24 Hours of Le Mans

Team ORECA Matmut finished fifth at Le Mans

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Less then two months after its first testing miles, the ORECA 01 finished the Le Mans 24 Hours at its first attempt - conquering its very own Mount Everest.

Olivier Panis, Nicolas Lapierre and Soheil Ayari enjoyed a perfect race in the No 11 car, taking the chequered flag in fifth place. The perfect ending for the legendary race around the clock…despite the presence on the grid of nine nine factory-backed diesel-engined prototypes. Thanks to perfect reliability, ORECA’s first 100% designed and built prototype, ended the race with over 5000km on the clock. Is there a better way of demonstrating the qualities of this LMP1 sports car, which has been developed in less than a year?

Hugues de Chaunac and his team’s wise race strategy was to remain careful, stay out of trouble and spend as little time as possible in the pits. The ORECA 01 did exactly that. The brilliant work achieved by Panis, Lapierre and Ayari helped to overcome the disappointment of the sister car, the No 10 driven by Bruno Senna, Stéphane Ortelli and Tiago Monteiro. This clearly demonstrated its potential but after three incidents the team was forced to retire the car after 15 hours.

After taking the first steps in 2008, Team ORECA-Matmut-AIM moved up to the next level: ending the race as the highest-placed petrol-powered car.

Race Report:
The two ORECA 01s started side by side on the eighth row of the grid. They got off to a good start and quickly moved up towards the top 10. In the second hour the N°11 car pitted briefly to remove a rubber lining on the throttle pedal, and car N°10 had a spin at Tertre Rouge. The two cars were split up after that.

For the next 22 hours the N°11 ran like clockwork. Panis, Lapierre and Ayari took turns doing triples stints… while staying under control in order to preserve the car, while at the same time improving the performance all the time. The mechanics were only needed to change tyres and refuelling. Early in the morning the three drivers upped the pace and slowly moved into the top five. From the 16th hour onwards, they were among the frontrunners. The N°11 stopped in the 19th hour for precautionary changes of the brakes pads and the extractors.

Olivier, Nicolas and Soheil kept up the pace all the way and were able to resist the attacks of N°7 Peugeot to finish fifth.

After hour 16, they never left the front runners. N°11 was in the garage for just one short moment: for a precautionary intervention (changing the extractor and brakes pads during hour 19). The N°10 car had a more difficult race. Senna, Ortelli and Monteiro. The first accident occurred just before the end of the second hour at Tertre Rouge. Repairs were made and the car went back out in 23th place. The three drivers then battled back to 12th but at 00.23 suffered a second accident at Maison Blanche. Repairs were completed in record time, just 20 minutes being needed to change the spitter, the front and rear bodywork, the undertray and the rear axle! Having falling back to 21st position the drivers attacked again and were back up to 14th when the car was involved in a collision at the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. After assessing the rear-end damage the ORECA-Matmut-AIM team decided to retire the car.

Hugues de Chaunac (Group ORECA President): « This was such a great satisfaction, a true recompense for all that work done by ORECA. Our race was well managed with a perfect performance by the drivers and the team. However this does not take away from the dissatisfaction I felt throughout the entire week. That was hard. With our 5th place we have now entered into the
second phase of our challenge with our cars racing next to that of the major manufacturers. We couldn’t afford to make mistakes: n°10 had the capacity to perform as well as n°11, but unfortunately three mistakes were made. These cost us dearly but also served to remind us that this is Le Mans. Whatever the situation the team proved their motivation and professionalism. No one gave up, and I never doubted for a moment. We now need to move on to our third year challenge, but for that the regulations have to change. »

David Floury (Technical Director): « The technical team did a fantastic job, really showing team spirit. This is our reward for one and a half years of very hard work: there were difficult moments, and we had to face certain critics, but today we proved our potential. It is a shame that we did not have car n°10 cross the finish line as she was just as competitive as n°11. One of the positive points was the cars’ reliability as neither suffered from mechanical difficulty during the race. Our 5th place finish symbolises the progress that we have made. We have really taken one giant step forward. »

Bruno Senna (ORECA 01, n°10): « I came into Endurance car racing for the experience. I have already learned a lot on many different levels. You cannot make mistakes if you want to continue farther. I don’t know if I will be back next year at the Le Mans 24 Hours, perhaps with better preparation… but I really appreciated this experience and the circuit is so unique. My objective is to drive in F1, but I think that I still have many things to accomplish with Team ORECA. »

Stéphane Ortelli (ORECA 01, n°10): « During the week I had a fantastic time with the ORECA 01. We still lack a bit of pure performance but the car is agreeable and very comfortable to drive, exactly what you need here. I know the team really well
and I was amazed by what they achieved in the project development and management: at the tests and during the race they knew what was needed to repair the car. I am a bit frustrated that we did not finish the race, but… »

Tiago Monteiro (ORECA 01, n°10): « After two GT events here, I discovered Le Mans in prototypes: something completely different! I had the greatest pleasure driving the ORECA 01. The team did a simply amazing job. I already knew them through the WTCC but I got to know them better during this event. I was impressed by their professionalism and I spent a wonderful week with my co-drivers and mechanics. At Le Mans, anything can happen and unfortunately we did not cross the finish line, but we still believe in car n°11. This edition was a great learning curve for me, I can’t wait to race here again ! »