Three-time winners at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer are three good friends who are also always on the lookout for a good prank. Here they share some memories and anecdotes from the past while waiting for the next joke...and the next win at Le Mans?
After coming together in 2010, the trio of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer has since won the Le Mans 24 Hours three times (2011-2012-2014), a world championship title (2012), plus the first two rounds of the 2015 World Endurance Championship (WEC). Uncompromising on track, but otherwise always laid back, these three drivers at the top of their game don't take themselves too seriously.
Benoît:"As he is Swiss and a father of four daughters at home, Marcel is more sensible and perhaps has more limits than André and me. For example, he and I put an inflatable Santa Claus in a hotel room."
André: "I think taking his toothbrush would be the worst joke you could play on Marcel, because he brushes his teeth at least five or six times a day (laughs)!"
Benoît: "At Sebring, when André was on track, Marcel and I grabbed his hotel room key and covered his toilet in Clingfilm..."
André: "... and it splashed all over the place when I went!"
Marcel: "Benoît and I would have liked to be there to see that!"
André: "Last year at Spa-Francorchamps, I got Benoît's rental car keys and went and asked Audi's cook for some flour, then put the two air conditioning fans on full blast. When Benoît started the car, the flour sprayed out all over the inside of the car; it took him a good while to clean that up!"
Benoît: "I think that, for André, if we pulled a prank with his car collection it wouldn’t make him laugh at all! That said, it has been some time since we did a really big joke. We are trying to be a little more serious, of course, and sometimes when things aren't going well we think that perhaps our jokes are there for a good reason (laughs). But when we don't have a good prank coming up, we miss it..."
Marcel: "I can't say what the next one is, it has to stay a surprise..."
Thanks to Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO
Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, FRIDAY JUNE 13, 2014, DRIVERS' PARADE IN THE CENTRE OF THE CITY. A good joke is always welcome but, once on the race track, Benoit Tréluyer, André Lotterer and Marcel Fässler (left to right) really mean business!
