Italian Ferrari driver Andrea Bertolini returns to the WEC in 2015 with SMP Racing, the Russian team with whom he has been successfully competing in the European Le Mans Series for the last two years. He talks about the progress his relatively inexperienced team mates Victor Shaytar and Aleksei Basov have made over that time, and gives his thoughts on the coming Le Mans 24 Hours.
Porsche Team Manthey’s Frédéric Makowiecki claimed pole position in the LMGTE Pro category in 2012 and his team won its class in 2013. The Frenchman therefore brings a great deal of success to the Le Mans 24 Hours but what does he think it will take for the Porsche GTE entries to repeat that success in 2015? There might not be many people wishing for a little rain during the 24-hour race, but the Porsche drivers will be…!!
A winner at the Le Mans 24 Hours in the 2014 LMGTE Am ‘Dane Train’, David Heinemeier-Hansson returns to the LMP2 category in which he has previously competed. In 2015 he is part of the full season Extreme Speed Motorsports line up and will be racing the No.30 Ligier JS P2 HPD alongside Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel in the car which features Rolling Stone magazine on its bodywork. The US-domiciled Dane talks about what Le Mans means to Denmark and gives his thoughts on the week ahead.
Richie Stanaway is making his Le Mans 24 Hours debut this year with Aston Martin Racing, alongside two further drivers who have not taken part in the greatest sportscar race in the world – Fernando Rees and Alex MacDowall. A class win in the WEC 6 Hours of Spa gives the trio a lot of confidence going into the event, and here the New Zealander talks about how he thinks they will compare to the others in the very strong and competitive category.
Paul-Loup Chatin is one of 30 French drivers in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours and is part of Signatech Alpine’s 100% French line up in the No.36 Alpine A450B Nissan. The young Frenchman is part of the double European Le Mans Series championship-winning Signatech team which has graduated to the WEC in 2015, and here he talks about the jump up to the world championship and his thoughts on the race ahead.
Porsche Team’s Marc Lieb has the German marque’s DNA running through his veins, being born and bred in Stuttgart and racing for Porsche for many, many years. He returns to Le Mans for the 10th time as part of the factory team’s 3-car line up and here talks about the team’s hopes and plans for the week ahead. He also expresses what it means to represent the company which has had 770 Porsches compete at Le Mans to date.
One of four ‘Kiwis’ in the Le Mans 24 Hours this year, Brendon Hartley is part of the ‘red’ Porsche team – the No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid entry, alongside Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard. He explains how proud he is to represent the small country of New Zealand on the world’s stage, and the challenges of the LMP1 battle ahead. The only hybrid-powered cars to be running in the 8 MegaJoule category, Brendon talks about how complicated the technology is in the 2015 cars.
Toyota Racing’s Anthony Davidson goes into the Le Mans 24 Hours 2015 as World Champion and with a huge amount of race-winning experience. He has not yet, however, managed to conquer the Le Mans 24 Hours. Here he talks about how the 24-hour race offers opportunities to everyone, no matter what has happened in the season to date, and how great it is for he and Sébastian Buemi to have team mate Kazuki Nakajima back with them after his accident at Spa at the beginning of May.
Mathias Lauda, new to the WEC in 2015, has had the best possible start to the season with two wins from two races. As he approaches his first Le Mans 24 Hours, he talks about what he and team mates Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy must do to repeat this success at the WEC’s third round. Double points are on offer, but the LMGTE Am class leaders realise that the task ahead won’t be simple!
A former LMGTE champion in the European Le Mans Series, the only Irish driver in the race, Matt Griffin, returns to Le Mans with a team and car he is very familiar with – AF Corse and the Ferrari 458 Italia. In 2015 he is accompanied by two Rookies, Duncan Cameron and Alex Mortimer, and he explains that while this reduces the pressure of expectation, it doesn’t mean they don’t consider themselves as potential winners.
Gimmi Bruni is recognised as the best GTE driver in the world and he comes to the 83rd Le Mans 24 Hours as a reigning World Champion with AF Corse and the Ferrari 458 Italia, and a two-time class winner in the last three years. He explains about the added pressure this brings, the importance of the race to Ferrari, and what the secret is to winning the greatest sportscar race in the world – an achievement he first claimed in the GT2 class in 2008!
