Morand Racing has to change driver two races prior to the end of the season as Franck Mailleux did not manage to secure a relevant budget for the last two events in Hungary and France, meaning the team had to find a new teammate for Swiss driver Natacha Gachnang. The French driver will be replaced by Austrian Christian Klien behind the wheel of the #42 Morgan powered by Judd. The team of Benoit Morand and Joe Genoud have been able to test their new recruit on the British track of Snetterton during tests organized by Dunlop and together with the help of Olivier Pla, Onroak Automotive developing driver, and Natacha Gachnang. The three drivers have been able to do 150 laps and to test new Dunlop tyres during the two days long tests in both rainy and dry track conditions.
The 30 years old driver will first race with Natacha Gachnang in Hungary on the Hungaroring track in early September. Christian Klien was a Formula 1 driver for Jaguar Racing and for Red Bull Racing between 2004 and 2006. Then the Austrian driver resumed his career in Formula 1 in 2010 with Hispania Racing. As to endurance, the Hohemens (West of Austria) born pilot raced for Peugeot Sport at Le Mans 24 Hours in 2008 finishing 3rd overall, before finishing second at Petit le Mans. He also won Spa 1000 kms the following year with French drivers Simon Pagenaud and Nicolas Minassian. A few weeks later he finished 6th overall in Le Mans with Pedro Lamy and Nicolas Minassian. Christian Klien raced in Spa, Le Mans and Silverstone as one of the Aston Martin factory drivers during the 2011 season and took part in the V8 Australian championship in 2012 for Walkinshaw Racing.
BENOIT MORAND – TEAM MANAGER: « Let us first express our most sincere thanks to Franck for the great job he did both in the European Le Mans Series and at Le Mans but the truth is that we had to take the painful decision to find a new driver for the end of the season. Joe Genoud and I had a short list of professional drivers who were available and who could finish the season with us. The name of Christian came back many times due to his professional motorsport background and we decided to test him during a two days test in Snetterton, England. He showed most impressive abilities to adapt to a LMP2 car that he was just discovering. His feedback with our engineer together with his feeling with the car under rainy and dry conditions confirmed us that our decision was the right one and we are really pleased to welcome Christian for the last 2 rounds of the season. We have no doubt that, as a team, Natacha and Christian will be highly competitive in both qualification and race and we intend to finish the season with two good results including a victory.»
Source : Morand Racing