Peugeot's 2011-spec creation will actually debut in an international competition at Sebring next week, yet all that's in team boss Olivier Quesnel's mind is how to better prepare it for the biggest challenge of all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans this June.
“First and foremost, our aim is to win the race in June,” said Quesnel, hinting that the Sebring 12 Hour race is regarded more like a preparation event for the Le Mans race rather than an aim in itself. However, the French official insisted that unless any technical failure happen, Peugeot should be able to return to Europe as winners of the race.
“If we don't have any particular problems in Sebring from a sporting or technical point of view, the result will look after itself.”
“It's an unusual event, where there is always a lot of incidents in the race. It's a typically American race with a lot of safety car periods and different rules to those at Le Mans, especially in terms of pitstops.”
“It can all change in a flash! So it's a great exercise for our entire team - the drivers, engineers and mechanics - where the challenge is to perfect your preparation in what can sometimes be fairly extreme conditions. We need to be ready for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, whilst keeping a close eye on the championship.”
Peugeot will line up two cars in next week's Sebring 12 Hour race, with the #7 car driven by Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and Anthony Davidson, and the #8 racer having Stephane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Pedro Lamy at the wheel.
Audi will not field their newly-developed R18 TDI at Sebring, as they'll come to the US next week with a couple of their old-spec R15 TDI, ran by Joest team.
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