In his latest exclusive column for Crash.net, former Monaco Grand Prix winner turned sportscar star Olivier Panis gives us the inside line on Oreca's 2008 campaign to-date, and explains why – with just a tiny tweak of the regulations in the Le Mans Series – he would be happy to see his new venture develop into a long-term 'second career' post Formula 1...

For sure the first race of the Le Mans Series in Barcelona was a really good start, because we saw the car was quite competitive compared to other cars using the same engine as us, like Pescarolo. I think that was good news at the beginning, and we did quite well. We had some reliability problems – which was normal because we started the programme quite late – but I was impressed by the team's work over the winter time to get the car ready in just three months.

Our pace was very encouraging, because I followed Alex Prémat quite closely for the first stint; it was a bit of a surprise to follow an Audi in the first race, but we were very happy about it. For sure the diesel engines in the Audis and Peugeots were a lot more competitive than us, but these are the rules and we need to accept them, and overall we were really happy about the performance of the car in the first race.

After that, Monza was a very tough race for the team. My team-mate Nicolas Lapierre and I qualified quite well again and we had good pace, but we had a gearbox problem which forced us to retire. That was a pain, for sure, for the team, but compared to Stéphane Ortelli's accident it was nothing really. When I saw the accident I was really scared for him, and the car was destroyed completely just a month before Le Mans. That was really tough, but the important thing was that – aside from a pain in his ankle – Stéphane was okay. That was the best news at the end of the weekend, to be honest.

The third round at Spa was a fantastic race. First of all, Spa for me is one of the best circuits in the world and really fun to drive. Both Nico and I enjoy the circuit, and Nico won there the year before in GP2, so I knew he was pretty quick and competitive there. He qualified the car and was on a really good lap, but then at the end of it we had a problem with the front suspension, which meant we didn't get to qualify and had to start last, from the pits.

We had a fantastic race, though, the team had a very good strategy to manage the safety car – everything was timed perfectly – and we finished on the podium, behind only a Peugeot and an Audi. It was the best result for the team, and it was really fun for everyone. I really enjoyed it because it was a tough race which is what I like – fighting with the car and fighting with someone to try and overtake them. It was really, really promising. We never really expected to be able to finish third, but we knew we had a very competitive car at Spa and to be up on the podium was really nice for us.

The Le Mans 24 Hours was a fantastic experience for me; I loved it. First of all there was the ambience – to stay for a whole week at the circuit and see all the people there, all the passion – which was really nice, and when I was out on the track for sure it was a bit different to what I had been used to before in F1. The circuit is 13km-long, with the Mulsanne Straight where you're always going at over 300km/h.

It wasn't that so much that impressed me, though; what impressed me was the length of the stints. When you are in the car for two hours – or sometimes three hours with a double stint – that's pretty tough. The most difficult thing to manage was the traffic, but that's just part of the 24 Hours; you have to be very careful, because it's easy to lose a lot of time in the traffic and also to gain a lot of time, so you need to manage that well. That's one of the most difficult things I've found this year both in the Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Driving at night was fantastic, though. I did a stint at the end of the day when it was just starting to get dark, and I enjoyed it a lot. You feel you're alone in the world in the middle of the circuit, and when you're going round at 320km/h at night it's a great atmosphere.