Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani told MotorsportWeek.com he expects his Hypercar competitors to ‘go flat out’ from the start in this year’s race.
“I think you’ll see a bit of everything. You’ll see guys going flat-out from the beginning,” the Brazilian driver said.
“And you’ll see guys hoping reliability is more of a thing,” he added.
Derani is set to make his eighth start in the world’s toughest endurance race in the Action Express Racing #311 Cadillac V-Series.R Hybrid alongside British teammates Jack Aitken and Alexander Sims. The Action Express team is making its debut at Le Mans having achieved 13 WeatherTech Championship prototype wins since 2015, including a win in IMSA’s 12 Hours of Sebring this year. Derani is hopeful the team’s success at Sebring will inspire them at Le Mans.
“Not only the Sebring win but also being strong in IMSA so far this year you know, showing potential having been on Pole, having won a race, leading Laguna for quite a long time.”
However, Derani states that it’s clear the team has a lot to learn.
“Despite coming from a lot of confidence from the IMSA side. [We’re] trying to have our feet on the ground, and tick the boxes that we have to tick and learn things that we have to learn. So that come race day, we are more prepared.”.
With his seven starts at Le Mans, which includes a class podium in 2017 with Ford Chip Ganassi in the GTE Pro Ford GT, Derani has been lending his advice to the Action Express crew ahead of their debut race and is impressed with how well they’ve adapted from IMSA to Le Mans so far.
“Considering the size of the event, the magnitude of this race, they are doing quite an impressive job,” he said.
“So I’m hoping that we can keep this rate of learning towards the end of this week.”
The Action Express squad join two other Cadillac V-Series.R entries run by Chip Ganassi, but Derani is adamant that the whole Cadillac entry is functioning as one team.
“We are here as one Cadillac team in a way, so we are definitely trying to do the best we can for the brand with one objective, which is to try and give Cadillac a strong result here at Le Mans,” said the 29-year-old.
With a competitive field in Hypercar in the form of 16 entries, the battle for supremacy in this year’s Le Mans should be hotly contested. But Derani is concerned with taking the race as it comes.
“We are more on approach, see how it goes and keep going from there before we create any big expectations.”
The #311 Cadillac V-Series.R finished in 12th place during Wednesday’s Qualifying session, cementing Action Express Racing’s grid slot for their debut Le Mans event.
