Pierre Fillon On COVID19, Hypercar, LMDh, Peugeot and More
A programme broadcast on LMTv Sarthe yesterday saw Bruno Vandestick host (remotely) ACO President Pierre Fillon plus Signatech Alpine Team Principal Philippe Sinault and Drivers Julien Canal (Panis Racing) and Tristan Gommendy (Duqueine)
Pierre Fillon:
“We still had hopes (after Sebring), to keep the 24 Hours of Le Mans event in June. Soon enough though, sponsors started calling us to say that they could no longer invite people to the track.
“Ticket sales were also plummeting and it then became very obvious that the priority was to manage a crisis so we tried to look at alternative dates.
“We did not want to take any risks. We considered July, August, and finally opted for an event in September after making sure we could still secure a proper TV coverage while not overworking our teams.
“Once we figured out a new date for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we started working on amended ELMS and WEC calendars. We did not want to drop any WEC events. We decided that Bahrain would replace Le Mans as the season finale.”
Hypercar and LMDh
“It made sense relative to the start of next year’s season, especially as we are aware of delays in the Hypercar programs of Toyota, Glickenhaus and ByKolles. (…) We took a gamble with the revised ELMS calendar. We cancelled only one event in order to keep costs down but we kept the Ricard event. It should occur in July behind closed doors… it’s better than nothing.
“We are more than ever in close contact with IMSA. The timing of our LMDh project is unchanged.
“Regarding American teams coming over this side of the pond, I just hope they will be allowed to travel in September. This is a question that no one can answer currently.
“The cancellation of LM is currently one we can’t nor want to imagine. We keep in close contact with local authorities. Their visibility for now (on the pandemic situation) goes no further than June. We still don’t know what’s after that. If need be, we will do this behind closed doors but that is not a scenario I want to consider at this point in time”
“The 6H of Spa is currently planned behind closed doors.”
Future Hydrogen Regulations
“We need to raise our ambitions with regards to hydrogen. Manufacturers will have to make choices and although the urge for motorsport might not be their top priority, considerations for the environment will most definitely be there in the future. With the occurrence of this crisis, we need to keep costs down (and that’s what we have been doing with the release of the Hypercar sets of regulations. Budgets will even be lower with the LMDh).”
Peugeot
“I got Jean-Marc Finot (from Peugeot) on the phone recently. Their program is still on track although I understand that their first priority is currently not motorsport. It is to manage the consequences of this crisis, understandably”
“It’s important for us to keep a two year cycle if we want to keep on having a great grid quality with teams coming from everywhere around the world. So we are still debating whether we should have a LM Classic event in 2023, the year of the centennial (or postpone it to 2024)”