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Et alors, my new challenge…
What I like most about the ORECA Courage team is the very human feeling we have here; everybody is working together and working really well in the same direction. Everybody is really focussed, and for the moment the job we have done is pretty good for the small amount of time we have before the first race in Barcelona on 6 April.
I’m very happy to be working with my team-mate Nicolas Lapierre too, first of all because I know him from A1GP. I like the guy; like me, he’s really quiet and really focussed, and he has a really good team spirit. I think all the drivers we have in the team have a really good relationship together. Recently we all went away to do a fitness test and there was a really good ambience; I think everybody is pretty optimistic and happy about the year ahead.
Testing is going pretty well so far. I’ve done more-or-less 60 laps already on the long circuit at Paul Ricard, and we’ve improved the car quite a lot set-up wise. The car is looking pretty good and we are going in the right direction. We need to continue to work and make improvements because it’s still a development car, but we are quite happy and the times are looking quite good. Now we just need to stay focussed.
I spent 13 years in
Formula 1, and I think this type of car is one of the closest to F1 to be honest, because you really feel the downforce, grip and power. For sure it’s not
F1, but I think it’s the closest you can get. I’m feeling really happy and very confident inside the car, and I’m pretty pleased with it all.
![Former Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis making his sportscar bow with the ORECA-MATMUT team at Paul Ricard in early 2008 [pic credit: DPPI]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/417103.jpg)
