24h Le Mans
A member of the G-Drive Racing team since his start in endurance in 2012, Russian driver Roman Rusinov expects a tighter than ever 2016 season in LM P2, but isn't hiding his ambition hope of finally clinching the win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans which has eluded him for several years.
The 2015 winner of the FIA Endurance LM P2 Drivers Trophy, Roman Rusinov is the winningest driver in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with 12 victories across four seasons. However, one win is missing: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2015, he had to settle for a podium finish along with Brit Sam Bird and French driver Julien Canal (third in a Ligier JS P2-Nissan). When you ask him about his goal for 2016, it's clear: "The ambition is always to do more! The problem is that year after year generally the level gets better! This past winter, I tried to do everything possible to make sure we could compete at the top level. If all goes as planned, we shouldn't do too badly, but in motorsports, anything can happen. I think if we achieve solid and flawless races, it will be possible to do better than last year!" Better than in 2015, a great season with four wins and three second place finishes: that means winning at Le Mans!
Up against competition sometimes new in LM P2, Rusinov is an experienced driver. An asset? "Yes, it could give us a small advantage, but the competition is really fierce. Unlike in Formula 1 where you can have gaps of six seconds or more between the first and the last, in endurance that gap is between one class and another! In LM P2, the difference is sometimes reduced down below a second even on a big circuit like Le Mans. This winter was quite complicated. Last year G-Drive Racing used the human and technical resources of the Oak Racing outfit. But this year Oak Racing has a stronger association with the American team Extreme Speed Motorsports. For me then it was important to find a new team with which to associate G-Drive Racing, not at the last minute, but the day after the last race at Bahrain. It is never easy, because the change complicates things, you have to start back from zero, but I think we worked quickly to be well set up now with Jota Sport. We have all we need to do well."
Other than the fact Jota Sport is now in charge of entering the cars, the changes are also noticeable relative to the drivers. Nathanael Berthon and René Rast have joined Rusinov. Based on what criteria were they chosen? Rusinov explains, "In endurance, what's important is to have good engineers, mechanics and also good drivers of course. But it is especially important that the drivers get along and work well together. You have to find people who are fast, and who have experience. Nathanael has proven he is fast at Le Mans, and René has great experience from his time with Audi, namely thanks to the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year."
René Rast was entered in 2015 in an Audi R18 e-tron quattro (with Marco Bonanomi and Filipe Albuquerque) in LM P1. When Audi announced reduced its program to just two cars, Rast found himself without a wheel. He is going to bring his experience level in endurance, including having twice won at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (2012 and 2014), and once at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring (2014). Rusinov: "It's an obvious asset. For me, he's the best GT driver we could have right now. He has won everything, all the races that come to mind in the class, namely the highly competitove Porsche SuperCup championship (in 2010, 2011 and 2012). So I wanted to offer him this new challenge in prototypes, and give him an opportunity to win another way."
Geoffroy Barre / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO
Photo: In 2015, Roman Rusinov claimed a podium finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LM P2 class. This year, he intends to do better and is vying for the win on Sunday, June 19, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.
