Thierry Tassin: "I have to start the whole strategy again"

Until Monday evening (June 9), the teams involved in this edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, were convinced that they would have to deal with a new point of the regulation. "In this new configuration", says the four-time winner of the 24 Hours of Francorchamps, the pit lane was practically open all the time each time the Safety Car came onto the track.

"This Tuesday morning (June 10, Editor's note), just before the briefing, the ACO made a significant change to the regulations. In principle, you can't change anything, especially so close to the first practice sessions, but the ACO cited safety reasons. Which I completely understand." Under these regulations, the car leaving the pits would be tempted to go flat out to get back into the pack behind the Safety Car. This risked endangering the marshals busy removing debris from a track excursion.

In fact, we have returned to the 2024 regulation. “It turns everything upside down,” continues Tassin. "I had developed many scenarios. But they no longer have any value. It also penalizes us because we are at the end of the pit lane. But we will get used to it. I think it's better to be where we are. The proof, Toyota has gotten closer to us. When we're last in the pit lane, we have a global view of what our competitors are doing. We can therefore adapt our strategy based on what we see. Which is not the case at the start of the pit lane."