Pierre-Brice Mena: “Going to the highest level in endurance”

Impossible to look away from this legendary livery. For many, it evokes the heyday of Lancia in rally, but for endurance fans, this is the period Porsche with the victory of the 917 K in 1971 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the Helmut Marko – Gijs van Lennep duo resurfacing.

While parrying sa Porsche 911 GT3 R. colours Martini Racing for 2021 en GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, Pierre-Brice Mena place again GPX Racing in the light, a position in which the Dubai-based team had placed itself since 2019 in GT3 after its success at the 24 Hours of Spa.

Counting among the favorites for the 2021 campaign, after narrowly failing in the race for the 2020 titles, GPX Racing will necessarily aim for the leading roles this weekend in Italy, with a trio of choice, composed of Mathieu Jaminet, Earl Bamber and Matt Campbell. The opportunity to take stock with the boss before the first runs.

You are entering this season with the label of one of the favorite teams. Does this change anything in the way you approach things?

The approach remains the same, wanting to do the best possible. It is certain that by finishing 2nd in the Drivers and Teams championships in 2020, the objective is clear: we are there to win the titles. However, we know that it is a hyper-competitive series with very high-level teams and crews.

So much can happen in a race with so many cars on track. The objective is not to win every weekend, but to be intelligent, to score points when we are not the best and to win when we have the opportunity, and to have the little trick in addition to pocket the championship.

The winter break was an opportunity to see ART Grand Prix arrive as a technical partner. What does this change in concrete terms?

Our collaboration began after the Asian Le Mans Series campaign. This new technical direction is one of many changes. Everyone worked very hard to be ready for the first race. Of course, this brings new avenues of work, with improvements in the organization, with a view to performance...

Other points come more from our past experience. All this combined should make us stronger. In terms of vision and opportunities, we are also discussing quite a few projects with ART. These are only drafts but we have a lot of things in mind for the long term.

Does this long term already have a specific orientation?

I consider that we are in a period where everything is changing and not just in motorsport. I speak more generally for the world economy, because we feel that we are in a trough and that directions will be taken, and that we will have to take the right one at the right time.

You must not rush and observe carefully. We will do everything to be ready and the idea is to go to the highest level in endurance, whether in GT, LMDh or other. It may also depend on the arrival of the GT3s at Le Mans. These are quite a few points that we do not have 100% control over.

You are talking about the GT3 at Le Mans. Would you prefer to go through this step before seeing even higher?

The decision must be realistic. If we do something, it will be with the idea of ​​doing it well. It's wiser to say that if the GT3s arrive at Le Mans, we might be interested. Once again, it all depends on several parameters.

You don't have a Sprint program. Is it a desire to focus on endurance?

There is no real support in sprint races. If we had been supported, we would have watched. Now, doing it to do it with customer drivers, without possibly having any luck against “factory” teams from other manufacturers…

What do you think of DTM GT3 version?

It seems to be working. We'll have to see, but I think it's good for the category, with an overall idea of ​​cost reduction.

The historical part of GP Extreme also seems to be enjoying real momentum. Is this surprising?

This is developing even though this entity remains relatively young. We really want to structure and grow in the coming years, by continuing our activities such as racing service... In 2021, it's a big season, including the historic Monaco Grand Prix with several cars. It's important to us and we feel the enthusiasm for these cars. With GPX Historic, we are quickly talking to more people than GPX Racing which is niche. We can see major media coverage of historic events, and the passion of the public is important.