At the tender age of 21, Gustavo Menezes has won many admirers for his performances in the FIA World Endurance Championship this season, not least his Signatech-Alpine team-mate Nicolas Lapierre.
Menezes was just nine years old when Lapierre launched his career by winning the Macau Grand Prix in 2003, but has driven with a maturity beyond his years in his first season in LMP2, helping the team to win three races in succession at Spa-Francorchamps, Le Mans and the Nürburgring.
With the team’s third driver, 26-year-old Stephane Richelmi, also in his first season in the WEC, Lapierre has taken on the role of team leader and been impressed with his team-mates’ willingness to learn from his experience.
“When I signed up at the beginning of the season I spoke to [team principal] Philippe Sinault about my team-mate, he said ‘this is the choice we have’ and I said Gustavo,” explained Lapierre.
“He’s listening a lot and he’s improving very fast. He was fast since the beginning of the season, but he’s learning more and more about saving tyres and fuel.
“He’s only 21 years old, really a boy, and he’s still getting better, so it’s pretty impressive what he’s achieved this year.”
Heading into the halfway point of the season, Lapierre is delighted with the way the team has gelled together and is optimistic that they can continue in the same vein at the 6 Hours of COTA.
“In endurance racing you really need to have the spirit of sharing the car and be happy if your team-mate is going fast,” continued the Frenchman.
“Very few young drivers have this, especially because coming out of single-seaters you always want to beat your team-mate, but Gustavo and Steph are able to do this and I think this is one of the keys of our success this year.
“When I signed up for the project, I knew we had a chance to fight for the championship and to fight for Le Mans, but three wins in a row is a dream.
“We need to improve our qualifying pace, because so far we were not able to catch the G-Drive, but in the end the qualifying doesn’t matter so much in these races, so we don’t want to focus too much on it. We have everything in our hands, we just need to make it happen.”
James Newbold
Photo by Adrenal Media
