As the Le Mans 24 Hours rapidly approach, news about Pescarolo Sport are getting harder and harder to come by. Media in the Sarthe has reported on the dismissal of Henri Pescarolo, while the list of entrants for the Spa 1000km race has not mention of a Pescarolo LMP1. As a result, the participation of the “Greens” in the 2010 classic is uncertain. Jean Py explained a few points on the subject.
“The sporting project for Pescarolo Sport, as you know, is in the hands of Genii Capital, which has already widely communicated its intentions on the subject,” said Jean Py. “Unfortunately, actions did not follow the words of Mr. Lopez and Mr. Bouiller,” When the list of the 55 invitees for the 24 Hours was released, Jean Py had announced Ho-Pin Tung and Jan Charouz behind the wheel of the Pescarolo-Judd entered by Pescarolo Sport. In February, he had also announced a partnership between his team, Gravity (a division of Genii, a company headed up by Gérard Lopez, which acquired a portion of Renault F1) and the Renault F1 Driver Program. Jean Py continues: “After telling us to enter two cars for Le Mans for five drivers from their team, the directors of Genii Capital and Gravity Management no longer seemed to want to come through on their promises. This of course puts the Pescarolo Sport company in a bad situation and our participation at Le Mans is very compromised.”
This is a confirmation of the worries from Pescarolo Sport supporters, headed up by Christian Jozan. An unfortunate situation to say the least since Pescarolo has shown great promise in the last few seasons. Jean Py agrees: “It’s even more regrettable since the aerodynamic improvements conducted by the team this winter have already shown their positive effects on the OAK Racing cars at the 8 Hours of the Castellet and would have permitted the continued good showings from 2009: five podiums and two overall victories in Portimao and Okayama out of seven races.”
Despite this, Pescarolo Sport is conducting other projects. “The Pescarolo Sport company is, as a result, focusing on its delivery program of “Pescarolo Le Mans” driving school cars slated for the end of May,” said Jean Py. “Elsewhere, the LMP1 prototype project for 2011 is still going according to plan.”
We hope the next bit of news from Pescarolo Sport will be more positive. It goes without saying that if the team did end up forfeiting, the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010 would have a different flavour…
Rainier Ehrhardt
(with Anthony Megevand)