Glickenhaus team manager Luca Ciancetti is pleased about the team’s fastest time at the end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Test Day, but states that the team still has work to do ahead of its Le Mans race debut.
The American squad surprised friend and foe when Olivier Pla went quickest of all in the closing stages of the afternoon test session at the Circuit de la Sarthe, posting a 3:29:115 aboard the #708 007 LMH.
The Frenchman’s time was quicker than anyone had gone all day and compared favourably to the 03:31:263 that Toyota’s Brendon Hartley posted to go fastest in the morning session.
Speaking to MotorsportWeek.com after the running on Sunday had finished, Ciancetti expressed satisfaction at the result, but was also quick to put it into perspective.
“It feels good, it feels very good,”he said. “I mean, we know it doesn’t mean anything because it’s only the first day and nobody knows what the program of all the teams was today.
“We were pushing to to understand our car better. I don’t know what the other guys were doing.”
“It’s very nice to be there, but we know that the week is still longer the race will be even longer. I can say, looking at ourselves, that it was a good testing day. We tested a lot on the two cars with different programs, we understood a lot, so it’s a good day.”
The two cars both completed significant mileage during the nine hours of available track time throughout Sunday. The #708 car, driven by Pla as well as Pipo Derani, Franck Mailleux and Gustavo Menezes completed 70 laps in total, with the #709 car on 69 laps.
“We are happy with what we learned and with what we understood,” Ciancetti continued. “The car is new, it is the first time for us in Le Mans, so we really had to find out some references.
“And what we saw is good. We still have a lot to do and a lot of possible improvements in the way we’re using the car.”
According to Ciancetti, the pair of cars featured no noteworthy mechanical troubles throughout the day. This is notable, as the American-built Hypercar was struggling with technical issues in its previous two WEC race outings in Portimao and Monza.
“I was quite okay today. Honestly, the time the car was stopped in the in the garage were mainly related to setup changes or checks and stuff like that, but we we did not have issues over the day. So it was was okay.”
The team will be back on track at Le Mans on Wednesday for the first pair of practice sessions ahead of the 89th running of the French endurance classic. With a solid day of running under their belts, Cianchetti believes the team has a good base to work on for its Le Mans debut although there is still work to be done.
“We still have to have a clear look to all the data. Luckily we have a couple of days to work on and come back on the track next week but yes, it’s it’s a good starting point.”
Team owner Jim Glickenhaus notably was not present at Le Mans during Sunday’s test, as he was instead present at the Pebble Beach event in California. He will arrive in France later in the week.
