Olivier Panis agrees that it is somewhat unusual to be considered a rookie after 13 years in Formula 1 – including famously triumphing the Monaco Grand Prix – but as he prepares to make his bow in the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend, a rookie indeed he is.
Having taken a sabbatical to spend some time with his family after hanging up his F1 helmet at the end of 2006 – thereby bringing the curtain down on a career that took in stints with McLaren-Mercedes, Toyota, BAR-Honda, Ligier and Prost Grand Prix – the Frenchman has clearly caught the racing bug once more, having signed up to compete with Oreca in the Le Mans Series and, of course, sportscar racing's undisputed jewel in the crown, the legendary '24 Heures'.
What's more, with a podium finish at Spa-Francorchamps – only his third outing in the LMP1 Courage – Panis has seemingly taken to sportscar racing like the proverbial duck to water.
“It hasn't been easy,” he reflected, speaking exclusively to
Crash.net Radio at La Sarthe, “but it hasn't been that complicated either, because I felt that compared with F1 the prototype is more-or-less the same type of car, requiring the same style of driving. This is why I think I'm going quite quickly at a good level in prototypes, because it's quite close to F1.
“I'm a rookie at Le Mans for sure, and it is funny being a rookie when you've done a lot of racing in single-seaters for a long time, but I'm enjoying myself a lot. I'm really happy to be doing it – it gives you a lot of adrenaline. The car is heavier, but when you see the lap times and the speed you're carrying it's pretty impressive.”
So indeed has been Panis' form, and a stunning lap time in the opening qualifying session saw him put the distinctive #6 machine seventh on the starting grid – and best-placed of the petrol cars – on
race tyres, lapping consistently seven-to-ten seconds quicker than considerably younger team-mates Simon Pagenaud and Marcel Fässler for good measure. Not that the session went entirely to plan, however…
“Since I signed with Oreca I had been thinking about going out on qualifying tyres at Le Mans,” he admitted, “because I never had the chance to use them in F1, but when I went out to start my lap on qualifying tyres I had an accident with a cat. For myself and the car it wasn't such a big injury, but for him for sure it was pretty bad. These things happen sometimes, though, on circuits like this.
“Since the beginning of the season we have had some small problems, and in France we say if you see a black cat it brings you bad luck, but fortunately it was not black.”
There was no such luck, however, in Thursday's night-time session, when a minor 'off' at Arnage left the 41-year-old in the pits for the remainder of the two hours, destroying his hopes of taking the 'petrol pole'. Unable to improve on its earlier time, the Judd-powered machine will consequently begin the race from 13th spot, albeit less than two seconds shy of eighth place and barely four seconds adrift of the third of the diesel Audis.
