial aspects. When we see the number of manufacturers who are interested in it, it is not by chance. »